234 The Winning of the West 



selves in readiness to repel any attack by the In- 

 dians, as the Shawnees were hostile. Such a letter 

 from Lord Dunmore's lieutenant amounted to a 

 declaration of war, and there were sure to be plenty 

 of backwoodsmen who would put a very liberal in- 

 terpretation upon the order given them to repel an 

 attack. Its effects were seen instantly. All the 

 borderers prepared for war. Cresap was near 

 Wheeling at the time, with a band of hunters and 

 scouts, fearless men, who had adopted many of the 

 ways of the redskins, in addition to their method 

 of fighting. As soon as they received Conolly's 

 letter they proceeded to declare war in the regular 

 Indian style, calling a council, planting the war- 

 post, and going through other savage ceremonies, 22 

 and eagerly waited for a chance to attack their foes. 

 Unfortunately the first stroke fell on friendly In- 

 dians. The trader, Butler, spoken of above, in or- 

 der to recover some of the peltries of which he had 

 been robbed by the Cherokees, had sent a canoe 

 with two friendly Shawnees toward the place of the 

 massacre. On the 27th Cresap and his followers 

 ambushed these men near Captina, and killed and 

 scalped them. Some of the better backwoodsmen 

 strongly protested against this outrage; 23 but the 

 mass of them were excited and angered by the 



22 Letter of George Rogers Clark, June 17, 1798. In Jeffer- 

 son MSS., 5th Series, Vol. I. (preserved in Archives of State 

 Department at Washington). 



23 Witness the testimony of one of the most gallant Indian 

 fighters of the border, who was' in Wheeling at the time ; let- 

 ter of Col. Ebenezer Zane, February 4, 1800, in Jefferson MSS. 



