statement which General Martin, although he too condemned the outrages openly and with the utmost emphasis, felt obliged to correct, pointing out that the Cherokees had been the inveterate and bloody foes of the settlers throughout the Revolution. [Footnote:  Do., No. 150, vol. iii., Martin to Knox, Aug. 23, 1788.] The Governor of North Carolina, as soon as he heard the news, ordered the arrest of Sevier and his associates—­doubtless as much because of their revolt against the State as because of the atrocities they had committed against the Indians. [Footnote:  Do., No. 72, Samuel Johnston to Sec’y of Congress, Sept. 29, 1788.]

    Indian Ravages.

In their panic many of the Indians fled across the mountains and threw themselves on the mercy of the North and South Carolinians, by whom they were fed and protected.  Others immediately joined the Chickamaugas in force, and the frontier districts of the Franklin region were harried with vindictive ferocity.  The strokes fell most often and most heavily on the innocent.  Half of the militia were called out, and those who most condemned the original acts of aggression committed by their neighbors were obliged to make common cause with these neighbors, so as to save their own lives and the lives of their families. [Footnote:  Do., Hutchings to Maxwell, June 20th, and to Martin, July 11th.] The officers of the district ordered a general levy of the militia to march against the Indian towns, and in each county the backwoodsmen began to muster. [Footnote:  Do., No. 150, vol. ii., Daniel Kennedy to Martin, June 6, 1788; Maxwell to Martin, July 9th, etc.  No. 150, vol. iii., p. 357:  Result of Council of Officers of Washington District, August 19, 1788.]

    The Indian War.

Before the troops assembled many outrages were committed by the savages.  Horses were stolen, people were killed in their cabins, in their fields, on the roads, and at the ferries; and the settlers nearest the Indian country gathered in their forted stations, and sent earnest appeals for help to their unmolested brethren.  The stations were attacked, and at one or two the Indians were successful; but generally they were beaten off, the militia marching promptly to the relief of each beleaguered garrison.  Severe skirmishing took place between the war parties and the bands of militia who first reached the frontier; and the whites were not always successful.  Once, for instance, a party of militia, greedy for fruit, scattered through an orchard, close to an Indian town which they supposed to be deserted; but the Indians were hiding near by and fell upon them, killing seventeen.  The savages mutilated the dead bodies in fantastic ways, with ferocious derision, and left them for their friends to find and bury. [Footnote:  Do., Martin to Knox, August 23, 1788.] Sevier led parties against the Indians without ceasing; and he and his men by their conduct showed that they waged the war very largely for profit.  On a second incursion, which he made with canoes, into the Hiawassee country, his followers made numerous tomahawk claims, or “improvements,” as they were termed, in the lands from which the Indians fled; hoping thus to establish a right of ownership to the country they had overrun. [Footnote:  Do., Hutchings to Martin, July 11, 1788.]