noted I Delaware chief, White ej es. 1
In tlic early spring of L780 a large company of emigrants under
Colonel John Donelson descended the Holston and the Tennessee to
the Ohio, whence they ascended the Cumberland, effected a junction
with another party under Captain James Robertson, which hud just
arrived by a toilsome overland route, and made the ti i-t settlement on
the present site of Nashville. In passing the Chickamauga towns they
had run the gauntlet of the hostile Cherokee, who pursued them for a
considerable distance beyond the whirlpool known as the Suck, where
the river breaks through the mountain. The family of a man named
Stuart being infected with the smallpox, his boat dropped behind, and
all on board, twenty-eight in number, were killed or taken by the
Indians, their cries being distinctly heard by theirfriends ahead who
were unable to help them. Another boat having run upon the rocks,
the three women in it, one of whom had become a mother the night
before, threw the cargo into the river, and then, jumping into the
water, succeeded in pushing the boat into the current while the hus-
band of one of them kept the Indians at bay with his rifle. The infant
was killed in the confusion. Three cowards attempted to escape,
without thought of their companions. One was drowned in the river;
the other two were captured and carried to Chickamauga. where one
was burned and the other was ransomed by a trader. The rest went
on their way to found the capital of a new commonwealth. 2 As if in
retributive justice, the smallpox broke out in the Chickamauga band in
consequence