263 



Art. XIII. An account of the burning oj Schenectady ■ 

 1690, drawn up from manuscript records. By Geor( 

 Read February 6, 1834. 



e county clerk'8 office, wi 

 ;Iy favored by C. A. Ten Eyck, Esq. 

 proceedings of the Civil and Military Council c 



The early history of our country is intimately blended t 

 that of its aboriginal inhabitants; and while it faithfully re- 

 cords their virtues, and bears honorable testimony to their 

 friendship and kindness, is chequered with their crimes, and 

 marked with a long catalogue of their massacres. Those of 

 Schenectady and Wyoming have long been celebrated for their 

 atrocity and cruelty, and stand in dark relief in the calendar 

 of crime. The former was perpetrated through the instigation 

 of the French in Canada ; and this event, which led to the 

 expedition against that country in the ensuing spring, has not 

 been recorded with that minuteness which its impoitance de- 

 serves. I have attempted, therefore, in the following article to 

 give a correct account of it, with the attendant circumstances ; 

 together with a succinct history of the colony from its first set- 

 tlement. This was found necessary, to understand the causes 

 that influenced the French to plan and consummate an act, 

 that will ever be remembered for its unparalleled barbarity. 



The province of New- York, at its discovery, was inhabited 

 by a bold and warlike confederacy, consisting of the Mohawks, 

 Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas and Cayugas. By their un- 

 daunted bravery and uniform success in w^ar, they had gained 

 the ascendancy over the surrounding tribes, (who paid them tri- 

 bute,) and spread their fame over a greater part of the north- 



