Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/88

64 HISTORY OF flight of its inhabitants to the Mohawk, exceedingly alarmed the frontier settlements, and gave rise to numberless reports of invasion by a savage foe. A meeting of the Harpersfield vigilant committee was convened, and the following letter addressed to the State Council of Safety : — Gentlemen, — The late irruptions and hostilities commit- ted at Unadilla by Joseph Brant, with a party of Indians and tories, have so alarmed the well-afifected inhabitants of this and the neighboring settlements, who are now the entire fron- tier of this State, that except your Honors doth afford us im- mediate protection, we shall be obliged to leave our settlements to save our lives and families ; especially as there is not a man on the outside of us, but such as have taken protection of Brant, and many of them have threatened our destruction in a short time, the particular circumstances of which Colonel Harper (who will wait on your Honors,) can give you a full account of, by whom we hope for your protection, in what manner to conduct ourselves. It was now resolved to make yet another effort to induce the Indians to adhere to their professions of neutrality, and accordingly General Herkimer was despatched down the Sus- quehanna to hold a second interview with the Oquagos ; a messenger had been previously sent forward with a letter to Brant, requesting him to advance up and meet him at Una- dilla, which he accordingly did. It was not until several days after Herkimer had made a halt at the appointed place of meeting, that Brant arrived. He was accompanied, according to his own statement, by five hundred warriors, to within a mile or two below where Herki- mer was waiting, to whom he immediately despatched a mes- senger to inquire the object of his visit. Herkimer replied, that he merely wished to hold a friendly converse with Cap- tain Brant." The wily Indian, casting his eye around upon