Legends of the Shawangunk2 JR.pdf - Friends of the Sabbath ...

26 Legends of the Shawangunk.
the prisoners taken by the Indians at this outbreak there were thirteen women, thirty
children, and one man. At Kingston twelve houses were burned, while the New Village
was entirely destroyed.
Soldiers were now sent up from New York, and the Indians were hunted like wild
beasts from mountain to mountain. The force employed, including the volunteers from
Esopus, numbered nearly three hundred men. Scouting parties were sent out in every
direction in which it was supposed hostile Indians could be found, destroying their crops
and burning their wigwams.
On the 26th of July a party of upwards of two hundred men, including forty-one
Long Island Indians and seven negroes, left Kingston to attack the savages at their fort
about thirty miles distant, “mostly” in a southwest direction. They had as a guide a
woman who had been a prisoner of the Indians, and took with them two pieces of cannon
and two wagons. The cannon and wagons they were forced to abandon before reaching
the fort. They intended to surprise the Indians, but found the fort untenanted except by a
solitary squaw. The next day they sent a force to surprise the savages on the mountain,
but were unable to surprise any. For two days and a half the whole party then employed
themselves in destroying the growing crops and old maize of the Indians, the latter of
which was stored in pits. Over two hundred acres of corn, and more than one hundred
pits of corn and beans, were rendered worthless by the invading forces. The natives
witnessed these proceedings from their lookout stations on the Shawangunk and
neighboring mountains, but made no resistance. Quinlan supposes this fort to have been
on the headwaters of the Kerhonkson. After this expedition the savages proceeded to
build a new fort thirty-six miles south-southwest of Kingston. The site of this fort is on
the right bank of the Shawangunk kill, near the village of Bruynswick. Against this fort
Capt. Kregier marched the following September, with a force of fifty-five men and an
Indian guide. Kregier says in his journal, in substance:
It having rained all day the expedition must rest for the present. Asked the Sheriff
and commissaries whether they could not get some horses to accompany us, so that we
may be able to place the wounded on them if we should happen to have any. After great
trouble obtained six horses, but received spiteful and insulting words from many of the
inhabitants. One said, let those furnish horses who commenced the war. Another said, if
they want anything they will have to take it by force. The third said he must first have his
horse valued and have security for it.
About one o’clock on the afternoon of the 3d we started from Fort Wiltwyck;
marched about three miles to the creek and lay there that night, during which we had
great rain. The next morning we found such high water and swift current in the kill that it
was impossible to ford it. Sent men on horseback to Fort Wiltwyck for axes and rope to
cross the creek. Crossed over about two o’clock in the afternoon and marched four miles
further on, where we bivouacked for the night. Set out again at daybreak, and about noon
came to their first maize-field, where we discovered two squaws and a Dutch woman