130 THE PAXTON MEN. [1763. 



the first blow, and, descending upon the doomed 

 settlement, utterly destroyed it. This disaster, 

 deplorable as it was in itself, proved the safety of 

 the other Moravian settlements, by making it fully 

 apparent that their inhabitants were not in league 

 w^ith the enemy. They were suffered to remain 

 unmolested for several years ; but with the mur- 

 ders that ushered in Pontiac's war, in 1763, the 

 former suspicion revived, and the expediency of 

 destroying the Moravian Indians was openly 

 debated. Towards the end of the summer, sev- 

 eral outrages were committed upon the settlers in 

 the neighborhood, and the Moravian Indians were 

 loudly accused of taking part in them. These 

 charges were never fully confuted ; and, taking 

 into view the harsh treatment which the converts 

 had always experienced from the whites, it is 

 highly probable that some of them were disposed 

 to sympathize with their heathen countrymen, 

 who are known to have courted their alliance. 

 The Moravians had, however, excited in their con- 

 verts a high degree of religious enthusiasm ; which, 

 directed as it was by the teachings of the mission- 

 aries, went farther than any thing else could have 

 done to soften their national prejudices, and wean 

 them from their warlike habits. 



About three months before the massacre at Con- 

 estoga, a party of drunken Rangers, fired by the 

 general resentment against the Moravian Indians, 

 murdered several of them, both men and women, 

 whom they found sleeping in a barn. Not long 

 after, the same party of Rangers were, in their turn, 



