into the valley of Wyoming, which was a sort of debatable
ground between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and carried
fire and sword through the settlements there. This raid
was commemorated by Thomas Campbell in a most unhistorical
poem entitled _Gertrude of Wyoming_:

On Susquehana's side, fair Wyoming!
Although the wild-flower on thy ruined wall
And roofless homes a sad remembrance bring
Of what thy gentle people did befall.

Later in the year Walter Butler, the son of Colonel John
Butler, and Joseph Brant, with a party of Loyalists and
Mohawks, made a similar inroad on Cherry Valley, south
of Springfield in the state of New York. On this occasion
Brant's Indians got beyond control, and more than fifty
defenceless old men, women, and children were slaughtered
in cold blood.

The Americans took their revenge the following year. A
large force under General Sullivan invaded the settlements
of the Six Nations Indians in the Chemung and Genesee
valleys, and exacted an eye for an eye and a tooth for
a tooth. They burned the villages, destroyed the crops,
and turned the helpless women and children out to face
the coming winter. Most of the Indians during the winter
of 1779-80 were dependent on the mercy of the British
commissaries.

This kind of warfare tends to perpetuate itself