followed by a
merciless slaughter. Skilled backwoodsmen scattered out, Indian fashion,
but their less skilful or more panic-struck brethren, and all regulars
or ordinary militia, kept together from a kind of blind feeling of
safety in companionship, and in consequence their nimble and ruthless
antagonists destroyed them at their ease.

Indian War Parties Repulsed.

Still, the Indian war parties were often checked, or scattered; and
occasionally one of them received some signal discomfiture. Such was the
case with a band that went up the Kanawha valley just as Clark was
descending the Ohio on his way to the Illinois. Finding the fort at the
mouth of the Kanawha too strong to be carried, they moved on up the
river towards the Greenbriar settlements, their chiefs shouting
threateningly to the people in the fort, and taunting them with the
impending destruction of their friends and kindred. But two young men in
the stockade forthwith dressed and painted themselves like Indians, that
they might escape notice even if seen, and speeding through the woods
reached the settlements first and gave warning. The settlers took refuge
on a farm where there was a block-house with a stockaded yard. The
Indians attacked in a body at daybreak when the door was opened,
thinking to rush into the house; but they were beaten off, and paid dear
for their boldness, for seventeen of them were left dead in the yard,
besides the killed and wounded whom they carried away. [Footnote: McKee
was the commander at the fort; the block-house was owned by Col. Andrew
Donelly; Hanlon and Prior were the names of the two young men. This
happened in May, 1778. For the anecdotes of personal prowess in this
chapter see De Haas, or else Kercheval, McClung, Doddridge, and the
fifty other annalists of those western wars, who repeat many of the same
stories. All relate facts of undoubted authenticity and wildly
improbable tales, resting solely on tradition, with exactly the same
faith. The chronological order of these anecdotes being unimportant, I
have grouped them here. It must always be remembered that both the men
and the incidents described are interesting chiefly as examples; the old
annalists give many hundreds of such anecdotes, and there must have been
thousands more that they did not relate.] In the same year a block-house
was attacked while the children were playing outside. The Indians in
their sudden rush killed one settler, wounded four, and actual