a 400-man Cherokee force led by Chief Kanagatucko (or "Old Hop") arrived at the British camp and asked for peace, which was immediately granted by Col. Stephen. Kanagatucko asked for an officer to accompany him to the Overhill towns as proof that hostilities had ended. Stephen was reluctant to allow it, but granted the request when Timberlake volunteered. Timberlake was accompanied by Sergeant Thomas Sumter, an interpreter named John McCormack, and an unnamed servant. The group purchased a canoe and ten days' worth of provisions with money Sumter had borrowed. The plan was to follow the Holston River to its confluence with the French Broad River, and proceed to the lower Little Tennessee River, where the Overhill towns were situated. Timberlake's party left Long Island on November 28, 1761. The Holston River's unusually low water levels almost immediately stalled the journey, as the party was forced to drag their canoe over exposed shoals and sandbars. The party ran out of provisions after several days, but McCormack managed to shoot a bear, supplying them with several days' worth of meat. Around December 7, the party explored a stalactite-filled cave situated approximately 50 feet above the river. Timberlake described an incident in which Sumter swam nearly a half-mile in near-freezing river waters to retrieve their canoe, which had somehow drifted away while they were exploring the cave. On December 13, the expedition reached a series of treacherous cascades that Timberlake called "Great Falls". The party had to take a day to carefully maneuver their way down the cascades, only to find the Holston frozen over immediately downstream. The ice slowed the expedition's progress, but rains on the night of December 14 thawed the ice. The party passed through the mouth of the Holston (where modern Knoxville developed ) into what is now known as the Tennessee River on December 15. Overhill Country The deeper waters of the Tennessee River allowed the Timberlake expedition to proceed much more quickly. A hunting party led by Cherokee chief Slave Catcher met the Timberlake expedition near the mouth of the Little Tennessee River. They supplied the weary expedition with provisions of "dried venison, homminy, and boiled corn". The following day, Slave Catcher guided the expedition by canoe up the Little Tennessee, although the Timberlake party struggled to keep up. Timberlake recalled, "my hands were so galled, that the blood trickled from them, and when we set