were there, who went as well from motives of curiosity as to traffic in silverware; and six of whom were rashly killed by your men” [Footnote:  McGillivray’s Letter of April 17, 1788, p. 521.]; and inasmuch as these slain men were prominent in different Creek towns, the deed led to retaliatory raids.  But now that vengeance had been taken, McGillivray declared that a stable peace would be secured, and he expressed “considerable concern” over the “tragical end” of Robertson’s slain kinsfolk As for the Georgians, he announced that if they were wise and would agree to an honorable peace he would bury the red hatchet, and if not then he would march against them whenever he saw fit. [Footnote:  Do. p. 625; McGillivray’s Letter of April 15, 1788.] Writing again at the end of the year, he reiterated his assurances of the peaceful inclinations of the Creeks, though their troubles with Georgia were still unsettled. [Footnote:  Robertson MSS.  McGillivray to Robertson, December 1, 1788.  This letter contains the cautious, non-committal answer to Robertson’s letter in which the latter proposed that Cumberland should be put under Spanish protection; the letter itself McGillivray had forwarded to the Spaniards.]

    Continuance of the Ravages.

Nevertheless these peaceful protestations produced absolutely no effect upon the Indian ravages, which continued with unabated fury.  Many instances of revolting brutality and aggression by the whites against the Cherokees took place in Tennessee, both earlier and later than this, and in eastern Tennessee at this very time; but the Cumberland people, from the earliest days of their settlement, had not sinned against the red men, while as regards all the Tennesseans, the Creeks throughout this period appeared always, and the Cherokees appeared sometimes, as the wrong-doers, the men who began the long and ferocious wars of reprisal.

    Death of Bledsoe.

Robertson’s companion, Bledsoe, was among the many settlers who suffered death in the summer of 1788.  He was roused from sleep by the sound of his cattle running across the yard in front of the twin log-houses occupied by himself and his brother and their families.  As he opened the door he was shot by Indians, who were lurking behind the fence, and one of his hired men was also shot down. [Footnote:  Putnam, 298.] The savages fled, and Bledsoe lived through the night, while the other inmates of the house kept watch at the loop-holes until day broke and the fear was passed.  Under the laws of North Carolina at that time, all the lands went to the sons of a man dying intestate, and Bledsoe’s wealth consisted almost exclusively in great tracts of land.  As he lay dying in his cabin, his sister suggested to him that unless he made a will he would leave his seven daughters penniless; and so the will was drawn, and the old frontiersman signed it just before he drew his last breath, leaving each of his children provided with a share of his land.