the Ohio, on their way westward, will remember while they
live, the lofty rock standing a short distance above the mouth of the
Scioto, on the Virginia shore, which was occupied for years by the
savages, as a favorite watch-tower, from which boats, ascending or
descending, could be discovered at a great distance. From that memorable
spot, hundreds of human beings, men, women and children, while
unconscious of immediate danger, have been seen in the distance and
marked for destruction." On the fourth of April, William W. Dowell
writing to the honorable John Brown of Kentucky, relates that about
fifty Indians were encamped near the mouth of the Scioto. To decoy the
passing boats to the shore they made use of a white prisoner, who ran
along the bank uttering cries of distress and begging to be taken on
board. Three boats and a pirogue were captured, and several persons
brutally murdered. A boat belonging to Colonel Edwards of Bourbon,
Thomas Marshall and others, was hailed by the same white prisoner who
pleaded to be taken on board and brought to Limestone. The stratagem
failing to work the savages at once exposed themselves and began to fire
on the boats, but without effect. They then pushed off from the shore
with a boat load of about thirty warriors and gave chase, and as they
were better supplied with oars than the white men, they would have soon
overtaken them. The cool resolution and presence of mind of one Colonel
George Thompson now saved the day. He threw out all the horses in the
boat he commanded, received Colonel Edward's crew into his own, and
after a frantic chase of fifteen miles, effected an escape. Seventeen
horses were lost, fifteen hundred pounds worth of dry goods, and a
considerable quantity of household goods.

The leading spirits in all these attacks at the mouth of the Scioto were
the Shawnees. The attacks became so frequent, that it was now determined
to organize a punitive expedition against them. Two hundred and thirty
Kentucky volunteers under General Charles Scott crossed the river at
Limestone and were joined by one hundred regulars under General Harmar.
They struck the Scioto several miles up from its mouth and marched down
that stream, but the savages scattered in front of them and only four
Indians were slain. Harmar reported to the government that he might as
well have tried to pursue a pack of wolves.

The movements of the federal government in 1789 and 1790 were extremely
slow. In the f