by Agent
Martin, speaks of a recent expedition against the Cherokee towns,
and the confusion and alarm among them inconsequence of the daily
encroachments of the "Franklinites" or Tennesseeans, who had pro-
ceeded to make good their promise by opening ;i hind office for the sale
of all the lands southward to Tennessee river, including even apart id' the
beloved town of Echota. At the same time messengers were coming
to the Cherokee from traders in the foreign interest, telling them that
England, France, and Spain had combined against the Americans and
urging them with promises of c-uns and ammunition to join in the
war. ' As a result each further advance of the Tennessee settlements,
in defiance as it was of any recognized treaty, was stubbornly con-
tested by the Indian owners of the land. The record of thesei>. 869.
• Ibid., p. 870.
moonet] DEFEAT OF GENERAL MARTIN 1788 65
allies upon the Georgia frontier and the Cumberland settlements
around Nashville became so threatening that measures were taken for
a joint campaign by the combined forces of Georgia and Tennessee
("Franklin"). The enterprise came to naught through the interfer-
ence of the federal authorities. 1 All through the year 1788 we hear
of attacks and reprisals along the Tennessee border, although the
agent for the Cherokee declared in his official report that, with the
exception of the Chickamauga band, the Indians wished to lie at
peace if the whites would let them. In March two expeditions under
Sevier and Kennedy set out against the towns in the direction of the
French Broad. In May several persons of a family named Kirk were
murdered a few miles south of Knoxville.