The Penn's Grove record., 1923-02-16

gerouS employment, which lasted al
most three years, he was often pre-
sented with sights of human destruc-
ton, sufficient to excite sympathy in
hearts of fintiest stone.
On cautiously entering the hapless
plantation with his men, they halt and
listen awhile-but hear no voice of
man-see no house, nor sign of habi-
tion-all is void and silent. Marking
the buzzards perched on the trees in
the corn-fields, they approach and find,
lying by his plough, the half-devoured
carcass Of a man. The hole in his
breast shows that he had been shot,
while the deep gashes in the forhead
of his dead horses, point out the
bursting strokes of the tomahawk.
amidst the ashes of the late dwelling,
as seen, white as chalk, the bones of
the mother and children. But some
times their raw and bloody skeletons,
fed on by the hogs, are found in the
yards or gardens where they were
surprised.
Zone day'-said he to an intimate;
though it was but seldom that he men,
toned those things, they gave him
so much pain-"One day, az We drew
near, through the woods, to a dwell
eng, suddenly we heard the discharge
"of a gun. Whereupon quickening
"our pace, and creeping up through
"the thick bushes to a fence, we saw
what We had dreaded-a party of
Indians, loaded with plumber, coming
'Out of a house, which, by the smoke,
appeared a if it We're Just set afire.
On a moment We gave tie s2vages a
Shower OF rifle balls, which killed
every man of them but one, who at
tempted to run off, but in vain; for
"some of eur sw~ift-footed hunters
gave chase, and soOn overlook and
demolished him with their toma-
"haWks. On rushing into the house,
"and putting oUt the fire, we saw a
"mournful sight indeed-a young
woman on the bed foated with
''blood-her forehead cleft with a
"hatchet-and on her breast two little
children, apparently twins, and about
mine months old, bathing her bosom
with the crimson currents flowing
from their deeply gashed heads! |
chad often beheld the mangled re-
"mains of my murdered countrymen,
''but W before felt what | did on
this occasion. To see these poor in
"nocents-these little u~noffending an
"gels, just entered upon life. and, in
stead of fondest sympathy and ten
"~derness, meeting their bloody
deaths; and from hands Of brothers
"too! filled my soul with the deepest
horror of SIM but at the same time
inspired a most adoring sense of that
religion which the Re
"deemer, who shall, one day, do away
"man's malignant passions, and re-
"store the children of God to primo
'val love and bliss. Without this
"hope, what MAJ of feeling but would
wish he had never been bornl
"On tracing back into the corn
field the steps of the barbarians, we
found a little boy, and beyond him
his father, both weltering in blood.
at appeared, from the print of his
little feet in the burrows, that the
Child had been following his fathers
"plow, and, seeing him shot down, had
"set off with all his might, to get to
"the house to his mother, but was
"oveltaken, and destroyed!
"And, indeed, so great was the
dread of the French and Indians,
Throughout the settlements. that it
"was distressing to call even on those
families who yet survived, but, from
sickness or other causes had not been
liable to get away. The poor crea-
lures would run to meet us, like per-
sons half distracted with joy-and
then with looks blank with terror,
would tell that such or such a neigh
boris family, perhaps the very night
before, was murdered!-and that they
heard their cries!-and saw the
flames that devoured their houses!-
land also, that they themselves, after
saying their prayers at night, never
LAY down to sleep, without first tax
ing leave of one another as if they
never expected to meet again in this
world. But when we came to take
"our leave of these wretched families, |
my God! what were our feelings! to
see the deep, silent grief of the men;
land the looks Of the poor ONE and
children, as, falling upon their knees,
with piercing screams, and eyes wild
with terror, they seized our hands, or
hung to our clothes, i%ntreating us
"for Gods and mercy's sake, not to
'leave them to be murdered! These
"things so bursted my heart with
"grief, that | solemnly declare to
God, if | know myself, | would
"gladly offer my OWn life a sacrifice
Ito the butchering enemy, if l could
"but thereby insure the safety of
"these poor distressed c~ountrymen."
Such were the scenes in which
Washington was doomed to spend
three years of a wreached life, rem
dered still more wretched by knowing
so perfectly as he did, that the rapid
charge of two thousand brave fellows
upon Fort Duquesne, like the thun-
dering shock of a t~wo-and-forty
FOUNDER upon a water-spout, would
have instantly dispersed the fatal
meteor, and restored the golden hours
Of peace and safety. But to give
Colonel Washington 1000 men seemed
to old Governor Dinwiddie, like giving
the staff out if his own hand, as he
elegantly called it-and rather than do
that, he would risk the ~desolation of
the western country, by continuing a
defensive war, and a mad dependence
on a d~isorderly militia, who would
come and go as they pleased-get
drunk and sleep when they pleased
H. - lo1Ioo ,Lo,o H.. -zz-l