unteers from the western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia, passed the Ohio, near the Mingo Bottom, and marched to destroy the Moravian and the Wyandot villages on the river Sandusky. The men were mounted, and it was their resolution "not to spare the lives of any Indians that might fall into their hands, whether friends or foes."* On reaching the plains near Upper Sandusky, the force under Crawford was defeated by the Indians, and compelled to make a precipitate retreat to the eastern side of the Ohio, with a loss of about one hundred men. Colonel Crawford was captured by the Indians, tortured, and burned to death at the stake.

X. On the 15th of August, 1782, Simon Girty,† at the head of four or five hundred Indians, appeared before Bryant's station, in Kentucky. This station, which contained about forty cabins and forty or fifty men, was situated on the southern bank of Elkhorn, and on the left of the road that now leads from Lexington to Maysville. The Indians besieged the place from sunrise on the 15th till about ten o'clock the next day, when they marched off with a loss of about thirty warriors, killed and wounded. The loss of the whites was four men killed and three wounded. A party of one hundred and eighty mounted men was soon collected, and this small number of volunteers, under the command of Colonel John Todd, pursued the Indians and overtook them at the Lower Blue Licks, on Licking river. At this place, on the 19th of August, a battle was fought in which the Kentuckians were defeated with the loss of sixty men killed. Colonel John Todd, Major Trigg, Major Harland, and Captain McBride were among the slain.

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XI. In the summer of 1782, an officer whose name was Laughery, was moving down the river Ohio, with about one hundred and seven men, to join the Kentuckians at the Falls. After passing the mouth of the Big Miami he was attacked by a party of Indians near the mouth of a creek which still bears his name. Laughery and his party were all killed or captured.

Doddridge, 268.

This white man was a chief of the Delaware Indians, and as such lived among them before the commencement of the Revolutionary war.

XII. On the 4th of November, 1782, General George R. Clark, at the head of one thousand and fifty men, left the Ohio near the mouth of Licking, and marched to destroy the Indian villages on the Miami rivers. "We surprised the principal Shawanee town, [says General Clark,] on the evening of the 10th inst. Immediately detaching strong parties to different quarters, in a few hours two-thirds of the town was laid in ashes, and every thing they were possessed of destroyed, except such articles as might be useful to the troops. The enemy had no time to secrete any part of their property which was in the town. The British trading post at the head of the Miami and carrying place to the waters of the lake shared the same fate, at the hands of a party of one hundred and fifty horse, commanded by Colonel Benjamin Logan. The property destroyed was of great amount; and the quantity of provisions burned surpassed all idea we had of the Indians stores. The loss of the enemy was ten scalps, seven prisoners, and two whites retaken: ours was one killed, and one wounded. After lying part of four days in their towns, and finding all attempts to bring the enemy to a general action fruitless, we retired, as the season was far advanced and the weather threatening.

** We might probably have got many more scalps and prisoners, could we have known in time whether we were discovered or not. We took for granted that we were not, until getting within three miles, some circumstances happened. which caused me to think otherwise. Colonel John Floyd was then ordered to advance with three hundred men to bring on an action or attack the town, while Major Wells with a party of horse had previously been detached by a different route as a party of observation. Although Colonel Floyd's motions were so quick as to get to the town but a few minutes later than those who discovered his approach, the inhabitants had sufficient notice to effect their escape to the woods, by the alarm cry which was given on the first discovery. This was heard at a great distance, and repeated by all that heard it. Consequently our parties only fell in with the rear of the enemy."*

* Letter, dated November 27, 1782, from Gen. G. R. Clark to the Governor of Virginia. [Butler's History Kentucky, p. 536.

XIII.- Provisional articles of peace between the United States of America 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, viz: From the northwest 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 northwesternmost 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 northwestern 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 north

ernmost 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.

XIV. On the 11th of April, 1783, a proclamation was issued by Congress, declaring a cessation of hostilities between. the United States and Great Britain.

XV. On the 2d of July, 1783, General George Rogers Clark was dismissed from the service of Virginia. On this occasion, Benjamin Harrison, the Governor of Virginia, wrote to General Clark a letter which contained the following passages:-"The conclusion of the war, and the distressed situation of the state, with respect to its finances, call on us to adopt the most prudent economy. It is for this reason alone I have come to a determination to give over all thoughts for the present of carrying on an offensive war against the Indians, which you will easily perceive will render the services of a general officer in that quarter unnecessary, and will therefore consider yourself as out of command: but before I take leave of you, I feel myself called upon in the most forcible manner to return you my thanks, and those of my Council, for the very great and singular services you have rendered your country, in

wresting so great and valuable a territory out of the hands of the British enemy, repelling the attacks of their savage allies, and carrying on successful war in the heart of their country. This tribute of praise and thanks, so justly due, I am happy to communicate to you as the united voice of the executive."

XVI. In the month of July, 1779, two Piankeshaw chiefs, Tabac, and Grand Cornette, by deed conveyed to George Ro, gers Clark a tract of land two and a half leagues square, lying on the northwestern side of the Ohio opposite the falls of that river. Virginia never confirmed this purchase; because the constitution of that state, which was formed in May, 1776, declared that no purchase of lands should be made of the Indian natives, but on behalf of the public, by the authority of the General Assembly. By an act of the 2d of January, 1781, the General Assembly of Virginia resolved that, on certain conditions, they would cede to Congress, for the benefit of the United States, all the right, title, and claim which Virginia had to the territory northwest of the river Ohio. Congress, by an act of the 13th of September, 1783, agreed to accept the cession of the territory: and the General Assembly of Virginia, on the 20th of December, 1783, passed an act authorizing their delegates in Congress to convey to the United States, the right, title, and claim of Virginia to the lands northwest of the river Ohio.

XVII. — In October, 1783, the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act for laying off the town of Clarksville, at the Falls of the Ohio, in the county of Illinois. The act provided that the lots, of half an acre each, should be sold at public auction for the best price that could be had. The purchasers respectively were to hold their lots subject to the condition of building on each, within three years from the day of sale, a dwelling house "twenty feet by eighteen, at least, with a brick or stone chimney." William Fleming, John Edwards, John Campbell, Walker Daniel, George R. Clark, Abraham Chaplin, John Montgomery, John Bailey, Robert Todd, and William Clark, were, by the act of the Assembly, constituted trustees of the town of Clarksville.