The hostile tribes north of the Ohio had by this time found the strength of the settlers, and saw that unless they made a powerful effort, and that speedily, they must forever relinquish all hope of reconquering Kentucky.  Such an effort was determined upon for the next year; and in order to weaken the whites as much as possible, till they were prepared for it, they continued to send out small parties, to infest the settlements.

At a distance of about twelve miles from Logan’s Fort, was a settlement called the Montgomery Station.  Most of the people were connected with Logan’s family.  This Station was surrounded in the night.  In the morning an attack was made.  Several persons were killed and others captured.  A girl who escaped spread the alarm; a messenger reached Logan’s Fort, and General Logan with a strong party pursued the Indians, defeated them and recovered the prisoners.

CHAPTER XV.

News of Cornwallis’s surrender—­Its effects—­Captain Estill’s defeat—­Grand army of Indians raised for the conquest of Kentucky—­Simon Girty’s speech—­Attack on Hoy’s Station—­Investment of Bryant’s Station—­Expedient of the besieged to obtain water—­Grand attack on the fort—­Repulse—­Regular siege commenced—­Messengers sent to Lexington—­Reinforcements obtained—­Arrival near the fort—­Ambushed and attacked—­They enter the fort—­Narrow escape of Girty—­He proposes a capitulation—­Parley—­Reynolds’s answer to Girty—­The siege raised—­Retreat of the Indians.

In October, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown.  This event was received in Kentucky, as in other parts of the country, with great joy.  The power of Britain was supposed to be broken, or at least so much crippled, that they would not be in a condition to assist their Indian allies, as they had previously done.  The winter passed away quietly enough, and the people were once more lulled into security, from which they were again to be rudely awakened.  Early in the spring the parties of the enemy recommenced their forays.  Yet there was nothing in these to excite unusual apprehensions.  At first they were scarcely equal in magnitude to those of the previous year.  Cattle were killed, and horses stolen, and individuals or small parties were attacked.  But in May an affair occurred possessing more interest, in a military point of view, than any other in the history of Indian wars.

In the month of May, a party of about twenty-five Wyandots invested Estill’s Station, on the south of the Kentucky River, killed one white man, took a negro prisoner, and after destroying the cattle, retreated.  Soon after the Indians disappeared, Captain Estill raised a company of twenty-five men; with these he pursued the Indians, and on Hinkston’s Fork of Licking, two miles below the Little Mountain, came within gunshot of them.  They had just crossed the creek, which in that part is small, and were ascending