A series of unfortunate occurrences, chiefly the fault of the
whites, soon resulted in the precipitation of a terrible Indian
outbreak. A party of Cherokees, returning home in May, 1758,
seized some stray horses on the frontier of Virginia--never
dreaming of any wrong, says an old historian, as they saw it
frequently done by the whites. The owners of the horses, hastily
forming a party, went in pursuit of the Indians and killed twelve
or fourteen of the number. The relatives of the slain Indians,
greatly incensed, vowed vengeance upon the whites. Nor was the
tactless conduct of Forbes calculated to quiet this resentment;
for when Atta-kulla-kulla and nine other chieftains deserted in
disgust at the treatment accorded them, they were pursued by
Forbes's orders, apprehended and disarmed. This rude treatment,
coupled with the brutal and wanton murder of some Cherokee
hunters a little earlier, by an irresponsible band of Virginians
under Captain Robert Wade, still further aggravated the Indians.

Incited by the French, who had fled to the southward after the
fall of Fort Duquesne, parties of bloodthirsty young Indians
rushed down upon the settlements and left in their path death and
desolation along the frontiers of the Carolinas. On the upper
branch of the Yadkin and below the South Yadkin near Fort Dobbs
twenty-two whites fell in swift succession before the secret
onslaughts of the savages from the lower Cherokee towns. Many of
the settlers along the Yadkin fled to the Carolina Fort at
Bethabara and the stockade at the mill; and the sheriff of Rowan
County suffered siege by the Cherokees, in his home, until
rescued by a detachment under Brother Loesch from Bethabara.
While many families took refuge in Fort Dobbs, frontiersmen under
Captain Morgan Bryan ranged through the mountains to the west of