Captain Crygier, deeming all further attempt to overtake the savages hopeless, decided to return to the Indian fort.  Having reached it, all hands engaged in the work of destruction.  The savages had collected there a large supply of provisions for the approaching winter.  The colonists took all they could carry away with them and destroyed the rest.  They then utterly demolished the buildings and palisades, committing all to the flames.  The works must have cost the Indians an immensity of labor.  There were two hundred acres of corn, waving richly in the summer breeze, giving promise of an abundant harvest.  All was trampled down.  It was a fearful calamity to the wretched Indians.  Probably not a few perished of famine the next winter.  There was by no means a sufficient supply of game in the forest to meet their wants.  Their main reliance was upon their cornfields.

While they were engaged in this work of destruction four savages appeared upon a hill near some of the colonists, and cried out to them “To-morrow we will come and fight you, for we must all now die of hunger.”

The next morning the colonists commenced their return.  They showed their respect for the prowess of the savages, by forming their little army in strong military array, with the advance, the centre and the rear guard.  At nine o’clock in the evening of August 1st, 1663, they reached their anxious friends at Esopus, without the loss of a man.

Ere long news reached Esopus, that the savages were building another fort, which they called a castle, about thirty-six miles southwest of Esopus, probably near the present town of Mamakating, Sullivan county.  An expedition of one hundred and twenty five men, under Captain Crygier, was immediately organized to destroy the works.  A young Indian guided the party.  Several horses were taken with them to bring back those who might be wounded.

At one o’clock in the afternoon of September third, the party set out from Esopus.  A march of nine miles brought them to a creek, which was so swollen by recent rains, that they were delayed for several hours until they could construct a rude bridge across it.  In the meantime the rain was falling in torrents.  It was not until four o’clock in the afternoon of the next day that the party effected its passage across the stream.  They then pressed forward twelve miles farther and bivouacked for the night.

At daybreak they were again upon the move, and about two o’clock in the afternoon emerged from the forest in view of the fort.  It stood upon an elevated plain.  Like the one we have already described, it consisted of a square enclosure, surrounded by two rows of strong palisades, and a third had already been commenced.  These posts, pointed at the top, were firmly planted in the ground, and were of the thickness of a man’s body, and rose fifteen feet into the air.

Captain Crygier, after carefully scrutinizing the works, divided his force into two sections for the attack.  He was well aware that he had a foe to encounter who would fight with the utmost desperation behind his intrenchments.  One party of the assailants crept cautiously along, beneath the covert of a hill, until, coming to the open plain, they were discovered by a squaw, who uttered a terrible cry which roused the whole garrison of Indians.