86 DESOLATION OF THE FRONTIERS. [1763. 



country was filled with the wildest dismay. The 

 people of Virginia betook themselves to their 

 forts for refuge. Those of Pennsylvania, ill sup- 

 plied with such asylums, fled by thousands, and 

 crowded in upon the older settlements. The rang- 

 ing parties who visited the scene of devastation 

 beheld, among the ruined farms and plantations, 

 sights of unspeakable horror; and discovered, in 

 the depths of the forest, the half-consumed bodies 

 of men and women, still bound fast to the trees, 

 where they had perished in the fiery torture.^ 



Among the numerous war-parties which were 

 now ravaging the borders, none was more destruc- 

 tive than a band, about sixty in number, which 



country will be laid desolate, which I attribute to the following reasons. 

 The sudden, great, and unexpected slaughter of the people ; their being 

 destitute of arms and ammunition; the country Lieut, being at a distance 

 and not exerting himself, his orders are neglected ; the most of the militia 

 officers being unfit persons, or unwilling, not to say afraid to meet an 

 Enemy ; too busy with their harvest to run a risk in the field. The 

 Inhabitants left without protection, without a person to stead them, have 

 nothing to do but fly, as the Indians are saving and caressing all the 

 negroes they take ; should it produce an insurrection, it may be attended 

 with the most serious consequences." 



1 " Tt) Col. Francis Lee, or, in his Absence, to the next Commanding Officer 

 in Loudoun County." {Penn. Gaz. No. 1805). 



" I examined the Express tliat brought this Letter from Winchester to 

 Loudoun County, and he informed me that he was employed as an 

 Express from Fort Cumberland to Wincliester, which Place he left the 

 4**1 Instant, and that passing from the Fort to Winchester, he saw lying 

 on the Road a Woman, who had been just scalped, and was then in the 

 Agonies of Death, with her Brains hanging over her Skull; his Com- 

 panions made a Proposal to knock her on the Head, to put an End to her 

 Agony, but this Express apprehending the Indians were .near at Hand, 

 and not thinking it safe to lose any Time, rode off, and left the pojr 

 Woman in the Situation they found her." 



The circumstances referred to in the text are mentioned in several 

 pamphlets of the day, on the autliority of James Smith, a prominent leader 

 of the rangers. 



