stains, but none of deeper dye than the massacre of the heroic Cornstalk. That magnanimous chief, after the treaty of 1774 with Dunmore, had been the steadfast friend of neutrality among the belligerent whites. Perhaps he had the sagacity to perceive that the future of his race could not be altered by any issue of the controversy-that the rapacity of Europeans, not of a party, was the proper object of patriotic dread. In the spring of 1777, Cornstalk, accompanied by Red Hawk (the reader will remember the Shawanese orator at the council held by Col. Bouquet, in 1764,) came on a friendly visit to the fort at Point Pleasant, communicated the hostile disposition among the Ohio tribes, and expressed his sorrow that the Shawanese nation, except himself and his tribe, were determined to espouse the British side, and his apprehension that he and his people would be compelled to go with the stream, unless the Long Knives could protect them.

Upon receiving this information, the commander of the garrison, Captain Arbuckle, seized upon Cornstalk and his companion as hostages for the peaceful conduct of his nation, and set about availing himself of the advantage he had gained by his suggestions. During his captivity, Cornstalk held frequent conversations with the officers, and took pleasure in describing to them the geography of the west, then little known. One afternoon, while he was engaged in drawing on the floor a map of the Missouri territory, its water courses and mountains, a halloo was heard from the forest, which he recognized as the voice of his son, Ellinipsico, a young warrior, whose courage and address were almost as celebrated as his own. Ellinipsico entered the fort and embraced his father most affectionately, having been uneasy at his long absence, and come hither in search of him.

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.

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 suffering— but 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