In the Current of the Revolution 357 



pack-train along the sheer mountain sides and 

 through the dense, untrodden forests in the valleys. 

 The trail often wound along cliffs where a single 

 misstep of a pack-animal resulted in its being dashed 

 to pieces. But the work, though fatiguing, was 

 healthy; it was noticed that during the whole ex- 

 pedition not a man was laid up for any length of 

 time by sickness. 



Rutherford joined Williamson immediately after- 

 ward, and together they utterly laid waste the valley 

 towns; and then, in the last week of September, 

 started homeward. All the Cherokee settlements 

 west of the Appalachians had been destroyed from 

 the face of the earth, neither crops nor cattle being 

 left; and most of the inhabitants wel*e obliged to 

 take refuge with the Creeks. 



Rutherford reached home in safety, never having 

 experienced any real resistance ; he had lost but three 

 men in all. He had killed twelve Indians, and had 

 captured nine more, besides seven whites and four 

 negroes. He had also taken piles of deerskins, 

 a hundredweight of gunpowder and twenty-five 

 hundred pounds of lead ; and, moreover, had wasted 

 and destroyed to his heart's content. 69 



Williamson, too, reached home without suffering 

 further damage, entering Fort Rutledge on Oc- 

 tober 7th. In his two expeditions he had had ninety- 

 four men killed and wounded, but he had done 

 much more harm than any one else to the Indians. 

 It was said the South Carolinians had taken seventy- 



69 "Am. Archives," sth Series, II, p. 1235. 



