, he had been met by messengers from the Indians suing for peace.
General Lewis, in the meantime, did not remain inactive. The day after
the battle he proceeded to bury his dead, and to throw up a rude
entrenchment around his camp, and appoint a guard for the protection of
the sick and wounded. On the succeeding day he crossed the Ohio with
his army, and commenced his march through a trackless desert, for the
Shawanoe towns on the Scioto. Governor Dunmore, having determined to
make peace with the Indians, sent an express to general Lewis, ordering
him to retreat across the Ohio. The order was disregarded, and the
march continued until the governor in person, met the general and
peremptorily repeated it. General Lewis and his troops, burning with a
desire of avenging the Indian massacres, and the loss of their brave
companions in the late battle, reluctantly obeyed the command of
Dunmore; and turned their faces homewards. When the governor and his
officers had returned to their camp, on the following day, the treaty
with the Indians was opened. For fear of treachery, only eighteen
Indians were permitted to attend their chiefs within the encampment,
and they were required to leave their arms behind them. The conference
was commenced by Cornstalk, in a long, bold and spirited speech, in
which the white people were charged with being the authors of the war,
by their aggressions upon the Indians at Captina and Yellow creek.
Logan, the celebrated Mingo chief, refused to attend, although willing
to make peace. His influence with the Indians made it important to
secure his concurrence in the proposed treaty. Dunmore sent a special
messenger, (colonel John Gibson,) to him. They met alone in the woods,
where Logan delivered to him his celebrated speech. Colonel Gibson
wrote it down, returned to Dunmore's camp, read the speech in the
council, and the terms of the peace were then agreed on. What those
terms were, is not fully known. No copy of the treaty can now be found,
although diligent enquiry has been made for it. Burk, in his History of
Virginia, says, that the peace was on "condition that the lands on
_this side of the Ohio_ should be for ever ceded to the whites; that
their prisoners should be delivered up, and that four hostages should
be immediately given for the faithful performance of these conditions."
Campbell, in his History of Virginia, says, the Indians "agreed to give
up their lands on this side of the Ohio, and set