ted force was to proceed up the Chemung,
to give the Indians battle, should they make a stand, or otherwise to
burn and lay waste their villages, orchards and crops, thus depriving
them of subsistence, and the power to repeat their bloody forays upon
the border settlements.

This design was scarcely matured, when our legislature, on March 13th,
1779, ordered the raising of two regiments from the militia, to be
called State Levies, for the special defense of the State, and
particularly of the frontiers of Orange and Ulster, which were subject
to the stealthy attacks of roving Indians, and of Tories disguised as
Indians, the fear of which kept the loyal inhabitants in constant alarm,
and called for the maintenance of a military guard to prevent their
falling a prey to these destroyers in the British interest, or their
abandonment of their homes and possessions. One battalion of levies, so
raised, was commanded by Lieut.-Col. Albert Pawling, and under whom, in
the company of Capt. William Faulkner, our Van Arsdale enlisted on the
10th of May. Governor Clinton had assured Washington that Pawling would
reinforce Gen. Clinton on his march, and take part in the expedition.
But the sudden seizure of Stony Point by the British, May 31st, and a
further advance which menaced West Point and obliged Governor Clinton to
take the field with all his available force, together with the burning
of Minisink by red and white savages under the cruel Brant, and the
fatal battle that ensued, July 22d, near the Delaware, in which fell
many of the brave yeomen of Orange, made it so unsafe to withdraw the
levies from these borders that Governor Clinton expressed a fear that he
might not be able to detach them upon the western expedition.

But eventually Col. Pawling, with his battalion, about five hundred men,
left Lackawack and Shandaken, on the borders of Ulster, upon the 10th of
August. The route lay across the country for a hundred miles, over
mountains and rivers, and through dark forests known only to the guides;
but it so happened that, added to these obstacles, the rains set in and
the rivers became swollen and impassable, except by rafts. This, with
the state of his provisions and other considerations, rendered it
impracticable for him to proceed, and he reluctantly turned back. He,
however, pushed forward a small detachment of sixteen men, under Capt.
Abraham Van Aken, either to advise Gen. Clinton of his approach or of
his inability t