sun; that being the most glorious and noble origin of which they could conceive. Indeed, such is not altogether unnatural; for that luminary quickens and enlivens every thing that has life, whether animal or vegetable.

Beside the Muskogees, the Kataubahs, or Catawbas, Cherokees, Choktaus, and Chikasaus, were other numerous tribes spread over the great country of which we have spoken.

The Kataubahs and the Chikasaus were very warlike; but their vicinity to Europeans was as detrimental to them, and even more so, than their own exterminating wars; for, as in other cases, as soon as an intercourse commenced, degradation and ruin followed.

The Cherokees have withstood the deletery effects of civilization much beyond what can be said of any other tribe of Indians. Their country is chiefly in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee; but they occupy also the western part of the state of Georgia. Before the war of 1812, their country covered 24,000 square miles.* Numbers of this tribe have emigrated to Arkansaw.

The Choktaus possessed a country not so filled with creeks and rivers as the Muskogees. This circumstance, it is said, was a great hinderance to their prosperity; for in their wars with their neighbors, they suffered greatly from their ignorance of swimming. There were Upper and Lower Choktau towns; the former were situated about 160 miles from the Chikasaus, and the latter about 200 above New Orleans. The people of this nation flattened their heads by wearing bags of sand on them, f and, according to Father Hennepin, ‡ the heads of all the Indians upon the Mississippi are flatter than those of Canada. It is said also that they are of a lighter complexion; but this has reference only to the Muskogees, according to some writers. The Choktaus principally inhabit Mississippi. They were, in 1820, set down at 25,000 souls, and are rather increasing.

The Chikasaus are supposed to have come from the west of the Mississippi, and as it was a custom among the Creeks for their unoccupied lands to be taken by any that came among them, as emigrants, the Chikasaus found no obstacles in the way of establishing themselves on this side the Mississippi. Where they first established themselves is unknown, but in 1770 they were a powerful and warlike nation, and were seated upon the western branches of the Mobile. The tribe of Yazoos belonged to this nation. The Chikasaus reside in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee. They do not exceed 4900 in number.

The Seminoles were a nation made up similar to many others, and chiefly of Muskogees. The Creeks called them Seminoles, which signified wild, because they had estranged themselves from their former country. This nation was principally seated, 40 years ago, upon the rivers Apalachicola and Flint, and had a large town on Calos Bay, on the west side of East Florida. They now reside in Florida, a scattered remnant of about 1200.

The names alone of the different clans or tribes of these nations would fill several pages, and it is not necessary here to enumerate them; we shall therefore, after some general observations, pass to the consideration of those chiefs who have been conspicuous.

There are upon the east bank of the Oakmulge, near its confluence with the Ocone, beautiful fields, extensively known as the Oakmulge fields; they are upon the rich low lands of the river, and upon the elevated part of them are yet visible remains of a town. These fields extend 20 miles along the river. The Creek Indians give this account of them, namely, that here was the place where they first set down after crossing the Mississippi; that their journey from the west had been attended with incredible suffering, and that they were opposed at every step by various hostile bands of Indians, and that on reach

Dr. Morse's Report.

+ Adair." As soon as the child is born, the nurse provides a cradle or wooden case, hollowed and fashioned, to receive the infant, lying prostrate on its back, that part of the case where the head reposes, being fashioned like a brick-mould. In this portable machine the little boy is fixed, a bag of sand being laid on his forehead."-Bartram, 515.

New Discovery, 176.

366

SOTO'S EXPEDITION.

[BOOK IV

ing this place they fortified themselves, and could proceed no further, and at length gained ground and became conquerors in their turn.

There are few greater curiosities in the south, than the great highways of roads, which, 50 years ago, struck the traveller with surprise. In West Florida they are still easily traced for near 50 miles in a straight line upon the Oklokoney River. All history is silent about them; and it is a singular fact that the Indians will make no use of them, but studiously make their paths in any other direction. *

The country of the southern Indians has suffered in some respects as much as some parts of South America; it having been traversed and overrun from time to time by bands of mercenary whites. In the year 1538, Ferdinand de Soto, with a commission from the Emperor Charles V., sailed with a considerable fleet for America. He was a Portuguese gentleman, and had been with Pizarro in the conquest (as it is called) of Peru. His commission constituted him governor of Cuba and general of Florida. Although he sailed from St. Lucar in 1538, he did not land in Florida ‡ until May, 1539. With about 1000 men, 213 of whom were provided with horses, he undertook the conquest of Florida and countries adjacent. After cutting their way in various directions through numerous tribes of Indians, traversing nearly 1000 miles of country, losing a great part of their army, their general died upon the banks of the Mississippi, and the survivors were obliged to build vessels in which to descend the river; which, when they had done, they sailed for Mexico. This expedition was five years in coming to nothing, and bringing ruin upon its performers. A populous Indian town at this time stood at or near the mouth of the Mobile, of which Soto's army had possessed themselves. Their intercourse with the Indians was at first friendly, but at length a chief was insulted, which brought on hostilities. A battle was fought, in which, it is said, 2000 Indians were killed, and 83 Spaniards.

We shall not attempt here to go more into detail concerning the band of marauding Spaniards under Soto, as it will answer the present purpose to observe, that what has just been related, is but one of the many butcheries committed by that band; and, moreover, our accounts are rather indistinct upon the whole affair, and savor much of exaggeration.

The French, under René de Laudonniere, settled in Florida in 1564, near where Pensacola was since built. The Spaniards claimed the country, and hence the bloody wars which followed. This first settlement of the French, projected by Admiral Coligni, was soon broken up by the Spaniards: they, in the basest and most savage manner, murdered the whole colony. A religious war at this period distracted the French nation, and this outrage would have remained unrevenged, but for the indignation of an individual. In 1567, Dominique de Gourges sailed to Florida, took three forts from the Spaniards, put the men to the sword, and hanged all the other settlers he could find. A French garrison was again established, but, being left without protection, was soon retaken by the Spaniards, who remained masters of the country for more than a hundred years. ||

From these transactions of antiquity, we must descend to times nearer our own. In the year 1730, Sir Alexander Cumming travelled among the southern Indians, and from whose account we are able to give several interesting particulars. At this period, he relates that the Cherokee nation was governed by seven Mother Towns, each of which chose a king to preside over them and their dependants. He was elected out of certain families, and the descent

* Williams's W. Florida, 32.

+ Chandon de Delandine, Nouveau Dict. Historique, art. Soro.

"So called, because it was first discovered by the Spaniards on Palme-Sunday, or, as the most interpret, Easter-day, which they call Pasqua Florida, and not, as Theuet writeth, for the flourishing verdure thereof." Purchas, 769. Modern writers of discoveries would do better were they to look more to the sources of information.

See an animated account of these bloody affairs in Johnson's Life of General Greene, i. 480. &c.

Dupratz, i. 1-3. Juan de Grijalva discovered the country upon the Gulf of Mexico in 1518, (Herrera, ii. 199,) and some report that he carried off Indians as slaves. (See Williams's Florida, 90.) But we are not aware that the fact is elsewhere recorded. Herrera, though very minute, does not name it. Purchas (812) agrees with him

was regarded only on the mother's side. These mother towns were, according to Sir Alexander, Tannassie, Kettooah, Ustenary, Telliquo, Estootowie, Keyowee, and Noeyeoee. Four of these towns were without kings at this time, they having died. Some towns had princes, as our author called them; namely, Tomasso, one; Settecho, one; Tassettchee, one; Iwassee, one; Telliquo, two; Tannassie, two; Cannostee, one; Cowee, one.

The chief Moytoy was called emperor, and presided over the seven towns, in 1730. His residence was at Telliquo. On the 3 April, this year, deputies from all parts of the nation met at Nequassie, and in presence of Sir Alexander Cumming and 12 other Englishmen, declared Moytoy emperor; he having been nominated by Sir Alexander.* The nation consented to receive Moytoy as their king, provided he was held accountable to Sir Alexander. At the ceremony of declaring Moytoy king or emperor, by whose order Sir Alexander was placed in a chair, himself and the conjurers standing about him, and a throng of warriors "stroked him with 13 eagles' tails, and their singers sung from morning till night." After this was done with, he made a speech to the great concourse of Indians; in which, among a good deal besides, he displayed the power and goodness of the king beyond the great water; and "required Moytoy and all the head warriors to acknowledge themselves dutiful subjects and sons to King George," "all which they did on their knees, cailing upon every thing that was terrible to them to destroy them, and that they might become no people, if they violated their promise and obedience."

The next day, 4 April, "the crown was brought from great Tannassie, which, with five eagles' tails and four scalps of their enemies, Moytoy presented to Sir Alexander, impowering him to lay the same at his majesty's feet." The conjurers were well pleased with the English baron, and told him they would follow all his directions. "That when he left them they would still consider him as present in the person of Moytoy of Telliquo, who would punctually do what he had bid." Sir Alexander was now at Tannassie, 400 miles from Charleston, according to his reckoning, and had but 15 days to arrive there in, to go for England in the Fox man-of war, which was then to sail. He therefore asked Moytoy if the Indians could travel there in so short a time on foot. The chief said it might be done, and that he would have accompanied him, but for the dangerous illness of his wife, and requested him to choose such as he desired from among his people, to go with him. †

Accordingly, Sir Alexander chose, as evidences of what had happened, Skijagusta, the head warrior of Tassetchie, "a man of great power and interest, who had a right to be a king," Attakullakulla, and Otassite, or Outacite, a third warrior, Collannah, a fourth; "and from Tannassie, the remotest town of the country, he took Clogoittah and Oukanaekah, § warriors." About 23 miles from Charleston they met with the warrior Ounakannowine, a friend of these chiefs, "who had just come from the Kattarbe nation, and desired to go along with his countrymen, to which Sir Alexander consented." They went on board the Fox, a man-of-war, and sailed from Charleston Bay 4 May, and arrived at Dover 5 June; thus performing a passage across the Atlantic in a month and a day, in 1730, not much inferior to what is done now-a-days. At Dover Sir Alexander "took post to London, with the crown

* This part of the sentence is upon the authority of a good writer, (Hewatt, Hist. Carolina, ii. 5,) but Sir Alexander does not say quite as much in his account.

Moytoy was a bitter enemy afterwards. In 1758 he went with his warriors to a place called Statiquo, and killed several whites, without, as was said, any provocation. Hewalt, ii. 220.

Or Kitagusta. This chief was one of the seren, as will appear immediately onward, although Sir Alexander, in his communication, does not name him. Neither does he name Attakullakulla, or Outassite; yet it is certain they were both in England, and we believe at this time they make up the number seven, with those named in his own narrative. That Attakullakulla was, see Hewatt, ii. 221, and Wynne, ii. 280, n. We can only account for the

blanks in the narrative, by supposing that Sir Alexander's amanuensis did not understand him, (for he did not write himself,) and the enumeration of the chiefs which he took with him, is very blundering. Thus, after naming one only, it is set down, "and

a third warrior," &c.

Perhaps Ockonostota, who was called the great warrior of the Cherokee nation. Hewatt, ii. 217.

368

CREEK CHIEFS VISIT ENGLAND.

[Book IV. of the Cherokee nation, leaving the Indians behind to come up with the manof-war. He let the secretary of state immediately know that he had full power 'from that nation to lay their crown at his majesty's feet, and that he had brought over seven Indian chiefs, as an evidence of the truth. His majesty was graciously pleased to order Sir Alexander to bring in his people to the installation, the 18th of June, where they were extremely surprised at the magnificence of every thing about them: they compared the king and queen to the sun, the princes to the stars, and themselves to nothing. On the 22d of June, Sir Alexander was introduced to his majesty, and upon his knee, in presence of the court, declared the full power he had received, the Indian chiefs all kneeling at the same time, as a testimony of their submission and approbation. Sir Alexander laid the crown of the Cherokee nation at his majesty's feet, with the five eagles' tails, as an emblem of his majesty's sovereignty, and four scalps of Indian enemies; all which his majesty was graciously pleased to accept of." While in England, they made a treaty with the king, every article of which was accompanied, on his part, with presents of some sort or other: such as cloth, guns, vermilion, hatchets, knives, &c. This treaty was dated at Whitehall, 7 September, 1730, and from it we get the names of the seven chiefs. It begins, "Whereas you, SCAYAGUSTA OUKAH, chief of the town of Tasseta; you, SCALILOSKEN KETAGUSTA ; you, TETHTOWE; you, CLOGOITTAH; you, COLANNAH; you, UNNACONOY; you, OUCOUNACOU, have been deputed by the whole nation of the Cherokee Indians, to come to Great Britain," &c. After the treaty was finished, a certified copy was presented to the chiefs by Sir Alexander Cumming; upon which Skijagustah, in the name of the whole, made the following speech:

"We are come hither from a mountainous place, where nothing but darkness is to be found; but we are now in a place where there is light. There was a person in our country, he gave us a yellow token of warlike honor, which is left with Moytoy of Telliquo, and as warriors we received it. He came to us like a warrior from you. A man he is; his talk is upright, and the token he left preserves his memory among us. We look upon you as if the great king were present; we love you as representing the great king. We shall die in the same way of thinking. The crown of our nation is different from that which the great King GEORGE wears, and from that we saw in the tower. But to us it is all one. The chain of friendship shall be carried to our people. We look upon the great King George as the sun, and as our father, and upon ourselves as his children. For though we are red, and you are white, yet our hands and hearts are joined together. When we shall have acquainted our people with what we have seen, our children from generation to generation will always remember it. In war we shall always be one with you. The enemies of the great king shall be our enemies. His people and ours shall be one, and shall die together. We came hither naked and poor as the worms of the earth, but you have every thing, and we that have nothing must love you, and will never break the chain of friendship which is between us. Here stands the governor of Carolina, whom we know. This small rope we show you is all that we have to bind our slaves with, and it may be broken. But have iron chains for yours. However if we catch your slaves, we will bind them as well as we can, and deliver them to our friends, and take no pay for it. We have looked round for the person that was in our country -he is not here: However, we must say he talked uprightly to us, and we shall never forget him. Your white people may very safely build houses near We shall hurt nothing that belongs to them, for we are children of one father, the great king, and shall live and die together."

us.

When Skijagustah had proceeded thus far, he laid his feathers upon a table, and closed as follows:

:

Report of the Commissioners (1736) on the Affairs of Georgia, p. 53.—If Attakullakulla were among these chiefs, he went under another name, as did also Outacite. See a few pages forward.

There was at this time no governor, though Robert Johnson was nominally such. In 1729 the government of Carolina was delivered to the crown of England, for about £17,000. Jchm son was reappointed in 1731.

String of wampum, probably.

"This is our way of talking, which is the same thing to us as your letters in the book are to you, and to you, beloved men, we deliver these feathers in confirmation of all we have said."

In October, the Indians embarked at Portsmouth with Mr. Johnson, the governor of Carolina, for their own country, and in the same ship in which they went over.

66

Skijagustah, or, as he was sometimes called, Kittagusta, was brother of Oucconnostota, or the great warrior, and also chief of Chote. He lived to be very old, and died in May, 1768.

10000

CHAPTER IV.

Settlement of Carolina and Georgia--TOмOCHICHI receives the English-Goes to Eng land with General Oglethorpe-Makes a speech to the King-His death-War with the Spaniards-OUTACITIE-MALACHTY-ATTAKULLA KULLA-Indians murdered -ATTAKULLAKULLA prevents retaliation upon whites in his power-Cherokee War begins-Governor Littleton's expedition-Imprisons their Ambassadors-They are massacred-Colonel Montgomery sent against them-Battle near Keowee-Cherokees take Fort London-SILOUCE-Saves the life of Colonel Byrd-Colonel Grant subdues the Cherokees, and they make peace with the whites-CHLUCCO.

THE presumption is pretty strongly supported, that Sir Walter Ralegh visited the southern shores of North America. When General Oglethorpe landed in Georgia, in 1732,* O. S., and communicated to the Indians the contents of a journal of Sir Walter's, they seemed to have a tradition of him, which they had fondly cherished; although, if the person they met were Ralegh, a hundred years had elapsed since he was there. They pointed out to Mr. Oglethorpe a place near Yamacraw bluff, since Charleston, on which was a large mound, in which was buried, they said, a chief who had talked with Sir Walter Ralegh upon that spot. The chief had requested his people to bury him there, that the place might be kept in veneration.

TOMOCHICHI was the principal chief, or Mico, as chiefs were called, of a small band of Creeks and Yamasees, who, having in some way offended their countrymen, fled their country, and "wandered about in the woods some time, until about 1732, when they begged leave of this government to sit down on the high land of Yamacraw, on the south side of Savannah river, at or near the place where the new town of Savannah, in Georgia, is now situated."† They consisted of but 17 or 18 families, and their first chief appears to have been called BOCACHEE. Several chief men, of various tribes, came to welcome the English, immediately after their arrival. "They were as follows: From the tribe of Coweeta, Yahan-lakee, their king, or mico; Essaboo, their warrior, the son of Old-brim, lately dead, whom the Spaniards called emperor of the Creeks, with eight men and two women attendants. From the tribe of Cussetas, Cusseta, their mico; Tatchiqualchi, their head warrior, with four attendants. From the tribe of Owseecheys, Ogeese, the mico, or war king; Neathlouthko and Ougachi, two chief men, with three attendants. From the tribe of Cheechaws, Outhleteboa, their mico, Thlautho-thlukee, Figeer, Sootamilla, war captains, with three attendants. From the tribe of Echetas, Chutabeeche and Robin, two war captains, (the latter was bred among the English,) with four attendants. From the tribe of Polachucolas, Gillattee, their head warrior, and five attendants. From the tribe of Oconas, Oueekachumpa, called by the English Long-king, Koowoo, a warrior. From the tribe of Eufaule, Tomaumi, head warrior, and three attendants.

Many gentlemen in England contributed, in various ways, this year, for the advancement of the colony; some in cattle, some in labor, some in provisions, and others as soldiers. The contribution of one gentleman, for its singularity, shall be mentioned. "Mr. Hume gave a silver boat and spoon for the first child born in Georgia, which being born of Mrs. Close, were given accordingly."-Commissioners' Report on Georgia Affairs, p. 119. + Report of the Commissioners, ut supra, 11, 116, 117.