Later in the season John Ross and others, by virtue of a resolution of
the national council, submitted a proposition to General Scott that
the remainder of the business of emigration should be confided to the
nation, and should take place in the following September and October,
after the close of the sickly season, the estimated cost of such
removal to be fixed at $65.88 per head. To this proposal assent was
given,[450] and the last party of Cherokee emigrants began their march
for the West on the 4th of December, 1838.[451] Scattered through the
mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, however, were many who had
fled to avoid removal, and who, nearly a year later, were represented
to number 1,046,[452] and Mr. James Murray was, in the spring of 1840,
appointed[453] a commissioner to ascertain and enroll for removal those
entitled to the benefits of the treaty of 1835.