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Manuscript Copy of Remonstrance - 3

that some Persons in this Province are at pains to extenuate the barbarous Cruelties practiced by these Savages on our murdered Brethren & Relatives, which are shocking to human Nature & must pierce every heart but that of the hardened Perpetrators or their Abettors. Nor is it less distressing to hear others pleading that altho’ the Wyalusing Tribe is at War with us, yet that part of it which is under the Protection of the Government may be friendly to the English and innocent. In what Nation under the Sun was it ever the Custom that when a neighboring Nation took up Arms not an individual of the Nation should be touched but only the Persons that offerred Hostilities? Who ever proclaimed War with a part of the a Nation & not the whole? had these Indians disapproved of the Perfidy of their Tribe, & been willing to cultivate & 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 deliberations & a preconcerted Combination amongst them? why did they not leave their Tribe immediately & come amongst us before there was ground to suspect them, or war was actually waged with their Tribe. No, they stayed amongst them, were privy to their Murders, & Ravages until we had destroyed their Provisions, & when they could no longer subsist at home, they came not as deserters, but as friends to be maintained thro’ the Winter that they may be able to Scalp and butcher us in the Spring.

And as to the Moravian Indians there are strong grounds at least to suspect their friendship as it is well known that they carried on a Correspondence with our Enemies on the Great Island. We killed three Indians going from Bethlehem to the Great Island with Blankets Ammunition & Provisions which is undeniable proof that the Moravian Indians were in confederacy with our open Enemies. And we cannot but be filled with indignation to hear this Action of ours painted in the most odious and detestible colours, as if we had inhumanly murdered our Guides who preserved us from perishing in the Woods when we only killed three of our known Enemies who attempted to shoot us when we surprized them: And besides all this we understand that one of these very Indians is proved by the oath of Stintons Widow to be the very person that murdered her husband: How then comes it to pass that he alone of all the Moravian Indians should join with the Enemy to murder that Family? or can it be supposed that any Enemy Indians contrary to their know custom of making War, should penetrate into the heart of a settled Country to burn plunder & murder the Inhabitants, & not molest any houses on their return, or ever be seen or heard of? Or how can we account for it that no Ravages have been committed in Northampton County since the removal of the Moravian Indians, when the great Cove has been struck since; These things put it beyond doubt with us, that the Indians now at Philadelphia are his Majesties perfidious Enemies & therefore to protect & maintain them at the public Expence while our suffering Brethren on the Frontiers are almost destitute of the necessaries of Life & are neglected by the Public is sufficient to make us mad with Rage & tempt us to do what nothing but the most violent necessity can vindicate; We humbly & earnestly pray therefore that these Enemies of his Majesty may be removed as soon as possible out of the Province.

4thly We humbly conceive that it is contrary to the maxims of good policy & extremely dangerous to our frontiers to suffer any Indians of what Tribe soever to live within the inhabited parts of this Province while we are engaged in an Indian War, as Experience has taught us that they are all perfidious, and their claim to freedom & Indepency puts it in their power to act as

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