ogan as a messenger from
Boon's Station, is in error as to the siege of the latter, etc.]
Kentucky during her earliest and most trying years received
comparatively little help from sorely beset Virginia; but the
backwoodsmen of the upper Tennessee valley--on both sides of the
boundary--did her real and lasting service.

In 1778 the militia were disbanded, as the settlements were very little
harried; but as soon as the vigilance of the whites was relaxed the
depredations and massacres began again, and soon became worse than ever.
Robertson had been made superintendent of Indian affairs for North
Carolina; and he had taken up his abode among the Cherokees at the town
of Chota in the latter half of the year 1777. He succeeded in keeping
them comparatively quiet and peaceable during 1778, and until his
departure, which took place the following year, when he went to found
the settlements on the Cumberland River.

But the Chickamaugas refused to make peace, and in their frequent and
harassing forays they were from time to time joined by parties of young
braves from all the Cherokee towns that were beyond the reach of
Robertson's influence--that is, by all save those in the neighborhood of
Chota. The Chickasaws and Choctaws likewise gave active support to the
king's cause; the former scouted along the Ohio, the latter sent bands
of young warriors to aid the Creeks and Cherokees in their raids against
the settlements. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Letter of Rainsford and Tait
to Hamilton. April 9, 1779.]

The British agents among the southern Indians had received the letters
Hamilton sent them after he took Vincennes; in these they were urged at
once to send out parties against the frontier, and to make ready for a
grand stroke in the spring. In response the chief agent, who was the
Scotch captain Cameron, a noted royalist leader, wrote to his official
superior that the instant he heard of any movement of the northwestern
Indians he would see that it was backed up, for the Creeks were eager
for war, and the Cherokees likewise were ardently attached to the
British cause; as a proof of the devotion of the latter, he added: "They
keep continually killing and scalping in Virginia, North Carolina, and
the frontier of Georgia, although the rebels are daily threatening to
send in armies from all quarters and extirpate the whole tribe."
[Footnote: Haldimand MSS. Series B., Vol. 117, p. 131. Letter of
Alexander Cameron, July 15, 1779.] I