346 The Winning of the West 



name was Kate Sherrill. She was a tall girl, brown- 

 haired, comely, lithe and supple "as a hickory sap- 

 ling/' One day while without the fort she was 

 almost surprised by some Indians. Running like 

 a deer, she reached the stockade, sprang up so as 

 to catch the top with her hands, and, drawing her- 

 self over, was caught in Sevier's arms on the other 

 side; through a loop-hole he had already shot the 

 headmost of her pursuers. 



Soon after the baffled Otari retreated from Rob- 

 ertson's fort the other war parties likewise left the 

 settlements. The Watauga men together with the 

 immediately adjoining Virginian frontiersmen had 

 beaten back their foes unaided, save for some pow- 

 der and lead they had received from the older set- 

 tlements ; and moreover had inflicted more loss than 

 they suffered. 43 They had made an exceedingly 

 vigorous and successful fight. 



The outlying settlements scattered along the 

 western border of the Carolinas and Georgia had 

 been attacked somewhat earlier ; the Cherokees from 

 the lower towns, accompanied by some Creeks and 

 tories, beginning their ravages in the last days of 

 June. 44 A small party of Georgians had, just pre- 

 viously, made a sudden march into the Cherokee 



43 "American Archives," 5th Series, I, 973. Of the Wa- 

 tauga settlers eighteen men, two women, and several children 

 had been killed ; two or three were taken captive. Of the 

 Indians twenty-six were scalped; doubtless several others 

 were slain. Of course these figures only apply to the Wa- 

 tauga neighborhood. 



44 Do., p. 611. 



