Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/86

 62 HISTORY OF colonies^ doomed to be of short duration^ as will appear from the following affidavit made only a few months after^ by the Rev, Wm. Johnston, which I find in the New York Journal of the Council of Safety, dated July 16th, 1777. Ulster Count!/, ss. William Johnston being duly sworn, says that on the second day of June, Joseph Brant came up from Onehogh- quaga to Unadilla, with between seventy and eighty warriors; that they came out of the Indian territory and within the division line (referred to in a previous chapter as having been established in 1768,) about one mile; that Brant and his party sent for the officers of the militia company and the minister of Unadilla, and informed them that they were in want of provisions ; that if they could not get them by consent, they must take them by force ; that Joseph Brant told the officers that their agreement with the king was very strong, and that they were not such villains as to break their covenant with the king; that they were naturally warriors, and that they could not bear to be threatened by Mr. Schuyler ; that they were informed that the Mohawks were confined — that they had not liberty to pass and re-pass as formerly; that they were determined to be free, as they were a free people, and desired to have their friends removed from the Mohawk's river, lest if the Western Indians should come down upon them, their friends might suffer with the rest, as they would pay no respect to persons; that the inhabitants being but weak and defenceless, they let them have some provisions ; that the said Brant and his party, after staying two days at Unadilla afore- said, took eight or ten head of horned cattle and some sheep and hogs, and returned to Onehoghquaga again ; that those of the inhabitants who were friendly to the cause of America, removed with their families and effects to places of more security; that the examinant then went to the officers of