when the danger was over the old jealousies cropped
out again.

Some one or other of the leaders was almost always employed against the
Indians. The Cherokees and Creeks were never absolutely quiet and at
peace.

Indian Troubles.

After the chastisement inflicted upon the former by the united forces of
all the southern backwoodsmen, treaties were held with them, [Footnote:
See _ante_, Chapter XI. of Vol. I.] in the spring and summer of 1777.
The negotiations consumed much time, the delegates from both sides
meeting again and again to complete the preliminaries. The credit of the
State being low, Isaac Shelby furnished on his own responsibility the
goods and provisions needed by the Virginians and Holston people in
coming to an agreement with the Otari, or upper Cherokees [ Footnote:
Shelby's MS. autobiography, copy in Col. Durrett's library.]; and some
land was formally ceded to the whites.

But the chief Dragging Canoe would not make peace. Gathering the boldest
and most turbulent of the young braves about him, he withdrew to the
great whirl in the Tennessee, [Footnote: Va. State Papers, III., 271;
the settlers always spoke of it as the "suck" or "whirl."] at the
crossing-place of the Creek war parties, when they followed the trail
that led to the bend of the Cumberland River. Here he was joined by many
Creeks, and also by adventurous and unruly members from almost all the
western tribes [Footnote: Shelby MS.]--Chickasaws, Chocktaws, and
Indians from the Ohio. He soon had a great band of red outlaws round
him. These freebooters were generally known as the Chickamaugas, and
they were the most dangerous and least controllable of all the foes who
menaced the western settlements. Many tories and white refugees from
border justice joined them, and shared in their misdeeds. Their shifting
villages stretched from Chickamauga Creek to Running Water. Between
these places the Tennessee twists down through the sombre gorges by
which the chains of the Cumberland ranges are riven in sunder. Some
miles below Chickamauga Creek, near Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain towers
aloft into the clouds; at its base the river bends round Moccasin Point,
and then rushes through a gap between Walden's Ridge and the Raccoon
Hills. Then for several miles it foams through the winding Narrows
between jutting cliffs and sheer rock walls, while in its boulder-strewn
bed the swift torrent is churned into whirlpools, cataracts, and rapids.
Near th