on
set out with thirty men to intercept the Indians, on their return
to their towns.

In consequence of the distance which the pursuers had to go, and the
haste with which the Indians had retreated, the expedition failed in
its object; they however accidentally came on a party of six or seven
Mingoes, on the head of Cross Creek in Ohio (near Steubenville)--these
had been prowling about the river, below Fort Pitt, seeking an
opportunity of committing depredations.[18] As Capt. Gibson passed the
point of a small knoll, just after day break, he came unexpectedly
upon them--some of them were lying down; the others were sitting round
a fire, making thongs of green hides. Kiskepila or Little Eagle, a
Mingo chief, headed the party. So soon as he discovered Capt. Gibson,
he raised the war whoop and fired [61] his rifle--the ball passed
through Gibson's hunting shirt and wounded a soldier just behind him.
Gibson sprang forward, and swinging his sword with herculean force,
severed the head of the Little Eagle from his body--two other Indians
were shot down, and the remainder escaped to their towns on
Muskingum.

When the captives, who were restored under the treaty of 1763, came
in, those who were at the Mingo towns when the remnant of Kiskepila's
party returned, stated that the Indians represented Gibson as having
cut off the Little Eagle's head with a _long knife_. Several of the
white persons were then sacrificed to appease the manes of Kiskepila;
and a war dance ensued, accompanied with terrific shouts and bitter
denunciations of revenge on "_the Big knife warrior_." This name was
soon after applied to the Virginia militia generally; and to this day
they are known among the north western Indians as the "_Long knives_,"
or "_Big knife nation_."[19]

These are believed to have been the only attempts to effect a
settlement of North Western Virginia, prior to the close of the French
war. The capture of Fort du Quesne and the erection and garrisoning of
Fort Pitt, although they gave to the English an ascendency in that
quarter; yet they did not so far check the hostile irruptions of the
Indians, as to render a residence in this portion of Virginia, by any
means secure.--It was consequently not attempted 'till some years
after the restoration of peace in 1765.

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[1] This is misleading. The author has told us, in the
preceding chapter, of several attempts of English coast
colonists to make transmontane s