reviously inflicted by the
aggressors.[85]

But as the "Massacre of Wyoming" is the case selected by American
historians and poets to exhaust their indignation against English
cruelty in employing the Indians in the civil war, we will not dismiss
it with the above cursory remarks, but will examine it with some degree
of minuteness.

Wyoming was a pleasant and fertile valley, situated on the eastern
branch of the Susquehanna, and consisted of eight townships, five square
miles each. It had been claimed as part of Pennsylvania; but
Connecticut, relying upon the authority of a more ancient Charter, had
since the last war made a large settlement on the banks of that
beautiful river. "The exquisitely beautiful valley of Wyoming, where, on
the banks of the Susquehanna, the wide and rich meadows, shut in by
walls of wooded mountains, attracted emigrants from Connecticut, through
their claim of right under the Charter of their native colony, was in
conflict with the territorial jurisdiction of the proprietaries of
Pennsylvania."[86]

Such was the scene of a tragedy which thrilled all America and Europe;
for the accounts published in Europe were the repetitions of the
exaggerated American statements, omitting for the most part the causes
of the tragedy and the retaliation which followed it.

I will now present and collate the three other accounts, with that of
Dr. Ramsay, of those tragical events on both sides.

Mr. Bancroft states as follows:

"The Seneca tribe, fresh from the memory of their chiefs and braves who
fell in conflict with the New York husbandmen at Oriskany. Their king,
Sucingerachton, was, both in war and in council, the foremost man of
all the Six Nations. Compared with him, the Mohawk Brant, who had been
but lately known upon the warpath, was lightly esteemed.[87] His
attachment to the English increased to a passion on the alliance of the
Americans with the French, for whom he cherished implacable hate.
Through his interest, and by the blandishments of gifts and pay and
chances of revenge, Colonel John Butler lured the _Seneca_ warriors to
cross the border of Pennsylvania under the British flag.

"The party of savages and rangers, numbering between five hundred and
seven hundred men, fell down the Tioga river, and on the last day of
June hid in the forests above Wyoming. The next day the two northernmost
forts capitulated. The men of Wyoming, old and young, with one regular
company, in all hardly more