numbers; and their united strength enabled them the better to resist
aggression, and conduct the various operations of husbandry and
hunting--then the only occupations of the men.

While these things were transacting in Kentucky, North Western
Virginia enjoyed a repose undisturbed, save by the conviction of the
moral certainty, that it would be again involved in all the horrors of
savage warfare; and that too, at no distant period: The machinations
of British agents, to [151] produce this result, were well known to be
gaining advocates daily, among the savages; and the hereditary
resentments of these, were known to be too deeply seated, for the
victory of Point Pleasant to have produced their eradication, and to
have created in their stead, a void, to become the future receptacle
of kindlier feelings, towards their Virginia neighbors. A coalition
of the many tribes north west of the Ohio river, had been some time
forming, and the assent of the Shawanees, alone, was wanting to its
perfection. The distinguished Sachem at the head of that nation, was
opposed to an alliance with the British, and anxious to preserve a
friendly intercourse with the colonists. All his influence, with all
his energy, was exerted, to prevent his brethren from again involving
themselves, in a war with the whites. But it was likely to be in vain.
Many of his warriors had fallen at the mouth of the Kenhawa, and his
people had suffered severely during the continuance of that war; they
were therefore, too intent on retaliation, to listen to the sage
counsel of their chief. In this posture of affairs, Cornstalk, in the
spring of 1777, visited the fort, which had been erected at Point
Pleasant after the campaign of 1774, in company with the Red Hawk, and
another Indian. Captain Matthew Arbuckle was then commandant of the
garrison; and when Cornstalk communicated to him the hostile
preparations of the Indians,--that the Shawanees alone were wanting to
render a confederacy complete,--that, as the "current set so strongly
against the colonies, even they would float with the stream in despite
of his endeavors to stem it," and that hostilities would commence
immediately, he deemed it prudent to detain him and his companions as
hostages, for the peace and neutrality of the different tribes of
Indians in Ohio. He at the same time acquainted the newly organized
government of Virginia, with the information which he had received
from Cornstalk, and the course