Throughout June and July the gunboat patrolled the Ohio, going up to the Licking.  Parties of backwoods riflemen, embodied as militia, likewise patrolled the woods, always keeping their scouts and spies well spread out, and exercising the greatest care to avoid being surprised.  They greatly hampered the Indian war bands, but now and then the latter slipped by and fell on the people they protected.  Early in August such a band committed some ravages south of the Kentucky, beating back with loss a few militia who followed it.  Some of the Fayette men were about setting forth to try and cut off its retreat, when the sudden and unlooked-for approach of Caldwell and McKee’s great war party obliged them to bend all their energies to their own defence.

The blow fell on Bryan’s Station.  The rangers and warriors moved down through the forest with the utmost speed and stealth, hoping to take this, the northernmost of the stockades, by surprise.  If they had succeeded, Lexington and the three smaller stations north of the Kentucky would probably likewise have fallen.

    The Attack on Bryan’s Station.

The attack was made early on the morning of the 16th of August.  Some of the settlers were in the corn-fields, and the rest inside the palisade of standing logs; they were preparing to follow the band of marauders who had gone south of the Kentucky.  A few outlying Indian spies were discovered, owing to their eagerness; and the whites being put on their guard, the attempt to carry the fort by the first rush was, of course, foiled.  Like so many other stations—­but unlike Lexington,—­Bryan’s had no spring within its walls; and as soon as there was reason to dread an attack, it became a matter of vital importance to lay in a supply of water.  It was feared that to send the men to the spring would arouse suspicion in the minds of the hiding savages; and, accordingly, the women went down with their pails and buckets as usual.  The younger girls showed some nervousness, but the old housewives marshalled them as coolly as possible, talking and laughing together, and by their unconcern completely deceived the few Indians who were lurking near by—­for the main body had not yet come up. [Footnote:  Caldwell’s letter says that a small party of Indians was sent ahead first; the watering incident apparently took place immediately on this small party being discovered.] This advance guard of the savages feared that, if they attacked the women, all chance of surprising the fort would be lost; and so the water-carriers were suffered to go back unharmed. [Footnote:  This account rests on tradition; it is recorded by McClung, a most untrustworthy writer; his account of the battle of the Blue Licks is wrong from beginning to end.  But a number of gentlemen in Kentucky have informed me that old pioneers whom they knew in their youth had told them that they had themselves seen the incident, and that, as written down, it was substantially true.  So