Digital Paxton: Digital Collection, Critical Edition, and Teaching Platform

Apology of the Paxton Volunteers - 2

under the Ashes of a large fire, before their helpless Parent’s Eyes. The Hearts of some taken out & eaten reeking hot, while they were yet beating between their Teeth and others, where Time & Opportunity would admit of it were skinned, boiled & eaten. Hundreds were carried into the most miserable Captivity seperated from all the Endearments of their Friends & the Privileges of the Christian Church and are daily tortured to Death in every Method of Cruelty which Indian Barbarity can suggest. Let any man, that has any Sentiments of humanity or any Bowels of Compassion for the miserable imagine himself in the midst of one of those Scenes that were exhibited on every Attack that is made on our Frontiers; there to see the Husband butchered in the Presence of his helpless wife, while the Children are clinging round his Knees; or in another Place the widowed mother reserved to be a Spectator of the inhuman Massacre of her tender Family, before she receives the friendly Hatchet that closes her Eyes on the shocking Scene. Look around & behold, and those that are with child ripped open & mangled in the most indecent manner. On the other hand you see hundreds of miserable Refugees flying to the nearest Frontier Town, with a Part of their Families leaving the Remainder of them in the Hands of the Enemy,- or wandering till they perish in the woods. On this side you see hundreds reduced from plentiful & independent Circumstances, to a State of Beggary & Dispair, taking Shelter in the Hovels & Stables to secure their helpless Families, from the Inclemency of the Night or the Season; While others cannot even obtain this, but are obliged to make Fires in the Woods & live even worse than the Savages themselves. And on that Side you hear the Screams of Children deprived of their nearest Relatives, that know not perhaps what is become of them; the fruitless Sighs of the disconsolate Widow, or the Groans of a broken hearted Father mourning for a darling Son or Daughter, whom he had dedicated to God, but who is now abandoned to the Service of the Devil, and who perhaps on a future Day may help to make a Party

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