vance of the party was headed by McGary,
Harland, and McBride. A party of Indians, as Boone had predicted, that
had been ambushed in the woods here met them. A warm and bloody action
immediately commenced, and the rifles on either side did fatal
execution. It was discovered in a moment that the whole line of the
ravine concealed Indians, who, to the number of thrice that of their
foes, rushed upon them. Colonels Todd and Trigg, whose position had been
on the right, by the movement in crossing, were thrown in the rear. They
fell in their places, and the rear was turned. Between twenty and thirty
of these brave men had already paid the forfeit of their rashness, when
a retreat commenced under the edge of the tomahawk, and the whizzing of
Indian bullets. When the party first crossed the river all were mounted.
Many had dismounted at the commencement of the action. Others engaged on
horseback. On the retreat, some were fortunate enough to recover their
horses, and fled on horseback. Others retreated on foot. From the point
where the engagement commenced to the Licking river was about a mile's
distance. A high and rugged cliff environed either shore of the river,
which sloped off to a plain near the Licks. The ford was narrow, and the
water above and below it deep. Some were overtaken on the way, and fell
under the tomahawk. But the greatest slaughter was at the river. Some
were slain in crossing, and some on either shore.

A singular spectacle was here presented in the case of a man by the name
of Netherland, who had been derided for his timidity. He was mounted on
a fleet and powerful horse, the back of which he had never left for a
moment. He was one of the first to recross the Licking. Finding himself
safe upon the opposite shore, a sentiment of sympathy came upon him as
he looked back and took a survey of the scene of murder going on in the
river and on its shore. Many had reached the river in a state of
faintness and exhaustion, and the Indians were still cutting them down.
Inspired with the feeling of a commander, he cried out in a loud and
authoritative voice, "Halt! Fire on the Indians. Protect the men in the
river." The call was obeyed. Ten or twelve men instantly turned, fired
on the enemy, and checked their pursuit for a moment, thus enabling some
of the exhausted and wounded fugitives to evade the tomahawk, already
uplifted to destroy them. The brave and benevolent Reynolds, whose reply
to Girty has been reported