The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 283 



acts which they had been powerless to prevent and 

 were powerless to punish. 36 The Justices of the 

 Court of Abbeville County, South Carolina, with 

 Andrew Pickens at their head, wrote "to the people 

 living on Nolechucke, French Broad, and Hoi- 

 stein," denouncing in unmeasured terms the en 

 croachments and outrages of which Sevier and his 

 backwoods troopers had been guilty. 37 In their zeal 

 the Justices went a little too far, painting the Chero- 

 kees as a harmless people, who had always been 

 friendly to the Americans, a statement which Gen 

 eral Martin, although he too condemned the out 

 rages openly and with the utmost emphasis, felt 

 obliged to correct, pointing out that the Cherokees 

 had been the inveterate and bloody foes of the 

 settlers throughout the Revolution. 38 The Gov 

 ernor of North Carolina, as soon as he heard the 

 news, ordered the arrest of Sevier and his associates 

 doubtless as much because of their revolt against 

 the State as because of the atrocities they had com 

 mitted against the Indians. 39 



In their panic many of the Indians fled across 

 the mountains and threw themselves on the mercy 

 of the North and South Carolinians, by whom they 

 were fed and protected. Others immediately joined 

 the Chickamaugas in force, and the frontier districts 



36 Do., No. 27, p. 359, and No. 151, p. 351. 

 31 Do., No. 56, Andrew Pickens to Thos. Pinckney. July n, 

 1788; No. 150, Vol. Ill, Letter of Justices, July gth. 



38 Do., No. 150, Vol. Ill, Martin to Knox, Aug. 23, 1788. 



39 Do., No. 72, Samuel Johnston to Sec'y of Congress, 

 Sept. 29, 1788. 



