small villages, destroying much provision and
capturing two hundred horses. He himself had but one man killed and one
wounded. Before the startled warriors could gather to attack him he
plunged once more into the wilderness, carrying his prisoners and
plunder, and driving the captured horses before him; and so swift were
his motions that he got back in safety to the settlements. [Footnote:
_Do_. Letters of Col. Wm. Christian, April 10, 1781; of Joseph Martin,
March 1st; and of Arthur Campbell, March 28th. The accounts vary
slightly; for instance, Christian gives him one hundred and eighty,
Campbell only one hundred and fifty men. One account says he killed
thirty, another twenty Indians. Martin, by the way, speaks bitterly of
the militia as men "who do duty at times as their inclination leads
them." The incident, brilliant enough anyhow, of course grows a little
under Ramsey and Haywood; and Mr. Kirke fairly surpasses himself when he
comes to it.] The length of the journey, the absolutely untravelled
nature of the country, which no white man, save perhaps an occasional
wandering hunter, had ever before traversed, the extreme difficulty of
the route over the wooded, cliff-scarred mountains, and the strength of
the Cherokee towns that were to be attacked, all combined to render the
feat most difficult. For its successful performance there was need of
courage, hardihood, woodcraft, good judgment, stealth, and great
rapidity of motion. It was one of the most brilliant exploits of the
border war.

Even after his return Sevier was kept busy pursuing and defeating small
bands of plundering savages. In the early summer he made a quick inroad
south of the French Broad. At the head of over a hundred hard riders he
fell suddenly on the camp of a war party, took a dozen scalps, and
scattered the rest of the Indians in every direction. A succession of
these blows completely humbled the Cherokees, and they sued for peace;
thanks to Sevier's tactics, they had suffered more loss than they had
inflicted, an almost unknown thing in these wars with the forest
Indians. In midsummer peace was made by a treaty at the Great Island of
the Holston.

End of the War with the British and Tories.

During the latter half of the year, when danger from the Indians had
temporarily ceased, Sevier and Shelby led down bands of mounted riflemen
to assist the American forces in the Carolinas and Georgia. They took an
honorable share under Marion in s