expedition was prepared, consisting of 200 Indians and Canadians commanded by Col. Byrd, an officer in the British service. Two, or as Boone states, six field pieces, accompanied this party, and were brought down the Big Miami, and then up Licking River. This rendered the expedition almost resistless before the stockades of Kentucky, utterly destitute of artillery as they were. The march was totally undiscovered by our people, until the 22d of June, 1780, when the enemy appeared before Ruddle's station, on the south fork of the Licking river. This is the more extraordinary, since the British party "was twelve days marching from the Ohio river to Buddle's station, and had cleared a wagon road most of the way." The same gentleman, who furnished this statement, likewise asserts, that a similar expedition was expected to be directed against Louisville. These facts evince a most extraordinary state of confidence or carelessness.

The employment of artillery against the picketed forts of Kentucky, must have appeared less formidable to our riflemen, than it did to belligerents, at the first invention of these terrible arms. The cannons were moved up Licking on boats as far as the junction of the south fork of that river, whence the expedition proceeded against the fort, by land, owing to the lowness of the water.

This station had only been settled the previous year, on the easterly bank of the above named fork, and about three miles below the junction of Stoner's and Hinkston's branches of Licking. A summons to the station to surrender at discretion to his Britannic majesty's arms was immediately made by the enemy; and dreadful as the necessity was, the only alternative was death or surrender. Resistance was hopeless. The fort gates were opened, and the Indians rushed in to secure the prisoners and plunder the property.

The same scene was acted at Martin's station, higher up the South Fork, with the same result. The prisoners and plunder were hastily collected together, and the retreat was commenced with strange precipitation; so much so, that many of the prisoners could not support its rapidity; among whom were necessarily most of the women and children. These loaded with plunder according to the practice of Indians, when unable to perform their cruel task, were quickly relieved from their misery, by the tomahawk of their

* Col. Floyd's correspondence with Col. Preston of Virginia.

savage foe. Those who survived the trying hardships of Indian captivity, were dispersed among the savages, or carried to Detroit. Thence some returned, after several years' detention as prisoners. Yet deplorable as this invasion was to its immediate victims, it is a subject of astonishment, united with gratitude to Heaven, that the fury of this inroad should have been so unaccountably arrested at these two insignificant points, instead of being directed against the real stronghold of the country generally. These were utterly incompetent to have defended themselves against artillery. It is most inexplicable that the first and last expeditions into Kentucky with artillery, should have returned with such inadequate effect. How proud the contrast in favor of our indefatigable and enterprising Clark! How humiliating and disgraceful to Byrd! The former officer invaded the enemy's country with rifle troops, took his strongest forts armed with cannon; and kept possession of the country during the whole war of the revolution; while the latter with only small arms to oppose his artillery, confined himself to capturing two paltry stockades, and hurried out of the country so fast as to compel the murder of several of his most helpless prissoners, by his barbarous allies.

Such is the contrast ever existing between genius and a capacity for ordinary routine. Col. Byrd, it is said, had previously limited himself to the capture of the Licking forts, and would not extend his plan, or found too much embarrassment in moving his artillery through the forest, or his Indian auxiliaries too unmanageable, after their first success, [as is their custom] to prosecute the campaign any further. But there is another explanation of Col. Byrd's retreat too honorable to its character, to be passed over in silence.

It is that, shocked by the irrepressible barbarities committed by the Indians, he determined to arrest his expedition, and return to Detroit.†

At the period of this irruption, there were "not three hundred, fighting men north of the river [Kentucky], and these dispersed within twenty-five to forty miles, in half a dozen stockade stations."I Could the expedition "have been kept together for a

Marshall, I, 109.

The author does not now recollect precisely, his authority for this statement; yet he is confident that he received it from some old pioneer.

Marshall, I, 108.

week or two, they might have depopulated the country. On such trifling circumstances does the fate of communities appear to depend, no doubt, however, overruled by the laws of God's providence, and government of the universe.

To preserve the connection between the military expeditions of the last two years, 1779 and 1780, the civil events of the former have been pretermitted. It was during this year 1779, that the McAfees, a celebrated family of daring explorers, formerly mentioned as having visited Kentucky in 1773, finally effected their removal with their families to their new homes in the west. A series of misfortunes had prevented the execution of this intention. A loss of stores which they had been providing for several years, the destruction of fifty head of cattle which had been driven out to Salt river in western Virginia and left there, only postponed this darling enterprise. Well was this persevering spirit rewarded by the subsequent settlement of the family, at McAfee's station, six miles from Harrodsburg, on lands located in 1773, amidst a luxuriant soil, and a host of most attached friends. It was a family worthy of the highest praises, of noble spirit and character, acceptable in all the relations of life.

The fall of this year was memorable for the removal of a great many families from the interior of Virginia and the neighbouring States. Three hundred large family boats, says Col. Floyd, arrived at the Falls during the spring of 1779; and as many as ten or fifteen wagons might be seen of a day, wending their way to the interior of the country.

By this time, there were six stations on Bear Cross Creek, in the neighborhood of Louisville, at the Falls of the Ohio, with a population of six hundred men. The price of corn fluctuated from fifty dollars per bushel, in December 1779, to $165 per bushel in January 1780, and $30 in May of that year. The prices were given at a season of obstructed navigation, and doubtless payable in the depreciated paper currency of the times. They, however, show the increased demand of a sudden and large accession of population. This extended migration is attributed, in no small degree, to the law then adopted by the Legislature of Virginia, for the disposition of their "waste and unappropriated lands," as they were constantly termed the great domain of the west. This

* Idem.

new land law [which is mainly attributed to the sagacity of George Mason,] authorised the appointment of four commissioners "to hear and determine all disputes relative to land claims; and to grant certificates of settlement and pre-emption to such as were entitled to them, either jointly or severally. The county of Kentucky, then embracing the present boundaries of the State, was placed under the exclusive jurisdiction of this high land court. It had appropriate judicial powers for the appointment of its officers and maintenance of its authority. It had jurisdiction over matters the most interesting to a people who had ventured everything dear to them, for the new lands in the west; it embraced the final determination of the whole landed estate of the country without appeal; unless where a party could not procure the attendance of witnesses, in which case, the claim was to be adjourned to the General Court of the State for its decision. Exceptions were made in favor of military claimants in the service of the United States, or of Virginia. These had a year from their resignation, or discharge to perfect their claims. Parties not having notice of the meeting of this court of exalted jurisdiction and summary powers, were allowed until the 1st of December 1780, to enter a caveat in the general court, and obtain a rehearing, and if right required it, a reversal of the decree of the commissioners.

The gentlemen appointed by the governor of Virginia to execute this momentous trust for Kentucky, were William Fleming, Edmund Lyne, James Barbour and Stephen Trigg, all residents of other parts of Virginia, as the act most cautiously required.

ARTICLE III.

From the United States Mining Journal.

Mining and Metallurgy of the Ancient.*)

The continual discovery of the remains of mining labors, executed at a period prior to history in this country, serves to whet our curiosity, to know more of the methods pursued, and the knowledge attained. This curiosity, it is to be feared, as far as regards

A popular account of the Ancient Egyptians. Revised and abridged from his larger work. By Sir J. GARDNER WILKINSON, D. C. L., F. R. Soc., in two vol. Illustrated with five hundred Engravings. New-York: HARPER & BRO.

umes.

our own country, is to remain unsatisfied: but in the land of high antiquity, the region of the fabulous and the historic, the researches of intelligent men are opening up a series of relics which tell of the advanced state of the science even at that remote period. In Assyria, we hear much of the employment of metals in various forms and for diverse purposes. In Egypt, the labors of Wilkinson have proved beyond question, that the Egyptians long prior to Moses, were in possesion of much ability in the working of metals and had considerable success in the management of alloys.

From the Bible we learn of the uses which were early made of the precious metals, but from the monuments now deciphered, it is clear, that the washing and working of it was known in Egypt long before, and with it, the people possessed a knowledge of the kindred arts of engraving and inlaying. The subject matter is highly interesting, and, as illustrated in the work from which we make our extracts, gives a clear conception of the perfection to which the labors of the Miner, the Metallurgist and the Gold Artificer were carried in Egypt, when other nations were using stones for tools and arms.

TIN.

"It is difficult to explain how, at that early period, so great a value came to be attached to tin, that the Phoenicians should have thought it worth while to undertake a voyage of such a length, and attended with so much risk, in order to obtain it; even allowing that a high price was paid for this commodity in Egypt, and other countries, where, as at Syrna the different branches of metallurgy were carried to great perfection. It was mixed with other metals, particularly copper, which was hardened by this alloy; it was employed, according to Homer, for the raised work on the exterior of shields, as in that of Achilles; for making greaves, and binding various parts of defensive armor; and it is remarkable, that the word kassiteros, used by the poet, is the same as the Arabic name Kasdeer, by which the metal is still known in the East. It is also called kastira in Sanscrit.

"We have no means of ascertaining the exact period when the Phoenicians first visited our coasts in search of tin; some have supposed about the year 400 or 450 before our era; but that this metal was employed many ages previously, is shown from the bronze vessels and implements discovered at Thebes, and other parts of Egypt. It cannot, however, be inferred that the mines of Britain were known at that remote period; since Spain and India may have furnished the Egyptians with tin; and the Phoenicians probably obtained it from these countries, long before they visited our distant coasts, and discovered the richness of their productive mines. It is still produced in small quantities in Gallicia and other parts of northern Spain. Ezekiel says that the Tyrians received tin, as well as other metals from Tarshish; and whether