d
a turbulent sense of power. Now they were smitten with consternation to
perceive the cloud upon the horizon. Suddenly the privileges of trade
which they had forfeited,--for they had become dependent on the supplies
of civilization, such as ammunition, guns, tools, blankets, etc., and
certain stores in transit to them had been, by Governor Lyttleton's
instructions, intercepted by Captain Coytmore, the commandant at Fort
Prince George;--the opportunities of a strong alliance that they had
discarded; the advantageous stipulations of the treaties they had
annulled; all seemed precious when annihilated by their own act.

The Upper towns and the Lower towns--the _Ottare_ and the _Ayrate_--met
in solemn conclave at Chote to consider the situation.

Fort Loudon, hard by, maintained quiet and keen watch and strict
discipline. The drums beat, the bugles sounded for the measured routine.
The flag waved in the sunshine, slipping up to meet the dawn, fluttering
down as the last segment of the vermilion disk slipped behind the dark,
level, rampart-like summit of the distant Cumberland range, and the
sunset-gun boomed till the echoes blared faintly even about the
council-chamber at Chote, where the warriors were gathered in state.
Whether the distant thunderous tone of that potent force which the
Indians admired, and feared, and sought to comprehend beyond all other
arms of the service, the artillery, suggested anew the untried menace of
Lyttleton's invasion of their country with a massed and adequate
strength; whether they had become desirous now to regain those values of
trade and alliance that they had thrown away in haste; whether their
repeated reprisals had satiated their greed of vengeance for their
comrades, slain on the return march from aiding the defense of the
Virginia frontier; whether they were inspired only by their veiled
deceit and savage craft, in which they excelled and delighted, and which
we now call diplomacy, exercised between the enlightened statesmen of
conferring and Christian nations,--whatever motive urged their decision,
no gun barrel was sawed off, an unfailing preparation for battle, no
corn pounded, no knife whetted, no face painted, no bow strung, no
mysterious scalp-dance celebrated--the Cherokees were not upon the
war-path!

A deputation of their "beloved men" went to forestall the martial
advance of the Carolinians--Oconostota, the "great warrior," with his
many wrinkles, and his crafty eye, an