" Set on by the British during the Revolution, the Indians
continued their warfare long after peace had been declared. In the
wilderness north of the Ohio they had their villages, from which they
issued time after time to attack the white settlements to the south and
east. No one knew when or where they would strike, and every village and
hamlet along the frontier was liable to attack at any time. The farmer
tilling his fields was shot from ambush; the hunter found himself
hunted; children were carried away to captivity, and women, looking up
from their household work, found an Indian on the threshold.
The land which the Indians held was so beautiful and fertile that
settlers ventured into it, despite the deadly peril, and in 1787, the
Northwest Territory was formed by Congress, and General Arthur St.
Clair appointed its governor. A Scotchman, brave but impulsive, with a
good military training, St. Clair had made an unfortunate record in the
Revolution. Put in command of the defenses of Ticonderoga in the summer
of 1777, to hold it against the advancing British army under Burgoyne,
he had permitted the enemy to secure possession of a position which
commanded the fort, and he was forced to abandon it. The British started
in hot pursuit, and several actions took place in which the Americans
lost their baggage and a number of men.
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