coming into the state had been without leave, and whose presence had caused them so much trouble. The efforts of the President were therefore not seconded by those holding the keys of the treasury.

The sufferers, however, sustained by the allconquering spirit of their race, recommenced their labours with their wonted energy; and but for the conduct of the soldiery, the valley might again have become the home of peace, smiling once more in beauty. But the magistrates sent thither for that purpose revived their oppressive measures, and countenanced the outrages of the soldiers, until the people, chafed beyond longer endurance, determined upon forcible resistance to their mandates. Enraged at this resolution, the magistrates proceeded against the settlers as though they were insurgents. On the 12th of May the soldiers of the garrison were sent to disarm the people, and in the progress of the work one hundred and fifty families were turned out of their newly constructed dwellings, many of which were burnt, and all ages and sexes reduced once more to a state of destitution. After being plundered of their little remaining property, they were driven from the valley, and compelled to proceed on foot through the wilderness by the way of the Lackawaxen river to the Delaware-a distance of eighty miles. During this journey the unhappy fugitives suffered all the miseries which human nature appears capable of enduring. Old men, whose sons had been slain in battle, widows,

with their infant children, and children without parents to protect them, were here companions in exile and sorrow, and wandering in a wilderness where famine and ravenous beasts daily reduced the number of the sufferers. One shocking instance of suffering is related by a survivor of this scene of death: it is the case of a mother, whose infant having died, she was driven to the dreadful alternative of roasting the body by piecemeal for the daily subsistence of her remainiug children!"*

It must not be supposed that atrocities like these would be sanctioned by the government of any civilized community. The General Assembly, in refusing a vote of supplies for the sufferers by the flood, were believed to have been acting under the influence of the Pennsylvania claimants to the lands of Wyoming; and the instigations of these avaricious men, beyond doubt, had prompted Justices Patterson and West, and the soldiers under them, to the course of wrong and outrage that had been pursued. When, however, the naked facts came to be known to the government, great indignation was produced. A commission was despatched to Wyoming, to inquire into the state of the settlement, and their report was such as to cause the discharge of the troops, with the exception of a small guard left at Fort Dickinson. A proclamation was likewise issued, inviting the

* Chapman.

people who had been driven away, to return to their homes, with a promise of protection on a due submission to the laws. To a considerable extent this proclamation produced the desired effect, and the people returned.

But the valley was not yet destined to become a place of quiet. The discharged soldiers had become partisans of the Pennsylvania land claimants. Many of them were, moreover, dissolute; and after being disbanded, they hung around the settlements, living like banditti upon plunder. By the middle of July, so many of them had rejoined the guard in Fort Dickinson, that the garrison was becoming formidable, and the inhabitants, for self-pro ection, repaired and garrisoned Fort Forty. On the 20th of July, a party of the people in that fort, having occasion to visit their fields of grain five miles below, were fired upon by a detachment of thirty of Justice Patterson's men, from Fort Dickinson, commanded by a man named William Brink, and two of the people, Chester Pierce and Elisha Garrett, young men of promise, were killed. The loss of these distinguished young men was deeply lamented, and the inhabitants determined that their death should be avenged. Three days afterward, the garrison of Fort Forty marched upon Wilkesbarré in the night, for the purpose of making prisoners of Patterson and his men, who were in the habit of lodging without the fort, when not apprehensive of danger; but having been apprized of the inten.

tion of the people, they had disposed themselves again for the night within the fort, and made preparations for defence. Not being prepared to invest their defence immediately, the people took possession of the flouring mill, which had been occupied by Patterson and his retainers, and having laid in a store of provisions for themselves at Fort Forty, they retired thither for the purpose of counsel and preparation for ulterior mea

sures.

Three days afterward the fort was invested by the people. The garrison consisted of about sixty men, provided with four pieces of ordnance, and one hundred and sixty muskets. For the cannon there was no ammunition; but having a good supply for their small arms, and having despatched an express to Philadelphia for assistance, they determined to hold out until the arrival of reinforcements. The leader of the besiegers in this insurrection - if such it might be properly called

was John Franklin, a native of Connecticut. an influential and resolute man- prime agent of the Susquehanna Company, and a colonel by po. pular election.* On the 27th of July, it having been determined to attempt carrying the fort by storm, Franklin, "in the name and on the behalf of the injured and incensed inhabitants holding their lands under the Connecticut claim," sent a formal summons to the garrison to surrender, not

Letter of Colonel Pickering.

the fortress only, but likewise the possessions and other property of the besiegers, which had been taken from them "in a hostile and unconstitutional manner." It was added that if the summons should be complied with, they "should be treated with humanity and commiseration-otherwise, the consequences would prove fatal and bloody to every person found in the garrison." Two hours were allowed them for an answer. But before these two hours had elapsed, information was received from below, that the magistrates of the county of Northumberland, (to which Wyoming had been attached,) at the head of a body of troops, were marching to the succour of the garrison; whereupon the siege was immediately raised, and the assailants returned to Fort Forty, resolving to remain there until the magistrates should arrive.

The belligerent proceedings of the inhabitants in this emergency can the more readily be justified, when it is considered that the party in the fort, at the head of which was Justice Patterson, was now making war upon them in behalf of the Pennsylvania claimants, on their own account. Under these circumstances, the people had a right, not only to protect themselves, but to repel force by force. That such was the fact appears from the official proceedings of the Council of the State. On hearing of the affair of the 20th, in which two of the inhabitants had been wantonly murdered, the Council forthwith appointed a com