50 THE WAR ON THE BORDERS. [1763, July. 



thither for refuge. Soon rumors were heard that 

 the Indians were come. Some of the fugitives had 

 seen the smoke of burning houses rising from 

 the valleys ; and these reports were fearfully con- 

 firmed by the appearance of miserable wretches, 

 who, half frantic with grief and dismay, had fled 

 from blazing dwellings and slaughtered families. 

 A party of the inhabitants armed themselves and 

 went out, to warn the living and bury the dead. 

 Keaching Shearman's Valley, they found fields 

 laid waste, stacked wheat on fire, and the houses 

 yet in flames ; and they grew sick with horror 

 at seeing a group of hogs tearing and devouring 

 the bodies of the dead.^ As they advanced up 

 the valley, every thing betokened the recent pres- 

 ence of the enemy, while columns of smoke, rising 

 among the surrounding mountains, showed how 

 general was the work of destruction. 



On the preceding day, six men, assembled for 

 reaping the harvest, had been seated at dinner at 

 the house of Campbell, a settler on the Juniata. 

 Four or five Indians suddenly burst the door, fired 

 among them, and then beat down the survivors with 

 the butts of their rifles. One young man leaped 

 from his seat, snatched a gun which stood in a cor- 

 ner, discharged it into the breast of the warrior who 

 was rushing upon him, and, leaping through an 

 open window, made his escape. He fled through 

 the forest to a settlement at some distance, where 

 he related his story. Upon this, twelve young men 

 volunteered to cross the mountain, and warn the 



1 Penn. Gaz. No. 1804. 



