edition of that great work was about to appear, that, by the assistance of Mr. Charles Miner, an intelligent resident of Wilkesbarre, the readers of that eminent historian were correctly informed touching the revolutionary tragedy in that valley. Nor even then was the correction entire, inasmuch as the name of Brant was still retained, as the leader of the Indians on that fearful occasion. Nor were the exaggerations in regard to the invasion of Wyoming greater than were those connected with the irruption into, and destruction of, Cherry Valley, as the reader will discover in the course of the ensuing pages. Indeed, the writer, in the preparation of materials for this work, has encountered so much that is false recorded in history as sober verity, that he has at times been disposed almost to universal scepticism in regard to uninspired narration. In conclusion of this Introduction, a short history of the origin of the present work may not be impertinent. It was the fortune of the author to spend several of his early years, and commence his public life, in the valley of the Mohawk--than which the country scarce affords a more beautiful region. The lower section of this valley was entered by the Dutch traders, and settlements were commenced, originally at Schenectady, very soon after the first fort was built at Albany, then called Fort Orange, by Henry Christiaens in 1614. The Dutch gradually pushed their settlements up the Mohawk on the rich bottom lands of the river, as far as Caughnawaga. Beyond that line, and especially in the upper section of the valley west of the Little Falls, and embracing the broad and beautiful garden of the whole district known as the German Flats, the first white settlers introduced were Germans--being a division of the Palatinates, who emigrated to America early in the eighteenth century, under the patronage of Queen Anne. Three thousand Germans came over at the time referred to, about the year 1709, a portion of whom settled in Pennsylvania. The residue ascended the Hudson to a place called East Camp, now in the county of Columbia. From thence they found their way into the rich valley of the Schoharie-kill, about the year 1713, and thence to the German Flats, of which they were in possession as early as 1720. The first colony, planting themselves in Schoharie, consisted of between forty and fifty families. Some disagreements soon after arising among them, twelve of these families separated from their companions; and, pushing farther westward beyond the Little Falls, planted themselves down upon the rich alluvial Flats at the confluence of the West Canada Creek and the Mohawk.