30. Devereux Smith's letter. Some of the evil-doers afterwards tried to palliate their misdeeds by stating that Logan's brother, when drunk, insulted a white man, and that the other Indians were at the time on the point of executing an attack upon them. The last statement is self-evidently false; for had such been the case, the Indians would, of course, never have let some of their women and children put themselves in the power of the whites, and get helplessly drunk; and, anyhow, the allegations of such brutal and cowardly murderers are entirely unworthy of acceptance, unless backed up by outside evidence. 31. Jefferson MSS., 5th Series, Vol. I. Heckewelder's letter. 32. Jefferson MSS. Deposition of Col. James Smith, May 25, 1798. 33. _Do_., Heckewelder's letter. 34. "Am. Archives," IV., Vol. I., p. 475. 35. _Do_., p. 1015. 36. _Do_., p. 475. 37. _Do_., p. 418. 38. _Do_., p. 774. Letter of the Earl of Dartmouth, Sept. 10, 1774. A sufficient answer, by the way, to the absurd charge that Dunmore brought on the war in consequence of some mysterious plan of the Home Government to embroil the Americans with the savages. It is not at all improbable that the Crown advisers were not particularly displeased at seeing the attention of the Americans distracted by a war with the Indians; but this is the utmost that can be alleged. 39. _Do_., p. 808. 40. _Do_., p. 478. 41. _Do_., p. 506. 42. _Do_., p. 474. 43. _Do_., p. 549. 44. _Do_., p. 471. 45. _Do_., pp. 435, 467, 602. 46. _Do_., pp. 405, 707. 47. _Do_., p. 808. 48. _Do_., p. 677. 49. _Do_., pp. 463, 467. 50. _Do_., p. 684. 51. _Do_., p. 435. 52. _Do_., pp. 468, 546. 53. _Do_., p. 470. 54. Jefferson MSS. Dep. of Wm. Robinson, February 28, 1800, and letter from Harry Innes, March 2, 1799, with a copy of Logan's letter as made in his note-book at the time. 55. "Am. Archives.," p. 373. 56. Under a certain Angus MacDonald, _do_., p. 722. They crossed the Ohio at Fish Creek, 120 miles below Pittsburg. 57. "Am. Archives," IV., Vol. I., pp. 682, 684. CHAPTER IX. THE BATTLE OF THE GREAT KANAWHA; AND LOGAN'S SPEECH, 1774. Meanwhile Lord Dunmore, having garrisoned the frontier forts, three of which were put under the orders of Daniel Boon, was making ready a formidable army with which to overwhelm the hostile Indians. It was to be raised, and to march, in two wings or divisions, each fifteen hundred strong, which were to join at the mouth of the Great Kanawha. One wing, the right or northernmost, was to be commanded by the earl in person; while the other, composed exclusively of frontiersmen living among the mountains west and southwest of the Blue Ridge, was entrusted to General Andrew Lewis. Lewis was a stalwart backwoods soldier, belonging to a family of famous frontier fighters, but though a sternly just and fearless man,[1] he does not appear to have had more than average qualifications to act as a commander of border troops when pitted against Indians.