XXXVIII. CHAPTER Willing, sent thither the year before, had succeeded in obtaining, with the countenance, if not the aid of Gal1778. vez, the Spanish governor, a supply of arms and ammunition. Willing had invited the English settlers of West Florida to join the American Union, but without success. Early in the present year he again descended the river for a new supply of arms and munitions. Having obtained crews at New Orleans to row the boats back to Pittsburg, Willing remained behind with his followers, seized an English vessel at Manshac, and proceeded to Ba. ton Rouge and Natchez, burning houses, abducting slaves, and committing other outrages on the English planters. A British force, sent from Pensacola, made Willing prisoner. Ferts were built by these troops at Manshac, Baton Rouge, and Natchez, for the defense of the settlers. Indications of Indian hostilities appearing on the western frontier, Congress had sent three commissioners to Pittsburg to investigate the subject. These commissioners reported that the Western Indians were stimulated to hostility by the influence of Hamilton, the British commandant at Detroit, in consequence of which Congress resolved to send an expedition against that post. While this matter was in agitation, an expedition, hardly less important, was undertaken and accomplished by George Rogers Clark, a backwoodsman of Kentucky. Under authority from the State of Virginia, and with some aid from that state in money and supplies, Clark enlisted two hundred men for three months, with whom he embarked at Pittsburg, and descended to the falls of the Ohio. Thirteen families of settlers following in his train, Jane. established themselves on an island at the falls. Joined by a number of Kentuckians, Clark proceeded down the river to within sixty miles of the mouth; hid his boats; and marched by land against Kaskaskia, one of the old XXXVIII. French settlements near the Mississippi. When the Vir- CHAPTER ginians reached the town, they were on the point of starvation; but the inhabitants, taken entirely by surprise, 1778. submitted without a struggle. Cahokia, and two other July 5. \neighboring posts, also submitted. The inhabitants were promised security on taking an oath of allegiance to the United States. The governor, or commandant at Kaskaskia, in whose possession written orders from Hamilton were said to have been found, directing him to stimulate the Indians to hostility, was sent a prisoner to Virginia. Several slaves belonging to him were confiscated, and sold for £500, which was divided among the troops as prize money. Clark at once established friendly relations with the Spanish commander at St. Louis, on the other side of the Mississippi. The news of the alliance between France and the United States, and the respect shown for their property and religion, tended to reconcile the French inhabitants of Kaskaskia to the change. A deputation sent to Vincennes, or St. Vincent's, on the Wabash, induced the people there also to take an oath of allegiance to Virginia. A party, sent to Richmond with the news, carried orders from Clark for building a stockade at the falls of the Ohio, first rudiment of the present city of Louisville. The Virginia Assembly erected the conquered country, embracing all the territory north of the Ohio claimed as within their limits, into the county of ILLINOIS. Five hundred men were ordered to be raised for its defense, an order which Clark had in part anticipated by enlistments made on his own responsibility. The Six Nations, though somewhat discouraged by the result of Burgoyne's invasion, still adhered, except the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, and a part of the Mohawks, to the British interest: The Loyalist corps, under Johnson XXXVIII. CHAPTER and Butler, occupied the posts in Western New York, and Tory refugees, settled among the Indians, were always 1778. ready to stimulate them to hostilities. July Among the settlements most exposed to attack was Wyoming, on the Susquehanna, the jurisdiction of which was still in dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, a dispute several times brought before Congress, but as yet undecided, notwithstanding the advice and good offices of that body to bring about an amicable arrange. ment. There had come in among the Connecticut settlers at Wyoming a number of Dutch and Scotch from New York, some thirty of whom, shortly after the com mencement of the war, had been seized under suspicion of being Tories, and sent to Connecticut for trial. They were discharged for want of evidence; but if not Tories before, they soon became so. Returning to the Valley of the Mohawk, whence they had emigrated to Wyoming, they enlisted into the partisan corps of Johnson and Butler, and waited eagerly their chances of revenge. Though Wyoming did not number three thousand inhabitants, it had furnished two full companies to the Continental army, and had thus, in a manner, deprived itself of the means of defense. Congress, upon rumors of intended Indian hostilities, had ordered a third company to be raised as a local garrison; but this corps was as yet hardly organized, and very imperfectly armed. Such was the state of the settlement when there appeared at the head of the valley an overwhelming force of Tories and Indians, principally of the Seneca tribe of the Six Nations, led by Colonel Butler. Some of the inhabitants were waylaid and slain. The upper fort, held by disaffected persons, surrendered at once. The company of Continentals, with all such others as could be muster. ed, marched out to meet the enemy; but they were sur XXXVIII. rounded, defeated, and driven back with heavy loss; and CHAPTER several who were taken prisoners were put to death by the Indians with horrible torments. Those who escaped 1778 fled to Fort Wyoming, which was speedily invested. The surviving Continentals, to avoid being taken prisoners, embarked, and escaped down the river; after which the fort surrendered upon promise of security to life and property. Desirous to fulfill these terms, Butler presently marched away with his Tories; but he could not induce the Indians to follow. They remained behind, burned the houses, ravaged the fields, killed such as resisted, and drove the miserable women and children through the woods and mountains to seek refuge where they might. Oct These barbarities, greatly exaggerated by reports embodied since in poetry and history, excited every where a lively indignation. Wyoming was presently reoccupied by a body of Continental troops. A Continental regiment of the Pennsylvania line, stationed at Schoharie, penetrated to the neighboring branches of the Upper Susquehanna, and destroyed the settlement of Unadilla, occupied by a mixed population of Indians and refugees. The Indians and Loyalists soon took their revenge by surprising Cherry Valley. The fort, which had a Con- Nov. 10 tinental garrison, held out; but Colonel Alden, who lodged in the town, was killed, the lieutenant colonel was made prisoner, and the settlement suffered almost the fate of Wyoming. Resolved to crush these dangerous internal enemies, Congress ordered a large force on that service; but the approach of winter made it necessary to wait. The people of Georgia had been a good deal annoyed by predatory parties from East Florida, led by refugees who had found shelter there, and who exercised a predominating influence over the Creek Indians. The better XXXVIII. CHAPTER to undertake an expedition against St. Augustine, Gen. eral Howe, the commanding American officer in the south1778. ern department, reinoved his head-quarters from Charleston to Savannah. John Houston, elected governor of Georgia the January preceding, joined in the expedition, and some militia also from South Carolina. The troops crossed the Altamaha, and penetrated with difficulty as far as the St. Mary's; but the expedition was retarded and interrupted by disputes about command, by sickness among the men, and the loss of draught horses, and was presently abandoned. The refugees of Florida retorted by an invasion in their turn. One party penetrated to the Ogeechee. Another, approaching by water, laid siege to Sunbury, but soon retired without accomplishing any thing. The bills of credit still continued the main financial resource of Congress; and, as they went on depreciating, the issue of necessity became greater and greater. In addition to the twenty-three millions and a half issued during the first six months of the year, five millions were authorized in July, fifteen millions in September, and ten millions each in November and December, making an issue of sixty-three millions and a half during the year, and raising the whole amount outstanding to near a hundred millions. Several millions of these bills had been ex changed for certificates of loan bearing interest; but the bills thus borrowed had been immediately paid out again, and the certificates of loan, serving themselves to a certain extent as a currency, helped also to increase the depreciation, which, before the end of the year, amounted in the North to six, in the South to eight for one. The Loyalists at New York having made it a business to counterfeit the paper, Congress was obliged to withdraw from circulation two entire emissions, amounting |