384 The Winning of the West 



consented to leave their work and turn out when 

 summoned. The settlers were harried, and the sur 

 veyors feared to go out to their work on the range. 

 There were the usual horrible incidents of Indian 

 warfare. A glimpse of one of the innumerable 

 dreadful tragedies is afforded by the statement of 

 one party of scouts, who, in following the trail of 

 an Indian war band, found at the crossing of the 

 river "the small tracks of a number of children," 

 prisoners from a raid made on the Monongahela 

 settlements. 8 



The settlers in the harried territory sent urgent 

 appeals for help to the Governor of Virginia and to 

 Congress. In these appeals stress was laid upon the 

 poverty of the frontiersmen, and their lack of am 

 munition. The writers pointed out that the men 

 of the border should receive support, if only from 

 motives of policy; for it was of great importance 

 to the people in the thickly settled districts that the 

 war should be kept on the frontier, and that the men 

 who lived there should remain as a barrier against 

 the Indians. If the latter broke through and got 

 among the less hardy and warlike people of the in 

 terior, they would work much greater havoc ; for in 

 Indian warfare the borderers were as much supe 

 rior to the more peaceful people behind them as a 

 veteran to a raw recruit. 9 



These appeals did not go unheeded ; but there was 



8 State Dept. MSS., No. 71, Vol. II. Letters of David 

 Shepherd to Governor Randolph, April 30, and May 24, 1787. 

 Draper MSS. Lt. Marshall to Franklin, Nov. 6, 1787. 



