Page:Annals of Augusta County.djvu/72

 Wyandots, Miamis and other northwestern tribes, and had an aggregate population of about three thousand five hundred. The Shawnees, the terror of the inhabitants of Augusta county from the frontier to the Blue Ridge, in 1753, numbered only about three hundred in 1768. They then dwelt on the Sciota and Muskingum rivers, in Ohio.

Kercheval states that the Catawba and Delaware Indians were said to have been engaged in war at the time the Valley was first entered by white people, and that the feud was continued for many years afterwards. Several bloody battles were fought between these tribes on or near the Potomac. One of these occurred at the mouth of Antietam creek, in 1736, it is believed. "The Delawares," says Kercheval, "had penetrated far to the south, committed some acts of outrage on the Catawbas, and on their retreat were overtaken at the mouth of this creek, when a desperate conflict ensued. Every man of the Delaware party was put to death, with the exception of one who escaped after the battle was over, and every Catawba held up a scalp, but one. This was a disgrace not to be borne; and he instantly gave chase to the fugitive, overtook him at the Susquehanna river, (a distance little short of one hundred miles,) killed and scalped him, and returning showed his scalp to several white people, and exulted in what he had done." Other battles between these tribes occurred at Painted Rock, on the South Branch; at Hanging Rock, in Hampshire; and near the site of Franklin, Pendleton county. According to Kercheval, a few Shawnees continued to live in the lower valley till 1754, when they removed west of the Alleghany mountain.

According to tradition, a battle between Indians occurred on the Cowpasture river, near Millborough, Bath county, where there is a small mound supposed to cover the remains of the slain. In the spring of 1886 the floods washed away a portion of the mound, and exposed to view five large skeletons in a good state of preservation.

Europeans paid little or no attention to the claim of the Indians to the territory which they held, or roamed over. France held Canada and Louisiana, which latter was understood to embrace all the country west of the Mississippi river. The territory mentioned was conceded by England to France; but not content with this vast domain, the French claimed all the