278 The Winning of the West 



their chiefs and young warriors gathered to meet 

 him. The Indians assured him that they were 

 guiltless of the recent murder ; that it should doubt 

 less be laid at the door of some Creek war party. 

 The Creeks, they said, kept passing through their 

 villages to war on the whites, and they had often 

 turned them back. The frontier envoys at this pro 

 fessed themselves satisfied, and returned to their 

 homes, after begging Martin to stay among the 

 Cherokees; and he stayed, his presence giving con 

 fidence to the Indians, who forthwith began to plant 

 their crops. 



Unfortunately, about the middle of May, the mur 

 ders again began, and again parties of riflemen 

 gathered for vengeance. Martin intercepted one 

 of these parties ten miles from a friendly Cherokee 

 town; but another attacked and burned a neighbor 

 ing town, the inhabitants escaping with slight loss. 

 For a time Martin's life was jeopardized by this 

 attack; the Cherokees, who swore they were inno 

 cent of the murders, being incensed at the counter 

 attack. They told Martin that they thought he had 

 been trying to gentle them, so that the whites might 

 take them unawares. After a while they cooled 

 down; and explained to Martin that the outrages 

 were the work of the Creeks and Chickamaugas, 

 whom they could not control, and whom they hoped 

 the whites would punish; but that they themselves 

 were innocent and friendly. Then the whites sent 

 messages to express their regret; and though Mar 

 tin declined longer to be responsible for the deeds 



