great distress, we should be glad if your honourable house would make some immediate provision for their relief."

The

The General Assembly, however, governed as it then was by the influence of the landholders, did not appear to be influenced by the motives which actuated the Council, and no effectual measures were taken for the relief of the inhabitants. soldiers continued their acts of violence and plunder under the sanction of the principal magistrate, Justice Patterson, who fearing that his conduct might produce an enquiry on the part of the Council, thought proper to provide against that event, and accordingly in a letter to the Council of the 29th of April, he expresses himself as follows :-

I therefore humbly hope that if any dangerous or seditious commotion should arise in this country, so remote from the seat of government, that it may not be construed into a want of zeal or love for the Commonwealth, if we should, through dire necessity, be obliged to do some things not strictly consonant with the letter of the law."

The inhabitants finding at length that the burden of their calamities was too great to be borne, began to resist the illegal proceedings of their new masters, and refused to comply with the decisions of the mock tribunals which had been established. Their resistance enraged the magistrates, and on the 12th of May the soldiers of the garrison were sent to disarm them, and under this pretence one hundred and fifty families were turned out of their dwellings, many of which were burnt, and all ages

and sexes reduced to the same destitute condition. After being plundered of their little remaining property, they were driven from the valley and compelled to proceed on foot through the wilderness by way of the Lackawaxen to the Delaware, a distance of about eighty miles. During this journey the unhappy fugitives suffered all the miseries which human nature appears to be capable of enduring. Old men, whose children were slain in battle, widows with their infant children, and children without parents to protect them, were here companions in exile and sorrow, and wandering in a wilderness where famine and ravenous beasts continued daily to lessen the number of the sufferers. One shocking instance of suffering is related by a survivor of this scene of death; it is the case of a mother whose infant having died, roasted it by piecemeal for the daily subsistence of her remaining children!

Acts of violence, productive of so much misery, caused murmurs to arise, which could not be disregarded by the government of Pennsylvania, and The General Assembly appointed Jonas Hartzel, Robert Brown, and Jacob Stroud, Commissioners, with directions to repair to Wyoming and examine concerning the state of the settlement, and to enquire relative to the conduct of the Pennsylvania officers. These Commissioners were accompanied by the Sheriff of Northumberland county, and en their arrival, having ascertained the abuses which had been committed, they made such representations to government concerning them, that

on the 13th. of June the Troops were discharged, a small number only being retained to garrison Fort Dickinson. The inhabitants were accordingly invited to return to their dwellings by public proclamation, and were promised protection on yielding obedience to the laws. Many of the Troops which had been discharged, were employed by some of the Pennsylvania land claimants to continue at Wyoming, and they formed a band of freebooters, who continued about the settlements for a time, and after the return of the Sheriff and Commissioners, took possession of some vacant houses in Kingston, where they subsisted by plundering the surrounding country. These men afterwards joined Patterson and his small garrison in Fort Dickinson, where they produced such a reinforcement, and a force of such a description, as induced the inhabitants to garrison themselves at Forty-fort. On the 20th of July a party of the inhabitants proceeded from this post to the flats about five miles below, in order to ascertain the situation of their grain fields, and having passed some distance from the fort, were fired upon by a party consisting of thirty of Patterson's men, commanded by Wm. Brink, when Chester Pierce and Elisha Garret, two distinguished young men, were killed, and the remainder effected their retreat to the fort.

The loss of Pierce and Garret was deeply lamented, and the inhabitants resolved to avenge their murders. Accordingly three days afterwards the garrison of forty fort marched to Wilkesbarre, near the dawn of the day, with an intention of surpri

zing Patterson and his party, and if possible, to make them prisoners; but the former having re ceived an intimation of their design, retired with his associates into the Fort, and there prepared to defend themselves. The inhabitants surrounded the Fort, but not being in a situation to commence a siege, they secured some of their own property which Patterson had neglected to secure, and leaving a party to guard the fort, proceeded to Mill Creek, and took possession of the mill at that place, the only one in the settlement, and which had been for some time occupied exclusively by Patterson and his party. Here they remained until they had ground a sufficient quantity of grain for their immediate wants, when they again returned to their position at forty fort.

OF THE

HISTORY OF WYOMING.

1440

CHAPTER IV.

Fort Dickinson at Wyoming besieged by the Corts necticut settlers-Pennsylvania troops sent to Wyoming under Colonel Armstrong Affair at Locust Hill-Armstrong arrives at Wyoming→→ He treacherously makes prisoners of the Connec ticut settlers-Prisoners escape from Easton and Sunbury--Attack upon the Pennsylvania troops --The Commissioners, Reed and Henderson, killeil-Re-enforcements of Pennsylvania troops sent to Wyoming-Letter of President Dickinson--Proceedings of the Council of Censors Memorial to the Legislature of Connecticut-Memorial to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania -Juzerne county erected-Confirming Law passed-Commissioners sent to Wyoming-Colonel Pickering taken prisoner Skirmish at Meshoppen-Confirming law repealed-Compensation Law passed-Settlement of the controver sy-Intrusion Law passed-Bradford and Susquehanna counties erected.

The acts of violence, which had been committed by Patterson and his associates at Wyoming, exci ted in the bosoms of the inhabitants the most determined spirit of vengeance; and having collected their forces from the surrounding country, they laid siege to Fort Dickinson, in which these cruel marauders, to the number of sixty-five, attempted M