However, the Indians, when they found the crew consisted of Creoles, molested none of them, telling them that they only warred against the Americans; though they plundered the boat.
Preparations to Attack the Indians.
By the summer of 1790 the raids of the Indians had become unbearable.
Fresh robberies and murders were committed every day in Kentucky, or along the Wabash and Ohio.

Writing to the Secretary of War, a prominent Kentuckian, well knowing all the facts, estimated that during the seven years which had elapsed since the close of the Revolutionary War the Indians had slain fifteen hundred people in Kentucky itself, or on the immigrant routes leading thither, and had stolen twenty thousand horses, besides destroying immense quantities of other property.

[Footnote: American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol.i.Innes to Sec.

of War, July 7, 1790.] The Federal generals were also urgent in asserting the folly of carrying on a merely defensive war against such foes.

All the efforts of the Federal authorities to make treaties with the Indians and persuade them to be peaceful had failed.