174 The Winning of the West 



were common among the frontiersmen them- 

 selves. 



These Chickamaugas and Lower Cherokees had 

 solemnly entered into treaties of peace, and Blount 

 had been taken in by their professions of friendship, 

 and for some time was loath to believe that their 

 warriors were among the war parties who ravaged 

 the settlements. By the spring of 1792, however, 

 the fact of their hostility could no longer be con- 

 cealed. Nevertheless, in May of that year the chiefs 

 of the Lower Cherokee towns joined with those of 

 the Upper Towns in pressing Governor Blount to 

 come to a council at Coyatee, where he was met by 

 two thousand Cherokees, including all their prin- 

 cipal chiefs and warriors. 52 The head men, not only 

 from the Upper Towns, but from Nickajack and 

 Running Water, including John Watts, solemnly as- 

 sured Blount of their peaceful intentions, and ex- 

 pressed their regret at the outrages which they 

 admitted had been committed by their young men. 

 Blount told them plainly that he had the utmost 

 difficulty in restraining the whites from taking ven- 

 geance for the numerous murders committed on the 

 settlers, and warned them that if they wished to 

 avert a war which would fall upon both the inno- 

 cent and the guilty they must themselves keep the 

 peace. The chiefs answered, with seeming earnest- 

 ness, that they were most desirous of being at peace, 

 and would certainly restrain their men; and they 

 begged for the treaty goods which Blount had in 



82 Robertson's MSS., Blount to Robertson, May 20, 1792. 



