the Salt Licks, General Lewis pressed forward with astonishing
rapidity (considering that the march was through a trackless desert);
but before he had gone far, an express arrived from Dunmore, with
orders to return immediately to the mouth of the Big Kenhawa.
Suspecting the integrity of his Lordship's motives, and urged by the
advice of his officers generally, General [131] Lewis refused to obey
these orders; and continued to advance 'till he was met, (at Kilkenny
creek, and in sight of an Indian village, which its inhabitants had
just fired and deserted,) by the Governor, (accompanied by White
Eyes,) who informed him, that he was negotiating a treaty of peace
which would supersede the necessity of the further movement of the
Southern division, and repeating the order for its retreat.

The army under General Lewis had endured many privations and suffered
many hardships. They had encountered a savage enemy in great force,
and purchased a victory with the blood of their friends. When arrived
near to the goal of their anxious wishes, and with nothing to prevent
the accomplishment of the object of the campaign; they received those
orders with evident chagrin; and did not obey them without murmuring.
Having, at his own request, been introduced severally to the officers
of that division; complimenting them for their gallantry and good
conduct in the late engagement, and assuring them of his high esteem,
Lord Dunmore returned to his camp; and General Lewis commenced his
retreat.[21]

If before the opening of this campaign, the belief was prevalent, that
to the conduct of emissaries from Great Britain, because of the
contest then waging between her and her American colonies, the Indian
depredations of that year, were mainly attributable; that belief had
become more general, and had received strong confirmation, from the
more portentous aspect which that contest had assumed, prior to the
battle at Point Pleasant. The destruction of the tea at Boston had
taken place in the March preceding. The _Boston Port Bill_, the signal
for actual conflict between the colonies and mother country, had been
received early in May. The house of Burgesses in Virginia, being in
session at the time, recommended that the first of June, the day on
which that bill was to go into operation, be observed throughout the
colony "as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, imploring the
divine interposition to avert the heavy calamity which threatened
d