* Pond Bluff now lies at the bottom of Lake Marion.
--A.L., 1996.

Chapter 3.

Marion a Farmer--Volunteers in the Cherokee Campaign.

From the readiness with which young Marion yielded himself to the
entreaties of his mother, and resumed the occupations of agriculture,
and from the quiet and persevering industry with which he pursued them
for a period of nearly or quite ten years, it might be supposed that
the impatience and restlessness of mood, which had formerly led him
to revolt at the staid drudgery of rural life, had been entirely
extinguished in his bosom. But such was not the case. It was only
subdued, and slumbering for a season, ready to awaken at the first
opportunity, with all the vigor and freshness of a favorite passion.
That opportunity was at hand. Events were in progress which were to
bring into the field, and prepare by the very best sort of training, for
the most noble trials, the great military genius of the Partisan. At the
opening of the year 1759, the colony of South Carolina was on the eve
of an Indian war. The whole frontier of the Southern Provinces,
from Pennsylvania to Georgia, was threatened by the savages, and the
scalping-knife had already begun its bloody work upon the weak and
unsuspecting borderers. The French had been conquered upon the Ohio.
Forts Frontenac and Duquesne had fallen. British and Provincial valor,
aided by strong bodies of Cherokee warriors, had everywhere placed the
flag of Britain above the fortresses of France. With its elevation, the
Indian allies of the French sent in their adhesion to the conquerors;
and, their work at an end, the Cherokee auxiliaries of Britain prepared
to return to their homes, covered with their savage trophies, and
adequately rewarded for their services. It happened, unfortunately,
that, while passing along the frontiers of Virginia, the Cherokees, many
of whom had lost their horses during the campaign, supplied themselves
rather unscrupulously from the pastures of the colonists. With
inconsiderate anger, the Virginians, forgetting the late valuable
services of the savages, rose upon their footsteps, slew twelve or
fourteen of their warriors, and made prisoners of as many more. This
rash and ill-advised severity aroused the nation. The young warriors
flew to arms, and pouring their active hordes upon the frontier
settlements, proceeded to the work of slaughter, without pausing to
discriminate between the offending an