162 The Winning of the West 



raised thirty of his horse-riflemen, and, guessing 

 from the movements of the Indians that they were 

 following the war trace northward, he marched with 

 all speed to reach it at some point ahead of them, 

 and succeeded. Finding they had not passed he 

 turned and went south, and in a thick canebrake met 

 his foes face to face. The whites were spread out 

 in line, while the Indians, twenty in number, came 

 on in single file, all on horseback. The cane was so 

 dense that the two parties were not ten steps apart 

 when they saw one another. At the first fire the In 

 dians, taken utterly unaware, broke and fled, leav 

 ing eight of their number dead ; and the victors also 

 took twenty-eight horses. 33 



In the following spring another noted Indian 

 fighter, less lucky than Whitley, was killed while 

 leading one of these scouting parties. Early in 1786, 

 the Indians began to commit numerous depredations 

 in Kentucky, and the alarm and anger of the inhab 

 itants became great. 34 In April, a large party of 

 savages, under a chief named Black Wolf, made a 

 raid along Beargrass. Col. William Christian, a 

 gallant and honorable man, was in command of the 

 neighboring militia. At once, as was his wont, he 

 raised a band of twenty men, and followed the plun 

 derers across the Ohio. Riding well in advance of 



83 Draper MSS. Whitley 's MSS. Narrative, apparently 

 dictated some time after the events described. It differs 

 somewhat from the printed account in Collins. 



34 Draper MSS. Clark Papers, passim for 1786. Wm. Fin- 

 ney to G. R. Clark, March 24 and 26, 1786. Also Wm. Cro- 

 ghan to G. R. Clark, Nov. 3, and Nov. 16, 1785. 



