George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

[352] on advantageous ground, at eight in the evening they

chap. XV.} 1760.

moved onward through the woods to surprise Estatoe, which was twenty-five miles distant. The baying of a watch-dog alarmed the village of Little Keowee, when the English rushed upon its people and killed nearly all except women and children.

Early in the morning, they arrived at Estatoe, which its inhabitants had but just abandoned, leaving their mats still warm. The vale of Keowee¹ is famed for its beauty and fertility, extending for seven or eight miles, till a high, narrow ridge of hills comes down on each side to the river. Below the ridge it opens again for ten or twelve miles more. This lovely region was the delight of the Cherokees; the sides of the adjacent hills bore their habitations, and on the rich level ground beneath stood their fields of maize, all clambered over by the prolific bean. The mountain-sides blushed with flowers in their season, and resounded with the melody of birds. The river now flowed in gentle meanders, now with arrowy swiftness, between banks where the strawberry mixed its crimson with the rich verdure, or beat against the hills that rose boldly in cones upon the border of the interval, and were the abutments of loftier mountains. Every village of the Cherokees within this beautiful country, Estatoe, Qualatchee, and Conasatchee, with its stockaded town-house, was first plundered and then destroyed by fire.² The Indians were plainly observed on the tops of the mountains, gazing at the flames. For years, the half-charred rafters of their houses might be seen on the desolate hill-sides. ‘I could not help pitying them a little,’ writes Grant;