September, the party landed, and in a few hours destroyed 70 sail of shipping, besides a number of small craft. They also burned wharves, stores, vessels on the stocks, and a considerable number of dwelling houses. The royal troops proceeded to Martha's Vineyard. There they destroyed a few vessels, and made a requisition of the militia arms, the public money, 300 oxen and 2000 sheep, which was complied with.

Another expedition took place up the North River, under lord Cornwallis and general Knyphausen, the principal event of which was the destruction of a regiment of American cavalry, commanded by lieutenant colonel Baylor, whilst watching to intercept a British foraging party. The officer who commanded the party which surprised them, was major general Grey. He had acquired the name of the "No flint general," from his common practice of taking out the flints, and confining the men to the use of the bayonet. Grey's men proceeded with such silence and address, that they cut off a serjeant's patrol without noise, and surrounded the barn near Tapan, in which the dragoons were asleep. A must shocking scene ensued. Many were put to death, or repeatedly wounded, whilst asking for quarter. A few escaped, and others who were wounded, were restored in a course of time, to perfect health. Baylor himself was wounded, but not dangerously. He lost in killed, wounded, and taken, 67 privates out of 101. About 40 were made prisoners. These were indebted for their lives, it is said, to the humanity of one of Grey's captains, who gave quarters to the whole fourth troop, though contrary to the orders of his su perior officers.

Oct. 5.

A third expedition was directed to Little Egg Harbor, in New Jersey, a place noted for privateers, the destruction of which was its principal intention. It was conducted by captains Ferguson and Collins, and ended in the destruction of the privateers and other vessels, as well as the place itself. Soon after this, another body of American troops,

called Pulaski's legion, were surprised, and 50 Oct. 15. of them put to the sword; among them wero baron de Bose and lieutenant de la Borderie. The attack being in the night, little quarter could be given; more would probably have been granted, had not a French captain and some privates, who had deserted from count Pulaski, safely reported that he had issued public orders to grant no quarter to British troops. The slaughter would not have ended so soon, had not Pulaski hastened with his cavalry to support the infantry; and the British, being only 250 in number, made a hasty retreat, and returned to their boats

But however reprehensible the conduct of the British and Hessians might have been in the mode of treating their opponents, as above mentioned, their severities were far exceeded by those of their allies, the Indians and American refuges. As leaders in these scenes of destruction, the names of colonel Butler and Brandt must stand consigned to perpetual infamy. The former, a Connecticut tory, had been an Indian agent in the wars in Canada; and had great influence with some of the northern Indians; the other was an half Indian by blood, and possessed the ferocity, cruelty, and desperate courage, which are often found united in the savage state. It is easy to conceive how miserable the situation of those unhappy captives must have been, who fell into their hands, where no submission could procure mercy, nor any condition, age or sex, allay their fury.

In the course of their ravages, the ruin of the fine settlement of Wyoming was particularly affecting. That district, situated on the eastern branch of the Su quehannah, though naturally seeming to belong to Pennsylvania, had been peopled by a numerous colony from Connecticut. This, however, was so much resented by the Pennsylvanians, that, after much altercation, it became the cause of actual war between the two colonies, weh was not terminated until the contest with the mother country obliged both parties to suspend their hostilities. The district consisted of eight townships, each containing a square of five miles, beautifully situated on both sides of the river. The climate was mild, and the soil luxuriously fertile; every person possessed an abundance, the fruit of moderate labor and industry. So that upon the whole, this settlement exhibited such a picture of primeval happiness, as can scarcely be supposed to be exceeded, indeed very seldom equalled, in the present state of humanity.

In these happy circumstances, the population of Wyoming had become so great, that it had already sent 1000 men to serve in the continental army; and the supplies which it sent in grain and cattle bore an equal proportion to that which it afforded in men. Nor had the people been deficient in providing against those dangers to which their remote situation particularly exposed them; they had constructed for that purpose four forts, which seemed at least sufficient to cover the country from the incursions of the savages. In this remote settlement, where government was feeble, the tories were under less control, and could easily assemble undiscovered. However, at one time, 27 of them were taken and sent to Hartford in Connecticut, but they were afterwards released. These and others of the

.

July 3.

same description, instigated by revenge against the Americans, from whom some of them had suffered banishment and loss of property, made a common cause with the Indians, and in the beginning of July 1778, attacked the Wyoming settlement with their combined forces, estimated at 1100 men, 900 of which were Indians. One of the smaller forts, mostly garrisoned by those called tories, was by them given up, or, as it was said, betrayed; another was taken by storm, where, although they massacred the men in the most inhuman manner, they spared the women and children. Colonel Zebulon Butler, a near relation to the invader, leaving a small number to guard Wilkesbarre crossed the river with about 400 men, and marched into Kingston fort, whither the women, children, and defenceless of all sorts, crowded for protection. He suffered himself to be enticed by his kinsman to abandon the security afforded by this fortress. Under color of holding a parley for the conclusion of a treaty, he was led into an agreement to march out to hold a conference in the open field, on the enemy withdrawing their force. Yet such was his distrust of the enemy's designs, that he marched out with 400 men, being nearly his whole foree. On his arrival he found no body to treat with, and yet advan ced to the foot of the mountain, where, at a distance, he saw a flag, the holders of which, seemingly afraid of treachery on his side, retired as he advanced, whilst he, endeavoring to remove this pretended ill impres sion, pursued the flag, till his party was entirely enclosed, when he was suddenly freed from his delusion, by finding it attacked at once on every side. His beha vior in this dangerous situation, was such as could scarcely have been expected from his former conduct: he and his party fought with resolution and bravery, keeping up a continual and heavy fire for three quarters of an hour, and seemed to be gaining ground on his numerous enemies. In this critical moment, some sudden impulse of fear, or premeditated treachery in a soldier, which induced him to cry out that "the colonel had ordered a retreat," determined at once the fate of the party. Universal confusion ensued, and no quarter was given. Colonel Zebulon Butler, and about 70 of his men escaped; the latter got across the river to Wilkesbarre, the colonel made his way to Fort King

ston, which was invested the next day on the July 4. land side. The enemy, to sadden the drooping spirits of the weak remaining garrison, sent in for their contemplation the bloody scalps of 196 of their late friends and comrades; and kept up a con

continual fire upon the garrison the whole day. In the evening the colonel quitted the fort and went down the river with his family. He was thought to be the only officer who escaped.

Colonel Dennison, who succeeded to the July 5. command of the fort, seeing the impossibility of any effectual resistance, not having force sufficient to man the works for even one effort, went with a flag to Butler to know what terms he would grant upon a surrender. To this application of weakness and misery, Butler, with all the phlegm of a real savage, answered, in two short words," The hatchet." In these dreadful circumstances, the unfortunate governor, having defended his fort until the most of the garrison were killed or disabled, was at length compelled to surrender at discretion. Some of the unhapy persons were carried away alive; but the barbarous conquerors, to save the trouble of murder in detail, shut up the rest promiscuously in the houses and barracks, which, having then set on fire, they enjoyed the savage pleasure of beholding the whole consumed in one general blaze. They then proceeded to the only remaining fort, called Wilkesbarre, which, in hopes of obtain. ing mercy, surrendered without resistance, or without even demanding any conditions. Here the tragedy was renewed with aggravated horrors. They found about 70 continental soldiers, who had been engaged ed merely for the defence of the frontiers. With these, as objects of particular enmity, the slaughter was begun, and they were butchered with every circumstance of the most deliberate, wanton and savage cruelty. A captain Bedlow, who had been taken prisoner, being stripped naked, had his body stuck full of sharp pine splinters, and then a heap of knots of the same wood being piled around him, the whole was set on fire; and his two companions, the captains Ranson and Durgee, thrown alive into the flames. The remainder of the men, with the women and children, not demanding so much attention, were shut up as before, in the houses, which being set on fire, they perished altogether in the flames.

A general scene of devastation was now spread through all the townships. Fire and sword alternately triumphed. Nay, the merciless ravagers, when the main objects of their cruelty were exhausted, seemed to direct their animosity against every part of animated nature; and, as if it were a relaxation or amusement, cut out the tongues of the horses and cattle, leaving them still alive only to prolong their agonies.

Though the Americans were fully resolved to take ample vengeance for the barbarities committed at Wyoming, their attention was so much engaged by affairs of the utmost importance, that they could not for some time undertake any thing of consequence against those who had been peretrators of that horrid tragedy. A small expedition, however, was, during the course of the summer, undertaken from Virginia, by colonel Clarke, with no more than 200 or 300 men. The object was to reduce those French settlements, which had been planted by the Canadians on the upper Mississippi, situated in a fine fertile country called the Illinois, from a nation of Indians of that name. Much of the mischief which had fallen upon the back settlements was attributed to the governor of those colonies, who, it was said, had acted as an agent for the British, and besides his paying a large reward for scalps, had been indefatigable in his endeavors to excite the Ohio and Mississippi Indians to attack the defenceless parts of the colonies. In prosecution of this design, the troops were obliged to traverse 1200 miles of a boundless uncultivated desert, in which they endured indescribable bardships and fatigue, both by land and water; and on the two last days of their march to the principal town of the settlement named Kaskaskias, they were without any subsistence. The town consisted of about 250 houses, and was fortified in such a manner as would have sufficed to withstand a much stronger enemy. The Americans were so distressed with hunger and fatigue, that they were determined to succeed or perish in the attempt. They arrived at the town about midnight; and so complete was the surprise, that the town and fort were taken without opposition, before the people were well awake; and the inhabitants were so effectually secured, that not a single person escaped to alarm the neighboring settlements. The governor, Philip Rocheblave, was considerod as such an inveterate enemy to the United States, that he was sent to Virginia, with all the written instructions he had rereceived from Detroit, Quebec, and Michilimackinac, for instigating and paying the Indians. The inhabitants were obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the United States; and the conquerors took up their head quarters at Kaskaskias. The smaller towns were subdued without difficulty; and the inhabitants, without compulsion, flocked in by hundreds, to take the oath to their new masters.

Those called tories, who had been the immediate actors in the massacre at Wyoming, now became the ob