d
armed and equipped ourselves, and gathered sufficient force, neither age
nor sex was to be spared, (which was invariably adhered to.) We remained
at the feast, until about two hours in the night, when we went to the
house and found Austin; they all went to the cider press and drank,
except myself. On returning to the house, Hark went to the door with an
axe, for the purpose of breaking it open, as we knew we were strong
enough to murder the family, if they were awaked by the noise; but
reflecting that it might create an alarm in the neighborhood, we
determined to enter the house secretly, and murder them whilst sleeping.
Hark got a ladder and set it against the chimney, on which I ascended,
and hoisting a window, entered and came down stairs, unbarred the door,
and removed the guns from their places. It was then observed that I must
spill the first blood. On which, armed with a hatchet, and accompanied
by Will, I entered my master's chamber, it being dark, I could not give
a death blow, the hatchet glanced from his head, he sprang from the bed
and called his wife, it was his last word, Will laid him dead, with a
blow of his axe, and Mrs. Travis shared the same fate, as she lay in
bed. The murder of this family, five in number, was the work of a
moment, not one of them awoke; there was a little infant sleeping in a
cradle, that was forgotten, until we had left the house and gone some
distance, when Henry and Will returned and killed it; we got here, four
guns that would shoot, and several old muskets, with a pound or two of
powder. We remained some time at the barn, where we paraded; I formed
them in a line as soldiers, and after carrying them through all the
manoeuvres I was master of, marched them off to Mr. Salathul Francis',
about six hundred yards distant. Sam and Will went to the door and
knocked. Mr. Francis asked who was there, Sam replied it was him, and he
had a letter for him, on which he got up and came to the door; they
immediately seized him, and dragging him out a little from the door, he
was dispatched by repeated blows on the head; there was no other white
person in the family. We started from there for Mrs. Reese's,
maintaining the most perfect silence on our march, where finding the
door unlocked, we entered, and murdered Mrs. Reese in her bed, while
sleeping; her son awoke, but it was only to sleep the sleep of death, he
had only time to say who is that, and he was no more. From Mrs. Reese's
we went