furnish a superabundant quantity to increase the depreciation. The several states, instead of laying taxes to defray their own private expences, followed the example of congress, and issued notes of different denominations and forms. Therefore to counterfeit became easier, and the enemy did not neglect to avail themselves of this great, though base advantage; and hence arose a further depreciation. Calling the husbandman frequently to arms, who had indeed lost the incitements to industry from the cheapness of the necessaries of life in the beginning, compared with other articles, which took a more rapid rise, soon reduced that abundance which preceded the war; this, added to the greater consumption, together with the ravages and subsistence of the enemy, at length pointed the depreciation to the means of support. The issues from this moment became enormous and consequently increased the disease from which they arose, and which must soon have become fatal, had not the successes of America and the alliance with France kept it from sinking entirely. The certainty of its redemption being now evident, we only suffer from the quantity. This however, impairs not only the value simply in itself, but as it calls for continued large emissions, so the certainty that every thing will be dearer than it is, renders every thing dearer than it otherwise would be; and vice versa. Could we possibly absorb a part of the inundation which overwhelms us, every thing would be cheaper, from the certainty that it would be come cheaper. The money can be absorbed but three ways The first is by taxation, which cannot reach the evil while the war continues; because the emissions must continue, to supply what is necessary over and above even the nominal produce of taxes; and the taxes cannot be very productive, by reason of the possession of part and ravagement of other parts of the country by the enemy; and also from the weakness of governments yet in their infancy, and not arrived to that power, method and firmness, which are the portion of elder states- -The second

method is by borrowing, and is not efficient, because no interest can tempt men to lend paper now, which paid together with that interest in paper a year hence, will not probably be worth half as much as the principal sum is at present; and whenever the case shall alter, then in proportion to the depre ciation will be the loss of the public in what they borrow, to say nothing of the enormous burdens for which they must pay interest in specie, or what is equal to, if so much as what hath been emitted could be borrowed as to render the remainder equally valuable with silver. The last method is by very considerable loans or subsidies in Europe, and is the only mode at once equal to the effect desired, and free from the foregoing exceptions, for

if such a sum is drawn for, at the advanced exchange, as by taking up the greatest part of our paper to reduce the exchange to par, the paper then remaining will be fully appreciated, and the suma due will not nominally, and therefore in the event not actually exceed its real value.-But to this mode there are objections: 1. Subsidies by any means equal to our necessities can hardly be expected, while our allies, being engaged in a war, will want all the money they can procure: and 2. Loans cannot probably be obtained without good guarantee, or other security which Ainerica may not perhaps be able to procure or give.-But until our finances can be in a better situation, the war cannot possibly be prosecuted with vigor: and the efforts made, feeble as they must be, will be attended with an oppressive weight of expence, rendering still more weak the confederated states. This will appear from the foregoing observations, and also from hence that the present, and in all probability the future seat of the war, (that is the middle states) is so exhausted, that unless by the strenuous voluntary exertions of the inhabitants, no great number of men can possibly be subsisted; and such exertions cannot be expected without the temptation of money more valued than ours is at present."

Five days befere the date of the instructions above related congress, upon the application of the marquis de la Fayette, granted him leave to return to France, and directed the president to write him a letter of thanks for that disinterested zeal which led him to America, and for the services he had rendered to the United States by the exertion of his courage and abilities on many signal occasions. They also ordered Dr. Franklin to cause an elegant sword, with proper devices, to be made and presented him in the name of the United States and crowned the whole with a letter recommending him to his most Christian majesty. The marquis took leave of congress, by letter, the 26th of October. The next day when it was received, a letter from the marquis was read, giving an account of the brave conduct of capt. Tonzar, in taking possession of a piece of artillery from the enemy, in which action he lost his right arm: whereupon congress promoted him to the rank of lieut. colonel in the service of the United States, by brevet, and appointed him a pension for life, of thirty dollars per month.

Let us resume our narration of military operations.

So early as the 8th of February gen. Scuyler wrote to congress" There is too much reason to believe that an expedition will be formed (by the Indians) against the western frontiers of this state (New-York) Virginia and Pennsylvania." The hext month he informed them" a number of Mohawks, and VOL. II.

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many of the Onondagoes, Cayugas and Senecas will commence hostilities against us as soon as they can it would be prudent therefore early to take measures to carry the war into their country; it would require no greater body of troops to destroy their towns than to protect the frontier inhabitants." No effectual measures being taken to repress the hostile spirit of the Indians, numbers joined the tory refugees, and with these com. menced their horrid depredations and hostilities upon the back settlers, being headed by col. Butler and Brandt, an half-blooded Indian, of desperate courage, ferocious and cruel beyond example. Their expeditions were carried on to great advantage, by the exact knowledge which the refugees possessed of every object of their enterprise, and the immediate intelligenc they received from their friends on the spot. The weight of their hostilities fell upon the fine, new and flourishing settlement of Wyoming situated on the eastern branch of the Susquehannah, in a most beautiful country and delightful climate. It was settled and cultivated with great ardor by a number of people from Connecticut, which claims the territory as included in its original grant from Charles II. The settlement consisted of eight. townships, each five miles square, beautifully placed on each side. of the river. It had increased so by a rapid population, that they sent a thousand men to serve in the continental artay. To provide. against the dangers of their remote situation. Four forts were constructed to cover them from the irruptions of the Indians.But it was their unhappiness to have a considerable mixture of royalists among them; and the two parties were actuated by sentiments of the most violent animosity which was not confined to particular families or places; but creeping within the roofs and to the hearths and floors where it was least to be expected, serv ed equally to poison the sources of domestic security and happiness, and to cancel the laws of nature and humanity.

They had frequent and timely warnings of the danger to which they were exposed by sending their best men to so great a distance. Their quiet had been interrupted by the Indians, joined by marauding parties of their own countrymen, in the preceding year; and it was only by a vigorous opposition, in a course of successful skirmishes, that they had been driven off. Several tories, and others not before suspected, had then and since abandoned the settlement; and beside a perfect knowledge of all their particular circumstances, carried along with them such a stock of private resentment, as could not fail of directing the fury, and even giving an edge to the cruelty of their Indian and other inveterate enemies. An unusual number of strangers had come among them under various pretences, whose behaviour became so suspicious, that upon being taken up and examined, such evidence

dence appeared against several of them, of their ing in concert with the enemy, on a scheme for the destction of the settlements, that about twenty were sent off to Connecticut, to' be there imprisoned and tried for their lives, while the remainder were expelled. These measures excited the rage of the tories in general to the most extreme degree; and the threats formerly denounced against the settlers, were now renewed with aggravated vengeance.

As the time approached for the final catastrophe, the Indians practised unusual treachery. For several weeks previous to the intended attack, they repeatedly sent small parties to the settlement, charged with the strongest professions of friendship. These parties, beside attempting to lull the people into security, answered the purposes of communicating with their friends, and of observing the present state of affairs. The settlers however, were not insensible of the danger. They had taken the alarm, and colonel Zebulon Butler had several times written letters to congress and gen. Washington, acquainting them with the dan-' ger the settlement was in, and requesting assistance; but the letters were never received, having been intercepted by the Pennsylvania torics. A little before the main attack, some small parties made sudden eruptions, and committed several robberies' and murders; and from ignorance or a contempt of all tics whatever, massacred the wife and five children of ond of the persons sent for trial to Connecticut in their own cause.

At length, in the beginning of July, the enemy suddently appeared in full force on the Susquehannah, headed by col. John Butler, a Connecticut tory, and cousin to col. Zeb. Butler, the second in command in the settlement. He was assisted by most of those leaders who had rendered themselves terrible in the present frontier war. Their force was about 1600 men, near a fourth Indians, led by their own chiefs; the others were so disguised and painted as not to be distinguished from the Indians, excepting their officers, who being dressed in regimentals, car-' ried the appearance of regulars. One of the smaller forts, garrisoned chiefly by tories, was given up, or rather betrayed. Another was taken by storm, and all but the women and children massacred in the most inhuman manner.

[July 3.] Colonel Zeb. Butler, leaving a small number to guard Fort Wilkesborough, crossed the river with about 400 men, and marched into Kingston Fort, whither the women, children and defenceless of all sorts crowded for protection. He suffered himself to be enticed by his cousin to abandon the fortress. He agreed to march out and hold a conference with the enemy in the open field (at so great a distance from the fort as

to

to shut out all possibility of protection from it) upon their withdrawing according to their own proposal, in order to the holding of a parly for the conclusion of a treaty. He at the same time marched out about 400 men well armed, being nearly the whole strength of the garrison, to guard his person to the place of parly, such was his distrust of the enemy's designs. On his arrival he found ho body to treat with him, and yet advanced toward the foot of the mountain, where at a distance he saw a flag, the holdets of which, seemingly afraid of treachery on his side, retired as he advanced; whilst he, endeavoring to remove this pretended ill impression, pursued the flag till his party was thoroughly enclosed, when he was suddenly freed from his delusion by finding it attacked at once on every side. He and his men, notwithstanding the surprise and danger, fought with resolution and bravery, and kept up so continual and heavy a fire for three-quarters of an hour, that they seemed to gain a marked superiority. In this critical moment a soldier, through: a sudden impulse of fear, or premediated treachery, cried out aloud, "the Colonel has ordered a retreat." The fate of the party was now at once determined. In the state of confusion that ensued, an unresisted slaughter commenced, while the enemy, broke in on all sides without obstruction. Colonel Zeb. Butler and about seventy of his men escaped; the latter got: across the river to Fort Wilkesborough, the colonel made his way to Fort Kingston, which was invested the next day [July 4.] on the land side. The enemy, to sadden the drooping spirits of the weak remaining garrison, sent in for their contemplation the bloody scalps of one hundred and ninety-six of their late friends and comrades. They kept up a continual fire upon the fort the whole day. In the evening the colonel quitted the fort and went down the river with his family. He is thought to be the only officer that escaped.

[July 5. Colonel Nathan Dennison, who succeeded to the command, seeing the impossibility of an effectual defence, went with a flag to col. 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 having set on fire they enjoyed the savage pleasure of beholding the whole consumed in one general blaze.

They :