56 MYTHS OK THK CHEROKEE [ktm.anx. I'J 



the British coiimiiindcr in Savannah. In this year also a delegation of 

 Cherokee vi.siteci the Ohio towns to otfer condolences f)n the death of 

 the noted Delaware chief, White-eyes.' 



In the early spring of 1780 a large company of emigrants under 

 Colonel John Donclson descended the Holston and the Tennessee to 

 the Ohio, whence they ascended the Cumlierland, ett'cctcd a junction 

 with another party under Captain James Robertson, which had just 

 arrived by a toilsome overland I'oute, and made the first settlement on 

 the present site of Nashville. In passing the Chickamauga towns they 

 had run the gauntlet of the hostile Cherokee, who pursued them for a 

 considerable distance beyond the whirlpool known as the Suck, where 

 the river breaks through the mountain. The famil}- of a man named 

 Stuart being infected with the smallpox, his boat dropped behind, and 

 all on board, twenty-eight in number, were killed or taken by the 

 Indians, their cries being distinctly heard by their friends ahead who 

 were unalile to help them. Another boat having run upon the rocks, 

 the three women in it, one of whom had become a mother the night 

 before, threw the cargo into the river, and then, jumping into the 

 water, succeeded in pushing the boat into the current while the hus- 

 band of one of them kept the Indians at bay with his rifle. The infant 

 was killed in the confusion. Three cowards attempted to escape, 

 without thought of their companions. One was drowned in the river; 

 the other two were captured and carried to Chickamauga, where one 

 was burned and the other was ransomed Ijy a trader. The rest went 

 on their way to found the capital of a new commonwealth.^ As if in 

 retributive justice, the smallpox bi'oke out in the Chickamauga band in 

 consequence of the capture of Stuart's familj', causing the death of 

 a great number.^ 



The British having reconcjuered Georgia and South Carolina and 

 destroyed all resistance in the south, early in 1780 Cornwallis, with his 

 subordinates, Ferguson and the merciless Tarleton, prepared to invade 

 North Carolina and sweep the country northward to Virginia. The 

 Creeks under McCTillivray (23), and a manlier of the Cherokee under 

 various local chiefs, together with the Tories, at once joined his 

 standard. 



While the Tennessee backwoodsmen were gathered at a barbecue to 

 contest for a shooting prize, a paroled prisoner brought a demand 

 from Ferguson for their submission; with the threat, if they refused, 

 that he would cross the mountains, hang their leaders, kill every man 

 found in arms and burn every settlement. Up to this time the moun- 

 tain men had confined their efl'ort to holding in check the Indian 

 enemy, but now, with the fate of the Revolution at stake, they felt 



1 Heckewelder, Indian Nations, p. 327, reprint of 187(j. 



-Donelson's Journal, etc., in Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 197-203, 1853; Kiicjsevelt, Winning u! tlie West, 

 II, pp. 324-340. 1SS9. 

 »Ibid., II, p. 337. 



