" See North Carolina "Colonial Records," vol. X, p.
658.
Whatever may have been the case elsewhere, the attacks on the
Watauga and Holston settlements were not instigated by British
agents. It was not Nancy Ward but Henry Stuart, John Stuart's
deputy, who sent Isaac Thomas to warn the settlers. In their
efforts to keep the friendship of the red men, the British and
the Americans were providing them with powder and lead. The
Indians had run short of ammunition and, since hunting was their
only means of livelihood, they must shoot or starve. South
Carolina sent the Cherokees a large supply of powder and lead
which was captured en route by Tories. About the same time Henry
Stuart set out from Pensacola with another consignment from the
British. His report to Lord Germain of his arrival in the
Chickamaugan towns and of what took place there just prior to the
raids on the Tennessee settlements is one of the most
illuminating as well as one of the most dramatic papers in the
collected records of that time.*
* North Carolina "Colonial Records," vol. X, pp. 763-785.
Stuart's first act was secretly to send out Thomas, the trader,
to warn the settlers of their peril, for a small war party of
braves was even then concluding the preliminary war ceremonies.
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