[Reference from Page 253.]

"Camp before Fort Stanwix. August 13, 1777.

"To the Inhabitants of Tryon County.

"Notwithstanding the many and great injuries we have received in person and property at your hands, and being at the head of victorious troops, we most ardently wish to have peace restored to this once happy country; to obtain which, we are willing and desirous, upon a proper submission on your parts, to bury in oblivion all that is past, and hope that you are, or will be, convinced in the end that we were your friends and good advisers, and not such wicked, designing men, as those who led you into error, and almost total ruin. You have, no doubt, great reason to dread the resentment of the Indians, on account of the loss they sustained in the late action, and the mulish obstinacy of your troops in this garrison, who have no resource but in themselves; for which reasons the Indians declare, that if they do not surrender the garrison without further opposition, they will put every soul to death,—not only the garrison, but the whole country,—without any regard to age, sex, or friends; for which reason it is become your indispensable duty, as you must answer the consequences, to send a deputation of your principal people, to oblige them immediately to what, in a very little time, they must be forced,—the surrender of the garrison; in which case we will engage, on the faith of Christians, to protect you from the violence of the Indians.

"Surrounded as you are by victorious armies, one half (if not the greater part) of the inhabitants friends to government, without any resource, surely you cannot hesitate a moment to accept the terms proposed to you by friends and well-wishers to the country.

"John Johnson, } D. W. Claus, } Superintendents. John Butler, }"