n two hundred houses, and well stored with
corn, hogs, poultry and ammunition, perished in the flames. Shugaw Town
and every other settlement in the "Lower Nation", shared the same
fate. The lightning-like rapidity of the march had taken the savages
everywhere, in this part of the country, by surprise. They fled rather
than fought, and while they lost everything in the shape of property,
but few of them were slain. They sought for shelter among their more
numerous and better protected brethren of the mountains; a people
neither so easily approached, nor so easily overcome.

Montgomery, having finished this part of his work so successfully,
hurried on to the relief of Fort Prince George, which, from the time
when their Chiefs were so cruelly butchered within its walls, had
been closely invested by a formidable force of Cherokees. The fort
was relieved. The Indians fled at his approach; and, thinking that the
severe chastisement which he had inflicted upon them, had inclined their
hearts to peace, the General of the Carolinians paused in his progress,
to give them an opportunity to sue for it, as the former friends and
allies of the English. But he had mistaken the stubborn nature of his
foe. They were not sufficiently humbled, and it was resolved to march
upon the "middle settlements". To this task, that which had been
performed was comparatively easy. They were now to enter upon a
different country, where the Indians were better prepared for them--nay,
where they HAD prepared for them,--in all probability, to the neglect of
the lower towns. Toilsome and full of peril was this march. Dismal and
dense was the wilderness which they were now to penetrate. Rugged paths,
narrow passes, gloomy thickets and dark ravines, encountered them
in their hourly progress, calling for constant vigilance and the
maintenance of all their courage. Rivers, fordable in unfrequent
places and overlooked by precipitous banks on either side, crowned most
commonly by dense and intricate masses of forest, through which and
without a guide, our little army was compelled to pass,--presented
opportunities for frequent ambush and attack, in which, very inferior
forces, if properly commanded, might, with little danger to themselves,
overwhelm and utterly destroy an advancing enemy. It was in such a
region that the Cherokees made their first and formidable stand. Within
five miles of Etchoee, the nearest town of the middle settlements, the
army of Montgo