1 62 The Winning of the West 



The victors camped on the ground with the inten- 

 tion of ambushing any party that arrived to bury 

 the dead; for they were confident some of the set- 

 tlers would come for this purpose. Nor were they 

 disappointed; for next morning Floyd, the county 

 lieutenant, with twenty-five men, made his appear- 

 ance. Floyd marched so quickly that he came on 

 the Indians before they were prepared to receive 

 him. A smart skirmish ensued ; but the whites were 

 hopelessly outnumbered, and were soon beaten and 

 scattered, with a loss of twelve or thirteen men. 

 Floyd himself, exhausted and with his horse shot, 

 would have been captured had not another man, one 

 Samuel Wells, who was excellently mounted, seen 

 his plight. Wells reined in, leaped off his horse, 

 and making Floyd ride, he ran beside him, and both 

 escaped. The deed was doubly noble, because the 

 men had previously been enemies. 70 The frontiers- 

 men had made a good defence in spite of the tre- 

 mendous odds against them, and had slain four of 

 their opponents, three Hurons and a Miami. 71 



70 Marshall, I, 116. Floyd had previously written Jefferson 

 (Virginia State Papers, I, 47) that in his country there were 

 but three hundred and fifty-four militia between sixteen and 

 fifty-four years old ; that all people were living in forts, and 

 that forty-seven of the settlers of all ages had been killed, 

 and many wounded, since January ; so his defeat was a serious 

 blow. 



71 Haldimand MSS. Thompson's letter; McKee only men- 

 tions the three Hurons. As already explained, the partisan 

 leaders were apt, in enumerating the Indian losses, only to 

 give such as had occurred in their own particular bands. 

 Marshall makes the fight take place in April ; the Haldimand 



