In the Current of the Revolution 345 



contained no demand for help; it was merely a 

 warning that the Indians were undoubtedly about 

 to start, and that "they intended to drive the coun- 

 try up to New River before they returned" so that 

 it behooved the Fincastle men to look to their own 

 hearthsides. Sevier was a very fearless, self-reliant 

 man, and doubtless felt confident that the settlers 

 themselves could beat back their assailants. His 

 forecast proved correct ; for the Indians, after main- 

 taining an irregular siege of the fort for some three 

 weeks, retired, almost at the moment that parties 

 of frontiersmen came to the rescue from some of 

 the neighboring forts. 42 



While the foe was still lurking about the fort 

 the people within were forced to subsist solely on 

 parched corn ; and from time to time some of them 

 became so irritated by the irksome monotony of 

 their confinement, that they ventured out heedless 

 of the danger. Three or four of them were killed 

 by the Indians, and one boy was carried off to 

 one of their towns, where he was burnt at the stake ; 

 while a woman who was also captured at this time 

 was only saved from a like fate by the exertions 

 of the same Cherokee squaw already mentioned as 

 warning the settlers. Tradition relates that during 

 the siege, Sevier, now a young widower, fell in love 

 with the woman he soon afterward married. Her 



42 Campbell MSS. Haywood says that the first help came 

 from Evan Shelby; Col. Russell at Eaton's Station proving 

 dilatory. In the Campbell MSS. are some late letters written 

 by sons of the Captain Campbell who took part in the Island 

 Flats fight, denying this statement. - 



