Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/333

DELAWARE COUNTY 309 afterward inquired of the paddy, why he wished to kill the unarmed black ; because/^ he said, " the davlish naggar had no business to run afore meJ' The next spring, Long's riflemen, to which Murphy was still attached, had orders to move under Colonel Butler, in connec- tion with other troops, in all amounting to seven hundred, to Springfield, at the head of Otsego lake, where they were to await the arrival of G-en. George Clinton, and the troops ex- pected with him, all of whom when there concentrated, were to pass down the Susquehanna, and form a junction with Grene- ral Sullivan at Tioga Point. The object of this arrangement was the destruction of the Indian tribes on the Chemung and Genesee rivers; who had so often been employed in small parties by the policy of the British G-overnment, to distress in a predatory manner the inhabitants of the frontiers; the leader of whom was Brant, so renowned for his warlike achievements in this part of our country, and who was alike notorious for his humane treatment to many of his prisoners, as well as his bar- barity and savage discipline, in inflicting the most cruel tor- tures on them, in their expiring agonies. While encamped at some place unknown near- the Chemung river, and previous to their joining the main army, Murphy obtained leave for himself and three others, by name Follok, Tufts, and Joe Evans, to go out on a scout to the Chemung. They started in the morning of a fine J uly day ; they travelled until four in the afternoon, at which time they arrived upon the lofty banks that overlooked the Chemung river. Making no discoveries, and finding nothing to interest them during their travel, and being somewhat fatigued, they determined to encamp for the night, and accordingly preparations- were made. The scene was passing fair. A little in advance and directly in front of them, rolled the Chemung river in all the pride and loveliness of nature ; a little to the left and still beyond the river, was a vacant field, on which were scattered a number of cattle feeding