LANCASTER COUNTT. 



363 



disapproved the perfidy of their tribe, and been wilUng 

 to cultivate and preserve friendship with us, why did 

 they not give notice of the war before it happened, as it 

 is known to be the result of long deliberation and precon- 

 certed combination ? Why did they not leave their tribe 

 immediately, and come amongst us, before there was 

 cause to suspect them, or war was actually waged ? — 

 No, they staid amongst them, were privy to their murders 

 and ravages, until we had destroyed their provisions, and 

 when they could no longer subsist at home, they came— 

 not as deserters, but— as friends, to be maintained through 

 tlie winter, that they might scalp and butcher us in the 



??* 



spring. 



" The memorialists further remonstrated against the 

 policy of suffering any Indians whatever, to live v.-ithin 

 the inhabited parts of the province, whilst it was engaged 

 in an Indian war ; experience having taught tliat they 

 were all perfidious, and that their claim to freedom and 

 independence enabled them to act as spies, to entertain 

 and give intelligence to our enemies, and to furnish them 

 with provisions and warlike stores. To this fatal inter- 

 course, between pretended friends and open enemies, they 

 ascribed the greater part of the ravages and murders that 

 had been committed during the last and present wars. — 

 This grievance they prayed might be considered and re-, 

 medied. They remonstrated against the neglect, by the 

 province, of the frontier inhabitants, who had been 

 wounded in its defence, and required that they should bo 

 relieved at the public cost. They expostulated against 

 the policy of the government, in refraining to grant 

 rewards for Indian scalps, " which damped the spirits of 

 brave men, who were willing to venture their lives 

 against the enemy ;'^ and they proposed that pubha 

 *Votes of Assembly, and Gordon's Pa. 



31* 



