n and christianity. In the war
of 1774, their tranquil and happy hours were interrupted, by reports
of the ill intention of the whites along the frontier, towards them,
and by frequent acts of annoyance, committed by war parties of the
savages.

This state of things continued with but little, if any, intermission,
occasionally assuming a more gloomy and portentious aspect, until the
final destruction of their villages. In the spring of 1781, the
principal war chief of the Delawares apprised the missionaries and
them, of the danger which threatened them, as well from the whites as
the savages, and advised them to remove to some situation, where they
would be exempt from molestation by either. Conscious of the rectitude
of their conduct as regarded both, and unwilling to forsake the
comforts which their industry had procured for them, and the fields
rendered productive by their labor, they disregarded the [234]
friendly monition, and continued in their villages, progressing in the
knowledge and love of the Redeemer of men, and practising the virtues
inculcated by his word.

This was their situation, at the time they were removed to Sandusky,
early in the fall of 1781. When their missionaries and principal men
were liberated by the governor of Detroit, they obtained leave of the
Wyandot chiefs to return to the Muskingum to get the corn which had
been left there, to prevent the actual starvation of their families.
About one hundred and fifty of them, principally women and children
went thither for this purpose, and were thus engaged when the second
expedition under Col. Williamson proceeded against them.

In March 1782, between eighty and ninety men assembled themselves for
the purpose of effecting the destruction of the Moravian towns.[1] If
they then had in contemplation the achieving of any other injury to
those people, it was not promulgated in the settlements. They avowed
their object to be the destruction of the houses and the laying waste
the crops, in order to deprive the hostile savages of the advantage of
obtaining shelter and provisions, so near to the frontier; and the
removal of the Moravians to Fort Pitt, to preserve them from the
personal injury which, it was feared, would be inflicted on them by
the warriors. Being merely a private expedition, each of the men took
with him, his own arms, ammunition and provisions; and many of them,
their horses. They took up the line of march from the Mingo Bottom,
and o