Treaty of alliance with France--Policy of France--Incidents of the Winter--Projected expedition against St Johns--Lafayette appointed to the command of the North--Failure of the enterprise for lack of means--Disappointment and chagrin of Lafayette--Unpleasant indications respecting the Western Indians--Indian council at Johnstown--Attended by Lafayette--Its proceedings--And result--Reward offered for Major Carleton--Letter of Lafayette--He retires from the Northern Department--Return of the loyalists for their families--Unopposed--Their aggressions--Prisoners carried into Canada--Their fate--Re-appearance of Brant at Oghkwaga and Unadilla--Anecdote of Brant--Comparative cruelty of the Tories and Indians--Murder of a family--Exposed situation of the people--Captain McKean--Sends a challenge to Brant--Burning of Springfield--First battle in Schoharie. 298 CHAPTER XV. The story of Wyoming--Glance at its history--Bloody battle between the Shawanese and Delawares--Count Zinzendorf--Conflicting Indian claims and titles--Rival land companies of Connecticut and Pennsylvania--Murder of Tadeusund--The first Connecticut Colony destroyed by the Indians--Controversy respecting their titles--Rival Colonies planted in Wyoming--The civil wars of Wyoming--Bold adventure of Captain Ogden--Fierce passions of the people--The Connecticut settlers prevail--Growth of the settlements--Annexed to Connecticut--Breaking out of the Revolution--The inhabitants, stimulated by previous hatred, take sides--Arrest of suspected persons in January--Sent to Hartford--Evil consequences--The enemy appear upon the outskirts of the settlements in the Spring--Invasion by Colonel John Butler and the Indians--Colonel Zebulon Butler prepares to oppose them--Two of the forts taken--Colonel Z. Butler marches to encounter the enemy--Battle of Wyoming--The Americans defeated--The flight and massacre--Fort Wyoming besieged--Timidity of the garrison--Zebulon Butler's authority not sustained--He escapes from the fort--Colonel Denniston forced to capitulate--Destruction of the Valley--Barbarities of the Tories--Brant not in the expedition--Catharine Montour--Flight of the fugitives--Expedition of Colonel Hartley up the Susquehanna--Colonel Zebulon Butler repossesses himself of Wyoming, and rebuilds the fort--Indian skirmishes--Close of the history of Wyoming. Page 318 CHAPTER XVI.