13g NATURAL AND CIVIL 



) .:. 



* who is at Bennington, would have come ta 

 ^ your- excellency's camp ; but when I offered 

 ' him a flag, he was afraid to run the risk of 

 ' being scalped, and declined." ' 



General Burgoyne, on the sixth of Sep- 

 tember, made this reply : " I have hesitated, sir, 



* upon answering the [charges] in your letter^ 



* I disdain to justify myself against the rhapso- 



* dies of fiction and calumny, which from the 

 :' first of this contest it has been an unvaried 



* American policy to propagate, but which no 



* longer impose upon the world; I am induced 

 ' to deviate from this gencpil rule, in the present 



* instance, lest my silence should be construed 

 ' an acknowledgment of the truth of your alle- 



.* gations., and a pretence be thence taken for 

 '-' exercising future barbarities by the Am^ericaU 

 ' troops." ;r:./ -.■•■•- ^ - ■ ■■■ 



' By .this. motive, and upon this only, I con- 



* desctiid to inform you that I would not b'e 

 ' conscious of the acts }'ou presume to impute 



* to'me?,'*f:6:3r /the 'whole continent of America, 



* though the weailh Of worlds- were in its bowels, 



* and a pra-adlse upon its surfice. • '■ 



' It, has happened that all my transactions 



* with^'the Indian nations, last year and this, 



* have been clearly heard, distinctly understood, 

 ' accurately miulited, by very numerous, and, 

 ' in many parts, very unprejudiced persons. So 



* immediately opposite to truth is your assertion, 



* that I have paid a price for a sc«lp, that one of 



* the first regulations established by me at the 



* great councii m May, and repeated and en- 

 ' forced, and invariably • adhered to since, was, 



* that the Indians should rec'eive compensations 



