But he would not come in person to Lord Dunmore; so the earl was obliged to communicate with him through a messenger, a frontier veteran[49] named John Gibson, who had long lived among the Indians and knew thoroughly both their speech and their manners.[50] To this messenger Logan was willing to talk.  Taking him aside, he suddenly addressed him in a speech that will always retain its place as perhaps the finest outburst of savage eloquence of which we have any authentic record.  The messenger took it down in writing, translating it literally,[51] and, returning to camp, gave it to Lord Dunmore.  The earl then read it, in open council, to the whole backwoods army, including Cresap, Clark, and the other scouts.  The speech, when read, proved to be no message of peace, nor an acknowledgment of defeat, but instead, a strangely pathetic recital of his wrongs, and a fierce and exulting justification of the vengeance he had taken.  It ran as follows: 

“I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan’s cabin hungry and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked and he clothed him not?  During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his camp, an advocate for peace.  Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed as I passed and said, ’Logan is the friend of the white man.’  I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man.  Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children.  There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature.  This called on me for revenge.  I have sought it.  I have killed many.  I have fully glutted my vengeance.  For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace; but do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear.  Logan never felt fear.  He will not turn on his heel to save his life.  Who is there to mourn for Logan?  Not one.”

The tall frontiersmen, lounging in a circle round about, listened to the reading of the speech with eager interest; rough Indian haters though they were, they were so much impressed by it that in the evening it was a common topic of conversation over their camp fires, and they continually attempted to rehearse it to one another.[52] But they knew that Greathouse, not Cresap, had been the chief offender in the murder of Logan’s family; and when the speech was read, Clark, turning round, jeered at and rallied Cresap as being so great a man that the Indians put every thing on his shoulders; whereat, Cresap, much angered, swore that he had a good mind to tomahawk Greathouse for the murder.[53]