little apt to show mercy to the
defeated as were the Indians themselves. Blount issued strict orders
that squaws and children were not to be slain, and the frontiersmen did
generally refuse to copy their antagonists in butchering the women
and children in cold blood. When an attack was made on a camp, however,
it was no uncommon thing to have the squaws killed while the fight was
hot. Blount, in one of his letters to Robertson, after the Cumberland
militia had attacked and destroyed a Creek war party which had murdered
a settler, expressed his pleasure at the perseverance with which the
militia captain had followed the Indians to the banks of the Tennessee,
where he had been lucky enough to overtake them in a position where not
one was able to escape. Blount especially complimented him upon having
spared the two squaws, "as all civilized people should"; and he added
that in so doing the captain's conduct offered a most agreeable contrast
to the behavior of some of his fellow citizens under like circumstances.
[Footnote: Robertson MSS., Blount's letter, March 8, 1794.]

Repeated Failures to Secure Peace.

Repeated efforts were made to secure peace with the Indians. Andrew
Pickens, of South Carolina, was sent to the exposed frontier in 1792 to
act as peace Commissioner. Pickens was a high-minded and honorable man,
who never hesitated to condemn the frontiersmen when they wronged the
Indians, and he was a champion of the latter wherever possible. He came
out with every hope and belief that he could make a permanent treaty;
but after having been some time on the border he was obliged to admit
that there was no chance of bringing about even a truce, and that the
nominal peace that obtained was worse for the settlers than actual war.
He wrote to Blount that though he earnestly hoped the people of the
border would observe the treaty, yet that the Cherokees had done more
damage, especially in the way of horse stealing, since the treaty was
signed than ever before, and that it was not possible to say what the
frontier inhabitants might be provoked to do. He continued: "While a
part, and that the ostensible ruling part, of a nation affect to be at,
and I believe really are for, peace, and the more active young men are
frequently killing people and stealing horses, it is extremely difficult
to know how to act. The people, even the most exposed, would prefer an
open war to such a situation. The reason is obvious. A man would t