Losing no time in rejoining the ranks of the enemy, he became alike reckless of character and the dictates of humanity; and instead of suitably requiting the kindness which had successfully interposed to save him from an ignominious death, he became the greatest scourge of his former friends and neighborhood. Ballston, in particular, had long reason to deplore the ill-judged leniency. He returned, and recruited soldiers for the King in the midst of the settlements; he captured and carried off the most zealous and efficient Whigs, and subjected them to the severest sufferings; and those against whom he bore the strongest hate, lost their dwellings by fire or their lives by murder. No fatigue weakened his resolution—no distance was an obstacle to his purpose—and no danger appalled his courage. No one of the borderers felt secure. Sometimes in the darkness of the night he fell upon them by stealth; and at others, even at mid-day, he was seen prowling about, as if scorning disguise, and unconscious of danger. Indeed, he boldly proclaimed himself a desperado—carrying his life in his hand—equally careless of it as he said he should be of the lives of others were any again to attempt his arrest. His liberty, he declared, would only be yielded with his life; and whoever should attempt to take him, might rest assured that their heart's blood would in the same moment be drunk by the earth. His threats were well understood to be no unmeaning words; and, what added to the apprehension of the people, was the well-known fact, that he had always at his beck, openly or in concealment, according to the nature of the purpose immediately in hand, a band of refugees partaking of his own desperate character.
His adventures while engaged in this species of warfare were many and hazardous. Nor did he always confine his operations to the border-settlements, since he at one time entered the precincts of Albany, and made a similar attempt to that of Waltermeyer to abduct General Schuyler from the mansion of the Patroon, where he was then lodged. [FN]
[FN] This account of Joe Bettys has been written from a Fourth-of-July speech delivered by the late Colonel Ball some ten or twelve years ago. Among the prisoners made by Bettys and Waltermeyer from Ballston, in the Spring of 1781, were the following persons, viz: Samuel Nash, Joseph Chord, Uri Tracy, Ephraim Tracy, Samuel Patchin, Epenetus White, John Fulmer, and two men named Bontas, who were brothers. They were all taken to Canada, and roughly used.
It must not be supposed, however, that all hearts quailed before Joe Bettys. Far from it; and many were the ineffectual attempts made for his arrest before the measures undertaken for that purpose were again crowned with success. But in the course of the Winter now under consideration his wonted vigilance was at fault. A suspicious stranger having been observed in the neighborhood of Ballston, upon snow-shoes, and well-armed, three men of that town, named Cory, Perkins, and Fulmer, little doubting as to the identity of the man, immediately armed themselves and went in pursuit. He was traced by a circuitous track to the house of a well-known loyalist, which was fortunately approached with so much circumspection as to enable the scouts to reach the door unobserved. Breaking the barrier by a sudden effort, they sprang in upon the black and doubly-dyed traitor, and seized him before he had opportunity of resistance. He was seated at dinner when they entered, his pistols lying upon the table, and his rifle resting upon his arm. He made an attempt to discharge the latter; but forgetting to remove the deer-skin cover of the lock, did not succeed. Powerful and muscular as he was, the three were an over-match for him, and he was immediately so securely pinioned as to render resistance useless and escape morally impossible.
Apparently resigning himself to his fate, Bettys now requested permission to smoke, which was readily granted. While taking the tobacco from his box, and making the usual preparations, he was observed by Cory adroitly to cast something into the fire. It was instantly snatched from thence with a handful of coals, and proved to be a small leaden box, about the eighth of an inch in thickness, and containing a paper in cipher, which the captors could not read; but it was subsequently ascertained to be a despatch addressed to the British commander in New-York. It also contained an order for thirty guineas, provided the despatch should be safely delivered. Bettys pleaded hard for permission to burn the paper, and offered a hundred guineas for the privilege. But they refused his gold, and all his proffered bribes for the means of escape, with the most unyielding firmness. He then exclaimed—"I am a dead man!" It was even so. He was taken to Albany, where he was tried, convicted, and executed as a spy and traitor.
If the conduct of the three captors of Major André was patriotic, that of the three captors of Joe Bettys was both patriotic and brave. Andre was a gentleman, and without the means of defence; Bettys was formidably armed, and known to be a desperado. The capture of Andre was by accident; that of Bettys, by enterprise and design. The taking of the former was without danger; that of the latter a feat of imminent peril. Andre was a more important man, by rank and station, than Bettys; but not more dangerous. Both tempted their captors by gold, and both were foiled. [FN] The captors of Andre were richly rewarded, and the achievement has been emblazoned in history, and commemorated by monumental granite. The captors of Bettys have, until now, never been known to history; and their only visible reward was the rifle and pistols of their terrible captive. With such partial hand are the honors and rewards of this world bestowed!
[FN] Colonel Ball.
As already remarked, the substantial fighting of the war was ended by the surrender of Cornwallis. It is true, there were affairs of outposts occurring afterward, and some partial fighting took place at the south early in the season of 1782, between General Wayne and sundry small British posts, after General Greene had detached the former into Georgia. The most serious of these affairs was a smart brush with a party of Creek Indians, near Savannah, on which occasion the British garrison sallied out to their assistance, but were repulsed. For the most part, however, the year 1782 was rather a period of armed neutrality than of active war. The news of the catastrophe at Yorktown at once and materially strengthened the opposition to the farther prosecution of the contest in the House of Commons, by which a resolution was soon afterward passed, declaring "That the House would consider as enemies to his Majesty and the country, all who should advise or attempt the farther prosecution of offensive war on the Continent of North America." Sir Henry Clinton was superseded in the chief command by Sir Guy Carleton, who was specially instructed to use his endeavors to effect an accommodation with America. Commissioners for the negotiation of a treaty of peace were soon afterward appointed, viz: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens on the part of the United States, and Mr. Fitzherbert and Mr. Oswald on that of Great Britain. On the 30th of November these commissioners had agreed on provisional articles of peace, as the basis of a treaty by which the Independence of the United States was acknowledged in its fullest extent.