Bl, 1882. Campbell says
thej abandoned their first location on account oi the invasion from Tenne Governor Blount
says they left on account of witches.
mooney] DESTRUCTION OF CHICKAMAUGA TOWNS 1779 55
ward Hawkins found the population of Willstown, in extreme western
Georgia, entirely made up of refugees from the Savannah, and the
children so familiar from their parents with stories of Williamson's
invasion that they ran screaming from the face of a white man (i^l'). 1
In April. 1777. the legislature of North Carolina, of which Tennes-
see was still a part, authorized bounties of land in the new territory to
all able-bodied men who should volunteer against the remaining hostile
Cherokee. Under this act companies of rangers were kept along the
exposed border to cut off raiding parties of Indians and to protect the
steady advance of the pioneers,with the result that the Tennessee set-
tlements enjoyed a brief respite and were even able to send some assist-
ance to their brethren in Kentucky, who were sorely pressed by the
Shawano and other northern tribes. 2
The war between England ami the colonies still continued, however,
and the British government was unremitting in its effort to secure the
active assistance of the Indians. With the Creeks raiding the Georgia
ami South Carolina frontier, and with a British agent, Colonel Brown,
and a number of Tory refugees regularly domiciled at Chickamauga, 3
it was impossible for the Cherokee lone' to remain quiet. In the
spring of 177'.» the warning came from Robertson, stationed at Echota,
that three hundred warriors from Chickamauga had started against the
back settlements of North Carolina. Without a day's delay the states
of North Carolina (including