Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/350

 326 HISTORY OF the end .of his rifle in that direction, he fired : the Indian fell headlong into the water. The other Indians fled precipitately, when Murphy hacked out of the log, scalped the Indian, and runing as fast as his feet would carry him, escaped. Just before the battle of Saratoga, he went out of the Ame- rican camp, and having ascertained the British countersign, he went into one of their camps, and seeing an officer writing, alone, he whispered to him, (pointing to his hunting-knife,) that if he spoke a word he would make daylight shine through him. The officer, not having sword or pistols near, reluc- tantly marched before him to the American camp. At the last battle at Saratoga, in which both armies were engaged. Murphy was, as he states, within five feet of Arnold, when he passed over the fortification, sword in hand. Murphy ascribed, to the day of his death, the chief honor of Burgoyne's defeat to G^eneral Arnold, and believed Arnold would never have betrayed his country, had he received the honors which he so richly merited. At Unadilla, he also went into a fort, several years after- ward, where he made important discoveries of the strength of the enemy. As Murphy was passing toward Summit, in company with Follok, (a half-blood,) who generally acted as his pilot, he saw four Indians, headed by a tory, with scalps hanging on their bayonets. They crawled through a swail ; and as they came within plain view, they saw on the bayonet of the tory, what appeared to be the scalp of a woman. They moved carefully, but at last one of them, stepping on a limb of a tree, which made a creaking, three of the Indians fired before them. They both aimed at the tory, who fell, when they escaped by running. On another occasion, as himself, Follok, Tufts and Evans, were passing through the woods, they saw ten or twelve Cana- dians, marching toward them, in Indian file, with what ap-