[FN] The Sexagenary, a collection of revolutionary papers connected with the border wars, edited by S. De Witt Bloodgood, Esq.
At the end of each sentence, the attending sachems uttered the usual sound of approbation, and having concluded, Good Peter resumed his seat. The address was that of a diplomatist; and it was supposed probable that the Onondagas were themselves at the bottom of the embassy, with a view of obtaining information by which to regulate their future conduct. Equally adroit was the reply of Colonel Van Schaick, given in the following terms:—
"I am glad to see my friends, the Oneidas and Tuscaroras. I perfectly remember the engagements the Five Nations entered into four years ago, and that they promised to preserve a strict and honorable neutrality during the present war, which was all we asked them to do for us.
"But I likewise know that all of them, except our brethren the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, broke their engagements, and flung away the chain of friendship. But the Onondagas have been great murderers; we have found the scalps of our brothers at their Castle.
"They were cut off, not by mistake, but by design—I was ordered to do it—and it is done.
"As for the other matters of which you speak, I recommend a deputation to the Commissioners at Albany. I am not appointed to treat with you on those subjects.
"I am a warrior. My duty is to obey the orders which they send me."
No farther explanations appear to have been interchanged; and the Oneidas were perhaps the more readily pacified, inasmuch as they were really friendly to the Americans, while at the same time they must have been acquainted with the conduct of the Onondagas, which had justly incurred the chastisement. Scalping parties were always hovering about the unprotected borders, especially in the neighborhood of Fort Schuyler; and the Indians of none of the tribes were more frequently discovered belonging to these parties, than of that nation.
It is, perhaps, a coincidence worth noting, that on the very day on which Colonel Van Schaick departed from Fort Schuyler for Onondaga, the lower section of the Mohawk Valley was thrown into alarm by the sudden appearance of an Indian force simultaneously on both sides of the river, in the vicinity of Palatine. On the South side a party rushed down upon the settlement, took three prisoners, together with several horses, and drove the inhabitants into Fort Plank. At the very same hour another division of the savages made a descent upon the back part of Stone-Arabia, where, in the onset, they burnt two houses and murdered one man. The next house in their course belonged to Captain Richer. The occupants were Richer, his wife, and two sons, and an old man. The Captain and his two boys being armed, on the near approach of the Indians gave them a warm reception. A sharp action ensued. The old man, being unarmed, was killed; as also was one of the brave boys, a lad seventeen years of age. Captain Richer was severely wounded and his arm was broken; his other son was also wounded in the elbow, and his wife in one of her legs. And yet, notwithstanding that the whole garrison was either killed or wounded, the Indians retreated on the loss of two of their number.
On the same day a party of Senecas appeared in Schoharie, made prisoners of Mr. Lawyer and Mr. Cowley, and plundered their houses. The panic was again general; the people flying to the forts for safety, and the Committee of Palatine writing immediately to General Clinton, at Albany, for assistance. The General was an officer of great activity, and so rapidly did he move in cases of alarm, that he traversed the Mohawk Valley with Colonel Gansevoort's regiment and the Schenectady militia, and was back at Albany again on the 28th. The Indians who appeared on the south side were from the West—those on the north side were Mohawks from Canada. General Clinton, in his despatches to the Governor, his brother, expressed an opinion, that but for his timely movement on that occasion, the enemy would have driven the settlements all in upon Schenectady. [FN]