when going to our assistance, insult and annoy us. It is not above a month ago since a party of about a hundred and twenty Cherokees, in passing through Lunenburg, insulted people of all ranks. About three weeks ago the Cattawbos behaved so ill in Williamsburg, that those in power were obliged to arm the militia, and the matter was near coming to extremities. About fourteen days ago the same Cattawbos murdered a poor woman in Bartie County, in North Carolina, whom they met alone in the road. It is said that for this last misdemeanor they are like to smart severely, as it is reported that four hundred men in arms are in pursuit of them (and they do not exceed one hundred), and are determined to avenge her death.
There is some hope that our affairs are better managed under the Earl of Loudon than formerly they were, as matters are conducted with great secrecy; and it is presumed he has a good army.
The County of Halifax, in the mean time, is threatened by our Indian enemies, and the people in the upper part of that county, which by the late encroachments of our enemies is become a frontier, are in great consternation, and all public business at a stand. The poor farmers and planters have dreadful apprehensions of falling into the hands of the savage, as indeed, considering the treatment those have had who have had the misfortune to be surprised by them, they have good reason.
We have among us two or three who have made their escape from the Shawnees (a tribe of Indians that live on the Ohio, to the westward of Halifax County); the Indians suspected that one of them, whose wife and children they had most inhumanly murdered, would attempt to escape, to pre-
