e bait,
and the insidious promises which accompanied it.

There were in the colonies too, many persons, who from principle or
fear, were still attached to the cause of Great Britain; and who not
only, did not sanction the opposition of their country to the
supremacy of Parliament, but were willing in any wise to lend their
aid to the royal cause. Some of those disaffected Americans, (as they
were at first denominated) who resided on the frontiers, foreseeing
the [141] attachment of the Indians to the side of Britain, and
apprehensive that in their inroads, the friends as well as the enemies
of that country, might, from the difficulty of discriminating, be
exposed to savage fury; and at the same time, sensible that they had
become obnoxious to a majority of their neighbors, who were perhaps,
too much inclined to practice summary modes of punishment, sought a
refuge among the Indians, from those impending evils. In some
instances, these persons were under the influence of the most
rancorous and vindictive passions, and when once with the savages,
strove to infuse those passions into their breasts, and stimulate them
to the repetition of those enormities, which had previously, so
terribly annoyed the inhabitants of the different frontiers.[1] Thus
wrought upon, their inculcated enmity to the Anglo-Americans
generally, roused them to action, and the dissonant notes of the war
song, resounded in their villages. For a while indeed, they refrained
from hostilities against North Western Virginia. It was however, but
to observe the progress of passing events, that they might act against
the mountain borders, simultaneously with the British on the Atlantic
coast; as a premature movement on their part, might, while Virginia
was yet at liberty to bear down upon them with concentrated forces,
bring upon their towns the destruction which had so appallingly
threatened them after the battle at Point Pleasant.

But though the inhabitants on the Virginia frontiers, enjoyed a
momentary respite from savage warfare; yet were the Indians not wholly
unemployed in deeds of aggression. The first attempt to occupy
Kentucky, had been the signal of hostilities in 1774; and the renewed
endeavors to form establishments in it, in 1775, induced their
continuance, and brought on those who were engaged in effecting them,
all the horrors of savage warfare.

Upon the close of the campaign under Lord Dunmore, Kentucky became
more generally known. James