spirit of the Cherokee nation was broken and the Holston
settlements were now too surely established to be destroyed.
The Cumberland settlements founded by Robertson and Donelson in
the winter of 1779-80 had had but short respite. Early in spring the
Indians Cherokee. Creeks. Chickasaw, and northern Indians had
begun a scries of attacks with the design of driving these intruders
from their lands, and thenceforth for years no man's life was safe out-
side the stockade. The long list of settlers shot down at work or while
hunting in the woods, of stock stolen and property destroyed, while
of sorrowful interest to those most nearly concerned, is too tedious for
recital here, and only leading events need be chronicled. Detailed
notice may be found in the works of local historians.
On the night of January L5, L781, a bandthroughout this and the next year to such an
extent that it seemed at one time as if the Cumberland settlements
must be abandoned, but in June. 1783, commissioners from Virginia
and North Carolina arranged a treaty near Nashville (Nashborough)
with chiefs of the Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Creeks. Tjiis treaty.
although it did not completely stop the Indian inroads, at least greatly
diminished them. Thereafter the Chickasaw remained friendly, and
only the Cherokee and < 'reeks continued to make trouble.
The valley towns on Hiwassee, as well as those of Chickamauga,
seem to have continued hostile. In L786a large body of their warriors.
led by the mixed-blood chief. John Watts, raided the new settlements
in the vicinity of the, present Knoxville, Tennessee. In retaliation
Sevier again marched his volunteers across the mountain to the valley
towns and destroyed three of them,