1782.

SECOND SIEGE OF FORT HENRY.

405

"The next day a number of the whites pursued the trail as far as the Kiskiminetas, without being able to overtake them.

"The little community, which had now no homes but what the fort supplied, looked out on the ruins of the town with the deepest sorrow. It had been to them the scene of heartfelt joys-embracing the intensity and tenderness of all which renders the domestic hearth and family altar sacred. By degrees they all sought themselves places where they might, like Noah's dove, find rest for the soles of their feet. The lots of the town, either by sale or abandonment, became merged in the adjoining farm; and the labors of the husbandman soon effaced what time might have spared. Many a tall harvest have I seen growing upon the ground; but never did I look upon its waving luxuriance without thinking of the severe trials, the patient fortitude, the high courage which characterized the early settlers."

The settlements in Western Virginia also suffered from the inroads of the savages and their British allies. The expeditions of Williamson and Crawford aroused the fury of the Indians, and in retaliation, their war parties ravaged the whole border along the Ohio and Monongahela. Individuals and families, at exposed points, were frequently surprised and massacred, under circumstances of most revolting barbarity; scalping parties were constantly prowling around the block houses, and the settlements were kept in constant alarm.

On the 11th of September, a force of three hundred British and Indians, under the command of George Girty, appeared before Fort Henry, then containing only twenty-seven men, of whom eighteen only, it is said, were fit for service. Girty demanded an immediate surrender of the fort, to which the inmates returned a contemptuous answer, and defied him to do his worst. Soon after

dark the attack commenced, and the besiegers made a desperate attempt to storm the fort; but they were kept at bay by a small cannon, which had been taken out of the Monongahela after the destruction of Fort Du Quesne. The contest lasted during the whole night. Repeated efforts were made to fire the fort, but the hemp and wood that were piled against it were wet, and could not be made to burn. Once during the night a part of the decayed stockade gave way and fell; but the incident was not noticed by the Indians, and it was immediately repaired.

The attack was suspended at daybreak, and the British and

Indians retired beyond the reach of the guns of the fort.* On the next night it was renewed, and maintained without intermission during the whole night. About ten o'clock of the second day, the Indian spies discovered the approach of a reinforcement of seventy men, approaching for the relief of the garrison; and the whole force of British and Indians immediately crossed the river and disappeared.

Immediately afterward, a party of Indians invaded the settlements on Buffalo creek, and appeared before Rice's fort, then containing only six men. The savages surrounded it, and demanded its surrender; but they were answered with defiance. Soon after dark they commenced an attack, and set fire to some out-buildings within thirty yards of the pickets. But the course of the wind saved the fort, and the Indians finding they could make no impression on it, gave up the attempt and left the place.

No other invasion of the Virginia and Pennsylvania settlements occurred; scalping parties, indeed, during the autumn, prowled · around the block houses on the borders; the winter, as usual, was passed in quiet, and the peace of the next year abated the predatory war that had so long disturbed the frontier of those States.

*It was at this time that the "gunpowder exploit" occurred, according to Mrs. Cruger's statement. See De Hass' Western Virginia, p. 270.

PERIOD IV.

1783-1789.

Provisional articles of peace between the United States of America 1783.] and Great Britain were signed at Paris, on the 30th November, 1782. This was followed by an armistice, negotiated at Versailles, on the 20th of January, 1783, declaring a cessation of hostilities; and finally a definitive treaty of peace was concluded at Paris, on the 3d of September, 1783, and ratified by Congress on the 14th of January, 1784. The war between the United States and Great Britain was virtually closed by the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown, in Virginia, on the 19th of October, 1781. By the second article of the definitive treaty of 1783, the boundaries of the United States were defined and established as follows:

"From the north-west angle of Nova Scotia, viz: that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of St. Croix river to the Highlands; along the said Highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic ocean, to the north westernmost head of Connecticut river, thence down along the middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude; from thence, by a line due west on said latitude, until it strikes the river Iroquois or Cataraguy; thence along the middle of said river into Lake Ontario, through the middle of said lake until it strikes the communication by water between that lake and Lake Erie; thence along the middle of said communication into Lake Erie, through the middle of said lake until it arrives at the water communication between that lake and Lake Huron; thence along the middle of said water communication into the Lake Huron; thence through the middle of said lake to the water communication between that lake and Lake Superior; thence through Lake Superior northward of the isles Royal and Philipeaux, to the Long Lake; thence through the middle of the said Long Lake, and the water communication between it and the Lake of the Woods, to the said Lake of the Woods; thence through the said lake to the most north-western point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi; thence by a line to be drawn along

the middle of the said river Mississippi until it shall intersect the northernmost part of the thirty-first degree of north latitude. South, by a line to be drawn due east from the determination of the line last mentioned, in the latitude of thirty-one degrees north of the equator, to the middle of the river Appalachicola or Catahouche; thence along the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint river; thence straight to the head of St. Mary's river, and thence down along the middle of St. Mary's river to the Atlantic ocean. East, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river St. Croix, from its mouth, in the Bay of Fundy, to its source; and from its source, directly north, to the aforesaid Highlands, which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic ocean from those which fall into the river St. Lawrence: comprehending all islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States, and lying between lines to be drawn due east from the points where the aforesaid boundaries between Nova Scotia on the one part, and East Florida on the other, shall respectively touch the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic ocean; excepting such islands as now are, or heretofore have been, within the limits of the said province of Nova Scotia."

But the cessation of hostilities with England was not, necessarily, the cessation of warfare with the native tribes; and while all hoped that the horrors of the border contests in the West were at an end, none competent to judge, failed to see the probability of a continued and violent struggle. Virginia, at an early period, in October, 1779, had, by law, discouraged all settlements on the part of her citizens, north-west of the Ohio;* but the spirit of land speculation was stronger than law, and the prospect of peace gave new energy to that spirit; and how to throw open the immense region beyond the mountains without driving the natives to desperation, was a problem which engaged the ablest minds.

Washington, on the 7th of September, 1783, writing to James Duane, in Congress, enlarged upon the difficulties which lay before that body in relation to public lands. He pointed out the necessity which existed for making the settlements compact, and proposed that it should be made even felony to settle or survey lands west of a line to be designated by Congress, which line, he added, might extend from the mouth of the Great Miami to Mad river, thence to

*Revised Statutes of Virginia, ii, 378.

1783. NORTH-WESTERN TERRITORY CEDED TO UNITED STATES.

409

Fort Miami on the Maumee, and thence northward so as to include Detroit; or, perhaps, from the Fort down the river to Lake Erie. He noticed the propriety of excluding the Indian agents from all share in the trade with the red men, and showed the wisdom of forbidding all purchases of land from the Indians, except by the sovereign power-Congress or the State Legislature, as the case might be. Unless some such stringent measures were adopted, he prophesied renewed border wars, which would end only after great expenditure of money and of life.*

But before the Continental Congress could take any efficient steps to secure the West, it was necessary that those measures of cession which commenced in 1780-81, should be completed. New York Lad, conditionally, given up her claims on the 1st of March, 1781,† and Congress had accepted her deed, but Virginia had required from the United States, a guarantee of the territories retained by her, which they were not willing to give, and no acceptance of her provision to cede had taken place. Under these circumstances, Congress, on the 18th of April, again pressed the necessity of cessions, and, on the 13th of September, six days after Washington's letter above referred to, stated the terms upon which they would receive the proposals of the Ancient Dominion. ‡ To these terms the Virginians acceded, and, on the 20th of December, authorized their delegates to make a deed to the United States of all their right in the territory north-west of the river Ohio

"Upon condition, that the territory so ceded shall be laid out and formed into States, containing a suitable extent of territory, not less than one hundred, nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square, or as near thereto as circumstances will admit; and that the States so formed shall be distinct republican States, and admitted members of the Federal Union, having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the other States.

"That the reasonable and necessary expenses incurred by this State in subduing any British posts, or in maintaining forts and garrisons within, and for the defense, or in acquiring any part of the territory so ceded or relinquished, shall be fully reimbursed by the United States, and that one Commissioner shall be appointed by Congress, one by this Commonwealth, and another by those two Commissioners, who, or a majority of them, shall be authorized and empowered to adjust and liquidate the account of the necessary and

*Spark's Washington, viii. 477. +Land Laws, 95.

Old Journals, iv. 189-267.