ths could
not satiate their infuriate murderers, their bodies were brutally
mangled, the hands and feet lopped off, and scalps torn from the
bleeding heads of innocent infants.

A similar fate impended the christian Indians of Nequetank and Nain;
and was only averted, by the timely interposition of the government of
Pennsylvania. They were removed to Philadelphia, where they remained
from November 1763 'till after the close of the war in December 1764;
during which time the Paxton boys twice assembled in the neighborhood
of the city, for the purpose of assaulting the barracks and murdering
the Indians, but were deterred by the military preparations made to
oppose them; and ultimately, but reluctantly, desisted.

Had the feelings excited in the minds of these misguided men, by the
cruelties of the Indians, been properly directed, it would have
produced a quite different result. If, instead of avenging the
outrages of others, upon those who were no otherwise guilty than in
the complexion of their skin, they had directed their exertions to the
repressing of invasion, and the punishment of its authors, much good
might have been achieved; and they, instead of being stigmatized as
murderers of the innocent, would have been hailed as benefactors of
the border settlements. Associations of this kind were formed in that
province, and contributed no little to lessen the frequency of Indian
massacres, and to prevent the effusion of blood, and the destruction
of property. At the time the Paxton boys were meditating and
endeavoring to effect the destruction of the peaceable christian
Indians, another company, formed by voluntary league, was actively
engaged in checking the intrusions, of those who were enemies, and in
punishing their aggressions. A company of riflemen, called the Black
boys (from the fact of their painting themselves red and black, after
the Indian fashion,) under the command of Capt. James Smith,
contributed to preserve the Conococheague valley, during the years
1763 and 1764, from the devastation [80] which had overspread it early
after the commencement of Braddock's war.

Capt. Smith had been captured by the Indians in the spring of 1755,
and remained with them until the spring of 1759, when he left them at
Montreal, and after some time arrived at home in Pennsylvania. He was
in Fort du Quesne, when the Indians and French went out to surprise
Gen. Braddock; and witnessed the burnings and other dreadful tortures