The War in the Northwest 237 



One of these conflicts attracted wide attention on 

 the border because of the obstinacy with which it 

 was waged and the bloodshed that accompanied it. 

 In March a party of twenty-five Wyandots came 

 into the settlements, passed Boonesborough, and 

 killed and scalped a girl within sight of Estill's Sta- 

 tion. The men from the latter, also to the number 

 of twenty-five, hastily gathered under Captain Estill, 

 and after two days' hot pursuit overtook the Wyan- 

 dots. A fair stand-up fight followed, the better 

 marksmanship of the whites being offset, as so often 

 before, by the superiority their foes showed in shel- 

 tering themselves. At last victory declared for the 

 Indians. Estill had despatched a lieutenant and 

 seven men to get round the Wyandots and assail 

 them in the rear ; but either the lieutenant's heart or 

 his judgment failed him, he took too long, and 

 meanwhile the Wyandots closed in on the others, 

 killing nine, including Estill, and wounding four, 

 who, with their unhurt comrades, escaped. It is 

 said that the Wyandots themselves suffered heav- 

 ily. 3 



These various ravages and skirmishes were but 

 the prelude to a far more serious attack. In July the 

 British captains Caldwell and McKee came down 



* Of course not as much as their foes. The backwoodsmen 

 (like the regular officers of both the British and American 

 armies in similar cases, as at Grant's and St. Clair's defeats) 

 were fond of consoling themselves for their defeats by snatch- 

 ing at any wild tale of the losses of the victors. In the pres- 

 ent instance it is even possible that the loss of the Wyandots 

 was very light instead of very heavy. 



