The War in the Northwest 203 



A white man, who had just escaped this same impal- 

 ing party, also warned the Moravians that the exas- 

 perated borderers were preparing a party to kill 

 them ; and Gibson, from Fort Pitt, sent a messenger 

 to them, who, however, arrived too late. But the 

 poor Christian Indians, usually very timid, now, 

 in the presence of a real danger, showed a curious 

 apathy; their senses were numbed and dulled by 

 their misfortunes, and they quietly awaited their 

 doom. 15 



It was not long deferred. Eighty or ninety fron- 

 tiersmen, under Williamson, hastily gathered to- 

 gether to destroy the Moravian towns. It was, of 

 course, just such an expedition as most attracted 

 the brutal, the vicious, and the ruffianly; but a few 

 decent men, to their shame, went along. They 

 started in March, and on the third day reached the 

 fated villages. That no circumstance might be want- 

 ing to fill the measure of their infamy, they spoke 

 the Indians fair, assured them that they meant well, 

 and spent an hour or two in gathering together 

 those who were in Salem and Gnadenhutten, putting 

 them all in two houses at the latter place. Those 

 at the third town of Schonbrunn got warning and 

 made their escape. 



As soon as the unsuspecting Indians were gath- 

 ered in the two houses, the men in one, the women, 

 and children in the other, the whites held a council 

 as to what should be done with them. The great 

 majority were for putting them instantly to death. 



15 Loskiel, 176. 



