with an industry equal to their malignity, destroyed by
the savages." (Tucker's History of the United States, Vol. I., Chap.
iii., p. 239.)

The following account of the "Wyoming Massacre" appears more
intelligible and consistent than any of the preceding. Says Mr.
Hildreth:

"There had come in among the Connecticut settlers at Wyoming a number of
Dutch and Scotch from New York, some thirty of whom, shortly after the
commencement of the war, had been seized under the suspicion of being
Tories, and sent to Connecticut for trial. They were discharged for want
of evidence; but if not Tories before, they soon became so. Returning
to the valley of the Mohawk, whence they had emigrated to Wyoming, they
enlisted into the partisan corps of Johnson and Butler, and waited
eagerly for chances of revenge.

"Though Wyoming did not number three thousand inhabitants, it had
furnished two full companies (one writer says, a thousand men) to the
continental army, and had thus in a manner deprived itself of the means
of defence. Congress, upon rumours of intended Indian hostilities, had
ordered a third company to be raised as a local garrison; but this corps
was as yet hardly organized, and very imperfectly armed. Such was the
state of the settlement when there appeared at the head of the valley an
overwhelming force of Tories and Indians, principally of the Seneca
tribe of the Six Nations, led by Colonel Butler. Some of the inhabitants
were waylaid and slain. The upper fort, held by disaffected persons,
surrendered at once. The continentals, with such others as could be
mustered, marched out to meet the enemy: but they were surrounded,
defeated, and driven back with heavy loss, and several who were taken
prisoners were put to death by the Indians with horrible tortures. Those
who escaped fled to Fort Wyoming, which was speedily invested. The
surviving continentals, to avoid being taken prisoners, embarked and
escaped down the river; after which the fort surrendered, upon promise
of security of life and property. Desirous to fulfil these terms, Butler
presently marched away with his Tories, but he could not induce the
Indians to follow. They remained behind, burned the houses, ravaged the
fields, killed such as resisted, and drove the miserable women and
children through the woods and mountains to seek refuge where they
might.

"These barbarities, greatly exaggerated by reports embodied since in
poetry and history, excited everywhere