d
many by swimming the river, &c. Particular details of all individual
escapes cannot be given; nor would they, perhaps, be entertaining, and I
shall, therefore, pass them over. Some few of the enemy were killed
in the pursuit; their total loss was never ascertained, but we are to
presume that it was small.

"Forty Fort was immediately evacuated. Some few of the inhabitants took
British protections, and remained on their premises. The signal for a
house under protection was a white cloth hung up near the door, and for
a man, a white rag round the crown of his hat.

"Those of the militia who escaped from the battle, hastened toward the
Delaware, and, on their way through the swamp, met Captain Spaulding's
detachment, who, on being informed of the strength of the enemy and
deplorable condition of the settlement, judged it prudent to turn about
and retire to the settlement on the Delaware.

"The road through the swamp was thronged with women and children,
heavy-hearted and panic-struck; destitute of all the comforts of life,
travelling day and night, and in continual dread of the tomahawk and
scalping-knife! The whole country, and all the property in it, was
abandoned to the savages, save only by the few who had taken British
protections.

"Colonel Nathan Dennison, who succeeded to the command after Butler
escaped, seeing the impossibility of an effectual defence, went with
a flag to Colonel John Butler, to know what terms he would grant on a
surrender; to which application Butler answered, with more than savage
phlegm, in two short words, '_The hatchet_.' Dennison, having defended
the fort till most of the garrison were killed or disabled, was
compelled to surrender at discretion. Some of the unhappy persons in the
fort were carried away alive; but the barbarous conquerors, to save
the trouble of murder in detail, shut up the rest promiscuously in
the houses and barracks, which they set on fire, enjoying the savage
pleasure of beholding the whole consumed in one general blaze.

"They then crossed the river to the only remaining fort, Wilkesborough,
which, in hopes of mercy, surrendered without demanding any conditions.
They found about seventy continental soldiers, who had been engaged
merely for the defence of the frontiers, whom they butchered with every
circumstance of horrid cruelty. The remainder of the men, with the women
and children, were shut up, as before, in the houses, which being set on
fire, they peris