But it was a period favoring Indian activity, which was now at its highest pitch.

Since Wyoming, loaded with scalps, flushed with victory, and aided by the king's men, they felt equal to anything.
Only the strongest of the border settlements could hold them back.

The colonists here were so much reduced, and so little help could be sent them from the East, that the Iroquois were able to divide into innumerable small parties and rake the country as with a fine tooth comb.

They never missed a lone farmhouse, and rarely was any fugitive in the woods able to evade them.

And they were constantly fed from the North with arms, ammunition, rewards for scalps, bounties, and great promises.
But toward the close of August the Iroquois began to hear of a silent and invisible foe, an evil spirit that struck them, and that struck hard.