the proposed stronghold, called it Fort Duquesne. Then came the French and Indian war, which was a sanguinary and heartless conflict as far as the frontiers were concerned. The nine years of struggling for supremacy was ended by the Treaty of Paris, signed February 18, 1763, and by the terms of which, the French colors went down forever in the history of America.

While the rich and boundless territory of the North-west was annexed to the colony of Great Britain by conquest, it was not open to emigration and settlers, but was reserved by royal proclamation to the purposes and uses of the Indians. The great, newly acquired west was shut off from the colonists. The territory east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River was apparently under the jurisdiction of Virginia, for that colony, in 1769, passed an act erecting Botetourt County, of which the present limits of Ohio was a part.

For ten years there was comparative peace on the frontier. There was an absence of bloodshed that augured for the white man the richest promises of progress. The peace was broken by the perfidy of the whites. In April, 1774, through the attacks of certain whites led by Captains Cresap and Greathouse, the latter of whom participated in the murder of the family of the famous Chieftain, Logan, the entire Ohio Valley was plunged into a frontier struggle for life. It was Indian against white man. Lord Dunmore, the royal Governor of Virginia, organized an army of Virginians to march against the Indian tribes. His active prosecution and control of the campaign has placed it in history as "Lord Dunmore's War."

Lord Dunmore struck for the very heart of the Indian country on the Scioto River. It was in October, 1774, when the forces of the whites encamped at Camp Charlotte, so named by Dunmore in honor of the young queen of England, and Lord Dunmore met the principal chiefs of the belligerent tribes; the result was a treaty. It was at this time that the celebrated speech of Logan, the Mingo Chief, was delivered. Lord Dunmore sent for him, and through an interpreter, upon a belt of wampum, Logan expressed himself so strongly that Jefferson spoke of it saying, “I may challenge the whole orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and of any more eminent orator, if Europe has furnished any more eminent, to produce a single passage superior to the speech of Logan, a Mingo Chief, to Lord Dunmore when Governor of Virginia." So closed Lord Dunmore's War in Ohio, in November, 1774

The War for Independence soon came on, and although the wild Northwest had no colonial rights, it was good territory to preserve, and, in 1778, the Continental Congress sent out General Lachlin McIntosh, as the Commander of the Western Military Department, to protect the frontier. He left Fort Pitt with one thousand men, intending to destroy Detroit and the Indian towns on the Sandusky River. He stopped, however, at the present location of Bolivar, on the Tuscarawas River, and erected Fort Laurens, the first military stockade erected within Ohio boundaries. Here he stationed one hundred and fifty men, and returned to Fort Pitt. Fort Laurens was abandoned in 1779.

In 1780, and the five years following, Ohio was the

theatre of active warfare against the Indians. It was campaign after campaign, and the rifle shot broke the stillness of the wilderness with fearful frequency. It was the struggle for peace. It was war, in order that the security of the settlers which should follow these brave bands might be assured. On the Little Miami River, within what is now Greene County, were a series of Shawanese villages. These Indians had committed depredations in Kentucky, and to punish them, Colonel John Bowman, with one hundred and sixty Kentuckians, attacked the Indians. By some misunderstanding, the attack, owing to a failure of cooperation by the two separated wings of the little army, did not have much effect on the Indians. The Kentuckians were compelled to retreat, and they crossed to their own state at the mouth of the Little Miami River. This failure, for such it was, only served to prompt the savages to further depredations and outrages on the whites. During the months of July and August in the same year, 1780, Col. George Rogers Clark attacked the Indians on the Miami and destroyed their towns and thoroughly defeated them. The next year saw an expedition led by General Daniel Greathouse, which, unfortunately, bore more of the appearance of a murdering mob than a military campaign. Harmless Indians were cruelly assassinated, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the officers in command prevented a massacre of the Moravian missions on the Tuscarawas River. The year 1782 opened with a number of atrocious deeds of violence by the Indians. Innocent women and children were murdered in the most horrible manner.

The whites were exasperated, and

in February of this year, Colonel Williamson led his memorable expedition against the Indians. It was an expedition of blood, and the maddened whites forgot all the instincts of humanity. They marched into the Tuscarawas country and captured the peaceful and Christian Indians of the Moravian Missions. There was no evidence of the guilt or participation. of the Indians in the recent outrages against the whites, but, nevertheless, Colonel Williamson's men, in cold blood and with brutal vengeance, massacred the captured Moravian Indians, ninety-six in number. To the credit of Colonel Williamson can it be said, that he opposed the massacre, and did all he could to prevent it.

The record of Indian brutalities and massacres may furnish parallels, and of course does, to this horrible deed, but the race that was born to the use of the scalping-knife and tomahawk never did anything to excel it in its devilish and inhuman character. Williamson pleaded with his men to take their captives to Fort Pitt, but on the question as to whether they should be taken to Fort Pitt or die, the voice of the expedition was almost unanimous for blood. And on March 8, 1782, "with gun and spear, and tomahawk and scalping-knife, and bludgeon and mallet, the wholesale brutal murder of these defenseless people was accomplished." The work was kept up until the silence of death reigned in the settlement. Then the bodies of the murdered Moravians were burned. Thus was stained with indelible disgrace the border annals of Ohio. The Moravian Indians, through the gentle influence of the missionaries, were imbued with the sweet spirit of peace.

They were manly, brave and honorable. True to the teachings of their pastors, they kept aloof from the struggles or warfare of the other tribes. Even during the War of Independence they refused to participate in the border bloodshed. Situated between the American fort at Pittsburgh, and the English at Detroit, they were importuned and threatened by both. In 1777 they were attacked by the Americans, and in the following year by the English, who sent them a message that they would be massacred if they did. not help fight the Americans. Yet they adhered to their views of peace. What a striking commentary on the white man's practice of Christianity!

In 1781 a leading Wyandot chief visited them to warn them of the dangerous position they occupied. His words of advice and their reply were striking and pathetic:

"My cousins," said he, "you Christian Indians in Gnadenhutten, Schonbrun and Salem, I am concerned on your account, as I see you live in a dangerous situation. Two mighty and angry gods stand opposite each other with their mouths open, and you stand between them, and are in danger of being crushed by the one or the other, or both of them, and crumbled under their teeth."

"Uncle," replied they, "and you Shawanese, our nephews, we have not hitherto seen our situation so dangerous as not to stay here. We live in peace with all mankind, and have nothing to do with the war. We desire and request no more than that we may be permitted to live in peace and quiet. We will preserve your words and consider them, and send you, uncle, our answer."