FROM PHILADELPHIA 179 



At the beginning of the war a stockade was built 

 against the roving Indians and later a little fort, in 

 Wyoming on the river. Thence went out that great 

 expedition against the Indians which was undertaken 

 by the Americans in the autumn of 1779. The inac- 

 tivity at that time of the English army in New York 

 gave the Americans all the more leisure to carry 

 through a work of vengeance upon the Indians for the 

 many grewsome and inhuman acts they had long been 

 committing in the frontier regions. A small corps, 

 with artillery, was chosen for the purpose, under the 

 lead of General Sullivan assisted bv several other well- 



mt 



known officers, among whom was General Irwin. At 

 the same time other smaller corps proceeded from 

 Pittsburg and Albany, to support the main body and 

 also to divert the attention of the enemy. The real 

 objective was the famous five or six nations (as they 

 are diversly called) who in the remotest wilds of 

 America exhibit a sort of republican union. The Five 

 Nations inhabit a wide region at the back of the North- 

 ern and middle colonies, among the great Canadian 

 lakes, rivers, and impenetrable woods. They have 

 been long known for their courage and for the espe- 

 cial fidelity with which they have supported the Eng- 

 lish crown against the French and even against their 

 own people. At the beginning of the war they had an 

 agreement with the Americans to observe a strict neu- 

 trality during the contest between the colonies and the 

 mother-country. It is pretended on the side of the 

 Americans that these nations offered at that time to 

 wield the war-axe against the English, which pro- 

 posal was rejected, with the well-known American 

 large-mindedness and humanity, and merely neutrality 



