398 The Winning of the West 



and bales of merchandise. They had but sixteen 

 guns among them, and many were immigrants, un 

 accustomed to savage warfare, and therefore they 

 made no effort to repel the attack, which could 

 easily have been done by resolute, well-armed vet 

 erans. The Indians crowded into the craft they 

 had captured, and paddled and rowed after the 

 scows, whooping and firing. They nearly overtook 

 the last scow, whereupon its people shifted to the 

 second, and abandoned it. When further pressed 

 the people shifted into the headmost scow, cut holes 

 in its sides so as to work all the oars, and escaped 

 down-stream, leaving the Indians to plunder the 

 two abandoned boats, which contained twenty-eight 

 horses and fifteen hundred pounds' worth of goods. 



The Kentuckians of the neighborhood sent word 

 to General Harmar, begging him to break up this 

 nest of plunderers. Accordingly he started after 

 them, with his regular troops. He was joined by a 

 number of Kentucky mounted riflemen, under the 

 command of Col. Charles Scott, a rough Indian 

 fighter, and veteran of the Revolutionary War, who 

 afterward became Governor of the State. Scott had 

 moved to Kentucky not long after the close of the 

 war with England; he had lost a son at the hands 

 of the savages, 26 and he delighted in war against 

 them. 



Harmar made a circuit and came down along the 

 Scioto, hoping to surprise the Indian camp; but he 

 might as well have hoped to surprise a party of 



State Dept. MSS., No. 71, Vol. II, p. 563. 



