succession at a flock of partridges. The reports having been heard in the vicinity, were supposed to indicate the approach of Indians, and alarm-guns were fired over the whole neighborhood, and the people commenced an immediate and general flight, until the whole settlements were in utter confusion and consternation. Those in their houses gathered up what they could carry, and with their children sought safety in flight; those who were with their teams in the fields cut the horses loose in haste, and made their escape with them; those who had no boats to cross the river plunged in with their wives or children on their backs. In this manner the consternation spread from one to another, until nearly five hundred families had left their homes and property, as they supposed, to the mercy of the Indians. Some continued their flight to the borders of New England before they were undeceived. Early in October, about twenty persons had been killed by Indians in the vicinity of Allenstown and Bethlehem, on Lehigh River, in Pennsylvania; and such was the general consternation, that "most of the people in the vicinity had fled from their habitations."* It is not our design to recount all the deeds of blood and cruelty perpetrated upon the frontier people by the hostile Indians. The feelings of humanity are shocked, and recoil at the recitation of them. The sketch already given may serve to convey a faint idea of the calamities endured by the wretched inhabitants subject to the horrors of Indian warfare. During the following winter, detached scalping parties of Indians continued to traverse the border regions, and to prowl about the forts on the western parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina, committing such depredations and murders as served to keep the whole exposed population in a state of continual dread and fearful apprehension for their personal safety. Although the savages at all times, in their hostile incursions upon the settlements, commit the most inhuman barbarities upon the helpless and unprotected, there are among the frontier people occasionally men equally depraved, and who in deeds of blood are scarcely superior to the most ferocious savages. In some instances, indeed, the whites, exasperated to phrensy by the repeated murders atrociously perpetrated upon * See Thatcher's Indian Biography, vol. ii., p. 113, 114. their friends and relatives by the savages, have been impelled, by feelings of revenge, to deeds of blood at which humanity weeps. Such was the phrensied revenge of the "Paxton Boys." These desperadoes, prompted by a fanatical delusion, that the massacre of Wyoming was a judgment from God for "sparing the Canaanites in the land," organized themselves into a bandit corps, and, disregarding law or any civil authority of the state, proceeded to commit the most revolting barbarities upon the peaceable and innocent Conestago Indians, as a retaliation for the acts perpetrated by the hostile tribes. Dr. Doddridge says, "They rivaled the most ferocious of the Indians themselves in deeds of cruelty which have dishonored the history of our country; shedding innocent blood without the slightest provocation, in deeds of the most atrocious barbarity."* The Conestago Indians were the remains of the Conestago tribe, the early friends of William Penn, whose descendants, for more than a century, had lived in peace and friendship with the whites. This remnant of a tribe, about forty in number, were the first victims of this infuriate and demoniacal band. They were murdered in cold blood, in the midst of a civil government too weak to protect the weakest. The same vengeance would have been wreaked equally upon the peaceable and inoffensive Christian Indians of the villages of Wequetank and Nain, had not the state authorities at length succeeded in protecting them.† I [A.D. 1764.] Such had been the disasters to the British Doddridge's Notes on Virginia, p. 220. † Although this subject is properly beyond the limits of our prescribed history, yet, as it is connected with the Indian hostilities of 1763, we will take this further notice of this bandit corps. This band, laboring under a delusion which had been encouraged by certain fanatics, that it was their duty to exterminate the Indians, as Joshua did the Canaanites of old, organized into a military band, and set all law at defiance. On the 14th day of December, 1763, fifty-seven of these men, in military array, entered the Conestago village about daybreak, and immediately, with the most cruel barbarity, murdered every soul that was found in the village, amounting in all to fourteen, includ ing women and children. The remainder of them happened to be absent about the white settlements, and were taken in charge by the civil authorities, who placed them in the jail of Lancaster for protection. But this precaution was unavailing; the Paxton Boys broke, open the jail, and murdered the whole, to the additional number of nearly twenty. In vain did the poor, defenseless creatures, upon their knees, protest their innocence and implore mercy. Nor did the death of these victims satisfy these fiends in human shape; they mangled the dead bodies with scalping-knives and tomahawks in the most savage and brutal manner. Even the children were scalped, and their feet and hands chopped off with tomahawks. The authorities of Pennsyl vania removed the Indians of Wequetank and Nain, under a strong guard, to Phil arms, and such the consternation and slaughter in the provinces during the past year, that the English government, as well as the provinces, had determined to prosecute the war with vigor, and to give security to the frontier settlements during the next campaign by carrying the war, with fire and desolation, into the enemy's country. Early in the spring, active preparations were in operation throughout the provinces for the chastisement of the hostile Indians, and for the protection of the frontiers from the merciless fury of savage warfare. Troops were fast concentrating upon the remote posts near the lakes, and upon the Ohio region. Early in June, General Bradstreet, with three thousand troops, reached Fort Niagara on his route to re-enforce the garrisons in the western posts. While at Niagara, the Indians from the northwest made overtures for peace, and the general demanded of them a grand council, to confirm their professions by a treaty of peace. At length nearly two thousand Indians were assembled near Fort Niagara, and among them were representatives and chiefs from twenty-two nations, and embracing those from eleven of the remote northwestern tribes. A treaty was soon after concluded between his majesty's superintendent of Indian affairs, Sir William Johnson, on the part of Great Britain, and the chiefs, sachems, and warriors of the respective tribes. The treaty stipulates for peace and friendship, and a cession of certain lands to Great Britain lying south of Lakes Ontario and Erie.* But Pontiac was not there, nor would he sanction the treaty. General Bradstreet sailed from Detroit, and, after a narrow escape from shipwreck with his whole army on Lake Erie, off the present city of Cleveland, he arrived safely at Detroit. Af adelphia, where they remained under guard, either in the barracks or state-prison, for more than one year, or from November, 1763, to December, 1764. During this time, the Paxton Boys assembled in force several times for the purpose of assaulting the barracks and wresting the helpless Indians from the guard, to gratify their thirst for blood. The preparation and show of firmness by the military in their defense prevented an assault. In this instance, as in all other outrages against the rights and persons of the Indians, the civil authorities of the States have interfered in their behalf against the ferocity of the white man. The Paxton Boys at length began to commit outrages upon their fellow-citizens: and such was the terror inspired by their acts and threats, that no man felt safe to act or speak against them.-See Doddridge's Notes. For a more full account of this bandit clan and their fanaticism, see Proud's History of Pennsylvania, vol. ii., p. 325–330. Also, Gordon's Pennsylvania, p. 405. * Gordon's History of Pennsylvania, p. 438. ter making several incursions against hostile towns, and chastising several bands of hostile warriors, opposed to the late treaty, overtures of peace were received from them. Negotiations for a truce were opened, which soon after resulted in a peace with all the northwestern tribes, except the Shawanese and Delawares of the Scioto. Pontiac would take no part in the treaty, and remained adverse to peace. Soon afterward he retired to the Illinois River, where he still meditated vengeance against the English for nearly twelve months afterward. He continued to reside on the Illinois until the summer of 1767, when he was assassinated in the council-house by a Peoria chief.* In the mean time, Colonel Bouquet invaded the Indian country south of Lake Erie, and upon the branches of the Muskingum River. Marching from Fort Pitt on the 3d of October, he advanced through the Indian territory, spreading terror and death among the savages, destroying their fields and burning their towns, until the 25th of October, when he encamped at the Forks, or junction of the Tuscarawa and Walhonding Rivers. Here he received overtures of peace, which were accepted, and he dictated his terms to the hostile tribes of the Delawares, Senecas, and Shawanese. The surrender of prisoners, which had been one of the first requisitions, took place soon afterward; the Indians surrendered two hundred and six prisoners, men, women, and children, and delivered over hostages for the surrender of others. Peace being thus ratified with these tribes, Colonel Bouquet returned with his victorious army and his rescued captives to Fort Pitt, to the great joy of all the provinces. General Stanwix, who had succeeded to the command of the northwestern army, had taken measures for convening a grand council of the western tribes, and specially of the Six Nations and their confederates, to be held in the month of November, at the "German Flats," on the Mohawk River. The council accordingly convened, and the chiefs, warriors, and sachems of the Six Nations therein ratified and confirmed the previous treaty of Niagara, and entered into a general article of friendship and alliance with the British crown, as they had formerly done with the King of France. By this treaty, designated as the "Treaty of the German Thatcher's Indian Biography, vol. ii., p. 107. + Gordon's Pennsylvania, p. 436. Flats," the Six Nations ceded extensive tracts of land to the English provinces of New York and Pennsylvania. On the 5th day of December following, the treaty was proclaimed throughout the provinces, and peace was established with the Six Nations and their confederates. CHAPTER II. ADVANCE OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN POPULATION TO THE OHIO RIVER. SETTLEMENTS AND EXPLORATIONS.-A.D. 1765 тo 1774. Argument. Settlements spring up near the military Routes and Posts.-Fort Pitt.Fort Burd.-Isolated Condition of the Illinois Settlements.-Advance of white Settlements upon the Sources of the Susquehanna, Youghiogeny, and Monongahela; also upon New River and Greenbrier, Clinch and Holston.-Indian Territory on the Susquehanna, Alleghany, and Cheat Rivers.-Frontier Settlements of Virginia in 1766.-Emigration to the Monongahela in 1767.-Redstone Fort a garrisoned Post.Increase of Emigration in 1768.-Settlements extend to the Sources of the two Kenhawas. The colonial System of granting Lands east of the Ohio.-The Indians become impatient of the white Man's Advance.-Mode of conciliating Indians for their Lands.-Remonstrance of the Six Nations to the King's "Indian Agent."-The Subject of their Complaint laid before the provincial Legislature.-Treaties with northern and southern Indians ordered by royal Government.-"Treaty of Fort Stanwix." -The “Mississippi Company" of Virginia, 1769.—“Treaty of Hard Labor" with Cherokees.-Extensive Claims to Territory set up by the English under the "Treaty of Fort Stanwix" with the Six Nations.-Settlements advance to the Holston and Clinch Rivers.-Impatience of northern and southern Indians at the Advance of the Whites.-Explorations of Dr. Walker west of Cumberland Mountains, in 1768; of Finley, in 1769; of Colonel Knox.-" Long-Hunters."-Western Emigration encouraged by royal colonial Governments.-Emigration to Holston, Clinch, and to West Florida, in 1770.-Fort Pitt a garrisoned Post.-Settlements at Redstone Fort, on Ohio, at Wheeling, and other Points, in 1770.-Enthusiasm of eastern Settlements for western Emigration.-Territory claimed by Virginia.-Emigrants from North Carolina advance upon the Sources of Holston River.-Impatience of the Cherokees. -"Treaty of Lochaber."-New boundary Line.-The four hundred acre Settlement Act of Virginia, passed in 1770.-"District of West Augusta" organized.-Cresap's Settlement at Redstone "Old Fort," in 1771.-Provisions fail.-The "Starving Year" of 1772.-Settlements on the Qhio above the Kenhawa.-Route from eastern Settlements to the Ohio.-Manner of traveling.-Emigration to the West increases greatly in 1773.-To Western Virginia.-To "Western District" of North Carolina. -To West Florida.-Numerous Surveyors sent out to Kentucky.-Thomas Bullitt, Hancock Taylor, M'Afee.-Surveys near Frankfort, Harrodsburg, and Danville.— Captain Bullitt at the Falls of Ohio.-Settlements on the Holston, East Tennessee.Daniel Boone attempts to introduce white Families from North Carolina.-Driven back by Indians.-Emigration in 1774 to the Upper Ohio; on the Monongahela, Kenhawa, and Kentucky Regions.-Simon Kenton at May's Lick.-James Harrod at Harrodsburg.-West Augusta in 1774.-Outrages of lawless white Men provoke Indian Vengeance.-Wheeling Fort built.-Fort Fincastle.-Dr. Connolly Commandant of West Augusta. [A.D. 1765.] No sooner had peace with the northwestern Indians been established, than the restless population of the |