CHAPTER XIX. 



17G3. 



THE WAR ON THE BORDERS. 



Along the western frontiers of Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland, and Virginia, terror reigned supreme. 

 The Indian scalping-parties were ranging every- 

 where, laying waste the settlements, destroying the 

 harvests, and butchering men, women, and children, 

 with ruthless fury. Many hundreds of wretched 

 fugitives flocked for refuge to Carlisle and the 

 other towns of the border, bringing tales of incon- 

 ceivable horror. Strong parties of armed men, who 

 went out to reconnoitre the country, found every 

 habitation reduced to cinders, and the half-burned 

 bodies of the inmates lying among the smouldering 

 ruins ; while here and there was seen some miser- 

 able wretch, scalped and tomahawked, but still 

 alive and conscious. One writing from the midst 

 of these scenes declares that, in his opinion, a 

 thousand families were driven from their homes ; 

 that, on both sides of the Susquehanna, the woods 

 were filled with fugitives, without shelter and with- 

 out food ; and that, unless the havoc were speedily 

 checked, the western part of Pennsylvania would 



