he mountain, and a sharp conflict
commenced, which was sustained for some time, with considerable spirit
on both sides. Poor continued to advance rapidly, pressing the
Indians before him at the point of the bayonet, and occasionally
firing on them. They retreated from tree to tree, keeping up an
irregular fire, until he gained the summit of the hill. Perceiving
that their flank was completely uncovered by this movement, and that
they were in danger of being surrounded, the savages abandoned their
breast-work, and, crossing the river, fled with the utmost
precipitation.

[Sidenote: Victory of General Sullivan at Newtown.]

This victory cost the Americans about thirty men. The ascertained loss
of the Indians was also inconsiderable. But they were so intimidated,
that every idea of farther resistance was abandoned. As Sullivan
advanced, they continued to retreat before him without harassing his
main body, or even skirmishing with his detachments, except in a
single instance.

He penetrated far into the heart of their country, which his parties
scoured, and laid waste in every direction. Houses, corn-fields,
gardens, and fruit trees, shared one common fate; and Sullivan
executed strictly the severe but necessary orders he had received, to
render the country completely uninhabitable for the present, and thus
to compel the hostile Indians, by want of food, to remove to a greater
distance.

The objects of the expedition being accomplished, Sullivan returned to
Easton in Pennsylvania, having lost only forty men by sickness and
the enemy.

The devastation of the country has been spoken of with some degree of
disapprobation; but this sentiment is the result rather of an amiable
disposition in the human mind to condemn whatever may have the
appearance of tending to aggravate the miseries of war, than of
reflection. Circumstances existed which reconciled to humanity this
seeming departure from it. Great Britain possessed advantages which
ensured a controlling influence over the Indians, and kept them in
almost continual war with the United States. Their habitual ferocity
seemed to have derived increased virulence from the malignity of the
whites who had taken refuge among them; and there was real foundation
for the opinion that an annual repetition of the horrors of Wyoming
could be prevented only by disabling the savages from perpetrating
them. No means in the power of the United States promised so certainly
to effect this