=207. Destruction of the Six Nations.=—Sullivan’s forces then advanced northward in two divisions, burning villages, cutting down fruit trees, and destroying the growing corn in all directions. After a successful march of more than seven hundred miles, during which he not only temporarily, but permanently, through his destruction of their harvests, broke the power of the Six Nations, Sullivan reached New Jersey in October. The suffering which resulted to the Indians from this expedition was greatly increased by the intense cold of the following winter.[95] The horrors of the period, however, cannot be understood without a study of painful and revolting details. In no part of the country was the suffering greater than in central and eastern New York during this contest of Indians, Tories, and patriots. In Tryon County the population was reduced to one-third of its former number, and among those who remained there are said to have been three hundred widows and two thousand orphans. THE CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST. [Illustration: GENERAL GEORGE ROGERS CLARK.] =208. George Rogers Clark.=—An expedition of even greater importance had been undertaken the previous year, still farther west, by George Rogers Clark.[96] Colonel Hamilton, commander of the British at Detroit, had planned a series of movements with the intention of taking possession of the whole western region north of the Ohio. Clark, a Virginian who had settled in Kentucky, had become thoroughly acquainted with frontier manners and methods. In the autumn of 1777, he learned of Burgoyne’s surrender. Divining the importance of the West, he at once sent scouts throughout the region known as the Illinois country. As a result of the information thus received, this adventurous frontiersman, only twenty-five years old, formed the bold project of conquering from the British the whole of the vast region extending from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi.