258 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. V 



and had taken shelter within those posts, whence they watched their 

 blazing homesteads with impotent fury. The harvest had been wonder- 

 fully abundant, and the barns were bursting with grain. The church 

 was the only building spared. A number of large New England oxen 

 were taken from the cattle-pens within pistol-shot of Fort Dayton, 

 where they were kept for the use of its garrison, and with the cattle of 

 the settlement, were carried off in one huge drove. 



A newspaper of the time relates that sixty-three dwellings, fifty-seven 

 barns, three grist-mills and two sawmills were burnt, and that 235 

 horses, 229 horned cattle, 269 sheep, and ninety-three oxen were driven 

 away. 



With truly astonishing activity. Brant appears a month later as the 

 leader of an expedition towards Minnesink, more than a hundred miles 

 distant in another direction. Our knowledge of this foray is entirely 

 derived from a letter addressed by Taylor and Duffin, merchants at 

 Niagara, to Colonel Claus. It says : " Brant wrote to Pollard on the 

 25th of October, that with about eighty white people, and with but a 

 few Indians, he marched to Pick Pus, a very pretty, small settlement, 

 where the rebels had three forts, one of which he took, and demolished, 

 and all the houses. He took six prisoners, two of them officers, and 

 killed six. He surrounded the other two forts, but his ammunition 

 being nearly exhausted he was obliged to come away and leave ; all the 

 rivers being high, and he thought as he proposed joining Captain Butler 

 to see the last service this season theywould retard him too much. He 

 complained much of Captain Butler's usage of him, and thought of 

 quitting him and going to Canada, but the Indians would not hear of it, 

 and asked did he not know Captain Butler had command of the Rangers 

 only. He had cheerfully complied to attack Cherry Valley." 



This last mentioned place had been from the first a hot bed of 

 revolutionary feeling, and it is probable that Brant had not forgotten the 

 insults offered to him by its inhabitants, for an Indian has a long 

 memory. As soon as he returned, Walter Butler, who had superseded 

 Caldwell in command of the Rangers, began his march with 200 men of 

 that corps, a few volunteers from the 8th, and 321 Indians. The 

 garrison of the place he was about to attack had been ascertained to 

 consist of 300 Continentals from Massachusetts and 150 local militia. 

 The Continentals occupied a stout log fort, and had been warned of 

 impending danger by friendly Indians. By a forced march, during a 

 stormy night, Butler gained the outskirts of the settlement unperceived, 

 and at break of day rushed upon the fort and barracks. The principal 



