St. Clair and Wayne 9 



whites against the Cherokees took place in Tennes- 

 see, both earlier and later than this, and in eastern 

 Tennessee at this very time; but the Cumberland 

 people, from the earliest days of their settlement, 

 had not sinned against the red men, while as regards 

 all the Tennesseeans, the Creeks throughout this pe- 

 riod appeared always, and the Cherokees appeared 

 sometimes, as the wrongdoers, the men who began 

 the long and ferocious wars of reprisal. 



Robertson's companion, Bledsoe, was among the 

 many settlers who suffered death in the summer of 

 1788. He was roused from sleep by the sound of 

 his cattle running across the yard in front of the 

 twin log-houses occupied by himself and his brother 

 and their families. As he opened the door he was 

 shot by Indians, who were lurking behind the fence, 

 and one of his hired men was also shot down. 11 The 

 savages fled, and Bledsoe lived through the night, 

 while the other inmates of the house kept watch at 

 the loopholes until day broke and the fear was 

 passed. Under the laws of North Carolina at that 

 time, all the lands went to the sons of a man dying 

 intestate, and Bledsoe's wealth consisted almost ex- 

 clusively in great tracts of land. As he lay dying 

 in his cabin, his sister suggested to him that unless 

 he made a will he would leave his seven daughters 

 penniless; and so the will was drawn, and the old 

 frontiersman signed it just before he drew his last 

 breath, leaving each of his children provided with a 

 share of his land. 



11 Putnam, 298. 



