128 THE PAXTON MEN. [1763, Dec. 



words to express their horror and detestation. They 

 assailed not the rioters only, but the whole Pres- 

 byterian sect, with a tempest of abuse, not the less 

 virulent for being vented in the name of philan- 

 thropy and religion. The governor again issued 

 a proclamation, offering rewards for the detection 

 and arrest of the murderers; but the latter, far 

 from shrinking into concealment, proclaimed their 

 deed in the face of day, boasted the achievement, 

 and defended it by reason and Scripture. So great 

 was the excitement in the frontier counties, and so 

 deep the sympathy with the rioters, that to arrest 

 them would have required the employment of a 

 strong military force, an experiment far too danger- 

 ous to be tried. Nothing of the kind was attempted 

 until nearly eight years afterwards, when Lazarus 

 Stewart was apprehended on the charge of mur- 

 dering the Indians of Conestoga. Learning that 

 his trial was to take place, not in the county where 

 the act was committed, but in Philadelphia, and 

 thence judging that his condemnation was certain, 

 he broke jail and escaped. Having written a dec- 

 laration to justify his conduct, he called his old 

 associates around him, set the provincial gov- 

 ernment of Pennsylvania at defiance, and withdrew 

 to Wyoming with his band. Here he joined the 

 settlers recently arrived from Connecticut, and 

 thenceforth played a conspicuous part in the 

 eventful history of that remarkable spot.^ 



1 Papers published by Mr. Conyngham. 

 Extract from the Declaration of Lazarus Stewart: — 

 " What I have done was done for the security of hundreds of settlers 

 on the frontiers. The blood of a thousand of my fellow-creatures called 



