198 The Winning of the West 



deemed all the red men, good and bad, corn ripe 

 for the reaping. Such a one rejoiced to see his fol- 

 lowers do to the harmless Moravians as the Danites 

 once did to the people of Laish, who lived quiet and 

 secure, after the manner of the Sidonians, and had. 

 no business with any man, and who yet were smit- 

 ten with the edge of the sword, and the city burned 

 with fire. 



Finally, it must not be forgotten that there were 

 men on the frontier who did do their best to save 

 the peaceful Indians, and that there were also many 

 circumstances connected with the latter that justly 

 laid them open to suspicion. When young backslid- 

 ing Moravians appeared in the war parties, as cruel 

 and murderous as their associates, the whites were 

 warranted in feeling doubtful as to whether their 

 example might not infect the remainder of their 

 people. War parties, whose members in dreadful 

 derision left women and children impaled by their 

 trail to greet the sight of the pursuing husbands 

 and fathers, found food and lodging at the Mora- 

 vian towns. No matter how reluctant the aid thus 

 given, the pursuers were right in feeling enraged, 

 and in demanding that the towns should be removed 

 to where they could no longer give comfort to the 

 enemy. When the missionaries refused to consent 

 to this removal, they thereby became helpers of the 

 hostile Indians ; they wronged the frontiersmen, and 

 they still more grievously wronged their own flocks. 



They certainly had ample warning of the temper 

 of the whites. Col. Brodhead was in command at 



