Appendix^ N° J 



swamps or woods, to fetch the articles which he had 

 promised me. 



The other anecdote is of a much more interesting and 

 more striking nature. About the year 1756, Col. Peter 

 Randolph, Col. Byrd, Mr. Campbell, and other persons, 

 were sent upon an embassy by the Governor of Virginia to 

 the Cherokee country, in order, if possible, to cement more 

 strongly the friendship and alliance which subsisted at that 

 time between our colonies and those savages, and to en- 

 gage them more heartily in our cause. The business was 

 in train, and likely to succeed, when unfortunately the 

 following most flagrant and atrocious act of treachery im- 

 mediately put an end to the negotiation, and eventually 

 involved us in a new and bloody war with the very nation 

 whose friendship and aid it was the object of the mission to 

 cement and make more firm and lasting. The reader 

 should be informed, that the cruel depredations and ravages 

 committed by the Indians after General Braddock's defeat, 

 had induced government to offer a considerable premium 

 for every scalp of a hostile Indian, that should be brought 

 in by any of our rangers: this unfortunately opened a door, 

 and gave occasion to many acts of enormity; for some of 

 the back-settlers, men of bad lives and worse principles, 

 tempted by the reward, insidiously massacred several of 

 our friendly Indians, and afterwards endeavoured to de- 

 fraud government of the reward, by pretending that they 

 were the scalps of hostile tribes. Amongst others, a back- 

 settler in Augusta county, a captain of militia, whose name 

 ought to be delivered down to posterity with infamy, 

 treacherously murdered some Cherokee Indians, who had 

 been out upon a military expedition in our behalf against 



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