hites, as for themselves. A party of whites and Indians was
next despatched to Salem, to bring in those who were there. They then
shut up the Moravians left at Gnadenhutten, in two houses some
distance apart, and had them well guarded, When the others arrived
from Salem, they were treated in like manner, and shut up in the same
houses with their brethren of Gnadenhutten.

The division which was to move into the town on the eastern side of
the river, coming unexpectedly upon one of the Indian women, she
endeavored to conceal herself in a bunch of bushes at the water edge,
but being discovered, by some of the men, was quickly killed. She was
the wife of Shabosh, who had been shot by the sentinels of the other
division. Others, alarmed at the appearance of a party of armed men,
and ignorant that a like force was on the opposite side of the river,
attempted to escape thither.--They did not live to effect their
object. Three were killed in the attempt; and the men then crossed
over, with such as they had made prisoners, to join their comrades, in
the western and main part of the town.

A council of war was then held to determine on the fate of the
prisoners. Col. Williamson having been much censured for the lenity of
his conduct towards those Indians in the expedition of the preceding
year, the officers were unwilling to take upon themseves the entire
responsibility of deciding upon their fate now, and agreed that it
should be left to the men. The line was soon formed, and they were
told it remained with them to say, whether the Moravian prisoners
should be taken to Fort Pitt or murdered; and Col. Williamson
requested that those who were inclined to mercy, should advance and
form a second link, that it might be seen on which side was the
majority. Alas! it required no scrutiny to determine. Only sixteen, or
at most eighteen men, stepped forward to save the lives of this
unfortunate people, and their doom became sealed.[2]

From the moment those ill fated beings were immured in houses they
seemed to anticipate the horrid destiny which awaited them; [236] and
spent their time in holy and heartfelt devotion, to prepare them for
the awful realities of another world. They sang, they prayed, they
exhorted each other to a firm reliance on the Saviour of men, and
soothed those in affliction with the comfortable assurance, that
although men might kill the body, they had no power over the soul, and
that they might again meet in a b