" would have ren by St. Leger, and that had they been they " dered more material service ; but the fact would seem to be that

they had acted in precise accordance *with

the

course

which they had pursued in the previous war with France, and were ready at all times to court the favor of the party which, for the time being, appeared the most successful. The evidence of their moral greatness is yet wanting.

For border warfare, however, the Indians under Brant, who principally composed of Senecas, Qnondagas, Cayugas and Mohawks, were still a power in the hands of the tories, as their subsequent ravages in the Mohawk valley, and at Wyoming and Minnisink, in 1778-9, sufficiently attest. The path which were

Brant had opened to the Esopus country, in the spring of 1777,

became indeed

a

could be induced

path of blood. Rallying such warriors as to continue in the service of the crown,

Colonel John Butler succeeded, in the spring of 1778, in organiz ing a force of five hundred Indians and six hundred tories, and At Winwith these made his appearance on the Susquehanna. termoot's fort, on the third of July, the colonial militia, in infe rior

numbers, under

progress

in

a

Colonel

Zebulon Butler, opposed his Retreating from thence to

desperate conflict.

Fort Forty, and unable to rally the flying inhabitants to its defense, terms of capitulation were agreed to by which the valley of Wyoming was surrendered to the mercy of savage white