The modern history of the valley will be a subject for the pen of the historian a quarter of a century hence. We have given him a hint of some occurrences during the last half century; and for further particulars, during the next twenty-five years, we would refer him to the twenty newspapers published in the seven counties, from whose columns alone he will be able to compile an interesting history, sparing himself the trouble of searching among books, papers, and old inhabitants, for incidents that, unfortunately, never were recorded.
The future of the valley no man knoweth. We even tax the Yankee characteristic in vain when we attempt to guess its future. Many yet unborn may live to see the fires of forges and furnaces without number illuminating the rugged mountains, and hear the screams of a thousand steam-engines. They may live, too, to see the day when population shall have so increased that the noble stag dare no longer venture down from the mountain to slake his thirst at the babbling brook, and when the golden-hued trout, now sporting in every mountain-stream, shall be extinct. But, before that time, there is reason to believe that the present generation, including your historian, will have strutted upon the stage the brief hour allotted to them, performed life's pilgrimage, and, finally, arrived at
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PHILADELPHIA.
Footnotes
[1] As the Indians could not pronounce the letter r, it is probable that the names having such letters in were bestowed by the whites, or corrupted by them. [2] Morgan, in his "League of the Iroquois," gives it a different interpretation. [3] "God's will be done." This sentence was so frequently repeated by the Dunkards during the massacre, that the Indians must have retained a vivid recollection of it. During the late war with Great Britain, some of the older Indians on the frontier were anxious to know of the Huntingdon volunteers whether the "Gotswiltahns" still resided in the Cove. Of course our people could not satisfy them on such a vague point. [4] It is to be regretted that Mr. Maguire was so feeble, when giving us an account of this expedition, that we feared to ask him for a repetition of the names of Captain Blair's command. He knew the names of all of them, but he mentioned them in such rapid succession that we only remember Brotherton, Jones, Moore, Smith, two brothers named Hicks, Nelson, Coleman, Wallack, Fee, Gano, Ricketts, Caldwell, Moore, Holliday, and one of the Rollers. [5] Woods shot an Indian. His rifle was the only one discharged in what Colonel Ashman termed an "engagement." [6] Papunchay was the chief of the last of the Delaware warriors who remained loyal,—the great body having, by 1763, gone over to the French.
Transcriber's Note: Printer's inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained.