ls K,
L, 1777-1787, pp. 95-97, Petition of Low Dutch Reformed Church, etc.]
The following year a Baptist congregation came out from Virginia,
keeping up its organization even while on the road, the preacher holding
services at every long halt.

De Peyster at Detroit.

Soon after the rush of spring immigration was at its height, the old
settlers and the new-comers alike were thrown into the utmost alarm by a
formidable inroad of Indians, accompanied by French partisans, and led
by a British officer. De Peyster, a New York tory of old Knickerbocker
family, had taken command at Detroit. He gathered the Indians around him
from far and near, until the expense of subsidizing these savages became
so enormous as to call forth serious complaints from head-quarters.
[Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Haldimand to Guy Johnson, June 30, 1780.] He
constantly endeavored to equip and send out different bands, not only to
retake the Illinois and Vincennes, but to dislodge Clark from the Falls
[Footnote: _Do._ Haldimand to De Peyster, Feb. 12 and July 6, 1780.]; he
was continually receiving scalps and prisoners, and by May he had fitted
out two thousand warriors to act along the Ohio and the Wabash.
[Footnote: _Do._ De Peyster to Haldimand, June 1, 1780.] The rapid
growth of Kentucky especially excited his apprehension, [Footnote: _Do._
March 8, 1780.] and his main stroke was directed against the clusters of
wooden forts that were springing up south of the Ohio. [Footnote: _Do._
May 17 to July 19, 1780.]

Bird's Inroad.

Late in May, some six hundred Indians and a few Canadians, with a couple
of pieces of light field artillery, were gathered and put under the
command of Captain Henry Bird. Following the rivers where practicable,
that he might the easier carry his guns, he went down the Miami, and on
the 22d of June, surprised and captured without resistance Ruddle's and
Martin's stations, two small stockades on the South Fork of the Licking.
[Footnote: He marched overland from the forks of the Licking. Marshall
says the season was dry and the waters low; but the Bradford MSS.
particularly declare that Bird only went up the Licking at all because
the watercourses were so full, and that he had originally intended to
attack the settlements at the Falls.] But Bird was not one of the few
men fitted to command such a force as that which followed him; and
contenting himself with the slight success he had won, he rapidly
retreated to Detroi