than three hundred, took counsel with one
another, and found no hope of deliverance for their families but through
a victorious encounter with a foe twice their number, and more skilful
in the woods than themselves. On the 3rd day of July, the devoted band,
led by Colonel Zebulon Butler, who had just returned from the
continental service, began their march up the river.[88] The horde of
invaders, pretending to retreat, crouched themselves on the ground in
the open wood. The villagers of Wyoming began firing as they drew near,
and at the third volley stood within a hundred yards of the ambush, when
the Seneca braves began the attack, and were immediately seconded by the
rangers. The Senecas gave no quarter, and in less than half an hour took
two hundred and twenty-five scalps, among them those of two field
officers and seven captains. The rangers saved but five of their
captives. On the British side only two whites were killed and eight
Indians wounded. The next day the remaining forts, filled chiefly with
women and children, capitulated. The long and wailing procession of
survivors flying from their fields of corn, their gardens, the flames of
their cottages, the unburied bodies of their beloved defenders, escaped
by a pass through the hills to the eastern settlements. Every fort and
dwelling was burned down.

"The Senecas spread over the surrounding country, adepts in murder and
ruin. The British leader boasted in his report that his party had burned
a thousand houses and every mill (a great exaggeration). Yet, marauders
came to destroy and deal deaths, not to recover or hold; and the ancient
affection for England was washed out in blood (more truly, the revenge
for wrongs previously received). When the leader of the inroad turned to
desolate other scenes, Pennsylvania was left in undisputed possession of
her soil." (Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. X., Chap. v.,
pp. 137, 138.)

Mr. Tucker briefly states the affair in the following words:

"The settlement of Wyoming, in Pennsylvania, was assailed in July by a
large body of savages, who, having obtained easy possession of it,
indiscriminately butchered both the garrison and the inhabitants; and
soon afterwards Wilkesbarre shared the same fate. Near three thousand
had succeeded in effecting their escape.[89]

"To prevent their return to the scenes of their former happiness,
everything that could contribute to their comfort--houses, crops,
animals--were,