deserted, pro-
ceeded to destroy them, one after another, with their outlying fields.
The few lingering warriors discovered were all killed. In the mean-
time messages had been sent out to the farther towns, in response to
which several of their head men came into Christian's camp to treat
for peace. On their agreement to surrender all the prisoners and
captured stock in their hands and to cede to the whites all the disputed
territory occupied by the Tennessee settlements, as soon as represent-
atives of the whole tribe could be assembled in the spring, Christian
consented to suspend hostilities and retire without doing further
injury. An exception was made against Tuskegee and another town,
which had been concerned in the burning of the boy taken from
Watauga, already noted, and these two were reduced to ashes. The
sacred "peace town,'"Echota (20), had not been molested. Most of
the troops were disbanded on their return to the Long island, but a
part remained and built Fort Patrick Henry, where they went into
winter quarters. 1
From incidental notices in narratives written by some of the partici-
pants, we obtain interesting side-lights on the merciless character of this
old border warfare. In addition to the ordinary destruction of war — the
burning of towns, the wasting of fruitful fields, and the killing of the
defenders — we find that every Indian warrior killed was scalped, when
opportunity permitted; women, as well as men, were shot down and
afterward ''helped to their end"; and prisoners taken were put up at
auction as slaves when not killed on the spot. Near Tomassee a small
1 For the Virginia-Tennessee expedition see Roosevelt, Winning of