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The Conduct of the Paxton Men Impartially Represented - 31

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Paws of the Enemy, to be equalled in all the Volumes of History. Figure to yourself some Thousands of Families, seated in Ease and Plenty, enjoying every Necessary of Life, which hard Labour and Industry had procured for them; without a Moment’s Warning, and in the Shades of Night; driven from their Habitations; and obliged to flee through a lonely traestless Wilderness, without so much as knowing wither they directed their trembling Steps-----When the Morning arrives----O what a Scene does it discover!----The Husband lamenting his murder’d faithful Wife!----The Wife tearing her Hair in all the Horror of Distress, shrieking, and calling upon her breathless Husband to hasten to her Relief!---Rachael weeping for her dear Children, who are now no more!---Here lies the provident Father welt’ring in his own Blood, his Scalp torn off, his Body ript up, his Bowels dragg’d out, and his private Parts stuffed into his Mouth! (s)---There the virtuous tender Mother lies stretched on her Bed, dreadfully mangled, with her new-born Infant scalp’d and placed under her Head for a Pillow, and a Stake Drove into her-----Modesty forbids me to say more! (t)-----On this Side lie the Bodies of a numerous Family, half devoured by Wolves and Swine! (u)----On that Side lie the mangled Limbs of Men, Women, Children, and Brute Beasts, promiscuously scattered upon the Earth (x) scarce to be distinguished from one another----------Or perhaps the Bodies of these unhappy People, with their Horses, their Cattle, their Houses and their Grain, all burnt to Ashes in one general Flame! (z)

Who, my dear Sire, that sees these Things, but must be filled with Grief and Horror?------ Or,

(s) These are no aggravated Scenes, in order to raise the Commisseration of the Reader; they are shocking Matters of Fact: It was done in the GREAT COVE
(t) This was near Shippensburg
(u) In Sheerman’s Valley; all in Cumberland County
(x) James Smith, Son of Robert Smith, late of Chester County, who was a Captive four years and a half among the Indians, reports, that he at sundry Times saw the Remains of mangled Bodies in the Woods, that were burnt by the Indians; and that the Captives told him they were Witnesses to these horrid Cruelties exercised towards their Fellow Captives, sometimes only for attempting to escape; and that this was done even by the Tawawaas, the gentlest of the Savages.
(z) This was the dismal Fate of Gnadenhutten, a Moravian Village in Northhampton.

Contents of this annotation:

  1. The Conduct of the Paxton Men Impartially Represented - 31