George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

[242] last precipice; and at the same moment the attack be-

chap. X.} 1756.

gan on the Delawares who had slept abroad, and on the houses which lay discovered under the light of morning. Jacobs raised the war-whoop, crying, ‘The white men are come; we shall have scalps enough.’ The squaws and children fled to the woods; the warriors fought with desperate bravery and skill as marksmen. ‘We are men,’ they shouted; ‘we will not be made prisoners.’ The town being set on fire, some of them sang their death-song in the flames. Their store of powder, which was enough for a long war, scattered destruction as it exploded. Jacobs and others attempting flight, were shot and scalped; the town was burned to ashes, never to be rebuilt by savages. But the Americans lost sixteen men; and Armstrong himself was among the wounded. Hugh Mercer, captain of the company which suffered most, was hit by a musket-ball in the arm, and with five others separated from the main body; but, guided by the stars and rivulets, they soon found their way back. The conduct of Armstrong in leading his party through the mountainous wilderness, and reaching the town without being discovered, was universally applauded. Philadelphia voted honors to him and his gallant band; Pennsylvania has given his name to the county that includes the battle-field.

At the remotest south, adventurers formed a settlement beyond the Alatamaha, on the banks of the Santilla and the island of Cumberland; established their own rules of government; preserved good order amongst themselves; and held the country as far as the St. Mary's, in defiance of South Carolina and of the Spaniards at St. Augustine.