Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/116

 92 HISTORY OF succeeding chapter, although its successful termination went far toward raising the desponding spirits of the whigs, and restoring their drooping confidence in the final success of our arms. One of the most exposed of the frontier settlements during the campaign of 1779, was Minisink, an ancient settlement on the Delaware River. Count Pulaski had been stationed there with an armed force until the February preceding, when he had been ordered to South Carolina, thus leaving the settle- ment without any defence. Of this fact the Indians were aware, and accordingly Brant, on the 20th of July, made a descent upon it with a large body of Indians and tories. An interesting and valuable work, entitled the " Pioneers of the Delaware,'-' has aiforded us the following interesting account of the attack and massacre of this settlement, and the battle of the Delaware, fought two days afterward. — ''This attack was begun before day-light, and so silently and stealth- ily did the crafty Mohawk chief approach his victims, that several families were cut off before an alarm was made. The first intimation which the community received that the sav- ages were upon them was the discovery that several houses were in flames. Dismay and confusion seized upon those who had escaped the first onslaught. They were altogether unprepared to defend themselves. They were without leaders and scattered over a considerable area, although, it is to be presumed they were not altogether unarmed. The first move- ment many of them made was to flee to the woods with their wives and children, thus leaving the enemy to plunder them of their property, or destroy it, as they preferred.* A few of " Brant made more than one descent upon Minisink. On the 13th of October, 1118, he invaded Peeupack, and the neighboring settle- ments, with about one hundred followers, and murdered several of the settlers. The alarm was given in time for most of the inhabitants of