1763.] SIR JEFFREY AMHERST RESIGNS. 103 



expeditions up the Susquehanna, and denounced 

 them as seditious and murderous. Urged by their 

 bhnd prejudice in favor of the Indians, they 

 insisted that the bands of the Upper Susquehanna 

 were friendly to the EngUsh ; whereas, with the sin- 

 gle exception of a few Moravian converts near AVy- 

 oming, who had not been molested by the whites, 

 there could be no rational doubt that these savages 

 nourished a rancorous and malignant hatred against 

 the province. But the Quakers, removed by their 

 situation from all fear of the tomahawk, securely 

 vented their spite against the borderers, and dog- 

 gedly closed their ears to the truth. ^ Meanwhile, 

 the people of the frontier besieged the Assembly 

 with petitions for relief; but little heed was given 

 to their complaints. 



Sir Jeffrey Amherst had recently resigned his 

 office of commander-in-chief; and General Gage, a 

 man of less efficiency than his predecessor, was 

 appointed to succeed him. Immediately before his 

 departure for England, Amherst had reluctantly 

 condescended to ask the several provinces for 

 troops to march against the Indians early in the 

 spring, and the first act of Gage was to confirm 

 this requisition. New York was called upon to 

 furnish fourteen hundred men, and New Jersey six 



1 It has already been stated that the Quakers were confined to the 

 eastern parts of the province. That tlieir security was owing to their 

 local situation, ratlier than to the kind feeling of the Indians towards 

 them, is shown by the fact, that, of the very few of their number who 

 lived in exposed positions, several were killed. One of them in particular, 

 John Fincher, seeing his house about to be attacked, went out to meet 

 the warriors, declared that he was a Quaker, and begged for mercy. The 

 Indians laughed, and struck him dead with a tomahawk. 



