ere long, renew the same hostilities, and consequently, much greater and more extensive mischief will ensue. And, certain it is, should that be attempted and no effectual methods pursued to defeat the attempt, many parts of this Colony, now several miles within the frontier, will shortly become frontier in their turn.
As to the expedition under the command of Major Lewis, they regard it as a mark of the government's concern for their particular security, and of its attention to the welfare of the community at large. But yet, the success of it being uncertain, they think it not prudent to risk all that is dear in life, nay, life itself, upon such an uncertainty. They steadfastly believe, because it has been confidently affirmed by persons whom they judge worthy of credit, that the Shawanese have long since received intelligence of the march and destination of that party of Cherokees who are now to act in concert with the forces of this Colony, that are under the command of Major Lewis. And, hence, it is concluded, they have time either to augment their strength sufficiently to face us in the field, or else to retreat beyond the reach of our forces for awhile, in order, either when they shall be withdrawn thence, or even while they continue there in one body, to return on our back settlements by some one or other of those various passes through the Alleghany mountains, all which it will be utterly impossible for those forces in that united state to command or guard. And should this expedition, for these or any other reasons, succeed no better than some others have, what our remote inhabitants have heretofore suffered is judged but trifling, compared with what they would suffer in consequence of so disastrous an event; a dread of which, it is generally feared, would determine all the people beyond the Blue Ridge instant-
