bank of the Lehigh River above the blue mountains, which received the name of Fort Allen, in honor of a gentleman then forming a settlement below the mountain on the bank of the same river. Opposité to this fort, and a small distance up the Mahoning Creek which falls into the Lehigh at this place, the United Brethren from Bethlehem about the same time built a Town, which they called *Gnaddenhutten," (huts of mercy,) and which was principally intended for the protection and residence of the Indians who had become members of their Society. These Indians were a part of the Delawares, and a constant intercourse was kept up between Gnaddenhutten and Wyoming, by means of a warriors' path which led across the mountains. The hostile Indians from the north were occasionally discovered in parties lurking about the settle. ments of the Christian Indians, and some treacherous person having murdered TADAME, the Chief of the Delawares at Wyoming, a General Council was assembled and TADEUSCUND, sometimes called Tedyuscung, a chieftain residing at Gnaddenhutten, was proclaimed Chief Sachem, who soon after removed to Wyoming, at that time the principal settlement of the Delawares. Not long after this event a body of hostile Indians among whom were supposed to be many whites disguised as Indians, surprised the Garrison of Fort Allen while incautiously skating upon the ice of the Lehigh at the mouth of Mahoning Creek, and having murdered most of them, the Fort and the Town of Gnaddenhutten fell a prey to the victors. The

Town was attacked in the night and set on fire; many of the inhabitants perished in the flames, while others were carried away captives. Those who escaped fled to Wyoming.

Such was the posture of affairs in 1754 when all hopes of a reconciliation between the Courts of Versailles and St. James being at an end, M. de Contraceur, Commander of the French forces in the West, arrived at the Forks of the Monongahela with a thousand men and eighteen pieces of cannon, in three hundred canoes from Venango, (a Fort which the French had built upon the bank of the Ohio,) and took by surprise a British Fort which the Virginians had built at that place.*

Orders were now received from England by the Governors of the several Colonies, directing them to form a political confederacy for their mutual defence, and to repel force by force. It was also enjoined upon them to conciliate as much as possible the Indians, and particularly the Six Nations, being directed" At so critical a juncture to put the latter upon their guard against any attempts which might be made to withdraw them from his Majesty's interests." A General Congress was accordingly appointed to be held at Albany, to which place the Indian tribes were invited, and where Commissioners attended from the British settlements. At this Congress a number of Indian tribes assembled, and having entered into new engagements to cultivate peace and friendship with the Smollet.

*Smollet.

English, made several very extensive sales of landş to the agents of the different Governments.

The Nanticokes, who still remained at Wyoming, and who retained too much animosity against the English to form an alliance with them, removed from the Valley during the year 1755 and began a settlement at Chemunk further up the river. A part of them also migrated to Chenenk where they were under the more immediate protection of the Six Nations.

Ilostilities having now actually commenced along the whole frontier of the British Colonies; a party of Indians from the Six Nations fell upon the settlement at Shamokin,* murdered fourteen whites and made some prisoners, and having plundered a few farms returned to their own territories. During the same season the Nanticokes, who, having established themselves at Chenenk and being unwilling that the bones of their brethren remaining in Maryland should be exposed to the operations of English agriculture, sent a deputation from their tribe who removed them from the place of their deposit, and conveyed them to Chenenk where they were interred with all the rites and ceremonies of savage sepulture. The French continued their unremitted exertions to detach the Delawares from the interests of the English, and to strengthen their works on the northern and western frontiers, and built a fort which they called Du Quesne, at

*A settlement at the confluence of the W. & E: branches of the Susquehanna.

the forks of the Ohio. Gen. Braddock was sent with an armed force consisting of British Regulars and American Militia to drive them from that quarter and to occupy the station; but not having taken the necessary precautions, on his inarch against an ambuscade he was attacked on the banks of the Monongahela in the month of July about ten miles from the fort, and defeated with the loss of his own life and about seven hundred men. *This success added to that of M. de Contraceur produced such calamitous effects upon the English cause, and added so much lustre to the French arms, that many of the Indian tribes, including the Delawares who had hitherto remained faithful to the British Colonies, now revolted and joined their brethren in the service of the French. In alluding to the means which had been used to produce this effect, Governor Morris of Pennsylvania, in his address to the Assembly in November, said "That the French had gained to their interest the Delaware and Shawanese Indians under the ensnaring pretence of restoring to them their country."

The evil effects resulting from the hostility of the Indian tribes began to be severely felt by the British Government, and the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania were requested to define explicitly their purchases of the Indians, and to obtain if possible a renewal of their friendship with the Colonies.Instructions to this effect were accordingly dess

*Smollet.

See votes of Assembly, Vol. 4:

C*

patched to the Governor, and messengers were sent to invite the Indians to a General Conference at Easton,* which was held in July; but as the at tendance on the part of the Indians was not general, and many subjects of difference arising, the Conference was dissolved, and the subjects under consideration referred to a General Council to be held at the same place in the autumn. Accordingly on the eighth day of November 1756, the different Indian tribes, represented by their Chiefs and principal Warriors, met Governor Dennie at Easton where the Council was opened in the following order. At three o'clock the Governor marched from his lodgings to the place of Conference guarded by a party of the royal Americans in front and on the flanks-and a detachment of Col. Weiser's Provincials in sub-divisions in the rear, with colours flying, drums beating, and music playing; which order was always observed in going to the place of Conference."+

Tedeuscund, who had been accompanied from Wyoming by most of his principal Warriors, performed the part of chief speaker on this occasion for all the tribes present, as he had done at the preceding conferences. He is represented to have supported the rights and claims of the Indians in a

*A Town which had been recently built at the confluence of the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers:

Minutes of Conference on file.