and his son John, were
engaged in sledding rails, on their farm in the Buchannon settlement,
several guns were simultaneously discharged at them; and before John
had time to reply to his father's inquiry, whether he were hurt,
another gun was fired and he fell lifeless. Having unlinked the chain
which fastened the horse to the sled, the old man [233] galloped
briskly away. He reached his home in safety, and immediately moved his
family to the fort. On the next day the lifeless body of John, was
brought into the fort.--The first shot had wounded his arm; the ball
from the second passed through his heart, & he was afterwards
scalped.

Near the latter part of the same month, some Indians invaded the
country above Wheeling, and succeeded in killing a Mr. Wallace, and
his family, consisting of his wife and five children, & in taking John
Carpenter a prisoner. The early period of the year at which those
enormities were perpetrated, the inclemency of the winter of 1781--2,
and the distance of the towns of hostile Indians from the theatre of
these outrages, caused many to exclaim, "_the Moravians have certainly
done this deed_." The destruction of their villages was immediately
resolved, and preparations were made to carry this determination into
effect.

There were then in the North Western wilderness, between three and
four hundred of the christian Indians, and who, until removed by the
Wyandots and whites in 1781, as before mentioned, had resided on the
Muskingum in the villages of the Gnadenhutten, Salem and Shoenbrun.
The society of which they were members, had been established in the
province of Pennsylvania about the year 1752, and in a short time
became distinguished for the good order and deportment of its members,
both as men and as christians. During the continuance of the French
war, they nobly withstood every allurement which was practised to draw
them within its vortex, and expressed their strong disapprobation of
war in general; saying, "that it must be displeasing to that Great
Being, who made men, not to destroy men, but to love and assist each
other." In 1769 emigrants from their villages of Friedenshutten,
Wyalusing and Shesheequon in Pennsylvania, began to make an
establishment in the North Western wilderness, and in a few years,
attained a considerable degree of prosperity, their towns increased
rapidly in population, and themselves, under the teaching of pious and
beneficent missionaries, in civilizatio