190 The Winning of the West 



folk as fast as he could. Every neighbor caught the 

 alarm, thought himself the only person left to fight, 

 and got off on the same route as speedily as possible, 

 until, luckily for all, the meeting of the roads on the 

 general retreat, the difficulty of the way, the stray- 

 ing of horses, and sometimes the halting to drink 

 whiskey, put a stop to "the hurly-burly of the flight" 

 and reminded the fugitives that by this time they 

 were in sufficient force to rally ; and then they would 

 return "to explore the plundered country and to 

 bury the unfortunate scalped heads in the fag-end of 

 the retreat" ; whereas if there had been an appointed 

 rendezvous where all could rally it would have pre- 

 vented such a flight from what might possibly have 

 been a body of Indians far inferior in numbers to 

 the armed men of the settlements attacked. 71 



The convention of Mero district early petitioned 

 Congress for the right to retaliate on the Indians 

 and to follow them to their towns, stating that they 

 had refrained from doing so hitherto not from cow- 

 ardice, but only from regard to government, and 

 that they regretted that their "rulers" (the Fed- 

 eral authorities at Philadelphia) did not enter into 

 their feelings or seem to sympathize with them. 72 

 When the Territorial Legislature met in 1794 it 

 petitioned Congress for war against the Creeks and 

 Cherokees, " reciting the numerous outrages com- 

 mitted by them upon the whites; stating that since 

 1792 the frontiersmen had been huddled together 



11 "Knoxville Gazette," April 6, 1793. 

 " "Knoxville Gazette," August 13, 1792. 



