tiers, where the red thieves delivered it to the foul white
receivers, who took it to some town on the seaboard, so as effectually
to prevent a recovery. At Swannanoa in North Carolina, among the lawless
settlements at the foot of the Oconee Mountain in South Carolina, and at
Tugaloo in Georgia, there were regular markets for these stolen horses.
[Footnote: Blount to the Secretary of War, May 5, 1792, and Nov. 10,
1794. As before, I use the word "Tennessee" instead of "Southwestern
Territory" for convenience; it was not regularly employed until 1796.]
There were then, and continued to exist as long as the frontier lasted,
plenty of white men who, though ready enough to wrong the Indians, were
equally ready to profit by the wrongs they inflicted on the white
settlers, and to encourage their misdeeds if profit was thereby to be
made. Very little evildoing of this kind took place Tennessee, for
Blount, backed by Sevier and Robertson, was vigilant to put it down; but
as yet the Federal Government was not firm in its seat, and its arm was
not long enough to reach into the remote frontier districts, where
lawlessness of every kind throve, and the whites wronged one another as
recklessly as they wronged the Indians.

Sufferings of the Honest Settlers.
Blount's Efforts to Prevent Brutality.

The white scoundrels throve in the confusion of a nominal peace which
the savages broke at will; but the honest frontiersmen really suffered
more than if there had been open war, as the Federal Government refused
to allow raids to be carried into the Indian territory, and in
consequence the marauding Indians could at any time reach a place of
safety. The blockhouses were of little consequence in putting a stop to
Indian attacks. The most efficient means of defence was the employment
of the hardiest and best hunters as scouts or spies, for they travelled
hither and thither through the woods and continually harried the war
parties. [Footnote: American State Papers, IV., p. 364; letter of
Secretary of War, May 30, 1793.] The militia bands also travelled to and
fro, marching to the rescue of some threatened settlement, or seeking to
intercept the attacking bands or to overtake those who had delivered
their stroke and were returning to the Indian country. Generally they
failed in the pursuit. Occasionally they were themselves ambushed,
attacked, and dispersed; sometimes they overtook and scattered their
foes. In such a case they were as