Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/138

114 HISTORY OP Kettles wlien they had finished theirs : we generally contrived to pound it before we boiled it^ as we had found a mortar at a deserted wigwam^ left by the Indians the year before, who had been driven away by General Sullivan. While in the neigh- borhood of what is now called Tioga Point, we but narrowly escaped every man of us being butchered on the spot ; a miracle, as it were, saved us. The cause was as follows : At this place, when Brant was on his way down the Chemung, on this same expedition, but a few days before, he had detailed eleven Indians from his company, to pass through the woods from Tioga Point to a place called Minisink. It was known to Brant, that at this place were a few families, where it was supposed several prisoners might be made, or scalps taken, which, at Niagara, would bring them eight dollars apiece. This was the great stimulus by which the Indians, in the Eevolution, were incited by Butler, the British agent, to per- petrate so many horrid murders upon women, children, and helpless old age, in this region of country. This party made good their way to the Minisink, when, lying concealed in the woods, they managed to get into their possession, one after another, five lusty men, and had brought them as far as to the east side of the Susquehanna, opposite Tioga Point. Here they encamped for the night, intending in the morning to construct a raft, in order to float themselves over the river, as they had done on their way toward the Mini- sink, a few days before, and so pursue their way up the Che- mung, which course was the great thoroughfare of the Indians from the Susquehanna country to that of the Grenesee. Here, while the eleven Indians lay fast asleep, being greatly fatigued and apprehending no danger, as the prisoners were securely bound, and also sleeping soundly, as the Indians sup- posed, before they laid themselves down ; but as the soul of one man, the prisoners were ever watching some opportunity to escape.