Detroit rangers, Thompson, persuaded them to march towards the Falls.  On September 9th they were within thirty miles of their destination, and halted to send out scouts.  Two prisoners were captured, from whom it was learned that Clark had abandoned his proposed expedition. [Footnote:  Haldimand MSS.  Captain A. Thompson to De Peyster, September 26, 1781.] Instantly the Indians began to disband, some returning to their homes, and others scattering out to steal horses and burn isolated cabins.  Nor could the utmost efforts of their leaders keep them together.  They had no wish to fight Clark unless it was absolutely necessary, in order to save their villages and crops from destruction; and they much preferred plundering on their own account.  However, a couple of hundred Hurons and Miamis, under Brant and McKee, were kept together, and moved southwards between the Kentucky and Salt rivers, intending “to attack some of the small forts and infest the roads.” [Footnote:  Do. Captain A. McKee to De Peyster, September 26, 1781.] About the middle of the month they fell in with a party of settlers led by Squire Boon.

    Squire Boon and Floyd Defeated.

Squire Boon had built a fort, some distance from any other, and when rumors of a great Indian invasion reached him, he determined to leave it and join the stations on Bear Grass Creek.  When he reached Long Run, with his men, women, and children, cattle, and household goods, he stumbled against the two hundred warriors of McKee and Brant.  His people were scattered to the four winds, with the loss of many scalps and all their goods and cattle.  The victors camped on the ground with the intention of ambushing any party that arrived to bury the dead; for they were confident some of the settlers would come for this purpose.  Nor were they disappointed; for next morning Floyd, the county lieutenant, with twenty-five men, made his appearance.  Floyd marched so quickly that he came on the Indians before they were prepared to receive him.  A smart skirmish ensued; but the whites were hopelessly outnumbered, and were soon beaten and scattered, with a loss of twelve or thirteen men.  Floyd himself, exhausted and with his horse shot, would have been captured had not another man, one Samuel Wells, who was excellently mounted, seen his plight.  Wells reined in, leaped off his horse, and making Floyd ride, he ran beside him, and both escaped.  The deed was doubly noble, because the men had previously been enemies. [Footnote:  Marshall, I., 116.  Floyd had previously written Jefferson (Virginia State Papers, I., 47) that in his county there were but three hundred and fifty-four militia between sixteen and fifty-four years old; that all people were living in forts, and that forty-seven of the settlers of all ages had been killed, and many wounded, since January; so his defeat was a serious blow.] The frontiersmen had made a good defence in spite of the tremendous odds against them, and had