were environed by blazing woods, whose fires burnt fiercely for hours around their encampment. Several of the party died, and were buried by the way.
“But all these trials were forgotten in their daily meetings, in which the presence of the Lord was most sensibly and comfortably felt. These were always held in the evening, around a large fire, in the open air.”
They celebrated a “joyful commemoration” of Easter, and spent the Passion-week “in blessed contemplation” of the sufferings of Jesus, whose “presence supported them under all afflictions, insomuch that they never lost their cheerfulness and resignation” during the five long weeks of this terrible journey.
On the 9th of May they arrived at Machwihilusing, and “forgot all their pain and trouble for joy that they had reached the place of their future abode. * * * With offers of praise and thanksgiving, they devoted themselves anew to Him who had given them rest for the soles of their feet.”
“With renewed courage” they selected their home on the banks of the Susquehanna, and proceeded to build houses. They gave to the settlement the name of Friedenshutten—a name full of significance, as coming from the hearts of these persecuted wanderers: Friedenshutten—“Tents of Peace.”
If all this persecution had fallen upon these Indians because they were Christians, the record, piteous as it is, would be only one out of thousands of records of the sufferings of Christian martyrs, and would stir our sympathies less than many another. But this was not the case. It was simply because they were Indians that the people demanded their lives, and would have taken them, again and again, except that all the power of the Government was enlisted for their protection. The fact of their being Christians did not enter in, one way or the other, any more than did the fact that they were peaceable. They were Indians, and the frontiersmen of Pennsylvania intended
