upper Cherokees, fell on the frontier, stole horses, ambushed men, killed or captured women and children, and returned whence they had come.  In most cases it was quite impossible to determine even the tribe of the offenders with any certainty; and all that the frontiersmen knew was that their bloody trails led back towards the very villages where the Indians loudly professed that they were at peace.  They soon grew to regard all the Indians with equal suspicion, and they were so goaded by the blows which they could not return that they were ready to take vengeance upon any one with a red skin, or at least to condone such vengeance when taken.  The peaceful Cherokees, though they regretted these actions and were alarmed and disquieted at the probable consequences, were unwilling or unable to punish the aggressors.

    Blount Warns the Federal Government.

Blount was soon at his wits’ ends to prevent the outbreak of a general war.  In November, 1792, he furnished the War Department with a list of scores of people—­men, women, and children—­who had been killed in Tennessee, chiefly in the Cumberland district, since the signing of the treaty of Holston.  Many others had been carried off, and were kept in slavery.  Among the wounded were General Robertson and one of his sons, who were shot, although not fatally, in May, 1792, while working on their farm.  Both Creeks and Cherokees took part in the outrages, and the Chickamauga towns on the Tennessee, at Running Water, Nickajack, and in the neighborhood, ultimately supplied the most persistent wrongdoers. [Footnote:  American State Papers, IV., Blount to Secretary of War, Nov. 8, 1792; also page 330, etc.  Many of these facts will be found recited, not only in the correspondence of Blount, but in the Robertson MSS., in the Knoxville Gazette, and in Haywood, Ramsey, and Putman.]

    Effect of the Defeat of Harmar and St. Clair. 
    Growth of the War Spirit.

As Sevier remarked, the Southern, no less than the Northern Indians were much excited and encouraged by the defeat of St. Clair, coming as it did so close upon the defeat of Harmar.  The double disaster to the American arms made the young braves very bold, and it became impossible for the elder men to restrain them. [Footnote:  American State Papers, IV., pp. 263, 439, etc.] The Creeks harassed the frontiers of Georgia somewhat, but devoted their main attention to the Tennesseeans, and especially to the isolated settlements on the Cumberland.  The Chickamauga towns were right at the crossing place both for the Northern Indians when they came south and for the Creeks when they went north.  Bands of Shawnees, who were at this time the most inveterate of the enemies of the frontiersmen, passed much time among them; and the Creek war parties, when they journeyed north to steal horses and get scalps, invariably stopped among them, and on their return stopped again to exhibit their trophies and hold scalp dances.  The natural