Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 235 



rumor of Indian hostilities, and the brutal and dis- 

 orderly side of frontier character was for the mo- 

 ment uppermost. They threatened to kill whoever 

 interfered with them, cursing the "damned traders" 

 as being worse than the Indians, 24 while Cresap 

 boasted of the murder, and never said a word in 

 condemnation of the still worse deeds that followed 

 it. 25 The next day he again led out his men and 

 attacked another party of Shawnees, who had been 

 trading near Pittsburg, killed one and wounded two 

 others, one of the whites being also hurt. 26 



Among the men who were with Cresap at this 

 time was a young Virginian, who afterward played 

 a brilliant part in the history of the West, who was 

 for ten years the leader of the bold spirits of Ken- 

 tucky, and who rendered the whole United States 

 signal and effective service by one of his deeds in 

 the Revolutionary war. This was George Rogers 

 Clark, then twenty-one years old. 27 He was of 

 good family, and had been fairly well educated, as 

 education went in colonial days ; but from his child- 

 hood he had been passionately fond of the wild 

 roving life of the woods. He was a great hunter; 

 and, like so many other young colonial gentlemen of 



24 Jefferson MSS. Deposition of John Gibson. April 4, 

 1800. 



25 Do. Deposition of Wm. Huston, April 19, 1798; also dep- 

 ositions of Samuel McKee, etc. 



26 "Am. Archives," IV, Vol. I, p. 468. Letter of Dev- 

 ereux Smith, June 10, 1774. Gibson's letter. Also Jefferson 

 MSS. 



27 "Historical Magazine," I, p. 168. Born in Albemarle 

 County, Va., November 19, 1752. 



