approach, or the snake which lay before him.  At a sight like this, even the heart of the savages shrunk from the idea of committing so horrid an act; and, quitting the spot, they hastily returned to the town, and informed their companions, that the Great Spirit protected the white man, for they had found him with no door but a blanket, and had seen a large rattlesnake crawl over his legs without attempting to injure him.  This circumstance, together with the arrival soon afterwards of Conrad Weizer, the interpreter, procured the count the friendship of the Indians, and probably induced some of them to embrace Christianity.”

When the war between the French and the English occurred in 1754, the Shawanoes on the Ohio took sides with the former; but the appeal to those residing at Wyoming to do the same, was ineffectual.  The influence of the count’s missionary efforts had made them averse to war.  But an event which happened soon afterward, disturbed the peace of their settlement, and finally led to their removal from the valley.  Occasional difficulties of a transient nature, had arisen between the Delawares and the Shawanoes at Wyoming.  An unkind feeling, produced by trifling local causes, had grown up between the two tribes.  At length a childish dispute about the possession of a harmless grasshopper, brought on a bloody battle; and a final separation of the two parties soon followed.  One day, while most of the Delaware men were absent on a hunting excursion, the women of that tribe went out to gather wild fruits on the margin of the river, below their village.  Here they met a number of Shawanoe women and their children, who had crossed the stream in their canoes, and were similarly engaged.  One of the Shawanoe children having caught a large grasshopper, a dispute arose with some of the Delaware children, in regard to the possession of it.  In this quarrel, as was natural, the mothers soon became involved.  The Delaware women contended for the possession of the grasshopper on the ground that the Shawanoes possessed no privileges on that side of the river.  A resort to violence ensued, and the Shawanoe women being in the minority, were speedily driven to their canoes, and compelled to seek safety by flight to their own bank of the stream.  Here the matter rested until the return of the hunters, when the Shawanoes, in order to avenge the indignity offered to their women, armed themselves for battle.  When they attempted to cross the river, they found the Delawares duly prepared to receive them and oppose their landing.  The battle commenced while the Shawanoes were still in their canoes, but they at length effected a landing, which was followed by a general and destructive engagement.  The Shawanoes having lost a number of their warriors before reaching the shore, were too much weakened to sustain the battle for any length of time.  After the loss of nearly one half their party, they were compelled to fly to their own side of the river.  Many of the Delawares were killed.  Shortly after this disastrous contest, the Shawanoes quietly abandoned their village, and removed westward to the banks of the Ohio.[A]