Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/367

Rh had in this manner effected their eſcape. Exaſperated to a high degree, after relating the particulars of this tranſaction, (which for humanity's ſake I forbear to mention,) after reſting ſome time on the treachery of the Big Knives, of their barbarity to thoſe who are their friends, they gave a figurative deſcription of the perpetrators; named Creſap as having been at the head of this murderous act. They made mention of nine being killed, and two wounded; and were prone to take revenge on any perſon of a white color; for which reaſon the miſſionaries had to ſhut themſelves up during their ſtay. From this time terror daily increaſed. The exaſperated friends and relations of theſe murdered women and children, with the nations to whom they belonged, paſſed and repaſſed through the villages of the quiet Delaware towns, in ſearch of white people, making uſe of the moſt abuſive language to theſe (the Delawares,) ſince they would not join in taking revenge. Traders had either to hide themſelves, or try to get out of the country the beſt way they could. And even, at this time, they yet found ſuch true friends among the Indians, who, at the riſk of their own lives, conducted them, with the beſt part of their property, to Pittſburg; although, (ſhameful to relate!) theſe benefactors were, on their return from this miſſion, waylaid, and fired upon by whites, while croſſing Big beaver in a canoe, and had one man, a Shawaneſe, named Silverheels, (a man of note in his nation) wounded in the body. This exaſperated the Shawaneſe ſo much, that they, or at leaſt a great part of