"The chiefs desire the commanding officers at Fort Schuyler not to make a Ticonderoga of it; but they hope you will be courageous.
"They desire General Schuyler may have this with speed, and send a good army here; there is nothing to do at New-York; we think there is men to be spared—we expect the road is stopped to the inhabitants by a party through the woods; we shall be surrounded as soon as they come. This may be our last advice, as these soldiers are part of those that are to hold a treaty. Send this to the Committee—as soon as they receive it, let the militia rise up and come to Fort Schuyler.
"To-morrow we are a-going to the Three Rivers [FN] to the treaty. We expect to meet the warriors, and when we come there and declare we are for peace, we expect to be used with indifference and sent away."
[FN] The junction of the Oneida, Seneca, and Oswego rivers—not "Three Rivers" in Canada.
"Let all the troops that come to Fort Schuyler take care on their march, as there is a party of Indians to stop the road below the fort, about 80 or 100. We hear they are to bring their cannon up Fish Creek. We hear there is 1000 going to meet the enemy. We advise not—the army is too large for so few men to defend the Fort—we send a belt of 8 rows to confirm the truth of what we say.
"It looks likely to me the troops are near—hope all friends to liberty, and that love their families, will not be backward, but exert themselves; as one resolute blow would secure the friendship of the Six Nations, and almost free this part of the country from the incursions of the enemy." [FN]
[FN] MS. letter among the papers of General Gansevoort. Thomas Spencer was a blacksmith, who had resided among the Cayugas, and was greatly beloved by the Indians.—Letter from General Schuyler to Colonel Dayton—Gansevoort papers.
The certainty that the invaders were thus approaching, the earnestness of the appeals of the Committee to the patriotism of the people, the influence of the proclamation of the German General, who was a much better man than officer, save only in the single attribute of courage; and, above all, the positive existence of a common danger from which there was no escape; were circumstances, together, not without their effect. And although the eleventh hour had arrived, yet the militia, and all upon whom the call to arms had been made, now began to move with a degree of alacrity and an exhibition of spirit that went far to atone for the unpatriotic, if not craven, symptoms already noticed.