Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 245 



merciless ferocity. They stole out of the woods with 

 the silent cunning of wild beasts, and ravaged with 

 a cruelty ten times greater. They burned down the 

 lonely log-huts, ambushed travelers, shot the men 

 as they hunted or tilled the soil, ripped open the 

 women with child, and burned many of their cap- 

 tives at the stake. Their noiseless approach enabled 

 them to fall on the settlers before their presence 

 was suspected; and they disappeared as suddenly 

 as they had come, leaving no trail that could be fol- 

 lowed. The charred huts and scalped and mangled 

 bodies of their victims were left as ghastly remind- 

 ers of their visit, the sight stirring the backwoods- 

 men to a frenzy of rage all the more terrible in 

 the end, because it was impotent for the time being. 

 Generally they made their escape successfully; oc- 

 casionally they were beaten off or overtaken and 

 killed or scattered. 



When they met armed woodsmen the fight was 

 always desperate. In May a party of hunters and 

 surveyors, being suddenly attacked in the forest, 

 beat off their assailants and took eight scalps, 

 though with a loss of nine of their own number. 55 

 Moreover, the settlers began to band together to 

 make retaliatory inroads ; and while Lord Dunmore 

 was busily preparing to strike a really effective 

 blow, he directed the frontiersmen of the North- 

 west to undertake a foray, so as to keep the Indians 

 employed. Accordingly, they gathered together, 



55 "Am. Archives," p. 373. 



