The Scouts of the ValleyAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
General
The Scouts of the Valley
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
Chemung River Valley (N.Y. and Pa.) -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Wyoming Valley (Pa.) -- Fiction
The Iroquois raged, and so did the Butlers and the Johnsons and Braxton
Wyatt. This was a flaw in their triumph, and the British and Tories saw,
also, that it was beginning to affect the superstitions of their red
allies. Braxton Wyatt made a shrewd guess as to the identity of the
raiders, but he kept quiet. It is likely, also, that Timmendiquas knew,
but be, too, said nothing. So the influence of the raiders grew. While
their acts were great, superstition exaggerated them and their powers
manifold. And it is true that their deeds were extraordinary. They were
heard of on the Susquehanna, then on the Delaware and its branches, on
the Chemung and the Chenango, as far south as Lackawaxen Creek, and as
far north as Oneida Lake. It is likely that nobody ever accomplished
more for a defense than did those five in the waning months of the
summer. Late in September the most significant of all these events
occurred. A party of eight Tories, who had borne a terrible part in
the Wyoming affair, was attacked on the shores of Otsego Lake with such
deadly fierceness that only two escaped alive to the camp of Sir John
Johnson. Brant sent out six war parties, composed of not less than
twenty warriors apiece, to seek revenge, but they found nothing.
Henry and his comrades had found a remarkable camp at the edge of one of
the beautiful small lakes in which the region abounds. The cliff at that
point was high, but a creek entered into it through a ravine. At the
entrance of the creek into the river they found a deep alcove, or,
rather, cave in the rock. It ran so far back that it afforded ample
shelter from the rain, and that was all they wanted. It was about
halfway between the top and bottom of the cliff, and was difficult of
approach both from below and above. Unless completely surprised-a very
unlikely thing with them-the five could hold it against any force as
long as their provisions lasted. They also built a boat large enough for
five, which they hid among the bushes at the lake's edge. They were thus
provided with a possible means of escape across the water in case of the
last emergency.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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