interior, and succeeded without difficulty in establishing a friendly intercourse with various tribes. In one of these journies he plunged through the wilderness into the valley of Wyoming, for the purpose of establishing a missionary post in the town of the Shawanese. It was here, during the autumn of that year, that one of those beautiful and touching incidents occurred, which add a charm to the annals of the missionary enterprise.

The count had expected to be accompanied by an interpreter, celebrated in all the Indian negotiations for many years of that age, named Conrad Weiser, whose popularity was equally great among the Indians of all nations by whom he was known. But Weiser was unable to go. Inflexible in his purpose, however, the count determined to encounter the hazards of the journey, with no other companions than a missionary, named Mack, and his wife. On their arrival in the valley, they pitched their tents on the bank of the river, a short distance below the town of the Shawanese; at that period the most distrustful and savage of the Pennsylvania Indians. A council was called to hear their errand of mercy, but the Indians were not exactly satisfied as to the real object of such an unexpected visit. They knew the rapacity of the white people for their lands; and they thought it far more probable that the strangers were bent upon surveying the quality of these, than that they were encountering so many hardships and dangers, without fee or reward, merely for the future well

being of their souls. Brooding darkly upon the subject, their suspicions increased, until they resolved upon the assassination of the count; for which purpose executioners were. detailed, who were instructed to carry their purpose into effect with all possible secrecy, lest the transactions coming to the ears of the English, should involve them in a yet graver difficulty.

The count was alone in his tent, reclining upon a bundle of dry weeds, designed for his bed, and engaged in writing, or in devout meditation, when the assassins crept stealthily to the tent upon their murderous errand. A blanket-curtain, suspended upon pins, formed the door of his tent, and by gently raising a corner of the curtain, the Indians, undiscovered, had a full view of the venerable patriarch, unconscious of lurking danger, and with the calmness of a saint upon his benignant features. They were awe-stricken by his appearance. But this was not all. It was a cool night in September, and the count had kindled a small fire for his comfort. Warmed by the flame, a large rattlesnake had crept from its covert, and approaching the fire for its greater enjoyment, glided harmlessly over one of the legs of the holy man, whose thoughts, at the moment, were not occupied upon the grovelling things of earth. He perceived not the serpent, but the Indians, with breathless attention, had observed the whole movement of the poisonous reptile; and as they gazed upon the aspect and attitude of the count, and saw the serpent of

fering him no harm, they changed their minds as suddenly as the barbarians of Malta did theirs in regard to the shipwrecked prisoner who shook the viper from his hand without feeling even a smart from its venomous fang. Their enmity was immediately changed into reverence; and in the belief that their intended victim enjoyed the special protection of the Great Spirit, they desisted from their bloody purpose and retired.* Thenceforward the count was regarded by the Indians with the most profound veneration. The arrival of Conrad Weiser soon afterward afforded every facility for free communication with the sons of the forest, and the result was the establishment of a mission at the place, which was successfully maintained for several years, and until broken up by troubles as extraordinary in their origin, as they were fatal to the Indians engaged in them.

The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which, in 1748, put an end to the French war in Europe, proved to be only a truce between France and Great Britain; and from the movements of the former, it required no remarkable degree of sagacity to foresee that the sword would soon be drawn again, and the contest chiefly waged, and perhaps decided, in the wild woods of America. It was even so.

*This interesting incident was not published in the count's memoirs, lest, as he states, the world should think that the conversions that followed among the Indians were attributable to their superstitions. Mr. Chapman, in his history of Wyoming, has preserved the story-having, as he says, received it from one who was a companion of the count, and who accompanied him, [the author] to Wyoming.

The storm broke forth upon the banks of the Ohio in 1754, and was ended on those of the St. Lawrence in 1763. Preparatory to this contest, the arts of the French, and their Jesuit missionaries, were all put in requisition to secure the friendship and alliance of the Indians. The influence of the Jesuits, among the Indians of the Ohio and upper lakes, was unbounded; and the Shawanese of the Ohio, always haters of the English, were easily persuaded to take up the hatchet at the first sound of the bugle. In anticipation of hostilities, they early invited their brethren, settled in the valley of Wyoming to join them. These latter were little better disposed toward the English than their brethren deeper in the woods; and but for the new ties that bound the Moravian converts to their church, the invitation would have been promptly accepted.

It was not long, however, before an incident occurred, which not only sundered their Christian relations, but facilitated the removal of all who were able to get away. This incident was a sudden out-break of hostilities between this secluded clan of the Shawanese, and their Delaware neighbours on the other side of the river, the immediate cause of which was the most trivial that can be imagined, and its effects the most bloody, for the numbers engaged, of any war, probably, that was ever waged. It happened thus: On a certain day, the warriors of both clans being engaged in the chase upon the mountains, a party of the Shawa

nese women and children crossed to the Delaware side to gather wild fruit. In this occupation they were joined by some of the Delaware squaws, with their children. In the course of the day, the harmony of the children was interrupted by a dispute respecting the possession of a large grass-hopper, probably with parti-coloured wings. A quarrel ensued, in which the mothers took part with their children respectively. The Delaware women being the most numerous, the Shawanese were driven home, several being killed upon both sides. On the return of their husbands from hunting, the Shawanese instantly espoused the cause of their wives, and arming themselves, crossed the river to give the Delawares battle. The latter were not unprepared, and a battle ensued, which was long and obstinately contested, and which, after great slaughter upon both sides, ended in the defeat of the Shawanese, and their expulsion from the valley. They retired among their more powerful brethren on the Ohio, by whom, as already mentioned, they had been invited to remove thither, with them to espouse the cause of the French.

This exploit of the Delawares, becoming noised abroad, went far to relieve them of the reproach under which they had so long been lying, of being "WOMEN." They were now the principal occupants of the valley - entirely so, indeed, with the exception of the small community of Nanticokes who were settled at its lower extremity — and their numbers were rapidly increased by those