rs of the American Revolution, Vol. I., Chap. xv.,
pp. 334-336.)]

CHAPTER XXXV.

AMERICAN RETALIATION FOR THE ALLEGED "MASSACRE OF WYOMING," AS NARRATED
BY AMERICAN HISTORIANS.

We will now state from the same historical authorities the _revenge_
which the continentals took for the "Massacre of Wyoming."

Dr. Ramsay says: "Soon after the destruction of the Wyoming settlement,
an expedition was carried on against the Indians by Colonel Zebulon
Butler, of the Pennsylvania troops. He and his party having gained the
head of the Delaware, October 1st, marched down the river two days, and
then struck across the country to the Susquehanna. They burnt or
destroyed the Indian villages both in that quarter and the other
settlements; but the inhabitants escaped. The destruction was extended
for several miles on both sides of the Susquehanna. They completed the
expedition in sixteen days."[91]

This destruction of "Indian villages" and "other settlements" to the
extent of "several miles on both sides of the Susquehanna" was more than
an equivalent revenge for the destruction of Wyoming. But it was only
the beginning of vengeance and destruction, not only against the
immediate offenders in the case of Wyoming, but the pretext for a
resolution and order of Congress itself for the entire destruction of
the Six Indian Nations, though their chiefs had held no council and
given no order as to the attack upon the settlement of Wyoming, and had
nothing to do with it, except that one of their tribes, with possibly a
few stragglers from some of the other tribes. With this exception, as is
shown by the narratives above quoted, the Six Nations had no connection
with the destruction of Wyoming; were living quietly and industriously
on their well-cultivated farms, though friendly to the royal cause. Yet
Congress, by an order which, we believe, has no parallel in the annals
of any civilized nation, commands the complete destruction of those
people as a nation. It is cruel, indeed, and revolting to humanity, to
kill and scalp ever so small a number of individuals, including women
and children; but is it less cruel and revolting to render them
houseless by thousands, to destroy the fruits of their labours, to exile
them from their homes (after having destroyed them), and leave them to
nakedness and starvation? Yet such was the case in the execution of the
order of Congress for the extermination of the Six Nations.

"The determinatio