>Wonder what prompted the Indians to spare the two young boys? What >about them was different from the rest of the children and adults? Sheila, Christophel von Graffenried's book "Account of the Settling of New Bern" refers to the "women and children" captives taken by the Tuscarora Indians in the uprising. Graffenried, his two Negro slaves, and surveyor John Lawson were captured by the Tuscaroras just prior to the slaughter of the colonists. Graffenried was released by the Tuscaroras by negotiating a personal ransom payment with the Indian council after witnessing the torture and death of his slaves and Lawson. Lawson's torture was by hundreds of slivers of "fat-wood'" (the resinous heart of a pine tree) being stuck in his skin and then lighted. While returning barefoot and injured to the colony, Graffenried stumbled across the abandoned and looted homesteads of the slaughtered English and German-speaking settlers. He found the surviving colonists fortified in the New Bern settlement and planning retribution raids on the surrounding Indian communities. Graffenried was especially concerned that the colonist's attacks would endanger the lives of the hostages. He offered to act as negotiator between the Indians and colonists to settle the conflict without further bloodshed. Graffenried's offer was rejected and the surviving colonists raided several Indian camps but accomplished little. The Tuscarora War was finally concluded after a second force of South Carolina regulars and native tribes overpowered the Tuscaroras and carried many of the survivors back to SC to be sold as slaves to recover their expenses. Historical records indicate the Kornegay and Koonce boys were not the only survivors of the Tuscarora massacre. The text of the court minutes of 1712-1713, NC State Department of Archives and History, lists the settlement of the estates of the "Palatine orphans". The court was held in the house of Jacob Miller (Mueller) in August, 1713. The names of the orphans mentioned in the document are: ______ Knight, Peter Engott, Abna Minnott, Jacob _____, Elizabeth Broadbeek, Katherina Lluckins, George Kornegay, George Cones (Koonce?), Samuel Kinse (Kinsey?), Katherina Hepshine, Mary Mennitt (Minnott), John Arthur, Eliza Maun, Katherin Winn, Jerimah Reed, Thomas Hogg. There were also at least three unidentified orphans mentioned in the court record. BTW, I visited the origin village of the George Koonce family. It is the agricultural village of Biglen approximately 10 km from Worb, the ancestral home of the von Graffenried family. The village is about 25 km east of Bern, Switzerland. This dovetails nicely with the Swiss Gnagi hypothesis as the document refers to the children, whether of English, German, or Swiss decent, as the "Palatine orphans." It has been noted that George I referred to himself as a "Palatine orphan", possibly a young boy's terrifying memory and not necessarily defining his origin of birth. There is no indication in the document of which orphans had been held captive by the Tuscaroras, however, it is probable that more children were captured than just the two boys later apprenticed to Miller. Graffenried's willingness to risk his neck to negotiate their ransom could indicate a greater number. Naturally any colony woman recaptured or ransomed back from the Tuscaroras would have quickly remarried and taken possession of any surviving children or property. The capture of surviving women and children of the vanquished by the victorious is a sad but common consequence of war throughout history. There are a number of obvious reasons war captives were important: status to the victorious tribe; an infusion of new wives for the warriors; slave labor; insurance against retaliation (history disproves this--more counter attacks were provoked than prevented); and the taking of hostages could prove profitable in the form of ransom payments. In today's lingo, the 18th century warrior believed hostage-taking to be a "win-win" tactic of war. I too find myself traveling back in my imagination to that horrifying day in September almost three hundred years ago when George I once again lost everything familiar to him. What suffering our ancestors endured to plant the Kornegay family in the fertile soil of Eastern NC. As I spend time here in Europe, and more particularly Switzerland--the possible genesis of our family--I am awed by God's perfect plan and His remarkable gift of life. There are thousands living on this planet today with Kornegay blood in their veins and it all began with one terrified little boy. What a remarkable story and what a remarkable family... Robert -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert L. Kornegay | kornegar@mercyships.ch | Work: 41.21.654.32.10 V.P.-Director | rkornegay@compuserve.com | Home: 41.21.654.32.50 Mercy Ships-Suisse | http://www.mercyships.org | Fax: 41.21.654.32.20 ----------------------------------------------------------------------