Schenectady,
A city and county seat of
Schenectady county, N. Y.; one of the oldest cities in the
State; settled by
Arent Van Curler in 1661.
Count Frontenac arrived in
Canada as governor by reappointment in October, 1689.
He brought with him troops and supplies and a plan for the invasion and occupation of New York.
Invasions by the
Iroquois had reduced
Canada to great distress, and his arrival was timely relief.
Frontenac was about seventy years of age, but possessed the vigor and buoyancy of a young man. He set to work with energy to carry the war into the
British colonies by land and sea. His first organized
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warparty was composed chiefly of Mohawks converted by the
Jesuit missionaries, who were settled near
Montreal.
They were acquainted with the settlements about
Albany.
These Mohawks, with a number of Frenchmen, were sent to attack these settlements.
They traversed the wooded wilderness southward among deep snows, and, after a march of twenty days, approached
Schenectady, then a Dutch village in the
Mohawk Valley, and the outpost of the settlements at
Albany.
There were about forty houses enclosed in a palisade, but, unaware of danger, the gates were left open, and the people were sleeping soundly, when, on the night of Feb. 8, 1690, the invaders entered the village silently, separated into several bands.
The horrid signal of the war-whoop was given, and the attack began.
Doors were broken open, indiscriminate slaughter ensued, and the houses were set on fire.
Sixty men, women, and children were slain, twenty-seven were taken prisoners, and the remainder fled, half-naked, through a driving snow-storm, to
Albany, 16 miles distant. The cold was so intense that many lost their limbs by frost.
This raid created intense alarm.
