364; letter of Secretary of War, May 30, 1793.] The militia bands also travelled to and fro, marching to the rescue of some threatened settlement, or seeking to intercept the attacking bands or to overtake those who had delivered their stroke and were returning to the Indian country.

Generally they failed in the pursuit.

Occasionally they were themselves ambushed, attacked, and dispersed; sometimes they overtook and scattered their foes.

In such a case they were as little apt to show mercy to the defeated as were the Indians themselves.

Blount issued strict orders that squaws and children were not to be slain, and the frontiersmen did generally refuse to copy their antagonists in butchering the women and children in cold blood.