Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1853).djvu/262

246 Extract of a Letter from the Honorable Judge, of Frankfort in Kentucky, to, dated Kentucky, near Frankfort, March 2d, 1799. I recollect to have seen Logan's speech in 1775, in one of the public prints. That Logan conceived Cresap to be the author of the murder at Yellow Creek, it is in my power to give, perhaps, a more particular information, than any other person you can apply to.

In 1774, I lived in Fincastle county, now divided into Washington, Montgomery, and part of Wythe. Being intimate in Colonel Preston's family, I happened in July to be at his house, when an express was sent to him as the County Lieutenant, requesting a guard of the militia to be ordered out for the protection of the inhabitants residing low down on the north fork of Holston River. The express brought with him a war club, and a note which was left tied to it at the house of one Robertson, whose family were cut off by the Indians, and gave rise for the application to Colonel Preston, of which the following is a copy, then taken by me in my memorandum book.

“,

“What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for? The white people killed my kin, at Conestoga, a great while ago; and I thought nothing of that. But you killed my kin again, on Yellow Creek, and took my cousin prisoner. Then I thought I must kill too; and I have been three times to war since; but the Indians are not angry: only myself. “Captain .”&emsp; July 21st, 1774.

Before me the subscriber, a justice of the peace in and for said county, personally appeared John Gibson, Esquire, an associate Judge of same county, who being duly sworn, deposeth and saith that he