St. Clair and Wayne 7 



alone or in conjunction with another veteran frontier 

 leader, Col. Anthony Bledsoe. Various other men 

 of note on the border, both from Virginia and North 

 Carolina, wrote likewise. To these letters McGil- 

 livray responded promptly in a style rather more pol- 

 ished though less frank than that of his correspon- 

 dents. His tone was distinctly more warlike and 

 less conciliatory than theirs. He avowed, without 

 hesitation, that the Creeks and not the Americans 

 had been the original aggressors, saying that "my 

 nation has waged war against your people for sev- 

 eral years past; but that we had no motive of re- 

 venge, nor did it proceed from any sense of injuries 

 sustained from your people, but being warmly at- 

 tached to the British and being under their influence 

 our operations were directed by them against you in 

 common with other Americans." He then acknowl- 

 edged that after the close of the war the Americans 

 had sent overtures of peace, which he had accepted 

 although as a matter of fact the Creeks never 

 ceased their ravages, but complained that Robert- 

 son's expedition against the Muscle Shoals again 

 brought on war. 7 



There was, of course, nothing in this complaint of 

 the injustice of Robertson's expedition, for the Mus- 

 cle Shoals Indians had been constantly plundering 

 and murdering before it was planned, and it was 

 undertaken merely to put a stop to their ravages. 

 However, McGillivray made adroit use of it. He 



T State Department MSS., No. 71, Vol. II, p. 620. McGil- 

 livray to Bledsoe and Robertson : no date. 



