f
another day they set out in the direction of Niagara.

The captives were separated into small parties, and
apportioned among the different sections of the force.
They had expected little mercy from the victors, but to
their surprise clemency was shown to them. Butler had
now succeeded in reasserting his authority on their
behalf. As the marching bands came to a standstill, they
were collected together and the women and children were
released. Only the wives of two colonial officers with
their families were held captive and carried away into
the western forests. In Cherry Valley heaps of smoking
debris were all that remained. Groups of redskins still
hovered about the unhappy village until, on the following
day, they saw that an enemy was approaching. A body of
militia had come from the Mohawk river, but they were
too late; the savages, avoiding an encounter, departed,
and the scene was one of havoc and desolation. As one
chronicler has written: 'The cocks crowed from the tops
of the forest trees, and the dogs howled through the
fields and woods.'

CHAPTER X

MINISINK AND THE CHEMUNG RIVER

Brant now proceeded to the loyalist rendezvous at Niagara,
but his restless spirit would not allow him to remain
idle. He was soon intent on forwarding a design of
far-reaching import, in the prosecution of which he hoped
to receive the assistance of the western tribes. He held
intercourse with the Delawares and the Shawnees, and
planned a joint campaign with them to take place during
the winter months. The Western Indians were to make an
attack on the borders of Virginia, while he would lead
an expedition into the heart of the colony of New York.
This bold enterprise, however, was fated to miscarry.
Word came that Governor Hamilton, the British commander
of Fort Detroit, had been overpowered by Colonel George
Clark, in February, on the Wabash river. Hamilton, who
had captured Fort Vincennes there, had for some time been
endeavouring to interest the western tribes in the British
cause; but, on July 5, 1778, Clark had captured the town
of Kaskaskia in the Illinois country, and, after a forced
march from that place to the Wabash with his Virginia
militia, had appeared at Fort Vincennes and compelled
Hamilton to surrender. The blow was a severe one and
robbed the western tribes of their courage; they were so
discomfited, indeed, that they would not venture into
the country of the enemy. Balked in his purpose, Brant