than they had
come in. Robertson shot one of their number, and they in return killed a
white man who sprang out-of-doors at the first alarm. When they were
driven out the gate was closed after them; but they fired through the
loopholes; especially into one of the block-houses, where the chinks had
not been filled with mud, as in the others. They thus killed a negro,
and wounded one or two other men; yet they were soon driven off.
Robertson's return had been at a most opportune moment. As so often
before and afterwards, he had saved the settlement from destruction.

Other bands of Indians joined the war party, and they continued to hover
about the stations, daily inflicting loss and damage on the settlers.
They burned down the cabins and fences, drove off the stock and killed
the hunters, the women and children who ventured outside the walls, and
the men who had gone back to their deserted stockades. [Footnote:
Haywood says they burned "immense quantities of corn"; as Putnam points
out, the settlers could have had very little corn to burn. Haywood is
the best authority for the Indian fighting in the Cumberland district
during '80, '81, and '82. Putnam supplies some details learned from Mrs.
Robertson in her old age. The accounts are derived mainly from the
statements of old settlers; but the Robertsons seem always to have kept
papers, which served to check off the oral statements. For all the
important facts there is good authority. The annals are filled with name
after name of men who were killed by the Indians. The dates, and even
the names, may be misplaced in many of these instances; but this is
really a matter of no consequence, for their only interest is to show
the nature of the harassing Indian warfare, and the kind of adventure
then common.]

Attack on Nashborough.

On the 2d day of April another effort was made by a formidable war party
to get possession of one of the two remaining stations--Freeland's and
Nashborough--and thus, at a stroke, drive the whites from the Cumberland
district. This time Nashborough was the point aimed at.

A large body [Footnote: How large it is impossible to say. One or two
recent accounts make wild guesses, calling it 1,000; but this is sheer
nonsense; it is more likely to have been 100.] of Cherokees approached
the fort in the night, lying hid in the bushes, divided into two
parties. In the morning three of them came near, fired at the fort, and
ran off towards where the