The public mind is now in a state of excitement, occasioned by the improper proceedings of the royal commissioners for restoring peace. They have made a second communication to Congress, but still without any intimation of the recognition of the Independence of the United States; but address them on the supposition, that the people of America are still the subjects of the crown of Britain. This last communication is drafted with much art and address, calculated to excite jealousies and division among the people. Not content with their public declarations, and proposals addressed to Congress, they have actually descended to the dishonorable act of insidious offers to corrupt some distinguished individuals. Governor Johnstone, one of the commissioners, with inexcusable effrontery, offered a bribe to Mr. Reed, a member of Congress. In an interview with Mrs. Ferguson, of Philadelphia, whose husband is a royalist, he desired that she would mention to Mr. Reed, that if he would engage his interest to promote the object of their commission, he might have any office in the colonies, in the gift of his Britannic majesty, and ten thousand pounds in hand. Having solicited an interview with Mr. Reed, Mrs. Ferguson made her communication. Spurning the idea of being purchased, he replied, "that he was not worth purchasing, but such as he was, the king of Great Britain was not rich enough to do it." Congress declined all further intercourse with the commissioners, and terminated their attempts at negotiation, unless their royal master would first withdraw his fleets and armies, or expressly acknowledge the Independence of the United States. In order to demonstrate their most pointed indignation against such daring attempts to corrupt their integrity, they resolved, that it was incompatible with their honor to hold any further intercourse with George Johnstone, Esquire, more especially to negotiate with him on affairs in which the cause of liberty and virtue are interested.

We are just informed of a new order of fanatics, who have recently introduced themselves into our country, pretending to be a religious sect; but if reports be true, they are a disgrace both to religion and to human nature. They

made a violent attempt to rescue his daughter. Kosciusko was reduced to the alternative of destroying the parent or of abandoning the object of his affections. Disdaining the atrocious deed, he sheathed his sword, and soon after, having obtained permission of his sovereign to quit Poland, he resorted to America, where he resolved to exercise his gallantry in a new sphere of action.

are called Shaking Quakers, or Dancing Quakers, though they have no affinity either in principle or character to the established order of Quakers. Their leader is a female by the name of Ann Lee, niece of General Lee, of our army. She is lately from England, and has brought over with her a few followers, and has had the address to seduce several individuals of our country to her party. She is known by the appellation of Mother Ann, and pretends to have received a revelation from heaven. The method which they practise under the idea of religious worship, is so obviously impious, as to exceed the bounds of credibility; but we have the particulars from eye witnesses, who have been admitted to their midnight orgies. They spend whole nights in their revels, and exhibit the most unbecoming scenes, violating all rules of propriety and decency. Both sexes, nearly divested of clothing, fall to dancing in extravagant postures, and frequently whirl themselves round on one leg with inconceivable rapidity, till they fall apparently lifeless on the floor. A spectator asserts, that the fantastic contortions of body in which their pretended religious exercises consist, bear the semblance of supernatural impulse, and that no imagination can form an adequate idea of the extravagant conduct of these infatuated people-a burlesque on all moral and religious principle.

High Lands, August 3d.-I am now to notice one of the most dreadful instances of perfidious savage cruelty that can perhaps be found on the records of history. However incredible the particulars may appear, they are found in various publications, and received as indubitable facts. Nor would I tarnish a page with the diabolical transaction, till the detailed account has been incontrovertibly established. At a place on the eastern branch of the Susquehannah river, was a flourishing settlement called Wyoming. It consisted of eight townships, containing one thousand families; and such was the zeal with which they espoused the cause of America, that they voluntarily raised about one thousand soldiers for the continental army. The climate and soil of this territory are admirably adapted to the production of grain, hemp, fruit, and stock of all kinds. The inhabitants of this secluded spot, might have lived in

*The sect now denominated Shaking Quakers, are an orderly and civil people; they have rendered themselves remarkable for industry and ingenuity, and for their particular attention to agriculture and the mechanic arts.

the enjoyment of all the happiness which results from harmony and the purest natural affection. But unfortunately they suffered themselves to be divided by the turbulent spirit of party, distinguished by the epithet of whig and tory. When this rancorous spirit was permitted to disclose itself, animosities arose to such an astonishing height, as to sever the tenderest ties of family friendship, and the dearest connexions. Many of the active inhabitants, influenced by malice and revenge, abandoned their plantations, forsook their neighbors and friends, and allied themselves with the savages, whom they instigated and assisted in the barbarous work of slaughter and death among their friends. The inhabitants, on receiving intelligence that an enterprise was preparing against them, and sensible of their perilous situation, threw up entrenchments and redoubts, to defend themselves against the gathering storm. About the first of July last, the ferocious enemy, consisting of one thousand six hundred tories, Indians, and half-blooded Englishmen, approached the settlement, and were perceived lurking about their borders. This motley combination was commanded by a Colonel John Butler, a tory refugee, and others, no less inhuman and cruel than their savage allies. In order to lull the inhabitants into security, the enemy several times sent messages to the settlers, that they had no hostile designs against them, and the treacherous Butler himself declared, that he should not molest them the present season. The inhabitants, however, had reason to distrust their professions, and those capable of bearing arms, were immediately embodied under the command of Colonel Zeb. Butler, cousin to the commander of the savages. The women and children were directed to take refuge in the forts. The enemy approached, and pretending they were desirous of a parley, proposed that Colonel Zeb. Butler should meet them at some distance from the fort for that purpose. He complied, but for safety, took with him four hundred armed men. This proved to be a fatal stratagem; he soon found himself surrounded and attacked on every side. He and his little party defended themselves with great firmness and bravery; and the commander, with about twenty of his men, finally made their escape. The enemy now rushed on and invested the fort, which they cannonaded most of the day; and horrid to relate, when they sent in a demand for the surrender, it was accompanied by one hundred and ninety-six bloody scalps taken from those who had just been slain. Colonel Denni

son, on whom the command of the fort had devolved, defended himself till most of his men had fallen by his side, when he went out with a flag, to inquire what terms would be granted him on surrendering the garrison? He received from the ferocious Butler, a reply in two words, "the hatchet." Colonel Dennison was finally obliged to surrender at discretion, still retaining a hope of mercy. But he was wofully mistaken, the threat of Butler was rigorously executed; after selecting a few prisoners, the remainder of the people, including women and children, were enclosed in houses and barracks, which were immediately set on fire, and the whole consumed together. Another fort was near at hand, in which were seventy continental soldiers; on surrendering without conditions, these were, to a man, butchered in a barbarous manner; when the remainder of the men, women, and children were shut up in the houses, and the demons of hell glutted their vengeance, in beholding their destruction in one general conflagration!! This tragical scene being finished, the merciless authors of it spread fire and sword throughout the settlement, sparing however, the houses and farms of the tories; they extended their cruel hands to the cattle in the field, shooting some, and cutting out the tongues of others, leaving them alive. The additional particulars, from their unparalleled enormity, would not be recited here, were it not that they have been already promulgated from authentic sources. One of the prisoners, a Captain Badlock, was committed to torture, by having his body stuck full of splinters of pine knots, and a fire of dry wood made round him, when his two companions, Captains Ranson and Durkee, were thrown into the same fire, and held down with pitchforks, till consumed. One Partial Terry, the son of a man of respectable character, having joined the Indian party, several times sent his father word that he hoped to wash his hands in his heart's blood; the monster with his own hands murdered his father, mother, brothers, and sisters, stripped off their scalps, and cut off his father's head!! Thomas Terry, with his own hands butchered his own mother, his father-in-law, his sisters and their infant children, and exterminated the whole family! A few individuals, mostly women and children, made their escape during the carnage of the day, and dispersed themselves, wandering in the woods, destitute of provision or covering, shuddering with terror and distress; their sufferings must be extreme, and their fate uncertain. It is only in the infernal regions that

we can look for a parallel instance of unnatural wickedness. The cries of widows and orphans call for the avenging hand of heaven. The name of Colonel John Butler, ought to be consigned to eternal infamy, for the base treachery and cruelty with which he betrayed his kinsman, Colonel Zeb. Butler, a respectable American officer, while under the sanction of a flag.

4th. In company with Mr. Governeur Morris and Dr. Brown, our Surgeon General, I rode to camp near White Plains; waited on Colonel Scammel, Adjutant General, to inquire whether any regiment is destitute of a surgeon, as I am desirous of exchanging my present station for the office of regimental surgeon. This object I might have effected, but Dr. Brown prevailed on me not to dissolve my connexion with the General Hospital at present. From camp I performed a journey to Bradford, and from thence to Danbury, in Connecticut. Dined with Drs. Eustis and Adams, at their quarters at Bradford, and reached Danbury in the evening. On my return, the 5th, dined at a tavern in Crompond, and in the afternoon, I missed my road and my horse tired. I was directed into an obscure path through a thick forest, and arrived at the hospital late in the evening. Riding through a thick wood, my attention was arrested by a novel spectacle on a branch of a large oak about thirty feet high, I observed a monstrous black snake, suspended by a coil of its tail, his head and about half his length inclining downwards, basking in the sun. It appeared about two yards in length, and the size of a man's arm. Its skin was of a jet black, and its prominent sparkling black eyes were very beautiful. He viewed me as I passed with the fierceness of a tiger; but discovering none of those fascinating charms by which our credulous mother Eve was so wofully beguiled, and disdaining the whole progeny of deceivers, I passed on without viewing him as an object of my civilities.

7th.-An unusual number of patients have been brought into our hospital within a few days. Their diseases are putrid fever and dysentery, many of the cases appear so malignant, that it is feared, they will baffle all the skill of the physician.

10th. A friend from Albany informs me, that three men, and two girls, have lately been sentenced to suffer death for murder and robbery. The two girls are sisters, and one of the men is their brother. Another brother was executed last autumn, and their mother is now in prison, awaiting her