124 The Winning of the West 



murdered an unoffending Indian, and was seized 

 by a Federal officer, and thrown into chains, to 

 the great indignation of his brutal companions; 17 

 and yet again another white man murdered an In 

 dian, and escaped to the woods before he could 

 be arrested. 18 



Under such conditions the peace negotiations 

 were doomed from the outset. The truce on the 

 border was of the most imperfect description; mur 

 ders and robberies by the Indians, and acts of vin 

 dictive retaliation or aggression by the whites, oc 

 curred continually and steadily increased in num 

 ber. In 1784 a Cherokee of note, when sent to 

 warn the intruding settlers on the French Broad 

 that they must move out of the land, was shot 

 and slain in a fight with a local militia captain. 

 Cherokee war bands had already begun to harry 

 the frontier and infest the Kentucky Wilderness 

 Road. 19 At the same time the Northwestern In 

 dians likewise committed depredations, and were 

 only prevented from making a general league against 

 the whites by their own internal dissensions the 

 Chickasaws and Kickapoos being engaged in a des 

 perate war. 20 The Wabash Indians were always 

 threatening hostilities. The Shawnees for some 

 time observed a precarious peace, and even, in ac 

 cordance with their agreement, brought in and sur- 



" Do., No. 150, Vol. II, p. 296. 



18 Draper MSS. Clark, Croghan, and Others to Delawares, 

 August 28, 1785. 



19 State Dept. MSS., No. 48, p. 277. 



20 Do., Miihlenberg's Letter. 



