In 1720, John Harris, founder of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, refused to sell more rum to a band of drunken Indians. They grabbed him [dressed in painted white cloth as described by Peter Williamson] tied him to a tree, gathered kindling, and lumber, and prepared to burn him. His slave, Hercules [one of the earliest known black slaves in North America] ran off and brought armed white men to his master’s rescue just as his pyre was about to be lit.
-From a period sketch done in charcoal
Their gun, tomahawk, scalping knife, powder and shot, are all they have to carry with them in time of war—bows and arrows being seldom used by them. They generally in war decline open engagements; bush fighting or skulking is their discipline: and they are brave when engaged, having great fortitude in enduring tortures and death.
No people have a greater love of liberty or affection to their neighbours; but are the most implacably vindictive people upon the earth; for they revenge the death of any relation, or any great affront, whenever occasion presents, let the distance of time or place be never so remote. To all which I may add, and which the reader has already observed, that they are inhumanly cruel. But some other nations might be more happy, if in some instances they copied them, and made wise conduct, courage, and personal strength, the chief recommendations for war captains, or iceroicanees, as they call them.
In times of peace, they visit the plantations inhabited by the whites, to whom they sell baskets, ladles, spoons, and other such trifles, which they are very expert in making. When night comes, if admitted into any house, they beg leave to lie down by the fire-side, choosing that place rather than any other, which is seldom refused them, if sober; for then they are honest; but if drunk, are very dangerous and troublesome, if people enough are not in the house to quell them. Nor would they at any time be guilty of such barbarous depredations as they are, did not these calling themselves Christians entice them thereto with strong liquors, which they are vastly fond of; as well as by the pecuniary rewards which they gave for the scalps.
If ambition cannot be gratified, or superiority obtained, otherwise than by the death of thousands, would it net, in these who seek such airy phantoms, and are so inordinately fond of their fellow creatures lives, savour a little more of humanity, to have them killed instantly, and, if they must have proofs of murders, scalped afterwards, than by allowing and encouraging such merciless treatment, render themselves as obnoxious, cruel, and barbarous, to a humane mind, as the very savages themselves?
However, they sometimes suffer by their plots and chicanery laid for the destruction of others; it often happening that the traders or emissaries sent to allure them to the execution of their schemes, rightly fall victims themselves; for, as they always carry with them horse-loads of rum, which the Indians are fond of, they soon get drunk, quarrelsome, and wicked, and in their fury often kill and destroy their tempters: a just reward for their wicked designs: nay, it had such an effect on them, that when so intoxicated, they even burn and consume all their own effects, beating, wounding, and sometimes killing their wives and children: but, in disputes among themselves, when sober, they are very tenacious of decorum, never allowing more than one to speak at a time. Profane swearing they know not in their own language how to express, but are very fond of the French and English oaths.
