34 The Winning of the West 



had been at a most opportune moment. As so often 

 before and afterward, he had saved the settlement 

 from destruction. 



Other bands of Indians joined the war party, and 

 they continued to hover about the stations, daily 

 inflicting loss and damage on the settlers. They 

 burned down the cabins and fences, drove off the 

 stock and killed the hunters, the women and chil 

 dren who ventured outside the walls, and the men 

 who had gone back to their deserted stockades. 1 



On the 2d day of April another effort was made 

 by a formidable war party to get possession of one 

 of the two remaining stations Freeland's and 

 Nashborough and thus, at a stroke, drive the 

 whites from the Cumberland district. This time 

 Nashborough was the point aimed at. 



A large body 2 of Cherokees approached the fort 



1 Hay wood says they burned "immense quantities of corn" ; 

 as Putnam points out, the settlers could have had very little 

 corn to burn. Haywood is the best authority for the Indian 

 fighting in the Cumberland district during '80, *8i, and '82. 

 Putnam supplies some details learned from Mrs. Robertson 

 in her old age. The accounts are derived mainly from the 

 statements of old settlers; but the Robertsons seem always 

 to have kept papers, which served to check off the oral state 

 ments. For all the important facts there is* good authority. 

 The annals are filled with name after name of men who were 

 killed by the Indians. The dates, and even the names, may 

 be misplaced in many of these instances; but this is really a 

 matter of no consequence, for their only interest is to show 

 the nature of the harassing Indian warfare, and the kind of 

 adventure then common. 



8 How large it is impossible to say. One or two recent ac 

 counts make wild guesses, calling it 1,000; but this is sheer 

 nonsense ; it is more likely to have been roo. 



