Note 362 — Chapter XXIV · 1763. THE PAXTON MEN.

Deposition of Felix Donolly, keeper of Lancaster jail. Declaration of Lazarus Stewart, published by Mr. Conyngham. Rupp, Hist. of York and Lancaster Counties, 358. Heckewelder, Narrative of Moravian Missions, 79. See Appendix, E.

Soon after the massacre, Franklin published an account of it at Philadelphia, which, being intended to strengthen the hands of government by exciting a popular sentiment against the rioters, is more rhetorical than accurate. The following is his account of the consummation of the act:—

“When the poor wretches saw they had no protection nigh, nor could possibly escape, they divided into their little families, the children clinging to the parents; they fell on their knees, protested their innocence, declared their love to the English, and that, in their whole lives, they had never done them injury; and in this posture they all received the hatchet!”

This is a pure embellishment of the fancy. The only persons present were the jailer and the rioters themselves, who unite in testifying that the Indians died with the stoicism which their race usually exhibit under such circumstances; and indeed, so sudden was the act, that there was no time for enacting the scene described by Franklin.