74 MYTHS OF THK f'HEROKKK [eth.ann.19 



the mischief being doiie liy tiiosc fai'thcr to the south, in conjunction 

 M'ith the Creeks. 



Toward the close of this year, ll'J-2, Captain Samuel Handley, while 

 leading- a small party of men to reenforce the Cumberland settlement, 

 was attacked l)y a mixed force of Cherokee. Creeks, and Shawano, 

 near the Crab Orchard, west of the present Kingston, Tennessee. 

 Becoming s(>parated from his men he encountered a warrior who had 

 lifted his hatchet to strike when Handley seized the weapon, crying- 

 out '"Canaly"" (for higina'Ui), "friend," to which the Cherokee 

 respond(>d with the same word, at once lowering his arm. Handley 

 was carried to Willstown, in Alaliama, where he was adopted into the 

 Wolf clan (^it) and remained until the next spring. After having 

 made use of his services in writing a peace letter to Governor Blount 

 the Cherokee finally sent him home in safety to his friends under a 

 protecting escort of eight warriors, without iiny demand for ransom. 

 He afterward resided near Tellico blockhouse, near Loudon, where, 

 after the wars were over, his Indian friends frequently came to visit 

 and stop mth him.' 



The year 179:-5 began with a series of attacks all along the Tennes- 

 see frontier. As before, most of the depredation was by Chicka- 

 maugas and Creeks, with some stray Shawano from the north. The 

 Cherokee from the towns on Little Tennessee remained peaceable, l>ut 

 their temper was sorely tried by a regrettable circumstance which 

 occurred in June. While a number of friendly chiefs were assembled 

 for a conference at Echota, on the express request of the President, 

 a party of men under connuand of a Captain John Beard sud- 

 denly attacked them, killing about fifteen Indians, including several 

 chiefs and two women, one of them being the wife of Hanging-maw 

 (Ushwa'li-guta), principal chief of the Nation, who was himself 

 wounded. The murderers then fled, leaving others to suffer the conse- 

 quences. Two hundred warriors at once took up arms to revenge their 

 loss, and only the most earnest appeal from the deputj' governor could 

 restrain them from swift retaliation. AVhile the chief, whose wife 

 was thus murdered and himself wounded, forebore to revenge himself, 

 in order not to Ijring war upon his people, the Secretary of War was 

 obliged to report, "to my great pain, I find to punish Beard hy law just 

 now is out of the question." Beard was in fact arrested, but the trial 

 was a farce and he was acquitted." 



Believing that the Cherokee Nation, with the exception of the 

 Chickamaugas, was honestly trying to preserve peace, the territorial 

 government, while making provision for the safety of the exposed 

 settlements, had strictly prohibited any invasion of the Indian country. 

 The frontier people were of a difl'erent opinion, and in spite of the 

 prohibition a company of nearly two hundred mounted men under 



1 Kamsey, Tennessee, pp. 571-573, 1863. = Ibid., pp. 574-578, 1853. 



