CHAPTER XII.
ARK and threatening was the aspect of affairs for the people of the Mohawk Valley, in the spring of 1778, the year succeeding the dispersion of St. Leger's motley force at Fort Schuyler. Brant, with his warriors, retired to Fort Niagara after that event, and during the autumn and winter he and the British and Tory leaders made extensive preparations for war the ensuing spring. Colonel Hamilton was in command at Detroit, engaged actively in endeavors to induce the tribes along the southern shores of the western lakes and the head waters of the Mississippi to join the four divisions of the Six Nations of New York who were in alliance with the crown against the patriots. He was aided by three malignant Tories, M'Kee, Elliot, and Simon Girty. ** They had been confined at Pittsburgh, but, escaping, they traversed the country thence to Detroit, and by proclaiming that the Americans had resolved on the destruction of the Indians, and that their only safety consisted in the immediate alliance of the Delawares and Shawnees with the soldiers of the king, aroused these tribes to a desire for war. Already they had been excited against the whites in general by the irruption into their county of Daniel Boon and others (of which I shall hereafter write), and they listened favorably to the appeal of the refugees. The expedition of McIntosh into the Ohio Valley gave apparent confirmation to the assertions of the Tories, and Captain Pipe (the rival chief of White Eyes of the Delawares, a fast friend of the Americans) at once assembled his warriors, and urged them to follow him immediately upon the war-path. He proclaimed every one an enemy who should speak against his proposition. But White Eyes, the beloved of all, persuaded his people to desist, and sent a message *** to the Shawnees, which had the effect to keep them in check for a time. We shall consider the Indian wars in the Ohio country in detail in a future chapter.
The Johnsons and Colonel John Butler were also active at this juncture upon the St. Lawrence, recruiting Tory refugees, and inducing the Caughnawagas and other tribes to take up the hatchet; and at the dawn of the year a powerful combination was in progress, which threatened the destruction of all the settlements in the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys.
Two of the Six Nations, the Oneidas and the Tuscaroras, were still faithful to their pledge of neutrality, nor were the tribes of the other four yet generally in arms. Congress, therefore, resolved to make another effort to secure their neutrality, if not a defensive alliance. ****
* The Mohawks, Senecas, Onondagas, and Cayugas.
** Girty was an unmitigated scoundrel, and was far more savage in his feelings than the Indians. He was present when Colonel Crawford was tortured by the Indians in 1782, and looked upon his agonies with demoniac pleasure. The same year he caused the expulsion of the peaceful Moravians, who were laboring usefully among the Wyandots; and he personally ill treated them when driven away. He instigated an Indian warrior, at the defeat of St. Clair in 1791, to tomahawk the American General Butler, who lay wounded on the field, and to scalp him, and take out his heart for distribution among the tribes. There were some Tories, even active ones, whom we can respect; but miscreants like Girty and Walter Butler, of the Mohawk Valley, present no redeeming quality to plead for excuse.
*** The message was as follows: "Grandchildren, ye Shawnees: Some days ago a flock of birds [M'Kec, Elliot, and Girty], that had come on from the east, lit at Gaschochking, imposing a song of theirs upon us, which song had nigh proved our ruin. Should these birds, which, on leaving us, took their flight toward Scioto, endeavor to impose a song on you likewise, do not listen to them, for they lie."