narrow pass between the bluff and the river, with
such disastrous results that three captains were killed and the men
so badly demoralized that thejr refused to advance. Martin was
compelled to turn back, after burying the dead officers in a large
townhouse, which was then burned down to conceal the grave. 3
In October a large party of Cherokee and Creeks attacked Gilles-
pie's station, south of the present Knoxville. The small garrison was
1 Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 393-399, 1853. = Ibid., pp. 417-423, 1853.
3 Ibid., pp. 517-519, and Brown's narrative, ibid., p. 515.
19 ETH — 01 5
66 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
overpowered af ter a shorl resistance, and twenty-eight persons, includ-
ing several women and children, were killed. The Indians left behind
a Letter signed by four chiefs, including John Watts, expressing
regret for what they calledthe accidental lolling of the women and
children, reminding the whites of their own treachery in killing
Abraham and the Tassel, and defiantly concluding, "When you move
off the land, then we will make peace." Other exposed stations were
attacked, until at last Sevier again mustered a force, cleared the
enemy from the frontier, and pursued the Indians as far as their
towns on the head waters of Coosa river, in such vigorous fashion that
they were compelled to ask for terms of peace and agree to a surrender
of prisoners, which was accomplished at Coosawatee town, in upper
Georgia, in the following April. 1
Among the captives thus restored to their friends were Joseph
Brown, a boy of sixteen, with his two younger sisters, who, with
several others, had been taken at Nickajack town while descending
the Tennessee in a