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

Apology of the Paxton Volunteers - 3

to murder and Scalp some of his nearest Relatives. [There?] you see whole families butcher-ed while they are asleep, or whole Garrisons put to Death by the Savages, But None but those who have been Spectators or Eye Witnesses of these shocking Scenes can possibly have any ade-quate Ideas of our Sufferings. Nay even those very persons, who are so hardened & destitute of the common Feeling of Humanity, as to be able to extenuate these horrid Barbarities, under the charitable Plea of its being their Custom of making War, would We doubt not, be softened, had they but shared with us in the lightest Parts of our Sufferings.

But let us next enquire into the Causes of these Calamities, under which we have laboured these seven or eight years, during the last & present War. Different Persons ascribe them to the different Causes, either from their Ignorance of some Facts, which are necessary to be considered; or from some sinister Views or bad Designs. All seem to be agreed, that the French instigated the Indians, first to strike us, & used every Method to retain them in their Interest, until their own Power was broken & destroyed in America.--- But the weak defenseless State of our long extended Frontier, was another Cause of the War, or at least of our feeling the Calamities of it as severely as we did. We had no Militia in the Province to come to our Assistance, no Stockades or Forts to repair to for Safety; the Inhabitants living formerly in Peace were unaccustomed to the life of Arms, & unacquainted with the Indian Method of making War; so that we were unable to defend ourselves against the first [Incurssions?] of our savage Enemies, & knew not where to look for Help.

In this miserable Situation we continued for more than a Year, while our Distresses were daily encreasing, many were murdered, many captivated, & more than 200 miles of a Frontier Country were laid waste & deserted.---But the defenseless State of our Frontiers is not sufficient to account for our Distresses. For one would think that a Government might do something to help a bleeding Frontier in less than a year; & who could suspect that the Men in Power refused to relieve the Sufferings of their Fellow Subjects. Unnatural as this appears,

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