r she
was restored to her friends in 1766, stated that she was sitting tied,
in the midst of four Indians, who laying their guns on a log, took
deliberate aim at Matthews; the others firing at the Maxwells--The
sudden wheeling of their horses no doubt saved the lives of all
three.

The Indians then divided, and twenty of them taking the [68]
prisoners, the plunder and some horses which they had stolen, set off
by the way of Jackson's river, for the Ohio; the remainder started
towards Cedar creek, with the ostensible view of committing farther
depredations. But Matthews and the Maxwells had sounded the alarm, and
the whole settlement were soon collected at Paul's stockade fort, at
the Big spring near to Springfield. Here the women and children were
left to be defended by Audley Maxwell and five other men; while the
others, forming a party of twenty-two, with George Matthews at their
head, set out in quest of the enemy.

The Indians were soon overtaken, and after a severe engagement, were
forced to give ground. Matthews and his party followed in pursuit, as
far as Purgatory creek; but the night being very dark in consequence
of a continued rain, the fugitives effected an escape; and overtaking
their comrades with the prisoners and plunder, on the next evening, at
the forks of the James and Cowpasture rivers, proceeded to Ohio
without further molestation.

When Matthews and his men, on the morning succeeding the engagement,
returned to the field of battle, they found nine Indians dead; whom
they buried on the spot. Benjamin Smith, Thomas Maury and the father
of Sally Jew, were the only persons of Matthews' party, who were
killed--these, together with those who had been murdered on the
preceding day, were buried near the fork of a branch, in (what is now)
the meadow of Thomas Cross sr.

In Boquet's treaty with the Ohio Indians, it was stipulated that the
whites detained by them in captivity were to be brought in and
redeemed. In compliance with this stipulation, Mrs. Renix was brought
to Staunton in 1767 and ransomed, together with two of her sons,
William, the late Col. Renix of Greenbrier, and Robert, also of
Greenbrier--Betsy, her daughter, had died on the Miami. Thomas
returned in 1783, but soon after removed and settled, on the Scioto,
near Chilicothe. Joshua never came back; he took an Indian wife and
became a Chief among the Miamies--he amassed a considerable fortune
and died near Detroit in 1810.

Hannah Den