126 THE PAXTON MEN. [1763, Dec. 



was finished, and the murderers were galloping in 

 a body from the town.^ The sheriff and the 

 coroner had mingled among the rioters, aiding and 

 abetting them, as their enemies affirm, but, accord- 

 ing to their own statement, vainly risking their 

 lives to restore order.^ A company of Highland 

 soldiers, on their way from Fort Pitt to Philadel- 

 phia, were encamped near the town. Their com- 

 mander. Captain Robertson, afterwards declared 

 that he put himself in the way of the magistrates, 

 expecting that they would call upon him to aid the 

 civil authority ; while, on the contrary, several of 

 the inhabitants testify, that, when they urged him 

 to interfere, he replied with an oath that his men 

 had suffered enough from Indians already, and 

 should not stir hand or foot to save them. Be this 

 as it may, it seems certain that neither soldiers nor 



1 Extract from a MS. Letter — Edward SMppen to Governor Penn: — 



" Lancaster, 27th Dec, 1763, P.M. 



" Honoured Sir : — 



" I am to acquaint your Honour that between two and three of the 

 Clock this afternoon, upwards of a hundred armed men from the West- 

 ward rode very fast into Town, turned their Horses into Mr. Slough's 

 (an Innkeeper's) yard, and proceeded with the greatest precipitation to 

 the Work-House, stove open the door and killed all the Indians, and then 

 took to their Horses and rode off: all their business was done, & they 

 were returning to their Horses before I could get half way down to the 

 Work-House. The Sheriff and Coroner however, and several others, got 

 down as soon as the rioters, but could not prevail with them to stop their 

 hands. Some people say they heard them declare they would proceed to 

 the Province Island, & destroy the Indians there." 



2 Extract from a MS. Letter — John Ray, the sheriff, to Governor 

 Penn : — 



" They in a body left the town without offering any insults to the 

 Inhabitants, & without putting it in the power of any one to take or molest 

 any of them without danger of life to the person attempting it; of 

 which both myself and the Coroner, by our opposition, were in great 

 danger." 



