arriors, with no
effective resistance, fled to their canoes. The white riflemen thronged
after them. Most of the warriors escaped, but over twenty were slain; as
were also four or five French traders, while half a dozen Frenchmen and
one Indian squaw were captured. All the cabins were destroyed, the live
stock was slain, and much plunder taken. The prisoners were well treated
and released; but on the way home another party of French traders were
encountered, and their goods were taken from them. The two Chickasaws
were given their full share of all the plunder.

This blow gave a breathing spell to the Cumberland settlements.
Robertson at once wrote to the French in the Illinois country, and also
to some Delawares, who had recently come to the neighborhood, and were
preserving a dubious neutrality. He explained the necessity of their
expedition, and remarked that if any innocent people, whether Frenchmen
or Indians, had suffered in the attack, they had to blame themselves;
they were in evil company, and the assailants could not tell the good
from the bad. If any Americans had been there, they would have suffered
just the same. In conclusion he warned the French that if their traders
continued to furnish the hostile Indians with powder and lead, they
would "render themselves very insecure"; and to the Indians he wrote
that, in the event of a war, "you will compell ous to retaliate, which
will be a grate pridgedes to your nation." [Footnote: Robertson MSS. His
letter above referred to, and another, in his own hand, to the
Delawares, of about the same date.] He did not spell well; but his
meaning was plain, and his hand was known to be heavy.

CHAPTER III.

THE NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI; SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS AND SPANISH
INTRIGUES, 1784-1788.

It was important for the frontiersmen to take the Lake Posts from the
British; but it was even more important to wrest from the Spaniards the
free navigation of the Mississippi. While the Lake Posts were held by
the garrisons of a foreign power, the work of settling the northwestern
territory was bound to go forward slowly and painfully; but while the
navigation of the Mississippi was barred, even the settlements already
founded could not attain to their proper prosperity and importance.

Need of Free Navigation of the Mississippi.

The lusty young commonwealths which were springing into life on the Ohio
and its tributaries knew that commerce with the outside world