shall collect them when they come in from hunting. All the prisoners
taken in Kentucky are alive. We love them, and so do our young women.
Some of your people mend our guns, and others tell us they can make rum
out of corn. They are now the same as we. In one moon after this we will
take them back to their friends in Kentucky.

"My father, this being the day of joy to the Wabash Indians, we beg a
little drop of your milk to let our warriors see that it came from your
own breast. We were born and raised in the woods. We could never learn
to make rum. God has made the white men masters of the world."

Having finished his speech, Piankashaw presented Mr. Dalton with three
strings of blue and white wampum as the seal of peace. All must observe
the strain of despondency which pervades this address, and it is
melancholy to notice the imploring tones with which the chief asks for
rum, the greatest curse which ever afflicted his people.

The incessant petty warfare waged between vagrant bands of the whites
and the Indians, with the outrages perpetrated on either side, created
great exasperation. In the year 1784 there were many indications that
the Indians were again about to combine in an attack upon the
settlements. These stations were widely scattered, greatly exposed, and
there were many of them. It was impossible for the pioneers to rally in
sufficient strength to protect every position. The savages, emerging
unexpectedly from the wilderness, could select their own point of
attack, and could thus cause a vast amount of loss and misery. For a
long time it had been unsafe for any individual, or even small parties,
unless very thoroughly armed, to wander beyond the protection of the
forts. Under these circumstances, a convention was held of the leading
men of Kentucky at the Danville Station, to decide what measures to
adopt in view of the threatened invasion. It was quite certain that the
movement of the savages would be so sudden and impetuous that the
settlers would be compelled to rely mainly upon their own resources.

The great State of Virginia, of which Kentucky was but a frontier
portion, had become rich and powerful. But many weary leagues
intervened, leading through forests and over craggy mountains, between
the plains of these distant counties and Richmond, the capital of
Virginia. The convention at Danville discussed the question whether it
were not safer for them to anticipate the Indians, and immediately to
s