omen
and children, together with what property could be readily taken
off, and for making preparations for a combined attack on the
Virginia troops. To punish this duplicity and to render peace
really desirable, Col. McDonald burned their towns and destroyed
their crops; [117] and being then in want of provisions, retraced his
steps to Wheeling, taking with him the three remaining hostages, who
were then sent on to Williamsburg.[17]

The inconvenience of supplying provisions to an army in the
wilderness, was a serious obstacle to the success of expeditions
undertaken against the Indians. The want of roads, at that early
period, which would admit of transportation in wagons, rendered it
necessary to resort to pack horses; and such was at times the
difficulty of procuring these, that, not unfrequently, each soldier
had to be the bearer of his entire stock of subsistence for the whole
campaign. When this was exhausted, a degree of suffering ensued, often
attended with consequences fatal to individuals, and destructive to
the objects of the expedition. In the present case, the army being
without provisions before they left the Indian towns, their only
sustenance consisted of weeds, an ear of corn each day, and
occasionally, a small quantity of venison: it being impracticable to
hunt game in small parties, because of the vigilance and success of
the Indians, in watching and cutting off detachments of this kind,
before they could accomplish their purpose and regain the main army.

No sooner had the troops retired from the Indian country, than the
savages, in small parties, invaded the settlements in different
directions, seeking opportunities of gratifying their insatiable
thirst for blood. And although the precautions which had been taken,
lessened the frequency of their success, yet they did not always
prevent it. Persons leaving the forts on any occasion, were almost
always either murdered or carried into captivity,--a lot sometimes
worse than death itself.

Perhaps the first of these incursions into North Western Virginia,
after the destruction of the towns on the Muskingum, was that made by
a party of eight Indians, at the head of which was the Cayuga chief
Logan.[18] This very celebrated [118] Indian is represented as having
hitherto, observed towards the whites, a course of conduct by no means
in accordance with the malignity and steadfast implacability which
influenced his red brethren generally; but was, on the c