On the other side, the British agents at Oswego tried to win over the savages, and succeeded. The Tories and British were able to present much more convincing arguments in the shape of abundance of rum, hatchets, beads, mirrors and guns and powder. Moreover the Indian is always a conservative. He holds fast to tradition. Hence he was most deeply touched by the adroit appeal to “the covenant of Corlaer,” and, being told that the Americans were “rebels,” he sided with the British. The Iroquois expected, in making this new alliance, that King George would govern all the whites, while they should conquer and rule all the red men in North America. It was a great day when General Burgoyne and his officers in their glittering uniforms confirmed with splendid presents the decision of the Iroquois to side with the King. Active in the campaign of 1777, these confederate red men fought with the Tories and British soldiers against the Americans, especially at the battle of Oriskany. For a while they were broken and demoralized by Burgoyne’s defeat at Saratoga, when the whole British army surrendered. When in 1778, the red men were rallied by Brant, Butler, McDonald and Sir John Johnson, they made the head of Seneca Lake, where Geneva now stands, their headquarters. Here they planned to attack Wyoming, a settlement, chiefly of Connecticut people, from which most of the able bodied men were absent in Washington’s army, only old men, boys, women and children being at home. After the battle and massacre of July 3 another skillfully planned attack on Cherry Valley in New York was made, and on the 11th of October this settlement was reduced to ashes and the people murdered or taken prisoners to Canada. These atrocities decided Congress and Washington to chastise the savages, desolate their country and paralyze the activity of the Tories. It was especially necessary to do this, because the British were encouraging their white and red allies to make the great maize lands of Central and Western New York a granary from which they could feed their very mixed army, made up of English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, Hessians, Canadians and Iroquois, besides keeping up a continual fire in the rear upon the American forces. But they had Washington, Sullivan, and the American riflemen to reckon with. CHAPTER II ASSEMBLING FOR THE GREAT MARCH