desirable object, as the removal of neighbours whose
hostility could be diminished only by terror, and whose resentments
were to be assuaged only by fear.

While Sullivan laid waste the country on the Susquehanna, another
expedition under Colonel Brodhead, was carried on from Pittsburg up
the Alleghany, against the Mingo, Munscy, and Seneca tribes. At the
head of between six and seven hundred men, he advanced two hundred
miles up the river, and destroyed the villages and corn-fields on its
head branches. Here too the Indians were unable to resist the invading
army.

After one unsuccessful skirmish, they abandoned their villages to a
destruction which was inevitable, and sought for personal safety in
their woods.

On receiving the communications of General Sullivan, congress passed a
vote approving his conduct, and that of his army. That approbation,
however, seems not to have extended beyond his conduct in the Indian
country. His demands for military stores for the expedition had been
so high; in his conversations with his officers, he had so freely
censured the government for its failure to comply with those demands;
in general orders, he had so openly complained of inattention to the
preparations necessary to secure the success of the enterprise; that
considerable offence was given to several members of congress, and
still more to the board of war. From the operation of these causes,
when Sullivan, at the close of the campaign, complained of ill health,
and offered, on that account, to resign his commission, the endeavours
of his friends to obtain a vote requesting him to continue in the
service, and permitting him to retire from actual duty until his
health should be restored, were overruled; and his resignation was
accepted. The resolution permitting him to resign was, however,
accompanied with one thanking him for his past services.

Although these great exertions to terminate Indian hostility did not
afford complete security to the western frontiers, they were attended
with considerable advantages. The savages, though not subdued, were
intimidated; and their incursions became less formidable, as well as
less frequent.

The summer of 1779 passed away without furnishing any circumstance in
America which could be supposed to have a material influence on the
issue of the war. In Europe, however, an event took place which had
been long anxiously expected, and was believed to be of decisive
importance. Spain at