Letter from Aaron Hankinson, Colonel, 2nd Regiment, Sussex, to Govenor William Livingston, in "The Livingstone Papers".
Sussex July 12th 178l
By order of a Late Act (1) I am To Send a general Return
of the State of my Batalion By the first of july but not having
an Oppertunety [Since I?] have been somthing falty I pray the
Governor to Excuse my not being Sooner wood inform the Governer
by his orders we where to Rase three men out of Every Companey
for the frontiers of Sussex which Orders we have Complid with
and have Rasd 29 out of 36 the Last account I had from the Capt.
possible there may be more have joynd Since and by a Late Law
we are to Rase Every 16 Teenth man Sir I have issued my orders
to the Several Capts but am fearful the men will not be got. Wood
inforn1 his Excellency there has been Several
morders Committed Latly over thc mountain by the Savedges(2) they
Came to thc house of one [ . . . ] Steel (3) and Cortrile which
they Took of after Traveling Some Distance the said [ . . . ]
being Somthing Old and a noted Torey thc Endians Kild and Scalp
him Our people took there tracks followed them about 20 miles
Came up with them Kild one Endian wounded two more Released Steal
and Cort[ . . . ] and took all this Bagage from them another party
Since Came to thc house of John Larner Kild said Larner his Son
his Sons wife and a Small Child another Son of said Larners hearing
the firing Came to there assistance Six Endians fired at him but
through favour they mist him he made the house he then Returnd
a Shot and Lukkely Shot one through the Calabass(4) they then
posted foot. I am Dear Sir your most abediant and very humble
Servant
Aaron Hankinson
I. For previous reference to thc assembly act to raise 750 militiamen in New Jersey see WL to George Washington, June 27, 1781.
2. During thc 1781 campaign, 2,945 British-allied Iroquois and Algonkian harassed American frontier settlements and scored unsettling victories in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
3. Perhaps William Steele, a Loyalist who was arrested on September 1781 for carrying news of American military maneuvers to the British (NJA [Newspaper Extracts}, 5: 296).
4. calabash: a hard shelled gourd used as an eating utensil.
(slang for head)
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