1764, Jan.] RETURN TO PHILADELPHIA. 141 



bring the Indians to the city.^ The charges of 

 treachery against the Moravian Indians, the burden 

 their presence would occasion, and the danger of 

 popular disturbance, were the chief causes which 

 induced the government of New York to adopt this 

 course ; a course that might have been foreseen 

 from the beginning.^ 



Thus disappointed in their hopes of escape, the 

 hapless Indians remained several days lodged in 

 the barracks at Amboy, where they passed much 

 of their time in religious services. A message, 

 however, soon came from the Governor of New 

 Jersey, requiring them to leave that province ; and 

 they were compelled reluctantly to retrace their 

 steps to Philadelphia. A detachment of a hun- 

 dred and seventy soldiers had arrived, sent by 

 General Gage in compliance with the request of 

 Governor Penn ; and under the protection of these 

 troops, the exiles began their backward journey. 

 On the twenty-fourth of January, they reached 

 Philadelphia, where they were lodged at the bar- 



1 Extract from a MS. Letter — Thomas Apty to Governor Penn : — 

 " Sir : — 



" Agreeable to your Honour's orders, I passed on through the Prov- 

 ince of New Jersey, in order to take the Indians under my care into New 

 York ; but no sooner was I ready to move from Amboy with the Indians 

 under my care, than I was greatly surpriz'd & embarrass'd with express 

 orders from the Governor of New York sent to Amboy, strictly forbid- 

 ding the bringing of these poor Indians into his Province, & charging all 

 his ferrymen not to let them pass." 



2 Letters to Governor Penn from General Gage, Governor Franklin of New 

 Jersey, and Governor Colden of New York. See Votes of Assembly, V. 300- 

 302. The plan was afterwards revived, at the height of the alarm caused 

 by the march of the rioters on Philadelphia ; and Penn wrote to Johnson, 

 on the seventh of February, begging an asylum for the Indians. Johnson 

 acquiesced, and wrote to Lieutenant-Governor Colden in favor of the 

 measure, which, however, was never carried into effect. Johnson's letters 

 express much sympathy with the sufferers. 



