Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/100

 76 HISTORY OF the woods to Harpersfield^ collected all the men who were there making sugar, and being armed and victualed, with each man his rope, laid his course for Charlotte : when he arrived at Evan^s place, he found the Charlotte men there in good spirits; and when he mustered his men there were fifteen, including himself, exactly the same number as there were of the enemy ; then the colonel made his men acquainted with his enterprise. " They marched down the river a little distance, and then bent their course across the hill, to the mouth of Schenevus creek : arriving at the brow of the hill, where they could over- look the valley where the Schenevus flows, they cast their eyes down upon the flat, and discovered the fire around which the enemy lay encamped. ' There they are,' said Col. Harper. They descended with great stillness, forded the creek, which was breast-high to a man; after advancing a few hundred yards, they took some refreshment, and then prepared for the contest. Daylight was just beginning to appear in the east. When they came to the enemy, they lay in a circle, with their feet toward the fire, in a deep sleep ; their arms and all their implements of death, were stacked up according to the In- dian custom when they lay themselves d,own for the night ; these the colonel secured by carrying them off a distance, and laying them down; then each man, taking his rope in his hand, placed himself by his fellow : the colonel rapped his man softly, and said, ' Come, it is time for men of business to be on their way;' and then each one sprang upon his man, and after a most severe struggle, they secured the whole number of the enemy. After they were all safely bound, and the morning had so far advanced that they could discover objects distinctly, says the Indian Peter — ' Ha ! Col. Harper ! now I know thee ; why did I not know thee yesterday V ' Some policy in war, Peter.' ' Ah, me find 'em so now.' The colonel marched