The War in the Northwest 243 



ter. It was feared that to send the men to the spring 

 would arouse suspicion in the minds of the hiding 

 savages; and, accordingly, the women went down 

 with their pails and buckets as usual. The younger 

 girls showed some nervousness, but the old house- 

 wives marshaled them as coolly as possible, talking 

 and laughing together, and by their unconcern com- 

 pletely deceived the few Indians who were lurking 

 near by for the main body had not yet come up. 8 

 This advance guard of the savages feared that, if 

 they attacked the women, all chance of surprising 

 the fort would be lost; and so the water-carriers 

 were suffered to go back unharmed. 9 Hardly were 



8 Caldwell's letter says that a small party of Indians was 

 sent ahead first ; the watering incident apparently took place 

 immediately on this small party being discovered. 



9 This account rests on tradition; it is recorded by Mc- 

 Clung, a most untrustworthy writer; his account of the 

 battle of the Blue Licks is wrong from beginning to end. 

 But a number of gentlemen in Kentucky have informed me 

 that old pioneers whom they knew in their youth had told 

 them that they had themselves seen the incident, and that, 

 as written down, it was substantially true. So with Rey- 

 nolds' speech to Girty. Of course, his exact words, as given 

 by McClung, are incorrect; but Mr. L. C. Draper informs me 

 that, in his youth, he knew several old men who had been in 

 Bryan's Station, and had themselves heard the speech. If it 

 were not for this I should reject it, for the British accounts 

 do not even mention that Girty was along, and do not hint 

 at the incident. It was probably an unauthorized ruse of 

 Girty 's. The account of the decoy party of Indians is par- 

 tially confirmed by the British letters. Both Marshall and 

 McClung get this siege and battle very much twisted in their 

 narratives; they make so many mistakes that it is difficult 

 to know what portion of their accounts to accept. Never- 

 theless it would be a great mistake to neglect all, even of 



