urally concluded that the real object of Zinzendorf was either to procure from them the lands at Wyoming for his own uses, to search for hidden treasures, or to examine the country with a view to future conquest. It was accordingly resolved to assassinate him, and to do it privately lest the knowledge of the transaction should produce a war with the English who were settling the country below the mountains.

Zinzendorf was alone in his tent, seated upon a bundle of dry weeds which composed his bed, and engaged in writing, when the assassins approached to execute their bloody commission. It was night, and the cool air of September had rendered a small fire necessary to his comfort and convenience. A curtain formed of a blanket and hung upon pins was the only guard to the entrance of his tent. The heat of his small fire had aroused a large Rattle-snake which lay in the weeds not far from it; and the reptile to enjoy it more effectually crawled slowly into the tent and passed over one of his legs undiscovered. Without, all was still and quiet except the gentle murmur of the river at the rapids about a mile below. At this moment the Indians softly approached the door of his tent, and slightly removing the curtain, contemplated the venerable man too deeply engaged in the subject of his thoughts to notice either their approach, or the snake which lay extended before him. * sight like this even the heart of the savage shrunk from the idea of committing so horrid an act, and quitting the spot they hastily returned to the Town

At a

and informed their companions that the Great Spirit protected the white man, for they had found him with no door but a blanket, and had seen a large Rattle-snake crawl over his legs without attempting to injure him. This circumstance, together with the arrival soon afterwards of Conrod Weiser, procured Zinzendorf the friendship and confidence of the Indians, and probably contributed essentially towards inducing many of them at a subsequent period to embrace the Christian Religion. The Count having spent twenty days at Wyoming, returned to Bethlehem, a Town then building by his christian brethren on the north bank of the Lehigh about eleven miles from its junction with the Delaware.

The English settlements were about this time rapidly increasing in the Colony of Maryland, and difficulties arising with the Indians in that quarter, a great number of the tribe called the Nanticokes, who inhabited the eastern shore of the Chesapeak Bay, removed to Wyoming in May 1748 with their chief Sachem called White.

Finding the pricipal part of the Valley in possession of the Shawanese and Delawares, the Nanticokes built their Town at the lower end of the Val

*This circumstance is not published in the Count's memoirs, lest, as he states, the brethren should think the conversion of a part of the Shawanese was attributable to their superstition. The author received the narrative from a companion of Zinzendorf who afterwards accompanied him to Wyoming.

ley on the east bank of the river just above the mouth of a small creek still called " Nanticoke Creek." About this time Colonel Cornwallis, who had been appointed Governor of Nova Scotia, arrived in that Colony and laid the foundation of the Town of Halifax.* While the French, whose settlements had become extensive in North America, began to manifest great alarm at the encreasing power of the British Colonies, and with a view to check their growth and to provide for events in case of hostilities, they endeavored to engage in their interest the different Indian tribes that were scattered along the waters of the great Lakes.The powerful influence possessed by the Six Nations over the other aborigines, and their contiguity to the French Colonies, rendered an alliance with them particularly desirable on the part of the French, and a good understanding was accordingly effected by means which seldom fail of success. A war it is true had not actually broken out between the English and French, but circumstances gave such strong indications of an approaching rupture, that the colonies of the respective nations began to apprehend such an event, 'and the Indians who were in the French interest attempted also to bring over to their views those tribes which still remained friendly to the English, or to provoke hostilitics between them. The Shawanese upon the Ohio were among the first to form an alliance with the French, and as that portion of their tribe which

*Smollet

had removed to Wyoming still retained their ha tred to the English, a formal proposition was made to them to leave Wyoming and rejoin their brethren on the Ohio. To this proposition one difficulty offered itself: a portion of the Shawanese had embraced the Christian religion, and being attached to the Moravian Church, were determined to remain on the Susquehanna. An event however soon transpired which caused the removal of the Shawanese, and however trifling in its origin, produced an effect more powerful than the wishes of their Ohio brethren and the threats of the Six Nations. Disturbances had occasionally arisen between the Shawanese and the Delawares at Wyoming, and their mutual animosity had become so great as to break out into hostilities upon the least provocation. While the warriors of the Delawares were engaged upon the mountains in a hunting expedition, a number of Squaws, or female Indians, from Maughwauwame, were gathering wild fruits along the margin of the river below the Town, where they found a number of Shawancse Squaws and their children who had crossed the river in their canoes upon the same business. A child belonging to the Shawanese having taken a large Grasshopper, a quarrel arose among the children for the possession of it in which their mothers soon took a part, and as the Delaware Squaws contended that the Shawanese had no privileges upon that side of the river the quarrel soon became general, but the Delawares being the most numerous, scon drove the Shawanese to their canoes, and to their own bank; a few

having been killed on both sides. Upon the return of the warriors both tribes prepared for battle to revenge the wrongs which they considered their wives had sustained.

The Shawanese upon crossing the river found the Delawares ready to receive them and oppose their landing. A dreadful conflict took place between the Shawanese in their canoes and the Delawares on the bank. At length after great numbers had been killed, the Shawanese effected a landing. and a battle took place about a mile below Maughwauwame, in which many hundred warriors are said to have been killed on both sides; but the Shawanese were so much weakened in landing that they were not able to sustain the conflict, and after the loss of about half their tribe the remainder were forced to flee to their own side of the river : shortly after which, they abandoned their Town and removed to the Ohio. The Delawares were now masters of Wyoming Valley, and the fame of their triumph which was supposed to have driven the Shawanese to the West, tended very much to increase their numbers by calling to their settlement many of those unfriendly Indians near the Delaware who remained on good terms with their Christian neighbors.

As the conduct of the French and Indians assumed a more hostile appearance, the Governmen of Pennsylvania established a Fort* on the eastern

*This Fort is said to have been built by Dr. Franklin in person.

C