The British, who had cared for the remnants of the Moravians, now did their best to stop the cruelties of the Indians, [Footnote:  Do.  Aug. 18, 1782.] but could accomplish little or nothing.  Even the Mingos and Hurons told them that though they would not torture any Americans, they intended thenceforth to put all their prisoners to death. [Footnote:  Do.  Dec. 1, 1782.]

    Crawford Tortured to Death.

Crawford was tied to the stake in the presence of a hundred Indians.  Among them were Simon Girty, the white renegade, and a few Wyandots.  Knight, Crawford’s fellow-captive, was a horrified spectator of the awful sufferings which he knew he was destined by his captors ultimately to share.  Crawford, stripped naked, and with his hands bound behind him, was fastened to a high stake by a strong rope; the rope was long enough for him to walk once or twice round the stake.  The fire, of small hickory poles, was several yards from the post, so as only to roast and scorch him.  Powder was shot into his body, and burning fagots shoved against him, while red embers were strewn beneath his feet.  For two hours he bore his torments with manly fortitude, speaking low, and beseeching the Almighty to have mercy on his soul.  Then he fell down, and his torturers scalped him, and threw burning coals on his bare skull.  Rising, he walked about the post once or twice again, and then died.  Girty and the Wyandots looked on, laughing at his agony, but taking no part in the torture.  When the news of his dreadful fate was brought to the settlements, it excited the greatest horror, not only along the whole frontier, but elsewhere in the country; for he was widely known, was a valued friend of Washington and was everywhere beloved and respected.

Knight, a small and weak-looking man, was sent to be burned at the Shawnee towns, under the care of a burly savage.  Making friends with the latter, he lulled his suspicions, the more easily because the Indian evidently regarded so small a man with contempt; and then, watching his opportunity, he knocked his guard down and ran off into the woods, eventually making his way to the settlements.

Another of the captives, Slover by name, made a more remarkable escape.  Slover’s life history had been curious.  When a boy eight years old, living near the springs of the Kanawha, his family was captured by Indians, his brother alone escaping.  His father was killed, and his two little sisters died of fatigue on the road to the Indian villages; his mother was afterwards ransomed.  He lived twelve years with the savages, at first in the Miami towns, and then with the Shawnees.  When twenty years old he went to Fort Pitt, where, by accident, he was made known to some of his relations.  They pressed him to rejoin his people, but he had become so wedded to savage life that he at first refused.  At last he yielded, however, took up his abode with the men of his own color, and became a good citizen, and a worthy member of the Presbyterian Church.  At the outbreak of the Revolution he served fifteen months as a Continental soldier, and when Crawford started against the Sandusky Indians, he went along as a scout.