"Col. C. My fate is then fixed, and I must prepare to meet death in its worst form.
"Sachem. Yes, Colonel. I am sorry for it, but I cannot do any thing for you. Had you attended to the Indian principle, that good and evil cannot dwell together in the same heart, so a good man ought not to go into evil company, you would not have been in this lamentable situation. You see now, when it is too late, after Williamson has deserted you, what a bad man he must be. Nothing now remains for you but to meet your fate like a brave man. Farewell, Colonel Crawford! They are coming. I will retire to a solitary spot." [FN]
[FN] Heckewelder's Indian Nations.
On turning away from his friend, whom it was not in his power to assist, it is said the old Sachem was affected to tears, and could never afterward speak of the incident without deep emotion. The moment the chief had left the Colonel, a number of the executioners rushed upon him, and commenced the work of torture, which was in progress three hours before the victim fell upon his face and expired with a groan. During the proceedings against him, he was continually and bitterly upbraided for the conduct of the white men at Gnadenhuetten. If not himself a participator in that atrocious affair, they reproached him for having now come against them with the worst kind of murderers—such as even Indians had not among them. "Indians," said they, "kill their enemies, but not their friends. When once they have stretched forth their hand, and given that endearing name, they do not kill. But how was it with the believing Indians on the Muskingum? You professed friendship for them. You hailed and welcomed them as such. You protested they should receive no harm from you. And what did you afterward to them? They neither ran from you, nor fired a single shot on your approach. And yet you called them warriors, knowing they were not such! Did you ever hear warriors pray to God, and sing praises to him, as they did? Could not the shrieks and cries of the innocent little children excite you to pity, and to save their lives? No! you did not! You would have the Indians believe you are Christians, because you have the Great Book among you, and yet you are murderers in your hearts! Never would the unbelieving Indians have done what you did, although the Great Spirit has not put his Book into their hands as into yours! The Great Spirit taught you to read all that he wanted you to do, and what he forbade that you should do. These Indians believed all that they were told was in that Book, and believing, strove to act accordingly. We knew you better than they did. We often warned them to beware of you and your pretended friendship; but they would not believe us. They believed nothing but good of you, and for this they paid with their lives." [FN]
[FN] Heckewelder's Narrative of the Moravian Missions. "There was farther a circumstance much against this unfortunate man, which enraged the Indians to a high degree. It was reported that the Indian spies sent to watch their movements, on examining a camp which Crawford and Williamson had left, west of the Ohio, had found on trees peeled for the purpose, the words, written with coal and other mineral substances—'No quarters to be given to an Indian, whether man, woman, or child.' When the Indians find inscriptions on trees or other substances, they are in the habit of making exact copies of them, which they preserve until they find some one to read or interpret them. Such was the fact in the present case, and the inscription was sufficient to enrage them."—Idem.
It was, indeed, most unhappy for Colonel Crawford, that he had been captured in such company; but never were reproaches more righteously heaped upon the heads of the guilty than on this occasion. Never was the scorpion lash of satire more justly inflicted—could but the really guilty have been there to feel its withering rebuke. The son of Colonel Crawford, himself doomed to the same fate, was present with Dr. Knight, {sic} and obliged to behold the torture, and listen to the agonising ejaculations of his parent, without being able to render assistance or offer a word of consolation. [FN] The sufferings of the son followed close upon those of the father; but with Dr. Knight it was otherwise. He was reserved for sacrifice by the Shawanese, and while on his way thither contrived to escape, and, after twenty-one days of hardship and hunger in the wilderness, succeeded in gaining Fort McIntosh.
[FN] Withren's Chronicles, quoted by Drake in his Book of the Indians. Dr. Ramsay says it was Colonel Crawford's son-in-law who was present, and subsequently underwent the same fate.