r of the colony to yield to
their demands and sign the infamous bill. It provided that a reward
averaging one hundred dollars be paid for the scalp of every Indian,
man, woman, or child, killed within the limits of the province. Upon
the issuing of this proclamation, to quote a leading historian, "an era
of carnage ensued, during which the worst acts of Indian ferocity were
thrown into the shade by the enormities of white barbarians."

Dwelling in a Shawnee village at this time was an English soldier named
David Owens, who had deserted from Braddock's army ten years before and
joined the Indians. He had been kindly received, adopted into the
tribe, had married the daughter of a chief, and become the father of
two children. With the prospect of gaining a reward for Indian scalps,
all the cupidity of this man's fiendish nature was aroused, and on the
approach of Bouquet's army he conceived a plan for enriching himself
and at the same time escaping the punishment due him as a deserter.
While meditating it he found himself encamped one night with two
warriors, his own wife, another woman, and his two children. Toward
morning he arose, and seeing by the dim light of the camp-fire that the
others were buried in profound sleep, he placed two rifles so that
their muzzles were close to the heads of the unconscious warriors and
pulled both triggers at the same instant. Then, with hatchet and
knife, he deliberately despatched the women and children, who cowered
about him in helpless terror. With the horrible evidences of his crime
dangling from his belt he then set forth for the nearest English
outpost. Here he was not only paid for his scalps, but pardoned for
his desertion and given a commission as interpreter in Bouquet's army.

So infuriated were the inmates of the village to which the victims of
this outrage belonged, that, in retaliation, they determined to put to
death six white captives who happened to be in their power. These were
to be tortured on so many successive days. Five of them suffered their
dreadful fate before the eyes of the sixth, and, at length, it came his
turn to be led to the stake. He was a stalwart, handsome fellow, who
had been held as a slave for more than a year. He had refused several
offers of adoption, preferring to retain the privilege of effecting an
escape, if he could, to pledging his loyalty to the tribe. So, as a
slave, he had been made to toil early and late for his savage mast