bitants, mostly women and children; and also Colonel Alden and ten
soldiers."--_Ib._, p. 325. Then, on the side of the continentals,
"Colonel G. Van Shaick, with fifty-five men, marched from Fort Schuyler
to the Onondago settlements, and on the 19th of April, 1779, burnt the
whole, consisting of about fifty houses, together with a large quantity
of provisions. Horses and stock of every kind were killed. The arms and
ammunition of the Indians were either destroyed or brought off, and
their settlements were laid waste. Twelve Indians were killed and
thirty-four made prisoners. This expedition was performed in less than
six days, and without the loss of a man."--_Ib._, pp. 326, 327.]

[Footnote 92: Dr. Andrews' History of the Late War, Vol. III., Chap.
xli., pp. 436-439.]

[Footnote 93: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. X., Chap.
x., pp. 230, 231, 232.

Mr. Bancroft's tame account of "the great expedition" against the Five
Nations, limiting it to a chastisement of the Senecas, can only be
accounted for from his contempt of General Sullivan, his desire to pass
over as slightly as possible an expedition of destruction so
disproportionate to the alleged cause of it, and against a whole rural
and agricultural people for the alleged depredations of some of them.
There were, as might be expected, marauding parties along the borders on
the part of both the Indians and Americans, but the former always seem
to have suffered more, and the latter to have excelled the former in
their own traditionary mode of savage warfare.

"Other expeditions," says Mr. Holmes, "besides this decisive one were
conducted against the Indians in course of the year. In April, Colonel
Van Shaick, with fifty-five men, marched from Fort Schuyler, and burnt
the whole Onondago settlements, consisting of about fifty houses, with a
large quantity of provisions, killed twelve Indians and made thirty-four
prisoners, without the loss of a single man. In the month of August,
Colonel Broadhead made a successful expedition against the Mingo,
Munsey, and Seneca Indians." (American Annals, Vol. II., p. 302.)]

[Footnote 94: Mr. Bancroft says that "the British Rangers and men of the
Six Nations (who constructed the defensive breastwork at Newton) _were
in all about_ 800." (History of the United States, Vol. X., Chap. x, p.
232.)

It was certainly no great feat of military courage and skill for 5,000
men, with the aid of artillery, to defeat and disperse