[Footnote: The old Tennessee historians, headed by Haywood, base their accounts, of the actions on statements made by the pioneers, or some of the pioneers, forty or fifty years after the event; and they do a great deal of bragging about the prowess of the old Indian fighters.

The latter did most certainly perform mighty deeds; but often in an entirely different way from that generally recorded; for they faced a foe who on his own ground was infinitely more to be dreaded than the best trained European regulars.

Thus Haywood says that after the battle of the Island Flats, the whites were so encouraged that thenceforward they never asked concerning their enemies, "how many are they ?" but "where are they ?" Of course, this is a mere piece of barbaric boasting.

If the whites had really acted on any such theory there would have been a constant succession of disasters like that at the Blue Licks.

Sevier's latest biographer, Mr.Kirke, in the "Rear-guard of the Revolution," goes far beyond even the old writers.