I had two good men on Maxon, the French trapper, Johnny Silver and Benjamin De Luysnes; Nick and I counted two more. With four Oneida, and perhaps Joe de Golyer and Godfrey Shew--if we could pick them up on the Vlaie--we would be ten stout men to stop this Mohawk war-party until the garrisons at Summer House Point and Fish House could drive the impudent marauders North again. Turning to Thiohero, I said as much in English. She nodded and spoke to the others in Oneida; and I saw their eager and brilliant eyes begin to glitter. Now, I carried always with me in the bosom of my buckskin shirt a _carnet_, or tablet of good paper, and a pencil given me years ago by Sir William. And now I seated myself on a rock and took my instruments and wrote: "Hans Creek, near Maxon Brook, June 13th, 1776. "To the Officer comm{d'ng} ye Garrison at ye Summer House on Vlaie, "Sir: "I am to acquaint you that this day, about two o'clock, afternoon, arrived in my camp four Oneidas who give an account that a Mohawk War Party is now at ye Big Eddy on West River, headed south. "By the same intelligence I am to understand that this War Party _has taken scalps_. "Sir, anybody familiar with the laws and customs of the Iroquois Confederacy understands what this means. "Murder, or mere slaying, when not accompanied by such mutilation, need not constitute an act of war involving nation and Confederacy in formal declaration. "But the taking of a single scalp means only one thing: that the nation whose warrior scalps an enemy approves the trophy and declares itself at war with the nation of the victim. "I am aware, sir, that General Schuyler and Mr. Kirkland and others are striving mightily in Albany to placate the Iroquois, and that they still entertain such hope, although the upper Mohawks are gone off with Brant, and Guy Johnson holds in his grasp the fighting men of the Confederacy, save only the Oneida, and also in spite of news, known to be certain, that Mohawk Indians were in battle-paint at St. John's. "Now, therefore, conscious of my responsibility, and asking God's guidance in this supreme moment, lest I commit error or permit hot blood to confuse my clearer mind, I propose to travel instantly to the West River with my scout of four Rangers, and four Oneidas, and ask of this Mohawk War Party an explanation in the name of the Continental Congress and His Excellency, our Com{'nder} in Chief. "Sir, I doubt not that you will order your two garrisons to prepare for immediate defense, and also to support my scout on the Sacandaga; and to send an express to Johnstown as soon as may be, to acquaint Colonel Dayton of what measures I propose to take to carry out my orders which are _to stop the Sacandaga trail_. "This, sir, it is my present endeavour to do.