elves,
still they could not forgive them the acceptance of such auxiliaries as
must necessarily disgrace the best cause.

"The resentment occasioned by the conduct of the Indians, and no less
the dread of being exposed to their fury, helped considerably to bring
recruits from every quarter to the American army. It was considered as
the only place of refuge and security at present. The inhabitants of the
tracts contiguous to the British army took up arms against it almost
universally. The preservation of their families was now become an object
of immediate concern. As the country was populous, they flocked in
multitudes to the American general's camp; and he soon found himself at
the head of an army which, though composed of militia and undisciplined
men, was animated with that spirit of indignation and revenge which so
often supplies all military deficiencies." (Dr. Andrews' History of the
Late War, Vol. II., Chap. xxviii., pp. 393, 394.)]

[Footnote 84: Dr. Ramsay's History of the United States, Vol. II., Chap.
xix., p. 322.]

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE MASSACRE OF WYOMING--FOUR VERSIONS OF IT BY ACCREDITED AMERICAN
HISTORIANS, ALL DIFFERING FROM EACH OTHER--THE FACTS INVESTIGATED, AND
FALSE STATEMENTS CORRECTED.

It would be useless and tedious to attempt even a condensed account of
the battles and warfare in which the Indians took part between the
English and the Congress; but there is one of these revengeful and
murderous occurrences which must be minutely stated, and the American
accounts of it thoroughly investigated, as it has been the subject of
more misrepresentation, more declamation, more descriptive and poetic
exaggeration, and more denunciation against the English by American
historians and orators than any other transaction of the American
revolution--namely, what is known as the "Massacre of Wyoming." There
are four versions of it, by accredited American histories.

The account of this massacre is thus given in the words of Dr. Ramsay's
history:

"A storm of Indian and Tory vengeance burst in July, 1778, with
particular violence on Wyoming, a new and flourishing settlement on the
eastern branch of the Susquehanna. Unfortunately for the security of the
inhabitants, the soil was claimed both by Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
From the collision of contradictory claims, founded on Royal Charters,
the laws of neither were steadily enforced. In this remote settlement,
where government was feeble, the T