Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 225 



representatives of the two contesting parties at Fort 

 Pitt were on the verge of actual collision. The 

 Earl's agent in the disputed territory was a Captain 

 John Conolly, 3 a man of violent temper and bad 

 character. He embodied the men favorable to his 

 side as a sort of Virginian militia, with which he 

 not only menaced both hostile and friendly Indians, 

 but the adherents of the Pennsylvanian Government 

 as well. He destroyed their houses, killed their 

 cattle and hogs, impressed their horses, and finally 

 so angered them that they threatened to take refuge 

 in the stockade at Fort Pitt, and defy him to open 

 war, although even in the midst of these quarrels 

 with Conolly their loyalty to the Quaker State was 

 somewhat doubtful. 4 



The Virginians were the only foes the Western 

 Indians really dreaded; for their backwoodsmen 

 were of warlike temper, and had learned to fight 

 effectively in the forest. The Indians styled them 

 Long Knives; or, to be more exact, they called 

 them collectively the "Big Knife." 5 There have 

 been many accounts given of the origin of this name, 

 some ascribing it to the long knives worn by the 

 hunters and backwoodsmen generally, others to the 

 fact that some of the noted Virginian fighters in 

 their early skirmishes were armed with swords. At 



3 "Am. Arch.," IV, Vol. I, 394, 449, 469, etc. He was gen- 

 erally called Dr. Conolly. 



4 See do., 463, 471, etc., especially St. Clair's letters, passim. 



5 In most of the original treaties, "talks," etc., preserved in 

 the Archives of the State Department, where the translation 

 is exact, the word "Big Knife" is used. 



