The day after his arrival, two men belonging to the fort, whose names were Hamilton and Gilmore, crossed the Kenhawa, intending to hunt in the woods beyond it. On their return from hunting, some Indians, who had come to view the position at the Point, concealed themselves in the weeds. near the mouth of the Kenhawa, and killed Gilmore while endeavoring to pass them. Col. Stewart (who was at the post in the character of a volunteer) was standing on the opposite bank of the river at the time, and was surprised that a gun had been fired so near the fort in violation of orders.

Hamilton ran down the bank, and cried out that Gilmore was killed. Captain Hall commanded the company to which Gilmore belonged. His men leaped into a canoe and hastened to the relief of Hamilton. They brought the body of Gilmore, weltering in blood and the head scalped, across the river. The canoe had scarcely reached the shore, when the cry was raised, "Kill the red dogs in the fort!" Captain Hall placed himself in front of his soldiers, and they ascended the river's bank, pale with rage, and carrying their loaded firelocks in their hands. Colonel Stewart and Captain Arbuckle exerted themselves in vain to dissuade the men, exasperated to madness by the spectacle of Gilmore's corpse, from the cruel deed which they contemplated. They cocked their guns, threatening those gentlemen with instant death if they did not desist, and rushed into the fort.

The interpreter's wife, who had been a captive among the Indians, and felt an affection for them, ran to their cabin and informed them that Hall's soldiers were advancing, with the intention of taking their lives, because they believed that the Indians who killed Gilmore had come with Cornstalk's son on the preceding day. This the young man solemnly

denied, declaring that he had come alone, and with the sole object of seeking his father. When the soldiers came within hearing, the young warrior appeared agitated. Cornstalk encouraged him to meet his fate composedly, and said to him, "My son, the Great Spirit has sent you here that we may die together.' He turned to meet his murderers the next instant, and receiving seven bullets in his body, expired without a groan.

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When Cornstalk had fallen, Ellinipsico continued still and passive, not even raising himself from his seat. He met death in that position with the utmost calmness. The Red Hawk made an attempt to climb the chimney, but fell by the fire of some of Hall's men.

The day before his death, Cornstalk had been present at a council of the officers, and had spoken to them on the subject of the war, with his own peculiar eloquence. In the course of his remarks, he expressed something like a presentiment of his fate; "When I was young," he said, "and went out to war, I often thought each would be my last adventure, and I should return no more. I still lived. Now I am in the midst of you, and if you choose, you may kill me. I can die but once. It is alike to me whether now or hereafter."

His atrocious murder was dearly expiated. The warlike Shawanese were thenceforth the foremost in excursions upon the frontier, particularly the scattered and exposed stations of Kentucky.

CHAPTER XVIII.

BORDER WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

WE have forborne, with some effort of self-denial, to enlarge upon the early explorations and occupation of Kentucky by the whites. We have paused on the margin of the Ohio as the boundary of our subject, as well as of the state whose introductory annals constitute our special theme; but with a full consciousness of the fascinating interest which invests pioneer life in Kentucky. The solitary wanderings of Boone and Kenton as early as 1769, in the valleys of the Kentucky and Licking, where immense herds of buffalo sought the Saline springs-the adventures of Knox and his band of forty hunters who crossed the Appalachian chain in 1770, and explored the wild and broken region lying upon the northern boundaries of Tennessee-Boone's repulse by the Indians, when, in 1773, he attempted to remove five families besides his own, from the Yadkin in North Carolina to the banks of the Kentucky-the settlements of the McAfees, Thomas Bullett, Hancock, Taylor, James Douglas, Colonel Floyd and others also in 1773-the foundation of Harrodsburg by the solitary log cabin of James Harrod in 1774the claim of Richard Henderson to the lands lying between the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers, by a grant from the Cherokee Indians, and under which, notwithstanding the protest of Virginia afterwards successfully enforced, the colony of Transylvania was organized on the 23d of May, 1775 -the arrival of four American women, Mrs. Boone, Mrs.

McGary, Mrs. Denton, and Mrs. Hogan, at Boonesborough in September, 1775--the rapid increase of emigration thenceforth the appointment of George Rogers Clark, and one Gabriel Jones, in June, 1776, at a little Congress assembled in Boonesborough, to represent Kentucky in the Assembly of Virginia-at length, after a year's suspense and apprehension, excited by occasional outbreaks of Indian hostility, the frightful scenes of 1777, when the Shawanese once more, as in 1774, ravaged the settlements:-this succession of events, although of thrilling interest, we must dismiss with the most cursory allusion.

As we have said, the murder of Cornstalk terminated all uncertainty, and precipitated the savages over the Kentucky and Virginia border. At the close of 1777, only three settlements existed in the interior of Kentucky-Harrodsburg, Boonesborough and Logan's-and of these three, the whole military population, did not exceed one hundred and two in number. It was a year of siege, of struggle, of sufferingbut the gloomy months elicited some extraordinary instances. of heroism and humanity. We read of James Ray, a lad of sixteen, loading an old horse with the game which he shot by day, remote from Harrodsburg, and silently stealing into the besieged fort at night, whence, however, he would again emerge before the next dawn, thus for weeks saving the distressed garrison from starvation-of Benjamin Logan, breaking from the shelter of a block house, into a tempest of rifle balls, to rescue a wounded comrade who had been surprised by an ambush of savages: and of a journey of four hundred miles, through a wilderness swarming with war parties of Indians, and across the mountains to the settlements, to obtain ammunition for his beleaguered companions, successfully accomplishing his hazardous errand. Such, and similar

occurrences, which tradition fondly cherishes, are the romance of history.

The month of September witnessed the siege of Wheeling. Here, where the Zanes had settled in 1770, Fort Fincastle (so called from the western county of Virginia,) was established by Lord Dunmore in 1774. The name was changed in 1776, to Fort Henry, in honor of Patrick Henry, then Governor of Virginia, and this fort was the central point between Fort Pitt and the stockade at the mouth of Kenhawa. In the early autumn of 1777, Colonel Hand, who commanded at Fort Pitt, was informed that a large body of the northwestern Indians was preparing to attack the posts of the Upper Ohio. On the evening of September 26, smoke was seen by those near Wheeling, down the river, and was supposed to proceed from the burning of the block house at Grave Creek, and the people of the vicinity, taking the alarm, repaired to the fort. Here were assembled forty-two fighting men, well supplied with rifles and muskets, but with a scanty supply of gunpowder. Early on the 27th, two men, who were sent out for horses, for the purpose of alarming neighboring settlements, and had proceeded some distance from the fort, met a party of six savages, by whom one of them was shot. The commandant, Col. Shepherd, learning from the survivor, that there were but six of the assailants, sent a party of fifteen men in pursuit. These were led into an ambush, where, completely surrounded, all but three were killed. Still another band of thirteen men rushed from the fort to the assistance of their comrades, and shared their fate. It was now sunrise, and four hundred Indians, led by Simon Girty, soon invested the fort, which was defended by only twelve men and boys.

Fort Henry stood immediately upon the bank of the Ohio,