90 DESOLATION OF THE FRONTIERS. [1763. 



to observe that, when they returned home, their 

 conduct was disapproved by some of the tribe.^ 



Page after page might be filled with records like 

 these, for the letters and journals of the day are 

 replete with narratives no less tragical. Districts 

 were depopulated, and the progress of the country 

 put back for years. Those small and scattered 

 settlements which formed the feeble van of advanc- 

 ing civilization were involved in general destruction, 

 and the fate of one may stand for the fate of all. 

 In many a woody valley of the Alleghanies, the 

 axe and fire-brand of the settlers had laid a wide 

 space open to the sun. Here and there, about the 

 clearing, stood rough dwellings of logs, surrounded 

 by enclosures and cornfields ; while, farther out 

 towards the verge of the ^oods, the fallen trees 

 still cumbered the ground. From the clay-built 

 chimneys the smoke rose in steady columns against 

 the dark verge of the forest ; and the afternoon 

 sun, which brightened the tops of the mountains, 



1 Gordon, Hist. Penn. Appendix. Bard, Narrative. 



" Several small parties went on to different parts of the settlements : it 

 happened that three of them, whom I was well acquainted with, came 

 from the neighborhood of wliere I was taken from — they were young 

 fellows, perhaps none of them more than twenty years of age, — they 

 came to a school-house, where they murdered and scalped the master, 

 and all tlie scholars, except one, who survived after he was scalped, a boy 

 about ten years old, and a full cousin of mine. I saw the Indians when 

 they returned home with the scalps ; some of the old Indians were very 

 much displeased at them for killing so many children, especially Neep- 

 pau(fh-ivhese, or Night Walker, an old chief, or half king, — he ascribed it 

 to cowardice, which was the greatest affront he could offer them." — 

 M'Cullough, Narrative. 



Extract from an anonymous Letter — Philadelphia, August 30, 1764 : 



" The Lad found alive in the School, and said to be since dead, is, I 

 am informed, yet alive, and in a likely Way to recover." 



