Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (Vol 1 1904).djvu/232

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226
Early Western Travels
[Vol. i

was my protector and deliverer: I believe my Lord has been too strong against them; my enemies have done what lies in their power.

8th.—We prepared for our journey on the morning, and made ourselves ready. There came some together and examined me what I had wrote yesterday. I told them, I wondered what need they had to concern themselves about my writing. They said, if they knew I had wrote about the prisoners, they would not let me go out of the town. I told them what I writ was my duty to do. "Brothers, I tell you, I am not afraid of you, if there were a thousand more. I have a good conscience before God and man. I tell you I have wrote nothing about the prisoners. I tell you, Brothers, this is not good; there's a bad spirit in your heart, which breeds that jealousy; and it will keep you ever in fear, that you will never get rest. I beg you would pray to God, for grace to resist that wicked spirit, that breeds such wicked jealousies in you; which is the reason you have kept me here so long. How often have I begged of you to dispatch me? I am ashamed to see you so jealous; I am not, in the least, afraid of you. Have I not brought writings to you? and what, do you think I must not carry some home, to the Governor? or, shall I shut my mouth, and say nothing? Look into your hearts, and see if it would be right or wrong, if any body gives a salutation to their friends, and it is not returned in the same way. You told me many times how kind you were to the prisoners, and now you are afraid that any of them should speak to me."[1]

They told me, they had cause to be afraid; and then
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  1. Two of the prisoners mention their pleasure at seeing Post, and the fact that the Indians forbade them to communicate with him. See "Narrative of Marie le Roy and Barbara Leininger," Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd series (Harrisburg, 1878), vi, pp. 401-412.―Ed.