er petition to the Congress of the United States, not only setting forth their present difficulties and soliciting redress, but also requesting that a competent tribunal might be appointed in conformity to the ninth article of the confederation of the States, by which the private right of property in the soil might be determined. On the report of a committee to whom this petition was referred, Congress, on the 23d. of January 1784, Resolved, that such tribunal be constituted, and that Congress or a Committee of the States would hear the parties on the fourth Monday of June then next. It happened that on that day neither Congress nor the Committee of the States were sitting, and the controversy came to no determination.

The winter of this year was severely cold, and a body of ice was formed upon the Susquehanna of an uncommon thickness. Immense masses of snow lay in the forests which fed the tributary streams, and the Spring of 1784 opened with a general, and sudden thaw. On the 13th. and 14th. of March, there fell immense quantities of rain. The following day the ice in the river began to break up, and the stream rose with great rapidity. The ice first gave way at the different rapids, and floated down in great masses which lodged against the frozen surface of the more gentle parts of the river where it continued firm. In this manner several large dams were formed which caused such an accumulation of the water, that the river overflowed all its -banks, and one general inundation overspread the extensive plains of Wyoming. The inhabitants

took refuge on the hills and surrounding heights, and saw their property exposed to the fury of the waters. At length the upper dam gave way, and huge masses of ice were scattered in every direction. The deluge bore down upon the dams below which successively yielded to the insupportable burden, and the whole went off with a noise like the thunder of contending storms. Houses, barns, fences, stacks of hay and grain, cattle, flocks of sheep, and droves of swine, were swept off in the general destruction and seen no more. The plain on which the village of Wilkesbarre is built, was covered with heaps of ice which continued a great portion of the following summer.

The ice freshet, as this deluge was called, created so great a scarcity of provisions, that the prospect of approaching want, produced the most gloomy apprehensions among the inhabitants; and the soldiers, in order to provide sufficient stores for themselves, became more ungovernable than be*fore in their acts of indiscriminate plunder upon such property as the more merciful elements had neglected to destroy. These accumulated evils excited much sympathy in the inhabitants of Pennsylvania and the surrounding colonies in behalf of the sufferers, and Mr. Dickinson, President of the Supreme Executive Council, who appears to have largely participated in feelings so honourable to his station, sent, on the 31st of March, the following message to the General Assembly: "GENTLEMEN -The late inundation having reduced many of the inhabitants of Wyoming to

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 jour ney 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, Gaused 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 on their arrival, having ascertained the abuses which had been committed, they made such representations to government concerning them, that

on the 15th. 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 reinforce ment, 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