Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1844-05-11
through the crusted snow some three or four
miles up the valley.

through the crusted snow some three or four
miles up the valley.
Early the next morning the loud yell ofre.
joicing was heard in the Delaware camp and
all was hustle and conmotion The quivers
were filed with arrows and every man who
could bend bow started on the hunt Their
echoes had scarcely died away in the distance.
before the Nanticokes crossed the ice, and CON-
menccd their work OF destruction. The hunt
ing party had gone to where the tracks ended,
when the deception flashed upon their minds
and with the ileetness of deers they returned,
their speed being augmented by the heart-rend-
ing shrieks of their wives and daughters as they
nearcd, but it was too late-their helIisll viliany
had been consummated, and they were half way
to their own lodges before the ifunters reached
the bank of the river.
What feeling for husbands, brothers and
fathers The council fire bazed high in the
air.tte chiefs assembled, and in each coun,e-
nance was depicted anger, deep and damning,
for the tendcrest chord of the savage had been
severed, and the looks of every chief seemed to
be determination &c drink deep of the Nanti-
cokes' blood. In silence the cu'lfcil soon ar
ranged the matter, for there seemed to uc but
one opinion on the subject, and, although the
usual custom was to give time to their ,ebcra~
tions, in half an hour the war dance was per-
formed, the war whoop swelled the air, and with
firm and steady step they marched towards the
Nanticoke encampment. They knew they had
double their own force to contend against, but
the injury was 80 deep, the crime so black in
their eyes, that each one seemed gifted with
super-human strength by the anseen Manyetto,
whom they worshipPed.
The wiley Nantcokes expected ,hem-they
were on the alert, and had prepared TO meet
them, so that their coming was greeted with a
| loud shout of derision. BY common consent
they marched to the mouth of ChlllsquaQue,
! Orozen duck) creek, both tribes leaving ,hei,
wives, and children, and aged warriors in the
| lodges
On their way thither the Delawares sang the
legend OF the battles they had gaiued-the Nan.
tlcokes sang boastingly of the urtful trick they
had played upon the Dclawares
A; length they reached the battle ground, and
the fierce massacre commenced. Loud were
the yells and groans Of the wounded and dying
The battle ragged with savage fury, and the
sweeping wind bore the shouts along the river
like the roaring surge of the ocean. Fiercel
and fercer were the shouts and yeils--but
calm succeeds a storm fainter and fainter
grew the noise until all was quiet, and ever
the wind was luled into sleep. The workt
had been completed--the Nantlcokes were cx
terminated, and only sixty of The two hundred
Delawares remained. But, they were not salts
fed-they went to the NantIcoke lodges, AM
dragged the women, children aud aged war
rors to the CORY field were they piled up III,
bodies Of their slain enemies, and binding til,
living to them, logs of wood and pine faggo'
were placed around them, the torch applied AM
the dance of victory commenced, which Taste,
long AFTER night-iail.
As the blaze asccnded TO heaven the pietc
ing cries of the suffers were drowned in the vic
torious shouts Of the sixty warriors, who neve
stopped until the heap of dying and dead wa
reduced 20 a pile of mouldering ashes charre
bones and roasted fesh-and thus passed iron
the earth the last Of the Nantitokcs, Just vic
Tins to the avenging power of the Almighty
Baltimore, April i5, lsii j.