Calef's map is given in Wheeler's Pentagoet. A MS. plan of the operations of the English fleet is among the Faden maps (no. 101), in the library of Congress. As a result of their success at Penobscot, the British government, the next year, attempted to erect Maine into a province under the name of New Ireland (Bancroft, x. 368; Barry's Mass.; Me. Hist. Soc. Coll., vii. 201).
CHAPTER VIII.
THE INDIANS AND THE BORDER WARFARE OF THE REVOLUTION.
BY ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS,
American Antiquarian Society.
THE peace which followed the quelling of the Pontiac war gave opportunities for settlements to be pushed westward. The population on the border, rendered lawless by environment, was not likely to observe treaties. Fear of the Indians was more potent to restrain these restless men than dread of punishment by colonial authorities. Conflicts of colonial jurisdiction and disputed land claims added to the chronic confusion of the situation.
It needed all the tact and discretion of which that remarkable man, Sir William Johnson, was master to prevent outbreaks, and the danger was not over until the boundaries were adjusted with the Six Nations and other Indians, at Fort Stanwix, in 1768. There was far more cause for complaint against the English on the part of the tribes whom Sir William was able to control than on the part of the Senecas, who, in September, 1763, had surprised and scalped a working party with their guard. Encroachment upon their lands had also irritated the Mohawks, who particularly resented an attempt of a Connecticut company to colonize the valley of the Susquehanna. Early in the spring of 1763, the Connecticut company sought to secure Sir William's influence with the Indians in quieting the company's title, which was based upon the Connecticut charter and upon alleged Indian deeds. The company failed in this, as well as in an attempt to negotiate with the confederacy. The Indians, instead of granting a deed, sent to Connecticut a delegation of Mohawks, accompanied by Guy Johnson, to represent to the governor of that colony the peril with which further attempts at colonization would be attended.[1260] These efforts arrested the movements of the company, and for the time immigration was checked. They were not early enough, however, to prevent one of those horrible attacks which stand out in our memories as types of Indian warfare and which in the minds of many readers obscure all other conceptions of Indian character. A number of families had already settled in this region, under the auspices of the Connecticut company, and had built themselves homes near the present site of Wilkesbarré. On October 15, 1763, they were suddenly attacked by Indians, and one woman and nine men were killed and scalped. The rest of the inhabitants fled to the mountains, and such as did not perish worked their way through the wilderness to the nearest settlements. Their villages were destroyed, their cattle killed, and their crops laid waste. Avenging expeditions were promptly organized in Pennsylvania. One marched to the Delaware town at Wyoming, but found it deserted. Another laid waste the Delaware and Munsee towns on the west branch of the Susquehanna.
The Moravian Indians at Wyoming, who had taken no part in the massacre of the Connecticut settlers, removed for safety to Gnadenhütten, whence they were taken to Philadelphia for greater security. At Paxton, Pennsylvania, the inhabitants assembled secretly, and attacked a settlement of the harmless Conestogoes. The cause for this wicked slaughter has never been clearly explained,[1261] but the subsequent memorials of the rioters seem to indicate that it was part of a general plan to exterminate the Indians. Whatever the motive, popular approval was strong enough to shield the perpetrators of such shameless deeds.[1262] The entire band of the Conestogoes was exterminated,[1263] and their town was destroyed. The first attack was made on them on the night of the 14th of December, when this band of murderers surrounding the town, killed all who happened to be there. Those Indians who were absent took refuge in Lancaster, where they were lodged in a public building, spoken of by some as the workhouse, by some as the jail. On the 27th, their enemies followed them to this refuge, and in cold blood slaughtered them all, men, women, and children, indiscriminately.