o the story, he was well again in a
very short time.

In August of the same year, 1780, Brant again invaded
the Mohawk valley. On this occasion he gained his object
by an artful device. He learned that some stores were
being borne to Fort Schuyler and pretended that he was
going to seize them and attack the fort itself. The local
militia marched to the fort's defence and, while they
were intent on this, Brant doubled back to the rear.
Swooping down upon the white settlement at Canajoharie,
he laid everything low and carried away captive many
women and children. Later in the season he made a similar
descent into the Schoharie-kill, but here there is on
record to his credit at least one act of kindness. After
the raid, a group of settlers were gathered together,
telling of all the mishaps that had occurred to them.
One sad-eyed woman told of the loss of her husband and
several of her children. She had been bereft even of an
infant, which had been torn from its cradle. But that
morning, while the officers of the colonial camp were
seated at their breakfast, a painted redskin sprang into
their midst carrying in his arms a slender child and
handed a letter to the officer in command. It was the
woman's child that he bore, and the letter was from Joseph
Brant.

'Sir,' ran the epistle, 'I send you by one of my runners
the child which he will deliver, that you may know that
whatever others do, I do not make war upon women and
children. I am sorry to say that I have those engaged
with me in the service who are more savage than the
savages themselves.'

The year 1781 brought the war to its climax. On October
19 Lord Cornwallis, hard pressed at Yorktown by an army
of sixteen thousand men under Washington and a powerful
French fleet under Admiral de Grasse, was forced to
surrender. This was the last important episode before
peace was arranged. During the summer the War Chief had
still been fighting on the border and harassing the
country of those who sympathized with the Americans. In
August he was found in the west, having defeated a part
of Colonel Clark's forces near the Great Miami river,
which empties into Lake Erie.

The treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United
States of America was signed in November 1782. Canada,
Newfoundland, and what are now the Maritime Provinces of
the Dominion remained in the hands of the crown, but the
independence of the other English colonies in the New
World was recognized.