kees. A lease was concluded with the Indians, but in the midst of the festivities that followed a war- rior was murdered by a white man, and the savages left the ground with threatening gestures. Hostili- ties were averted by Robertson, who went alone to pacify the savages, and they continued to be friends with the whites until 1770. In July of that year Oconostota (q. v.) invested a fort that John Sevier had built at Watauga ; but Sevier and Robertson, with 40 men, withstood a siege of twenty days, and beat him off with a heavy loss in killed and wound- ed. After the Cherokees were subjugated the gov- ernor of North Carolina appointed Robertson to reside at the Indian capital to hold Oeonostota in check and to thwart the designs of the British. In the spring of 1779 he explored the Cumberland re- gion, and afterward emigrated there with others, mostly from the Watauga settlement, of which he left Sevier in charge. One division of the settlers founded Nashville, Tenn., on 25 Dec., 1779, and after several months they were joined by the other division, and organized themselves into a civil and military body with Robertson at their head. The handful of pioneers had a long conflict with four savage nations, outnumbering them more than one hundred to one. Of 256 men, 39 fell within GO days before the tomahawk of the Cherokee, and in a very few months 67 had perished. The crops were de- stroyed by a freshet and starvation was before them. Settlers began to leave, and of the original 250 persons only 134 remained. These tried to in- duce their leader to abandon his post, but he re- plied : " Each one should do what seems to him his duty. As for myself, my station is here, and here
shall stay if every man of you deserts me." With
his eldest son, Isaac Bledsoe, and a faithful negro, he made his way to Daniel Boone, at Boonesbor- ough. Ky., who gave him powder and shot. On
April, 1781, the fort of Nashville was besieged
by 1,000 Indians, and Robertson's life was saved by the heroism of his wife. At the close of the Revo- lutionary war he was able to bring into the field about 500 men experienced in Indian warfare, and by his diplomacy he had made friends with the Choctaws and Chickasaws, severed their alliance with Great Britain, and effected peace with the Cherokees. The half-breed Creek chief. Alexander McGillivray (q. v.) concluded a treaty with the gov- ernor of Louisiana to exterminate the Americans west of the Alleghanies, and made war against Robertson in 1784, continuing at intervals for twelve years. Robertson constantly performed heroic deeds and beat him back with small num- bers. Robertson was continually offered by the Spanish governor peace and the free navigation of the Mississippi if he would but cut loose from the Union and establish, with Watauga and Kentucky, an independent government. In 1790 he was ap- pointed a brigadier-general by Washington, and his military services did not end till 1796. He shared with Sevier the honor and affection of the Tennesseeans. and held the post of Indian commis- sioner until his death. See " The Life and Times of Gen. James Robertson," by Albigence W. Put- nam (Nashville, 1859), and " The Rear-Guard of the Revolution," by James R. Gilmore (New York, 1886). His wife. Charlotte Reeves, pioneer, b. in Virginia, 2 Jan., 1751 ; d. in Nashville, Tenn., 11 June, 1843, married Robertson in 1767, and ac- companied him to Watauga on its first settlement. She was one of the number that made the perilous journey down the Holston and Tennessee in 1780, and was in the fort of Nashville when it was at- tacked by 1,000 Cherokees. some of whom, in their attempt to capture the horses of the whites, made a gap in their ranks, through which the settlers fled. Robertson's wife, mounted on the lookout, rifle in hand, seeing the stampede of the horses and the break in the Indian line, ordered the sentry to "open the gates and set the dogs upon them." The dogs flew at the savages, who drew toma- hawks upon them, and thus the whites were en- abled to escape. She is reported to have said to her husband : " Thanks be to God, who gave to the Indians a dread of dogs and a love for horses." She shared all of her husband's perils, and was much esteemed for her noble qualities. His grand- son, Edward White, lawyer, b. near Nashville, Tenn., 13 June, 1823; d. in Washington. D. C., 2 Aug., 1887. His parents removed to Iberville parish, La., in 1825, and he was educated at Nashville uni- versity, but not graduated. He began to study law in 1845, but served in the war with Mexico in 1846 as orderly sergeant of the 2d Louisiana volunteers, a six-months regiment. In 1847-'9 he was a mem- ber of the legislature, and after his graduation at the law department of the University of Louisiana in 1850 he practised in Iberville parish, served in the legislature, and was state auditor of public accounts in 1857-'62. He entered the Confederate service in March. 1862, as captain, and partici- pated in the engagements around Vicksburg and the siege of that place, after which his regiment was not in active service. After the war he re- sumed practice in Baton Rouge, and was elected to congress as a Conservative Democrat, serving from 15 Oct., 1877, till 4 March, 1883. In 1886 he was chosen again, serving until the day of his death. Edward White's son, Samuel Matthews, lawyer, b. in Plaquemine, La., 1 Jan., 1852, was graduated at the University of Louisiana in 1874, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and served in the legislature. In 1880 he was made a member of the faculty of the State university and agricultural and mechanical college, where he served as professor of natural history and commandant of cadets until he was elected to the 50th congress as a Democrat, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his father.
ROBERTSON, John Parish, Scottish author, b. in Kelso or Edinburgh, Scotland, about 1793 : d. in Calais, France, 1 Nov., 1843. He accompanied his father on a commercial voyage to La Plata, and soon returned alone to South America and became a clerk at Rio Janeiro when he was only fourteen years old. At twenty-one he was sent as a mercantile agent to Asuncion. In 1815 Dr. Jose Francia (q. v.) ordered him and his brother, William P., who had joined him, to leave Paraguay. He remained more than a year at Corrientes, and, with the help of an Irish lieutenant of Artigas, named Campbell, established a large trade in hides, and was thus instrumental in reviving the prosperity of the province. From 1817 till 1820 he was engaged in Great Britain in enlarging his commercial connections. He purchased a large tract near Buenos Ayres, and settled on it a colony of Scotch agriculturists. When his political friends had conquered the independence of Peru and Chili, he was the first to open those countries to commerce. He went to England in 1824 in the capacity of a political agent for several of the republics. Ills large possessions were swept away in the financial crisis of 1826, and after spending four years in South America in the endeavor to recover some part of his fortune, he entered Corpus Christi college, Cambridge, and passed through the university course. He devoted himself for most of his remaining years to literary labor. He published, jointly with his brother, " Letters on Paraguay " (London, 1838) ; a continuation entitled " Francia's Reign of Terror " (1839) ; and
