310 FOTHERGILL AND PENNSYLVANIA CHAP. 



it proved, irrevocably from the executive control, they 

 still worked for peace and righteousness in the community. 

 But they were much misrepresented at home. " I had 

 occasion," writes Fothergill on the 2ist of February 1757, 

 " to wait upon Lord Hyde, a nobleman well known to 

 your governor, with other Friends, upon the subject of 

 your affairs. He asked if he could do us any service. 

 We requested that he would be pleased to write to the 

 governor, to ask him that he would observe the conduct 

 of Friends for himself, shut his ears to all partial comment, 

 and represent to the people in power at home the conduct 

 of the society toward him and their sovereign as it 

 appeared from the evidence of facts, be it for or against 

 them. We told him, we only asked that he would see 

 for himself and report accordingly." 



The relations of the province with the Indians were in 

 the meantime a source of constant trouble, and deeds 

 of cruelty and barbarity often occurred. Efforts were 

 made to pacify the friendly tribes and to detach them 

 from tl^e Iroquois and other allies of the French. The 

 Friends continued to labour for peace through good 

 report and ill report. As the children of the great Onas, 

 they enjoyed the favour of the red men, and went to meet 

 with them frequently on the frontier, not hesitating to 

 pass out beyond the line of forts unarmed to visit them 

 at the peril of their lives. They showed the Indians 

 candour and kindness, and supplied large sums of money 

 to provide goods for their use. The " Friendly Associa- 

 tion for gaining and preserving Peace with the Indians 

 by pacific measures " was formed, and kept up for a 

 number of years. Fothergill took a warm interest in this 

 movement and subscribed to the funds. The governor 

 and council looked askance upon all this Quaker activity 

 and even discredited its motives ; nevertheless when 

 treaties had to be made they were fain to use its aid, and 

 at the successive Conferences at Easton in the years 

 1756, 1757 and 1758, Friends had a leading part to play, 

 helping to obtain for the poor remains of these once 

 numerous Indian communities some comfort and security 



