while the fire blazed bright within the secure square, the far howl of
wolves, or even the distant war-whoop of the savages, sounded in the ear
of the tranquil in-dwellers like the driving storm pouring on the
sheltering roof above the head of the traveller safely reposing in his
bed; that is, brought the contrast of comfort and security with more
home-felt influence to their bosom.

Such a station was Bryant's, no longer ago than 1782. It was the nucleus
of the settlements of that rich and delightful country, of which at
present Lexington is the centre. There were but two others of any
importance, at this time north of Kentucky river. It was more open to
attack than any other in the country. The Miami on the north, and the
Licking on the south of the Ohio, were long canals, which floated the
Indian canoes from the northern hive of the savages, between the lakes
and the Ohio, directly to its vicinity.

In the summer of this year a grand Indian assemblage took place at
Chillicothe, a famous central Indian town on the Little Miami. The
Cherokees, Wyandots, Tawas, Pottawattomies, and most of the tribes
bordering on the lakes, were represented in it. Besides their chiefs and
some Canadians, they were aided by the counsels of the two Girtys, and
McKee, renegado whites. We have made diligent enquiry touching the
biography of these men, particularly Simon Girty, a wretch of most
infamous notoriety in those times, as a more successful instigator of
Indian assault and massacre, than any name on record. Scarcely a
tortured captive escaped from the northern Indians, who could not tell
the share which this villain had in his sufferings--no burning or murder
of prisoners, at which he had not assisted by his presence or his
counsels. These refugees from our white settlements, added the
calculation and power of combining of the whites to the instinctive
cunning and ferocity of the savages. They possessed their thirst for
blood without their active or passive courage--blending the bad points
of character in the whites and Indians, without the good of either. The
cruelty of the Indians had some show of palliating circumstances, in the
steady encroachments of the whites upon them. Theirs was gratuitous,
coldblooded, and without visible motive, except that they appeared to
hate the race more inveterately for having fled from it. Yet Simon
Girty, like the Indians among whom he lived, sometimes took the freak of
kindness, nobody could div