sword and threatened to cut the Captain down instantly, if he did not desist; he then ordered him to be arrested, and addressed the officer-like note to General Wayne, mentioned in the text. This high minded forbearance, in all probability, saved the life of General Wayne, with his suite, and possibly the peace of the United States.

In conclusion, the author will only add that, any errors of omission or commission, (which he is confident he must have made,) that may be pointed out to his conviction shall be faithfully attended to. Should the public reception justify a continuation of the work to recent times, the author will readily prosecute it to the utmost of his limited powers. The facilities granted by the legislature, in giving him the free use of the archives of the State, will give him additional sources of authentic and minute information.

Several articles referred to as in the Appendix, have been unavoidably excluded by the size of the volume. They shall appear in another volume, should the public call for its production.

LOUISVILLE, April 24, 1834.

HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION.

Earliest condition of Kentucky-Iroquois, or Mohawks, known in 1603-Early seatsProgress to the Mississippi and the Illinois-Appeal to the Colonial CommissionersGeneral Braddock's talk--Treaties with the English-Great treaty of 1768-Opinion of Supreme Court on Indian title-Opinions of General Harrison--Treaties of 17741775-1785-1795 and 1818

That part of the United States, now so proudly intertwined with their history, as the State of Kentucky, has successively been the theatre, and the prize, of military contention, from the earliest glimmerings of Indian tradition, to the Virginia conquest. This statement is drawn from the most authentic memorials of colonial history. The *French historians declare that when they settled in Canada in 1603, the Iroquois as they were termed by the French, but who were more familiarly known to the English by the name of Mohawks, lived on the St. Lawrence, where Montreal is now built; above the mouth of the Iroquois river, now called Sorrel, and on lakes Sacrament, or George, and Iroquois, or, Lake Champlain, as it is better known. This being the earliest account, any Europeans have of these Indians, the country just described may well be considered as their earliest seats. The geographical names indeed, confirm the ascendency of these tribes, in the region assigned to their dominion. From these territories, the Mohawks extended their conquests on both sides of the St. Lawrence, above Quebec, and on both sides of the lakes Ontario,

* Present state of North America, Dodsley, 1755, p. 14, 18, 20. Communicated by the politeness of Isacc Newhall, Esq., of Salem, Massachusetts, from the Athenæum Rooms in ihat city, derived from Colden's Five nations, and confirmed by this latter work.

A

Erie and Huron. In this career of conquest, with a magnanimity and sagacious spirit worthy of the ancient Romans, and superior to all their cotemporary tribes, they successively incorporated the victims of their arms, with their own confederacy. Under this comprehensive policy, some of their greatest sachems are said to have sprung from conquered but conciliated confederates.

In 1672 these tribes are represented as having conquered the Oillinois or Illinois, residing on the Illinois river; and they are likewise at the same time, said to have conquered and incorporated the Satanas, the Chawanons or Shawanons, whom they had formerly driven from the lakes. To these conquests, they are said by the same high authority, to have added in 1685, that of the Twightwees, as they are called in the Journal of Major Washington to Gov. Dinwiddie, of Virginia. These tribes, are at this day, more generally known as the Miamis, and they lived on the river St. Jerome, as the Wabash was first called by the French. About the same time, the Mohawks carried their victorious "arms to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers westward, and to Georgia southward." *About 1711, they incorporated the Tuscaroras, when driven from Carolina, who continue at this day, to constitute a part of this once memorable confederacy; forming the sixth nation, and thus changing the name of their union, from the Five Nations, to that of the Six. The rise and progress of these most remarkable tribes, have worthily employed the pens of several historians, both French and English; they even seduced the mind of De Witt Clinton, from the cares of the great State of New York, to investigate the history of her most ancient and faithful allies. To this summary, other authorities may well be added, on a point, so vital to the early history of Kentucky, and of Western America. This becomes more necessary, since the connexion of these tribes with the history of Kentucky, has escaped the notice of all our recent writers. Even the eminent biographer of our illustrious Washington, seems to have neglected these annals, in their relations to our colonial history. Yet, it could

Thatcher's Lives of the Indians, p 39.

not be from any dubious or unimportant character, which is attached to them, since they are derived from the highest colonial authorities, and embrace the treaty history of Western America. The tribes in question, says Governor Pownal in his "Administration of the British Colonies," about 1664, carried their arms, as far south as Carolina, and as far west as the Mississippi, over a vast country, which extended twelve hundred miles in length, and about six hundred in breadth; where they destroyed whole nations, of whom there are no accounts remaining among the English. "The rights

of these tribes," says the same respectable authority, "to the hunting lands of Ohio, (meaning the river of that name) may be fairly proved by the conquest they made in subduing the Shavanoes, Delawares, Twictwees, and Oillinois, as they stood possessed thereof, at the peace of Ryswick in 1697." In further confirmation of this Indian title, it must be mentioned, that Lewis Evans, a gentleman whom Dr. Franklin compliments, as possessed "of great American knowledge," represents in his map of the middle colonies of Great Britian on this continent, the country on the south-easterly side of the Ohio river, as the hunting lands of the Six nations. In his analysis to his map, he expressly says, "that the Shawanese who were formerly one of the most considerable nations of these parts of America, whose seat extended from Kentucke, south-westward to the Mississippi, have been subdued by the confederates, (or Six Nations) and the country since become their property."

*

This chain of testimony is corroborated by the statement of the Six Nations to the commissioners of the provinces of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland, at an Indian council held with them in 1744. When at this meeting, the Indian chiefs were called upon by the colonial commissioners "to tell what nations of Indians they had conquered lands from in Virginia, and to receive satisfaction for such lands, as they had a right to;" they are said by Dr. Franklin to have made this reply:

* Franklin's works, vol. 4, 271, and observations on the conduct of the French, dedicated to Wm. Shirley, Governor of the provinces of Massachusetts Bay, Boston, 1755; p, 4.