The
Indians in ambush on the river banks had attacked them many times during
their long and toilsome journey, and the boats were so slow and clumsy
that it was impossible for them to escape the flights of arrows.
But when they arrived, past troubles were soon forgotten, and with good
heart, now that all were together, the settlers took up the work of making
homes.
However, difficulties with the Indians were not over. The first company of
settlers that arrived had been left quite unmolested. But now, as spring
opened, bands of Indian hunters and warriors began to make life wretched
for them all. There is no doubt that the red men did not like to have the
settlers kill the game, or scare it off by clearing up the land; but the
principal motive for the attacks was the desire for scalps and plunder,
just as it was in assailing other Indian tribes.
The Indians became a constant terror. They killed the settlers while
working in the clearings, hunting game, or getting salt at the licks. They
loved to lure on the unwary by imitating the gobbling of a turkey or the
call of some wild beast, and then pounce upon their human prey.
As the corn crop, so carefully planned, had been destroyed by heavy
freshets in the autumn, the settlers had to scour the woods for food,
living on nuts and game.
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