Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/135

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DELAWARE COUNTY. Ill They were received and kindly treated by this man ; and while he loaded the unhappy prisoners with the most horrible oaths and imprecations, he observed to Capt. Brant, that '■'■they might better have taken more scalps and fewer prisoners.' ' The daughter openly urged Brant to kill and scalp his pri- soners, stating as a reason that should they ever return, their own lives might be taken by the whigs, but that dead men told no tales. At this mill the Indians obtained about three bushels of corn, which was all the whole party had to subsist on, except what they might accidentally fall in with, during their whole journey to Niagara. I make the following extract from Patchin's narative : — ^^From this mill we travelled directly down the river; we had not, however, gone many miles, when we met a man who was a tory, well known to Brant, by name Samuel Clockstone, who seeing us, the prisoners, was surprised, as he knew us ; when Brant related to him his adventure, and how he had been defeated by the account Capt. Harper had given of the troops lately arrived at Schoharie. ^ Troops !' said Clockstone : ^ there are no troops at that place ; you may rely upon it, Capt. Brant ; I have heard of none.' In a moment the snaTce eyes of Brant flashed murder, and running to Harper, he said in a voice of un- - restrained fury, his hatchet vibrating about his head like the tongue of a viper : ^ How came you to lie so to me V when Harper, turning round to the tory said : ' You know, Mr. Clockstone, I have been there but four days since : you know, since our party was stationed at the head of the river, at the sap-bush, that I have been once to the forts alone, and there were troops, as I have stated ; and if Capt. Brant disbelieves it, he does it at his peril.' That Harper had been there, as he stated, happened to be true, which the tory also happened to know ; when he replied, ^ yes, I know it V' All the while. Brant had glared intensely on the countenance of Harper, if possible, to discover some