As a closing article to these Indian recitals, we know of nothing so striking in the contrast between the present and the past, as the affecting narrative, published by Crooshank in 1784, of the capture of the Gilbert family, (of fourteen persons,) formerly of By. berry township, seized and borne off by eleven Indians, as late as the year 1780, from their residence on the Mahony creek, running into the Lehigh, in Northamp ton county, and thence making their unmolested journey of five hundred miles, in twenty-six days, to Niagara! When we reflect that this fact occurred on this side of the now celebrated Mauch Chunk coal mines, within a present day's ride of Philadelphia; and consider that their home then was as "frontier settlers;" that their houses and mills could be then burnt down in full daylight, without any neighbours to be alarmed and to rescue them; we cannot but perceive and wonder at the subsequent advances in cultivation and improvement, through all the intermediate country. Then it was almost universally an uncultivated wilderness, and now enlivened every where with prosperous villages and towns, and enriched with fruitful fields. The whole country is now traversed with turnpikes and canals, and the travelling routes animated with a busy population. Truly the rapid transition from our “wilderness state," to "the garden and the fruitful field," is wonderful. Even while I write, some of the family, so captured, are still alive; and one of them, whom I saw lately in Byberry, full of animation and health, talked over the incidents of their three years' absence in captivity, with most heart-stirring sensibility. Truly it is strange to talk of captives-still among us-80

near our present homes, even while our country, to the present generation, looks as if it had been settled and improved for ages.

THE PAXTANG BOYS AND INDIAN MASSACRE.

This was a story of deep interest and much excitement in its day, the year 1764. It long remained quite as stirring and affecting, as a tale of woe or of terror, as any of the recitals, in more modern times, of the recollections of that greater event, the war of independence. The Indians, on whom the outrage was committed by those memorable outlaws, were friendly, unoffending, Christian Indians, dwelling about the country in Lancaster county, and the remnant of a once greater race, even in that neighbourhood where they had been so cruelly afflicted: for instance, in 1701, a letter of Isaac Norris, (preserved in the Logan MSS.) speaks thus, to wit: "I have been to Susquehanna, where I met the governor; we had a roundabout journey, and well traversed the wilderness; we lived nobly at the king's palace in Conostogoe." They once had there (says J. Logan) a considerable towne," called Indian town. In 1764, under an alarm of intended massacre, fourteen being previously killed on Conestogoe, the Indians took shelter in Lancaster, and for their better security they were placed under the bolts and bars of the prison; but at mid-day a party on horseback, from the country, rode through the streets to the prison, and there forcibly entered and killed unresisting men and women on the spot! The citizens of Lancaster were much blamed for so tamely suffering such a breach of their peace. Nothing was there done to apprehend the perpetrators. In

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the mean time, other Indians in amity with us, hearing of the cruelty to their brethren, sought refuge in Philadelphia, which when the Paxtang boys knew, being excited to more daring and insolence by their former sufferance, like blood-hounds, stimulated to a passion for more blood by the previous taste, they forthwith resolved on marching down to Philadelphia to destroy the remainder of the afflicted race, and to take vengeance also on all their friends and abettors there. They were undoubtedly Christian professors, used Bible phrases, talked of God's commanded vengeance on the heathen, and that the saints should inherit the earth, &c. They had even writers to plead their religious cause in Philadelphia !!!

The news of their approach, which outrun them, was greatly magnified; so that " every mother's son and child" were half crazed with fear, and even the men looked for a hard and obstinate struggle; for even among their own citizens there were not wanting of those who, having been incensed by the late Indian war, thought almost any thing too good for an Indian. The Paxtang boys, to the amount of several hundred, armed with rifles, and clothed with hunting shirts, affecting the rudest and severest manners, came in two divisions as far as Germantown, and the opposite bank of the Schuylkill, where they finally entered into affected negotiations with the citizens, headed by Benjamin Franklin, and returned home, terrifying the country as they

went.

In the mean time the terrified Indians sought their refuge in Philadelphia, having with them their Moravian minister. They were at first conducted to the barracks

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in the Northern Liberties by the order of the governor. But the Highlanders there refused them shelter; and the Indians stood several hours exposed to the revilings of scoffers. This was in the cold of December. They were thence sent to Province Island, afterwards by boats to League Island; then they were recalled and sent to New York. In returning through Philadelphia they held their worship and took their breakfast in the Moravian church in Bread street. William Logan, and Joseph Fox, the barrack master, who gave them blankets, accompanied them as far as Trenton. A company of seventy Highlanders were their guard as far as Amboy, where they were stopt by orders from General Gage; they then returned back to the Philadelphia barracks. The alarm of the Paxtang boys being near, at night too, the city is voluntarily illuminated; alarm bells ring, and citizens run for arms, and hasten to the barracks Many young Quakers joined the defenders at the barracks, where they quickly threw up intrenchments. Dr. Franklin, and other gentlemen who went out to meet the leaders, brought them into the city, that they might point out among the Indians the alleged guilty; but they could show none. They, however, perceived that the defence was too formidable, and they affected to depart satisfied.

The Indians remained there several months, and held regular Christian worship. In time they were greatly afflicted with small-pox, and fifty-six of their number now rest among the other dead, beneath the surface of the beautiful" Washington Square."

In the spring, these Indians were conducted by Moravian missionaries, via Bethlehem and Wyoming, and

made their settlement on the Susquehanna, near to Wyalusing creek. There they ate wild potatoes in a time of scarcity.

No good succeeded to the wretches. They were well remembered by old Mr. Wright, long a member in the Assembly from Columbia. He used to tell at Charles Norris's, where he staid in session time, that he had survived nearly the whole of them, and that they generally came to untimely or suffering deaths.

MISCELLANEA.

In the year 1755, the votes of the Assembly, vol. 4, gives some proceedings concerning the Shawnese, which show that their chief once held a conference with William Penn, under the great tree at Shackamaxon, a fact to which their talks refer.

About the year 1759, advertisements often appeared in the gazettes, describing children recovered from the Indians, and requesting their friends to come and take them home. Several are described as having sustained some injury; and in many cases can only tell their baptismal names, and the same of their parents.

In 1762, a number of white children, unclaimed, were given up by the Indians at Lancaster, and were bound out by order of the governor.

The gazettes of the year 1768-9, contain such frequent and various recitals of the havoc and cruelties of the incensed Indians on the frontiers, as would, if selected, make quite a book of itself. Of the numerous

calamities, Colonel Boquet, who commanded a regiment of Highlanders, and was at Fort du Quesne (Pittsburgh) after the peace of 1763, gives a very affecting recital of