24 Tlir: ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



their own livelihood, and, with the exception of a few, were costing the 

 government nothing.* 



At least two later expeditions in behalf of loyalists were authorized 

 by Haldimand. one of which was carried into execution in the autumn 

 of 1780 and the other a year later. The earlier of these, like the one 

 above narrated, was suggested, planned, and led by Sir John Johnson, 

 and was evidently intended by him to bring in a fresh supply of recruits. 

 Sir John was now engaged in raising his second battalion; f and, although 

 he had sent several loyalists into the States to collect men in the latter 

 part of July, he wrote to Haldimand, August 10: "Recruits cannot be 

 expected from the Colonies unless a force be sent to encourage them 

 to come ofï." A party of fifteen recruits came in from the Mohawk 

 ten days later, and reported that more would have come but for the 

 approach of the hostile Oneida Indians. + Meantime, similar parties 

 were constantly arriving at St. Johns and Chambly, and continued to 

 do so during the fall of ITSO.'' Some of these men were destined to 

 fill the ranks of Johnson's corps; nevertheless, there seemed to be suffici- 

 ent reason for sending out the proposed expedition, and, September 9, 

 Haldimand wrote to Sir Henry Clinton that he had ordered a detach- 

 ment of six hundred picked troops, together with a contingent of 

 Indians, to march from Oswego to Schenectady in order "to destroy 

 the crops and favour the escape of the loyalists."^ At this time Sir 

 John and his troops were at La Chine, near Montreal, preparing to pass 

 up the St. Lawrence to Oswego.® By October 1, he was at the latter 

 place awaiting the arrival of a body of Butler's Rangers and another 

 of Mohawks under Chief Brant from Fort Niagara. When ready to 

 move Johnson's forces, according to Stone,'' consisted of three companies 

 of his own regiment of Greens, one company of German Yagers, another 

 of British regulars, and the Niagara contingents just mentioned. We 

 are not concerned here with the incidents of the expedition, except 

 to note that it failed in its primary object, that is, the securing of a 

 considerable body of recruits. Johnson's explanation was that the 

 "loyalists and others had been forced into the forts, so that men could 

 not be got." But he left behind a few trusty guides to bring in such 

 recruits as they might collect, and reported that one of these "had 

 gone off with 20 or 30 men from the back of Conojoharie." After com- 



*Can. Arch., 1888, 649. 

 tlhid., 1888, 648. 

 JIhid., 650. 



' Unci., 1887, 350-354, Aug. 20, 23, 27, 30; Sept. 3, 6, 10; Oct. 4, 16, 19, 22; 

 Nov. 1, 22, 25. 



^'Can. Arch., 1887, 547. 



«Ibid., 1888, 651. 



^ Border Wars of the Am. Rev., II. 105. 



