Witchcraft in Early North America - Alison Games [126]
Though we had heard that the savages suspected us and all teachers of the believing Indians of taking away the poison of all Indians who were converted, and of keeping it so that white teachers might use it to put the Indians to death or make them sick if they would not do as they were told, and though for this reason, we could not know to what the Devil might lead them and what our fate would be in consequence, especially since the savages had threatened to put to death anyone who should say the least against their actions, the burden of our hearts led us to resolve that we would make a speech to the assembled wild ones. Our hope was that we might do something toward having Joshua released, or, if that were impossible, at least talk with him once more. This we were ready to do even though we should have to suffer for it. Since it was impossible for us to leave Sr. Kluge all alone with the children under such circumstances, Br. Luckenbach felt it his duty to go alone. His object was to look up a French trader on the way and take him along.
18th. With high courage he left here early in the morning. He had hardly gone half way when he was met by an Indian who gave him the terrible news that, on the day before, our poor Joshua had become a victim of their cruelty. They likewise had struck the hatchet into his head two times and then burned him. With this terrible news Br. Luckenbach came back in the afternoon. This was the severest blow that could be given us. We were filled with terror and the horror of it all robbed us of all thought. We could do nothing but sigh and weep. As soon as we recovered somewhat our first thought was to sell everything and flee from here to Goshen as soon as possible. All preparations had been made when cold weather set in and put the difficult journey, on account of the children, out of the question, for the time being. After several days we heard that Joshua had said a great deal at the place of murder that the savages could not understand. It is quite likely that he prayed to the Saviour in German, for he was in an encouraging state of heart when the savages took him away. On the 22d we also heard that the wild ones had thrown our poor Joshua into a terribly large fire, which they constantly replenished, but that Joshua’s body had been hardly singed after two hours. This made them all the more savage, consequently they built a still hotter fire but even then his body was not burned to ashes before the following morning.
23d. A French trader sent a man to us to inform us that the Indians had told him to tell us that they would not hurt us, but that we should go away from here as soon as possible. . . . But we resolved to go to them to inquire whether they really meant what they said in their message to us through the Frenchman mentioned above; [we would say] that we wanted to hear direct from them, because they, the chiefs, had invited us to come here. As soon as we should hear this from them, then we would believe and would gladly leave here, for it depended on them whether they wanted us here any longer with the Word of God; we had no desire to force ourselves on them, because, as they knew, we had no other object in view than to be of service to them and bring them salvation, etc. With these words Br. Luckenbach rode away on the 25th to learn what the savages had to say. They did not want to admit that they had tried to send us away, at the same time they said, “You can go whenever you please; we do not need you here. In olden times the Indians did not know how to live aright, but now we ourselves know how to live and need no one to teach us. None of us will come to hear your Word, for you are white people and we are Indians. You have another color than we, also another teaching; your teaching is good for white people but not for