Fury of the Indian Ravages.

By 1787 the Indian war had begun with all its old fury.  The thickly settled districts were not much troubled, and the towns which, like Marietta in the following year, grew up under the shadow of a Federal fort, were comparatively safe.  But the frontier of Kentucky, and of Virginia proper along the Ohio, suffered severely.  There was great scarcity of powder and lead, and even of guns, and there was difficulty in procuring provisions for those militia who consented to leave their work and turn out when summoned.  The settlers were harried, and the surveyors feared to go out to their work on the range.  There were the usual horrible incidents of Indian warfare.  A glimpse of one of the innumerable dreadful tragedies is afforded by the statement of one party of scouts, who, in following the trail of an Indian war band, found at the crossing of the river “the small tracks of a number of children,” prisoners from a raid made on the Monongahela settlements. [Footnote:  State Dept.  MSS., No. 71, vol. ii.  Letters of David Shepherd to Governor Randolph, April 30, and May 24, 1787.]

    Difficulties in Extending Help to the Frontiersmen.

The settlers in the harried territory sent urgent appeals for help to the Governor of Virginia and to Congress.  In these appeals stress was laid upon the poverty of the frontiersmen, and their lack of ammunition.  The writers pointed out that the men of the border should receive support, if only from motives of policy; for it was of great importance to the people in the thickly settled districts that the war should be kept on the frontier, and that the men who lived there should remain as a barrier against the Indians.  If the latter broke through and got among the less hardy and warlike people of the interior, they would work much greater havoc; for in Indian warfare the borderers were as much superior to the more peaceful people behind them as a veteran to a raw recruit. [Footnote:  Draper MSS.  Lt.  Marshall to Franklin, Nov. 6, 1787.]

These appeals did not go unheeded; but there was embarrassment in affording the frontier adequate protection, both because the party to which the borderers themselves belonged foolishly objected to the employment of a fair-sized regular army, and because Congress still clung to the belief that war could be averted by treaty, and so forbade the taking of proper offensive measures.  In the years 1787, ’88, and ’89, the ravages continued; many settlers were slain, with their families, and many bodies of immigrants destroyed; while the scouting and rescue parties of whites killed a few Indians in return. [Footnote:  Va.  State Papers, iv., 357.] All the Indians were not yet at war, however; and curious agreements were entered into by individuals on both sides.  In the absence on either side of any government with full authority and power, the leaders would often negotiate some special or temporary truce, referring only to certain limited