dy of the Indian,--and the
Indian with his tomahawk in the head of the soldier.

Notwithstanding the signal victory, obtained by General Wayne over the
Indians, yet did their hostility to the whites lead them to acts of
occasional violence, and kept them for some time from acceding to the
proposals for peace. In [317] consequence of this, their whole country
was laid waste, and forts erected in the hearts of their settlements
at once to starve and awe them into quiet. The desired effect was
produced. Their crops being laid waste, their villages burned,
fortresses erected in various parts of their country and kept well
garrisoned, and a victorious army ready to bear down upon them at any
instant, there was no alternative left them but to sue for peace. When
the Shawanees made known their wish to bury the _bloody hatchet_, Gen.
Wayne refused to treat singly with them, and declared that all the
different tribes of the North Western Indians should be parties to any
treaty which he should make. This required some time as they had been
much dispersed after the defeat of the 20th of August, and the great
devastation committed on their crops and provisions by the American
army, had driven many to the woods, to procure a precarious
subsistence by hunting. Still however, to such abject want and
wretchedness were they reduced, that exertions were immediately made
to collect them in general council; and as this was the work of some
time, it was not effected until midsummer of 1795.

In this interval of time, there was but a solitary interruption,
caused by savage aggression, to the general repose and quiet of North
Western Virginia; and that interruption occurred in a settlement which
had been exempt from invasion since the year 1782. In the summer of
1795, the trail of a large party of Indians was discovered on Leading
creek, and proceeding directly towards the settlements on the head of
the West Fork, those on Buchannon river, or in Tygart's Valley. In
consequence of the uncertainty against which of them, the savages
would direct their operations, intelligence of the discovery which had
been made, was sent by express to all; and measures, to guard against
the happening of any unpleasant result, were taken by all, save the
inhabitants on Buchannon. They had so long been exempt from the
murderous incursions of the savages, while other settlements not
remote from them, were yearly deluged with blood, that a false
security was enge