he sounding
Iroquois names. Villages around Cayuga and other lakes were burned
by detachments. The smoke of perishing towns arose everywhere in
the Iroquois country, while the Iroquois themselves fled before the
advancing army. They sent appeal after appeal for help from those to
whom they had given so much help, but none came.

It was now deep autumn, and the nights grew cold. The forests blazed
with brilliant colors. The winds blew, leaves rustled and fell. The
winter would soon be at hand, and the Iroquois, so proud of what they
had achieved, would have to find what shelter they could in the forests
or at the British posts on the Canadian frontier. Thayendanegea was
destined to come again with bands of red men and white and inflict great
loss, but the power of the Six Nations was overthrown forever, after
four centuries of victory and glory. Henry, Paul, and the rest were all
the time in the thick of it. The army, as the autumn advanced, marched
into the Genesee Valley, destroying everything. Henry and Paul, as
they lay on their blankets one night, counted fires in three different
directions, and every one of the three marked a perishing Indian
village. It was not a work in which they took any delight; on the
contrary, it often saddened them, but they felt that it had to be done,
and they could not shirk the task.

In October, Henry, despite his youth, took command of a body of scouts
and riflemen which beat up the ways, and skirmished in advance of the
army. It was a democratic little band, everyone saying what he pleased,
but yielding in the end to the authority of the leader. They were now
far up the Genesee toward the Great Lakes, and Henry formed the plan of
advancing ahead of the army on the great Seneca village known variously
as the Seneca Castle and Little Beard's Town, after its chief, a full
match in cruelty for the older Seneca chief, Hiokatoo. Several causes
led to this decision. It was reported that Thayendanegea, Timmendiquas,
all the Butlers and Johnsons, and Braxton Wyatt were there. While not
likely to be true about all, it was probably true about some of them,
and a bold stroke might effect much.

It is probable that Henry had Braxton Wyatt most in mind. The renegade
was in his element among the Indians and Tories, and he had developed
great abilities as a partisan, being skillfully seconded by the squat
Tory, Coleman. His reputation now was equal at least to that of Walter
Butler, and he had sk