334 The Winning of the West 



While the Creeks were halting and considering, 

 and while the Choctaws and Chickasaws were being 

 visited by British emissaries, the Cherokees flung 

 themselves on the frontier folk. They had been 

 short of ammunition ; but when the British agents 20 

 sent them fifty horse-loads 21 by a pack-train that 

 was driven through the Creek towns, they no longer 

 hesitated. The agents showed very poor general- 

 ship in making them rise so early, when there were 

 no British troops in the Southern States, 22 and when 

 the Americans were consequently unhampered and 

 free to deal with the Indians. Had the rising been 

 put off until a British army was in Georgia, it might 

 well have proved successful. 



The Cherokee villages stood in that cluster of 

 high mountain chains which mark the ending of the 

 present boundaries of Georgia and both Carolinas. 

 These provinces lay east and southeast of them. 

 Directly north were the forted villages of the Wa- 

 tauga pioneers, in the valley of the upper Tennessee, 

 and beyond these again, in the same valley, the Vir- 

 ginian outpost settlements. Virginia, North and 

 South Carolina, and Georgia were alike threatened 

 by the outbreak, while the Watauga people were 

 certain to be the chief sufferers. The Cherokees 

 were so near the settlements that their incursions 

 were doubly dangerous. On the other hand, there 



20 Stuart and Cameron; the latter dwelt among them, and 

 incited them to war. 



21 "Am. Archives," 5th Series, III, 649. 



22 The only British attempt made at that time against the 

 Southern colonies was in too small force and failed. 



