82 DESOLATION OF THE FRONTIERS. [1763. 



with peculiar complacency his own half-savage 

 dress, his swaggering gait, and his backwoods 

 jargon. He was wilful, headstrong, and quarrel- 

 some ; frank, straightforward, and generous ; brave 

 as the bravest, and utterly mtolerant of arbitrary 

 control. His self-confidence mounted to audacity. 

 Eminently capable of heroism, both in action and 

 endurance, he viewed every species of effeminacy 

 with supreme contempt ; and, accustomed as he 

 was to entire self-reliance, the mutual dependence 

 of conventional life excited his especial scorn. 

 With all his ignorance, he had a mind by nature 

 quick, vigorous, and penetrating ; and his mode of 

 life, while it developed the daring energy of his 

 character, wrought some of his faculties to a high 

 degree of acuteness. Many of his traits have been 

 reproduced in his offspring. From him have 

 sprung those hardy men whose struggles and suf- 

 ferings on the bloody ground of Kentucky will 

 always form a striking page in American history ; 

 and that band of adventurers before whose head- 

 long charge, in the valley of Chihuahua, neither 

 breastworks, nor batteries, nor fivefold odds could 

 avail for a moment. 



At the period of Pontiac's war, the settlements 

 of Virginia had extended as far as the Alleghanies, 

 and several small towns had already sprung up 

 beyond the Blue Hidge. The population of these 

 beautiful valleys was, for the most i)art, thin and 

 scattered ; and the progress of settlement had been 

 greatly retarded by Indian hostilities, which, during 

 the early years of the French war, had thrown 



