186 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



ing to their parents ; they fell on their faces, protested their innocence, 

 declared their love to the English^ and that in their whole lives, they had 

 never done them injury ; and in this posture they all received the hatchet ! 

 Men, women and children were every one inhumanly murdered in cold 

 blood! 



" The barbarous men who committed the atrocious fact, in defiance of 

 government, of all laws human and divine, and to the eternal disgrace of 

 their country and color, then mounted their horses, huzzaed in triumph, 

 as if they had gained a victory, and rode off unmolested ! 



" The bodies of the murdered were then brought out and exposed in 

 the street, till a hole could be made in the earth to receive and cover them. 

 But the wickedness cannot be covered, and the guilt will lie on the whole 

 land till justice is done on the murderers. The blood of the innocent will 

 cry to heaven for vengeance^ 



Statement in the Lancaster Journal, seeking to exculpate the magis- 

 trates and to account for the unwillingness of the military to interfere. 



"Mr. Eeynolds, the writer of the above had been informed by some 

 of the aged and respectable inhabitants of Lancaster, that the outrage 

 had been perpetrated upon Sunday ; what gave rise to this opinion, was 

 the circumstance of the magistrates being in church when the alarm was 

 given. The 25th of December 1763, (Christmas day) was Sunday, but 

 at that period owing principally to the disturbed state of the Province 

 the Churches were frequently open for worship on other days of the 

 week. Tuesday the 27th of December, 1763, while the Eev. Mr. Barton 

 was ofl&ciating in the Episcopal Church, the doors were thrown open 

 with violence, and several voices were heard exclaiming, 'Paxton Boys,' 

 'Murder,' 'the prison is attacked,' 'They are murdering the Indians,' 

 &c., &c. Edward Shippen, Esq., then Chief Magistrate of the Borough, 

 immediately left the church, and hastened to the quarters of Captain 

 Eobinson, and besought him to hasten to the rescue of the Indians, but 

 that officer replied, "D— n them I would not care if the whole race were 

 slain, for my company has suffered enough by them already. I will not 

 stir one step.' 



"The magistrates of Lancaster did all that lay in their power, both to 

 prevent the murder and to apprehend the rioters. By a reference to 

 Loskiel's Indian Missions, page 216, it appears, that on November the 

 eleventh, when the Indians who were sent to Philadelphia to be lodged 

 in the Barracks, by the positive command of the Governor, that the 

 soldiers refused to admit them. 



" On page 220 it is further stated, that the Indians were ordered to New 

 York for safety, and when they had left Philadelphia, that they met with 

 Captain Robertson and seventy Highlanders, who were ordered to escort 

 them ; that these soldiers behaved very wild and unfriendly. 



