ms, to say that
one reason why the Indians were so formidable in warfare was because
they were so few in numbers. Had they been more numerous they would
perforce have been tillers of the soil, and it would have been far
easier for the whites to get at them. They were able to wage a war so
protracted and murderous, only because of their extreme elusiveness.
There was little chance to deliver a telling blow at enemies who had
hardly anything of value to destroy, who were so comparatively few in
number that they could subsist year in and year out on game, and whose
mode of life rendered them as active, stealthy, cautious, and ferocious
as so many beasts of prey.

Ravages in Kentucky.

Though the frontiers of Pennsylvania and of Virginia proper suffered
much, Kentucky suffered more. The murderous inroads of the Indians at
about the close of the Revolutionary war caused a mortality such as
could not be paralleled save in a community struck down by some awful
pestilence; and though from thence on our affairs mended, yet for many
years the most common form of death was death at the hands of the
Indians. A resident in Kentucky, writing to a friend, dwelt on the need
of a system of vestries to take care of the orphans, who, as things
were, were left solely to private charity; though, continues the writer,
"of all countries I am acquainted with this abounds most with these
unhappy objects." [Footnote: Draper MSS., Clark MSS. Darrell to Fleming,
April 14, 1783.]

Attacks on Incoming Settlers.

The roving war bands infested the two routes by which the immigrants
came into the country; for the companies of immigrants could usually be
taken at a disadvantage, and yielded valuable plunder. The parties who
travelled the Wilderness Road were in danger of ambush by day and of
onslaught by night. But there was often some protection for them, for
whenever the savages became very bold, bodies of Kentucky militia were
sent to patrol the trail, and these not only guarded the trains of
incomers, but kept a sharp look-out for Indian signs, and, if any were
found, always followed and, if possible, fought and scattered the
marauders.

The Indians who watched the river-route down the Ohio had much less to
fear in the way of pursuit by, or interference from, the frontier
militia; although they too were now and then followed, overtaken, and
vanquished. While in midstream the boats were generally safe, though
occasionally the savages g