the ravages of the Indians, which began in their neighborhood at the time they were preparing to set out on their journey. The public business requires my presence at Carlisle, where I am now going, and I invite you to go along with me. If you incline to take any of your families with you, I shall readily agree to it, and provide a carriage for them and you."

to

To this "The Belt" replied:

"BRETHREN: I thank you for sending for us to council, and for your kind speech. What you have said is very agreeable. Brethren: The sky is dark all around us. The mischief done you I consider as done to the Six Nations, and I am sorry for what has happened, and heartily condole with you upon it; but be not disheartened. As the public business is committed to you, nothing should be suffered to lie on your minds that might in any wise impair your judgment, which is now more necessary than ever. Let me therefore, by this string, intreat you to put away all grief from your heart, and to dry up your tears, that you may think and see clearly when you come to council.

I accept your invitation, and shall follow you to Carlisle." Gave a string.

At the time this council was held there appears to have been but a single house and few conveniences at Harris' Ferry, and "Mr. Weiser was asked if it might not be better to hold it at Carlisle, where all the business of that county could be done at the same time, and proper entertainment provided, as well for the Governor and his company as for the Indians, should they prove numerous." They then went to Carlisle.

THREATENED MURDER OF THE FRIENDLY INDIANS AT HARRIS' FERRY.

Conrad Weiser, in a letter to Governor Morris, dated January 29, 1756, says: "On the 31st of last month, one James Young

came over from Tobias Hendricks', and told me privately, in the presence of John Harris, that above fifteen men with arms came that day to Tobias Hendricks', in order to come to this side of the river to kill the Indians at John Harris', judging them of being guilty or privy to the murder committed in Shearman's valley a few days ago; and that he had much ado to stop them, and desired me to take all the care I possibly could. I took for granted what they said, and sent immediately an express to bring the Indians that remained in Carlisle, since the last treaty, away to Harris' Ferry."

The treaty alluded to was held at Carlisle, in January, 1756, where it was left to the Indians' choice till a fort had been erected at Shamokin, to reside at one or other of the forts then building, or at Harris' Ferry or Conestoga Manor. They chose Harris' Ferry.

THE GOVERNOR AGAIN AT HARRIS' FERRY.

After the adjournment of the Assembly, in April, 1756, Governor Morris again visited Harris' Ferry, and in the early part of May issued a message summoning the members of Assembly to convene at Philadelphia. He also signed several bills here, and "affixed the great seal of the Province to the transcribed copies thereof."

In concluding his message to the Assembly, dated Harris' Ferry, May 23, 1756, he says: "I propose to leave this place to-morrow, or on Tuesday at farthest, and hope to be with you by the time you can have any business prepared to lay before me."

THE ENEMY INVADE PAXTON.

The storm of Indian warfare which had been so long raging in the neighboring districts, at length spread into the settlements of Paxton and adjoining townships.

"The first assault," says Rupp, "was upon a wagon belonging to a German, in which he was endeavoring to move off; but being killed a small distance behind the wagon, those with the wagon fled to a fort not far distant. The men at the fort being alarmed at the report of the Indians' guns, came to see the occasion of it, and met a woman running towards them, crying; they proceeded to where the wagon stood, and at some distance behind laid the man, tomahawked and scalped, and the brains issuing from the wounds, although he was still breathing."

Murders in Paxton and Derry townships appear to have been an every-day occurrence in August, 1756:

"DERRY TP., 9th Aug., 1756.

SIR: There is nothing but bad news every day. Last week there were two soldiers killed and one wounded, about two miles from Manada fort; and two of the guards that escorted the batteaux were killed. We shall all be broken in upon

in these parts. The people are going off daily, leaving almost their all behind them.

ED. SHIPPEN, Esq."

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JAMES GALBRAITH.

"DERRY TP., 10th Aug., 1756.

HONORED SIR: There is nothing here almost every day but murder committed by the Indians in some part or other. About five miles above me, at Manada Gap, there were two of the Province soldiers killed, one wounded.

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Yours,

P. S. I am in want of the pistols."

JAMES GALBRAITH.

The names of some of those murdered and abducted in Paxton, Derry and Hanover townships, are given in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 1755, and are as follows:

Elizabeth Gallway, Henry Gibson, Robert Peer, Wm. Berry,

hill, and David McClelland; Beatty, Flemming's son, and one Hicks, James Mackey, murdered. A son of James Mackey, a son of Joseph Barnet, Elizabeth Dickey and her child, the wife. of Samuel Young and her child, John Martin's wife and five children, William Gallway's wife and two children, and a young woman; Chas. Stewart's wife and two children, David McClelland's wife and two children, and Wm. Flemming and wife were taken prisoners.

"Aug. 19, 1757.-Fourteen people killed and taken from Mr. Cinky's congregation, and one man killed near Harris' Ferry."

The Colonial Records and Archives contain numerous letters from Paxton, written at this period, giving accounts of Indian massacres in this neighborhood.

Estherton, the present country seat of Judge Hiester, and Fort Hunter, the present residence of J. C. McAllister, Esq., both a short distance above Harrisburg, were important posts of rendezvous for the early settlers.

CONTEMPLATED MASSACRE AT PAXTON CHURCH.

"A party of hostile Indians had came down the river to murder the people of Paxton. They formed a camp in the thicket back of Elder's mill-dam. They designed falling on the people when at worship in Paxton church. They are supposed to have come on Monday, and after waiting several days they came to the conclusion that the congregation would not assemble, and they went off. They left the settlement by the way of Indiantown Gap. On their way off they murdered several persons and took a prisoner, from whom it was afterwards ascertained that they had been encamped here for several days. The people of this congregation, before and afterwards, came to

the church armed; and Mr. Elder, the pastor, also carried his gun into the pulpit."-G. W. Harris, Esq.

The above incident is mentioned in "Webster's History of the Presbyterian Church" as having occurred in 1756. The same authority also states that in 1757 an attack was actually made on the settlers as they were leaving the church, two or three of whom were killed.

Mr. Elder was pastor of the above church when it was first built, about 120 years ago, and preached to that congregation and in the Derry church upwards of 60 years. He was a colonel of the Paxton Rangers, whose duty it was to keep a look out for the Indians, and range the settlements for their protection, from the Blue Mountain to the river. He died at the advanced age of eighty-six, in 1792, on his farm near Harrisburg.

Paxton Church is still standing, about two and a half miles from Harrisburg, near the Hummelstown turnpike, and many of the descendants of the early settlers still continue to worship there.

ANOTHER INDIAN COUNCIL AT HARRIS' FERRY.

"A meeting of the Six Nations and their Allies, and George Croghan, Esq., Deputy Agent to the Hon. Sir William Johnson, Baronet, His Majesty's sole Agent and Superintendent of the Six Nations, their allies and their dependents, was held by special order at John Harris', the 1st day of April, 1757. Present-The Rev. John Elder, Capt. Thos. M'Kee, Mr. Jas. Armstrong, Mr. Hugh Crawford, Mr. John Harris, Wm. Pentrup, Interpreter, and warriors from the Mohawks, Oneidas, Tuscaroras, Onondagoes, Nanticokes, Cayugas, Delawares, Senecas, and Conestogoes, with their women and children."

Before this conference had concluded, the council fire was removed to Lancaster, where the remainder of its business was transacted.