corn a day."

All were glad to be back at Wheeling, where Major McDonald decided to
wait for the arrival of Governor Dunmore. The governor finally arrived
in all the pomp of war and with enough men to raise the total number
to about twelve hundred.

Up to the time of his arrival it had been supposed that he would take
his army down the Ohio River and join that of General Lewis before
making an attack on the Indians. Now he announced that the army would
proceed in boats down the Ohio to the Hockhocking River and up that
river to the falls, whence he would march across country to the Indian
towns on the Scioto River. He sent messengers to General Lewis
ordering him to join the main body at that point.

"If the redskins learn what's up they'll have a chance to wipe Lewis
off the earth," remarked one frontiersman in Rodney's hearing.

The Indians did learn Dunmore's plan and almost succeeded in defeating
the division under Lewis.

CHAPTER XVI

RODNEY MEETS WITH REVERSES

All historical accounts of the battle between the forces under Lewis
and the allied Indians commanded by the Shawnee chief, Cornstalk,
which occurred at Point Pleasant on the Ohio River, October 10, 1774,
agree that it was the fiercest conflict which had been fought in this
country between white men and Indians led by an Indian, unaided by the
advice of any white officer.

Cornstalk was a chief of unusual ability and good sense. He had been
opposed to the war, but, finding it inevitable, succeeded in raising a
formidable army of the various tribes, and commanded them with such
skill and bravery that, in the battle, which lasted all day, the
Indians fought doggedly and all but achieved a victory, which would
have made a very different affair of what is known as Dunmore's war.

His spies had kept him informed of the movements of the two Virginia
expeditions, and he resolved to attack them separately before they
could join their forces.

Leaving scattering bands of Indians to delay the advance of Dunmore,
he marched his main body of warriors to the Ohio River, crossed, and
attacked the troops under General Lewis.

This commander had wisely chosen a position on a point, having the
Ohio River on his left, Crooked Creek on his right, and the Great
Kanawha at his rear. He was a veteran seasoned in the French and
Indian war. With him was the courtly John Sevier, a French Huguenot
planning for fortune in the lands of Kentucky, James Robertson,