personally escorting them down Tennessee, Ohio, and
Mississippi rivers as far as the mouth of the St. Francis, whence the
emigrants descended in safety to New Orleans, while their captors,
under their chief. The Bowl, went up St. Francis river then a part of
Spanish territory — to await the outcome of the event. As soon as
the news came to the Cherokee Nation tin' chiefs formally repudiated
the action of the Howl party and volunteered to assist in arresting
those i cerned. Bowl and his men were finally exonerated, but had
conceived such bitterness at the conduct of their former friends, and.
moreover, had found the soil so rich and the game so abundant where
the] were, that they refused to return to their tribe and decided to
remain permanently in the West. Others joined them from timeenough money from that
source to pay such extravagant prices as sixteen dollars apiece for
pocket minors, which it is alleged the boatmen obtained. Moreover,
as the Chickamauga warriors had refused to sign any treaties and were
notoriously hostile, they were not as yet entitled to receive payments.
Haywood's statement that the emigrant party was first attacked while
passing the ( Ihickamauga towns and then pursued to the Muscle shoals
and there massacred is probably near the truth, although it is quite
possible that the whites may have provoked the attack in some such
way as is indicated by the missionary. As Washburn got his account
from one of the women of the party, living long afterward in New
Orleans, it is certain that some at least were spared by the Indians,
and it is probable that, as he states,