y have lines of demarkation, which distinguish
the territory of one nation from that of another; and these are of such
binding authority, that a transgression of them by neighboring Indians,
leads invariably to war. In treaties of purchase, and other
conventional arrangements, made with them by the whites, the validity
of their rights to land, have been repeatedly recognized; and an
infraction of those rights by the Anglo-Americans, encounters
opposition at its threshold. The history of every attempt to settle a
wilderness, to which the Indian title was not previously extinguished,
has consequently been a history of plunder, conflagration and massacre.

That the extension of white settlements into the Indian country, was
the cause of the war of 1774, will be abundantly manifested by a
recurrence to the early history of Kentucky; and a brief review of the
circumstances connected with the first attempts to explore and make
establishments in it. For several reasons, these circumstances merit a
passing notice in this place. Redstone and Fort Pitt (now Brownsville
and Pittsburgh) were for some time, the principal points of
embarkation for emigrants to that country; many of whom were from the
establishments which had been then not long made, on the Monongahela.
The Indians, regarding the settlements in North Western Virginia as
the line from which swarmed the adventurers to Kentucky, directed
their operations to prevent the success of these adventurers, as well
against the inhabitants of the upper country, as against them. While
at the same time, in the efforts which were made to compel the Indians
to desist from farther opposition, the North Western Virginians
frequently combined [109] their forces, and acted in conjunction, the
more certainly to accomplish that object. In truth the war, which was
then commenced, and carried on with but little intermission up to the
treaty of Fort Greenville in 1795 was a war in which they were equally
interested, having for its aim the indiscriminate destruction of the
inhabitants of both those sections of country, as the means of
preventing the farther extension of settlements by the whites.[5]

When Kentucky was first begun to be explored, it is said not to have
been claimed in individual property by any nation of Indians. Its
extensive forests, grassy plains and thick cane brakes, abounding with
every variety of game common to such latitudes, were used as common
hunting grounds, and con