[5] Lord Dunmore's War (1774) was a natural outgrowth of the
strained relations which had long existed between the savages
and the white colonists in their midst. As our author has made
clear, minor hostilities had broken out here and there ever
since the Pontiac uprising, but there had been no general
campaign since Bouquet's treaty in 1764. Affairs had come to
that pass by the early spring of 1774, that diplomacy was no
longer possible, and an Indian war was inevitable. It was
merely a question of detail, as to how and when. The immediate
cause of precipitation--not the cause of the war, for that lay
deeper--was the territorial dispute over the Ft. Pitt region,
between Virginia and Pennsylvania. Dunmore, as royal governor
of Virginia, had several reasons for bringing matters to a
head--he was largely interested in land speculations under
Virginia patents that would be vitiated if Pennsylvania, now
becoming aggressive, should succeed in planting her official
machinery at Ft. Pitt, which was garrisoned by Virginia; again,
his colonists were in a revolutionary frame of mind, and he
favored a distraction in the shape of a popular Indian war;
finally, it seemed as though a successful raid by Virginia
militia would clinch Virginia's hold on the country and the
treaty of peace that must follow would widen the area of
provincial lands and encourage Western settlements. April 25,
1774, he issued a proclamation in which, after reference to
Pennsylvania's claims, it was asserted that Ft. Pitt was "in
danger of some annoyance from the Indians," and he called on
his local military commandant, the fire-eating Dr. John
Connolly, "to embody a sufficient number of men to repel any
insult." Connolly, evidently as part of a preconcerted plan, at
once (April 26) issued a circular letter to the excited
borderers, which was well calculated to arouse them, being in
effect a declaration of war against the Indians. The very next
day occurred the Pipe Creek affair, then came the Logan tragedy
at Baker's Bottom, three days later, and at once the war was on
at full-head.--R. G. T.

[6] Of John Findlay (so he signed his name), "the
precursor and pilot of Daniel Boone to Kentucky," but little is