ANOTHER, OR DRINK IT IN THEIR OWN FAMILIES. This will avoid a
great deal of mischief which otherwise will, happen from my
people getting drunk and quarrelling with the White people. I
have no strong prisons like you to confine them for it. Our only
way is to put them under ground and all these (pointing proudly
to his Warriors) will be ready to do that to those who shall
deserve it."

In response to this request, the sum of four thousand pounds was
appropriated by the North Carolina Assembly for the erection of
"a Fort on our western frontier to protect and secure the
Catawbas" and for the support of two companies of fifty men each
to garrison this and another fort building on the sea coast. The
commissioners appointed for the purpose recommended (December 21,
1756) a site for the fort "near the 'Catawba nation"; and on
January 20, 1757, Governor Dobbs reported; " We are now building
a Fort in the midst of their towns at their own Request." The
fort thereupon begun must have stood near the mouth of the South
Fork of the Catawba River, as Dobbs says it was in the "midst" of
their towns, which are situated a "few miles north and south of
38 degrees" and might properly be included within a circle of
thirty miles radius."

During the succeeding months many depredations were committed by
the Indians upon the exposed and scattered settlements. Had it
not been for the protection afforded by all these forts, by the
militia companies under Alexander Osborne of Rowan and Nathaniel
Alexander of Anson, and by a special company of patrollers under
Green and Moore, the back settlers who had been so outrageously
"pilfered" by the Indians would have "retired from the Frontier