[Footnote: _Do._, Indian
Affairs. Letter of P. Muehlenberg, July 5, 1784.] They were equally
anxious to intrude on the Government and on the Indian lands; for they
were adventurous, the lands were valuable, and they hated the Indians,
and looked down on the weak Federal authority. [Footnote: _Do._, Report
of H. Knox, April, 1787.] They often made what were legally worthless
"tomahawk claims," and objected almost as much as the Indians to the
work of the regular Government surveyors. [Footnote: _Do._, 150, vol.
ii., p. 548.] Even the men of note, men like George Rogers Clark, were
often engaged in schemes to encroach on the land north of the Ohio:
drawing on themselves the bitter reproaches not only of the Federal
authorities, but also of the Virginia Government, for their cruel
readiness to jeopardize the country by incurring the wrath of the
Indians. [Footnote: draper MSS. Benj. Harrison to G. R. Clark, August
19, 1784.] The more lawless whites were as little amenable to authority
as the Indians themselves; and at the very moment when a peace was being
negotiated one side or the other would commit some brutal murder. While
the chiefs and old Indians were delivering long-winded speeches to the
Peace Commissioners, bands of young braves committed horrible ravages
among the lonely settlements.
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