372      MISSIONARIES AND CONVERTS SETTLED AT MUSKINGUM. 1773.

of the Delawares were the partisans of the British ; the Christian villagers were neutral, in accordance with their principles. While they declined the alliance of either party, they felt obliged by their religion to extend the duties of hospitality to both.   It thus became exceedingly difficult to preserve any neutrality between the contending parties.   It was necessary, in order to avoid their hostility, to furnish provisions to the Indian war parties on their way to attack the whites; it was an act of Christian benevolence to extend sympathy to their prisoners, and, in that way, they were suspected of partiality to the British interest.   It was contrary to their religion to take up the hatchet so persistently offered them by the warlike Indians, and their motives for refusing could only be interpreted by the warriors as a sympathy with the Americans. On the one hand, therefore, a party of Americans crossed the Ohio in the fall of 1777, with the design of destroying the Moravian towns, but were met and defeated by a party of Wyandots.   On the other hand, the commandant at Detroit sent them a message in 1778, declaring that he would compel all the Indians, Christian or not, to fight the Americans, and if they did not obey his orders, all missions among them should be at an end.

They were fully warned of the dangerous position they occupied, but failed to realize the extent of their danger. A chief of the Wyandots visited them] in the spring of 1781, to advise them of their peril, and to persuade them to seek a place of greater safety.

"My cousins," said he, "you Christian Indians in Onadenhutten, 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 to 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 with their teeth."

"Uucle," 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, an answer."

McKee, Girty and Elliot were especially hostile to the missionaries, and were continually seeking to excite the heathen Indians to murder Zeisberger, and destroy the mission. Girty, indeed, led a party at one time from Sandusky, to capture and murder the venerable missionary, aud had even taken him prisoner, but he was rescued by a band of friendly Delawares, and saved.   Girty and