George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

By the lavish distribution of presents, the Indian agents obtained promises from the chiefs of twentyfive hundred Cherokees, and a numerous body of Creeks to lay waste the settlements on the Watauga, Holstein, Kentucky, and Nolachuckie, and even to extend their ravages to the Cumberland and Green rivers; so that the attention of the mountaineers might be diverted to their own immediate concerns. Moreover, Cornwallis gave orders to the reenforce-ment of three thousand sent by Clinton into the Chesapeake to embark for Cape Fear river. So ended the first attempt of Cornwallis to penetrate to Virginia. He was driven back by the spontaneous risings of the southern and south-western people; and the unwholesome exhalations of autumn swept men from every garrison in the low country faster than Great Britain could replace them.