178 The Winning of the West 



chiefs who led the raid were two signers of the 

 treaty of Holston. 57 



After this the war was open, so far as the Indians 

 of the Lower Cherokee Towns and of many of the 

 Creek Towns were concerned; but the whites were 

 still restrained by strict orders from the United 

 States authorities, who refused to allow them to re- 

 taliate. Outrage followed outrage in monotonously 

 bloody succession. The Creeks were the worst of- 

 fenders in point of numbers, but the Lower Chero- 

 kees from the Chickamauga towns did most harm 

 according to their power. Sometimes the bands that 

 entered the settlements were several hundred strong ; 

 but their chief object was plunder, and they rarely 

 attacked the strong places of the white frontiers- 

 men, though they forced them to keep huddled in 

 the stockaded stations; nor did they often fight a 

 pitched battle with the larger bodies of militia. 

 There is no reason for reciting in full the countless 

 deeds of rapine and murder. The incidents, though 

 with infinite variety of detail, were in substance the 

 same as in all the Indian wars of the backwoods. 

 Men, women, and children were killed or captured; 

 outlying cabins were attacked and burned ; the hus- 

 bandman was shot as he worked in the field, and 

 the housewife as she went for water. The victim 

 was now a militiaman on his way to join his com- 

 pany, now one of the party of immigrants, now a 



57 Robertson MSS., Blount to Robertson, Oct. 17, 1792; 

 "Knoxville Gazette," Oct. 10, and Oct. 20, 1792; Brown's 

 Narrative, in "Southwestern Monthly." 



