4 The Winning of the West 



would object to their settling on the Cumberland, 

 in a country that had been purchased outright at the 

 Henderson treaty. He further stated that he had 

 believed the Creek chief would approve of the ex- 

 pedition to punish the marauders at the Muscle Shell 

 Shoals, inasmuch as the Creeks had repeatedly as- 

 sured him that these marauders were refractory peo- 

 ple who would pay no heed to their laws and com- 

 mands. Robertson knew this to be a good point, for 

 as a matter of fact the Creeks, though pretending to 

 be peaceful, had made no effort to suppress these 

 banditti, and had resented by force of arms the de- 

 struction of their strongholds. 4 



Robertson then came to his personal wrongs. 

 His quaintly worded letter runs in part: "I had the 

 mortification to see one of my children Killed and 

 uncommonly Massacred . . . from my earliest 

 youth I have endeavored to arm myself with a 

 sufficient share of Fortitude to meet anything that 

 Nature might have intended, but to see an innocent 

 child so Uncommonly Massacred by people who 

 ought to have both sense and bravery has in a meas- 

 ure unmanned me. ... I have always striven to 

 do justice to the red people; last fall, trusting in 

 Cherokee friendship, I with utmost difficulty pre- 

 vented a great army from marching against them. 

 The return is very inadequate to the services I have 

 rendered them as last summer they killed an affec- 

 tionate brother and three days ago an innocent 



4 Robertson MSS. Robertson to McGillivray. Letters al- 

 ready cited. 



