Simon Girty was a Pennsylvanian, who had been captured by the Indians when eleven years old, kept in captivity for three years by the Seneca, and afterward employed at Fort Pitt as an interpreter and messenger. He had served the American cause faithfully. He then became the most notorious renegade and Tory in Pennsylvania. The Tories in their flight made their way through the woods to the Delaware town Coshocton, where they tarried several days endeavoring to incite the tribe to rise against the colonists. Their efforts were thwarted by Chief White Eyes, who declared his friendship for the “buckskins” as he called the Americans, and he proved his sincerity until his death. Chief White Eyes and Captain Pipe, an influential chief, debated in the Coshocton council on the advocacy of war, White Eyes pleading the cause of peace. The oratory of White Eyes carried the day and the seven Tories departed to the Shawnee towns on the Scioto, where they were welcomed. Many of the Shawnee were already on the warpath, and all were eager to hear the arguments of their friend McKee. James Girty, a brother of Simon, was then with the Shawnee tribe, having been sent from Fort Pitt by General Hand on a futile peace mission. He had been raised among the Shawnee, was a natural savage and at once joined his brother and the other Tories. When Governor Hamilton heard of the flight of Captain McKee and his companions from Fort Pitt, he dispatched Edward Hazle to the Scioto to conduct the renegades safely through the several Indian tribes to Detroit. Hamilton, as would be expected, received them cordially and gave them commissions in the British service. For sixteen years McKee, Elliott and the Girtys were the merciless scourges of the border. They were the instigators and leaders of many Indian raids, and their intimate knowledge of the frontier rendered their operations especially effective. Long after the close of the Revolution they continued their deadly enmity to the American cause and were largely responsible for the general Indian war of 1790–94. McKee and his associate renegades left behind them at Fort Pitt a band of Tories who had planned to blow up the fortress and escape in boats at night. In some way the scheme was frustrated just in time, probably by the confession of one of the conspirators, and the disaster averted. A score of the traitors escaped in boats during the night, and fled down the Ohio River. On the following day they were pursued and overtaken near the mouth of the Muskingum. Eight of the runaways escaped to the shore and were lost in the trackless woods; some were killed in the conflict which then occurred and the others were taken back as prisoners to Fort Pitt.