------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s Note:
This volume is a reprint of Adair’s original text. The editor had
preserved the page numbers in the form of bracketed numbers. Those page
breaks frequently were interpolated in mid-word. In this rendering of
the text, those page numbers are moved slightly to allow each word to
complete without hyphenation.
The Adair’s fifty-six footnotes, originally employing ‘*’ and ‘†’, have
been reindexed sequentially using Roman numerals. As the editor informs
us in his Preface, some of these notes were extended by him. Adair’s
portion is followed by ‘(A)’, for Adair, and his own extended remarks
are followed by ‘(W)’, for ‘Williams.’
The editor’s own footnotes were already numbered sequentially from the
first to the last page, beginning again at ‘1’ after the Introduction.
This approach has been retained, however an ‘i’ is prefixed for the
twenty-seven notes in the Introduction.
Adair’s footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they
are referenced. The editor’s notes are gathered at the end of each
section.
This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.
Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_.
Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please
see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding
the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adair’s History of the
American Indians
------------------------------------------------------------------------
OTHER WORKS OF THE EDITOR
William Tatham, Wataugan, 1923 (out of print)
History of the Lost State of Franklin, 1924 (out of print)
Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake, ed., 1927
Early Travels in the Tennessee Country, 1928
The Beginnings of West Tennessee, 1929
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adair’s History
of the
American Indians
_Edited under the auspices of the
National Society of the Colonial
Dames of America, in Tennessee_
BY
SAMUEL COLE WILLIAMS, LL.D.
[Illustration: colophon]
THE WATAUGA PRESS
JOHNSON CITY, TENNESSEE
1930
------------------------------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHT, 1930
_By the National Society of Colonial
Dames of America, in Tennessee_
---
Printed in an edition limited to
750 copies from type.
MANUFACTURED COMPLETE BY
KINGSPORT PRESS, INC.
KINGSPORT, TENNESSEE
_United States of America_
------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITOR’S PREFACE
James Adair’s _History of the American Indians_, published in London in
1775, has always been regarded and treated by ethnologists and
historians as reliable authority on the Southern Indians, as well as on
Southern history in a period of no little obscurity. The book has long
been rare, selling in 1930 at one hundred dollars a copy. Recognizing
its value as source material on Southern history of the colonial period,
the National Society of Colonial Dames of America, in Tennessee,
determined to bring out a reprint, which should be annotated to
supplement in some degree Adair’s own detailed and vivid description of
life among the Indians of the South, east of the Mississippi River; of
the Indian trade and traders, and of intrigues and wars that involved
both the red and the white races, in the years of struggle for the
possession of the Mississippi Valley by the French and English.
The writer was asked to undertake the editorial work. The task of
annotation has proceeded on the basis of a reckoning that Adair’s book
is not true to name—a history of the American Indians—but of its being
an account of the principal tribes of the Indians of the Southeast and
of their countries. His work is all the more unique and useful in that
such is its real scope; and the editor’s notes, speaking generally, have
been brought within the same limitation. The London edition carried no
index—a lack that impaired its useability. One is supplied in this
reprint.
In the Introduction it is purposed to give as full and accurate an
account of Adair, the man, and of his book, as is feasible. In order to
compass this a fairly wide investigation of archives was entered upon
and a correspondence conducted. To Professor R. L. Meriwether, of the
Department of History of the University of South Carolina, Emmett Starr,
of St. Louis, historian of the Cherokee Indians, John R. Swanton, of the
Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D. C., W. J. Ghent, of the
staff of the _Dictionary of American Biography_, Judge Samuel Martin
Young, of Dixon Springs, Tennessee, Dr. P. M. Hamer, of the Department
of History of the University of Tennessee, and Miss Mary U. Rothrock,
librarian of the Lawson McGhee Library, Knoxville, Tennessee, the editor
is under obligations for aid given in its preparation. An expression of
gratitude cannot be withheld. The editor, also, has had the hearty
coöperation at all times of the officers of the Society which has
promoted the enterprise, not with a view to financial profit, but under
patriotic prompting.
The notes of Adair are indicated by * and other reference marks; those
of the editor by numerals. In cases where the editor has extended notes
of the author the latter’s work is followed by (A) and the editor’s by
(W).
The author’s punctuation, spelling and capitalization have been
followed, but the old form of “s” has been changed to the modern. For
the convenience of students in running references to pages of the
original edition its page-numbers are carried into the body of the text
between brackets.
SAMUEL COLE WILLIAMS.
“Aquone”
Johnson City
Tennessee
INTRODUCTION
JAMES ADAIR, THE MAN
James Adair has been called by various writers an Englishman, a
Scotchman and an Irishman—and with some basis of fact in each case. He
derived from the historic Irish house of Fitzgerald. Indeed, Fitzgerald
was his true name. That family descends from Walter, son of Other, who
at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086) was castellan of Windsor and
tenant-in-chief of five of the counties of England. His descendants took
active parts in the conquest of Ireland, where one of them in 1346 came
into the Earldom of Kildare. Another line of the Fitzgeralds was that of
the Earls of Desmond, which also descended from Maurice, the founder of
the family in Ireland. The Desmond branch, under the third earl, who was
viceroy of Ireland in 1367-69, became embroiled in difficulties and
suffered defeat, and was captured by a native king of Thomond.
Robert Fitzgerald, whose patrimonial estate was that of Adare, inclusive
of the manor and abbey of that name, is said to have been the eldest son
of Thomas Fitzgerald, sixth Earl of Desmond. In a dispute over the
succession to the estate of his grandfather, Robert Fitzgerald killed
his kinsman Gerald, the “White Knight,” a man of great distinction. A
powerful combination being formed against him, he fled (1675) from
Ireland to Galloway in Scotland. There he was hospitably received as
guest at various baronial houses. He decided to change his name and took
that of Robert Adare from his Irish estate in county Antrim.[i1]
“During his visit, Currie, who held the castle of Dunskey, was declared
a rebel, as an incorrigible robber and pirate. A proclamation was made
that whoever should produce Currie, dead or alive, should be rewarded by
his lands. Robert Adare saw an opening by which to retrieve his
fortunes, and watched the castle of Dunskey by day and night. At length
the redoubtable robber issued one evening from his hold with few
attendants, and was instantly followed by Adare, who, engaging him hand
to hand, got the better of him, drove him slowly backwards and at last
dispatched him outright by a blow from the hilt of his sword. Possessing
himself of the robber’s head, Adare hastened to court with all
convenient speed, and, presenting his trophy to the king, (as tradition
says) on the point of his sword, his Majesty was pleased to order his
enfestment in the lands and castle of the rebel. His family was known as
the Adairs of Portree, and when a castle was built on the spot [in
Dumfrieshire] where Currie was struck down, it was called Kilhilt, from
which the Adairs took designation.”[i2]
Alexander Adair of Kilhilt held the barony, so obtained from Robert I of
Scotland, during the reign of James V of Scotland, and the barony was in
the possession of the family in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
A Sir Robert Adair was a member of the public committee of Wigtonshire
during the factious period of 1642 to 1649.[i3]
Sir Robert Adair, perhaps son of the above, removed from Scotland to
Ireland before the battle of the Boyne, which was fought in July, 1690,
he having sold his Scottish estate to Lord Stair. It is inferable that
he settled in county Antrim, where our author James Adair was born,
about 1709.
James Adair is silent on the point of his parentage and birth-date; but
it is probable that he was a younger son of this last mentioned Sir
Robert Adair; and that, as has been the case with so many scions of
noble and other houses of Great Britain, facing the vice-grip of the law
primogeniture, he preferred the freedom and opportunities of distant
climes.
Animated by something of the spirit of his distant ancestor, James Adair
migrated and appeared in South Carolina in 1735, landing at Charles
Town, in high probability.[i4]
Shortly after his arrival Adair engaged in the Indian trade, then a
business more gainful than was the case in the later years of his
career. In 1736 he was a trader to the Cherokees, and mentions an
incident “in Kanootare, the most northern town of the Cherokee.”[i5]
This town was probably identical with Connutre laid down on George
Hunter’s Map of 1730, in the upper part of the territory occupied by the
Middle Cherokees in the southwestern part of North Carolina. It seems
probable that he formed a connection or traded in that section with
George Haig,[i6] called by Adair “our worthy and much lamented
friend.”[i7] At the Congaree Thomas Brown, also mentioned by Adair
(T.B.), had (1735-1747) a large trading establishment from which the
Cherokees and Catawbas were supplied. Haig was associated with Brown,
and Adair in likelihood had his first transactions as a trader from that
post, visiting both of the tribes mentioned.
Adair’s book gives evidence of the fact that he was among the Overhill
(or Western) Cherokees in the Tennessee Country, whose towns were on the
Tennessee (now Little Tennessee) River, and its branches. Our author,
however, is tantalizingly sparing of dates in that regard. He,
doubtless, came in contact with the enthusiast Priber while the latter
was among the Overhill Cherokees engaged in the projection and
establishment of his “red empire,” in the years 1737-1743.
The same thing is true of the Catawbas. He speaks of his “residence with
them,” but his census of them, of the year 1743, is the only indication
of the period of his stay.
In 1744 Adair transferred his residence and operations to the Chickasaw
nation in what is now North Mississippi. An eastern band of that tribe
had a considerable village across the Savannah River from Augusta,
Georgia, in South Carolina. It is likely that Adair conducted a trade
with the warriors of that village, either from the Congaree or Charles
Town; and becoming measurably conversant with the Chickasaw language,
sought a trade among the main branch of the tribe in the West, where
competition was less keen.
It was among his “cheerful brave Chikkasah” that Adair brought his
career as a trader and diplomat to peak. The innate independence and
bravery of the Chickasaws appealed to him. The glorious history they had
but recently made in two contests with the French and their numerous red
allies under Bienville challenged his admiration. The Chickasaws
reciprocated. They and Adair were well met. Theirs was a kinship of
spirit. It is manifest that he, alongside their chiefs, was their leader
on bloody forays against enemy Indians, particularly the Shawnees, then
in the French interest. If that were possible, he instilled in the
Chickasaws a stronger dislike of the French. That age-old hatred did
more and very much more to save the Mississippi Valley to the English
than histories of our country have so far recorded.
About a year or two after Adair entered upon his life among the
Chickasaws, in the winter of 1745-46, he saw an opportunity to extend
the influence of the Anglo-Americans of Carolina and win at least a
portion of the populous Choctaw nation from the French at New Orleans.
This chance lay in the fact that the goods supplied the Choctaws by
French traders were inferior to goods of English make; and, usually,
they were sold at higher prices. Added to this were the seeds of a
schism among the Choctaws. The forceful but mercurial chief Red Shoes
was leader of one faction. Adair sough to reach and win him, following
the violation of Red Shoes’ favorite wife by a French trader from Fort
Tombikbe (Tombigbee). Adair, in carrying out his plan, had the material
aid of John Campbell, a Carolina trader who had been much longer among
the Chickasaws and Choctaws than the prime mover himself. During the
summer of 1746, with the authority and concurrence of Governor James
Glen, of South Carolina, Adair made presents to the already deeply
incensed Red Shoes and to his followers. The two leaders, white and red,
planned a break with the French—called by the French “the Choctaw
rebellion.” Internecine war was now flagrant among the Choctaws. The
faction of Red Shoes attacked not only the tribesmen who remained true
to the old alliance, but also settlements of the French on the
Mississippi and their commerce on the river. In acknowledgement of his
leadership scalps were brought to Adair.
As successful intriguer Adair naturally expected to be rewarded by the
South Carolina government. He claimed that Governor Glen had committed
himself to see to the grant to Adair and his friends of a monopoly of
the Choctaw trade for a term of years.[i8] Instead, Glen, it was
charged, formed a company—called by Adair the “Sphynx Company”—composed
of his brother and two others to conduct the trade thus opened up. The
sight of three hundred and sixty horse-loads of goods passing to the
Choctaw Country must have enraged Adair. His bitterness towards Governor
Glen was ever afterwards manifest, often in biting sarcasm and
invective.[i9] Adair attributed to this breach of plighted faith his
personal bankruptcy.
Charles McNaire was entrusted by the “Sphynx Company” with the above
cargo of goods, but he proved inadequate to the task. Glen appealed to
Adair to help McNaire out of his difficulties. This Adair says he did on
a renewal of promises of a reward, which was never forthcoming. The
conjuncture of the death of Red Shoes at the hands of an emissary of the
French, and McNaire’s mismanagement brought the “Sphynx Company” to
disaster, not to say retribution.
“Apparently Glen withdrew his patronage of the Sphynx Company. Adair
seems to charge that he turned now to prevent ‘two other
gentlemen’—presumably Matthew Roche and his partner—getting recompense
for losses in the venture,[i10] whereupon a controversy arose between
his Excellency and Matthew Roche, one of the partners, it seems, in the
course of which the latter printed a pamphlet, ‘A Modest Reply to the
Governor’s Answer to an Affidavit made by McNaire.’” (Meriwether)[i11]
The pamphlet incorporated a letter written by Adair on some phase of the
transactions. In umbrage, the Governor asked the Common’s House of the
province to have its committee on Indian affairs investigate and report
on the controversy. This was done. The report branded Roche’s pamphlet
“a false and malicious paper, throwing unjust and slanderous aspersions
on the governor’s honor and character,” and declared Adair’s letter to
be so contradictory of a previous one he had written as to be unworthy
of credit.
“Adair’s was not the only charge against Glen of his having investments
in the Indian trade and of having his official acts influenced thereby.
The fact of such investments is indicated by a suit brought by him which
involved several dealers in the Indian trade, by his relations with
Cherokee traders, such as Grant and Elliott, and by his failure to deny
charges. The bad policy of this is, of course, beyond question, but of
actual fraud there is no evidence.” (Meriwether)
Adair was far from being satiated. He was not content to allow the
contest for his deserts to thus end. He now, for the first time, turned
author and wrote his own brochure or book in vindication. This he
announced by way of an advertisement in the _South Carolina Gazette_ of
April 9, 1750:
“Shortly will be published—A Treatise upon the Importance and Means of
Securing—The Choctaw Nation of Indians—in the British Interest—In which
are interpreted many curious _remarks_—Concerning the History, Policy
and Interest of the Nation—with—Several incontestable Reasons, and
chronological observations, to prove, that the Year of Our Lord 1738 was
several Years antecedent to the year 1747—To which is added—A Genuine
Account—of the most remarkable _Occurences_ since that Period of
Time—Concluding with—Some _Scenes of a Farce_, as the same was some time
ago first rehearsed in private, and afterwards acted publickly; in which
are contained some comical and instructive _Dialogues_ between several
modest _Pretenders_ to the Merit of a certain Revolt, said by them to be
lately projected and effected—The whole supported by Records, Original
Letters, and Living Witnesses.”[i12]
This production was announced in title form or display, but is here
given with dashes to indicate the several lines and divisions. While the
name of no author is given, the prospectus is unmistakably Adair’s—in
his style down to the peculiar punctuation, as well as in its satire. No
one else had the knowledge of the Choctaw intrigue and revolt along with
the literary skill requisite. The reference to “pretenders to the merit
of a certain revolt” is explained by the fact that four different
traders laid claims to the honor of and reward for the Choctaw
defection.
Adair petitioned the legislative body of the province for reimbursement
of expenses in bringing about the revolt; but his memorial was rejected
during Governor Glen’s administration, May, 1750. “With a flow of
contrary passions I took leave of our gallant Chikkasah friends,” whom
he had accompanied down to Charles Town. Bankrupt in purse and deeply
resentful in feeling, Adair now entered upon the most trying and morally
perilous period of his career in America. He was off to the Cherokees,
and, we may suspect, to strong drink in association with hardy but
inferior men. He seems to have made head-quarters for a time at the home
of James Francis, an Indian trader of Saluda Town, then to have left for
the Overhill towns with a son-in-law of Francis, Henry Foster. Inquiries
from Glen as to whereabouts and doings followed after him. James Francis
must have pretended ignorance when he wrote (July 24, 1751) to the
governor: “I made it my business to be diligent in my inquiry after him
[Adair] but could no ways understand where he was to be found or I
should have gone any distance of ground to have acquainted him with your
Excellency’s pleasure. She [Mrs. Flood] said that he told her he was
directly going to quit the country and gott a passage from norward to
Jamaica.”
Adair says that at this time he was tempted by the French to enter into
their service. His letter to Wm. Pinckney of Charles Town, commissioner
for Indian affairs, sheds light upon this stage of his career and his
distraught mental condition. It was written as he was near the Overhill
towns on May 7, 1751. It is of value, too, as showing Adair’s raw
composition—written in the saddle, so to speak:
“I last summer wrote to the Honble Council and you, each a letter,
shewing the Force I lay under of going to the French; the Contents
were very large and the why as uncommon, to which I refer you.
Monsieur endeavored to Tempt me with Thirty two thousand Livers, which
not taking they formed Bills of Capital Crimes against me, and
retained me as close Prisoner for three weeks. In short, for all the
consequences of the Choctaw war. The world thinks it strange that I
should be Punished both by the English and French, for that in effect
that I was some [time] for the one and against the other in time of a
hot war. But so it happens in Iron-age; only that I behaved like a
desperado against their garrison, I should have been Hang’d &
Gibbetted, for they had the plainest proof and clearest circumstances
against me. Besides I need not mention their policy, envy and
Trachery.
“This spring I went to the Cherokees, and saw the most evident Tokens
of war, for Capt. Francis’s son and I were in great danger of being
cut off by a gang of nor’wd Indians down within Ten Miles of the
Nation. The evening before I left the Nation a gang of the Cherokees
returned from the southw’d who killed some white men in Georgia and
were concluding that night to cut us off. All night we stood on our
arms; and John Hatton (who was born there and a desperate man besides)
persuaded us to break off with him to Carolina, but we deferred it and
the Indians the execution of their designs, yet in the narrow all the
headmen of Keeokee and Istanory came with Three Linguists and
Persuaded me to write to his Excellency a most Cunning Remonstrance
and Pet’n which they dictated; the First Extinuating their crimes and
murdering the white men and the other requesting some Swivel Guns.
Several of the Traders, as they were unacquainted with Letters,
desired me to write to His Excellency & Council the unhappy &
dangerous situation of affairs in the nation that they might use
proper measures against the then desponding consequences, for they
told me the Government disregarded their Reports; and indeed I have
found the Gov’t very remiss in the like affairs, and being used Ill
and my credit small after having served them in a continued chain of
actions, I thought myself blamable to have writ because every Faulty
character of Indian was rejected, yet to serve the Country I offered
to Captn Francis to prove on oath all that I knew of the affair. If
Carol’a designs [not] to stand on the defensive part and willing to
give me that encouragement which I possibly might merit as well, in
this, I should induce the Chickesaws at Augusta and many brave
woods-men to engage in the Publick Service, and, if I’m not mistaken
in myself, with such Brave Wanton fellows I should be somewhat
remarkable. I thot I was bound to write so much on sev’l
considerations.
“JAMES ADAIR.”[i13]
Adair now passed practically out of public view for several years. Was
he among the Overhill Cherokees, as an irregular, unlicensed trader; or
was he among the eastern band of the Chickasaws engaged in writing his
book?
In 1753, Cornelius Doherty, the old trader, wrote Governor Glen that “a
great many of the Cherokees were gone to Chickasaws to assist them
against the French.” Under Adair’s prompting, in order to aid his well
loved tribe in their dire straits?
On Governor Glen’s visit to Ninety-Six in May, 1756, Adair saw him and
gives details in his book (p. 244). He also met Governor William Henry
Lyttleton at Fort Moore two years later. Lyttleton seems to have made a
favorable impression upon him—quite in contrast with Glen.
Adair was emboldened by the new Governor’s attitude again to petition
for a reimbursement of losses incident to the Choctaw affair. In so
doing he was not able to refrain from tart language. This the
legislature of the province was glad enough to seize upon, with result:
“April 28, 1761. A memorial of James Adair was presented to the House
and the same containing improper and indecent language was Rejected
without being read thro’.”
Adair evidently thought that his former service followed by aid he had
given to the province in its war with the Cherokees just terminated had
justly earned for him better treatment. Into that struggle he had thrown
himself whole-heartedly.
Due to unfortunate happenings in the western part of Virginia—the
killing by frontiersmen of above a dozen Cherokee warriors, including
some of prominence, as they were returning from an expedition in aid of
Virginia against the hostile Shawnees, in 1756—and due, also, to
subsequent mismanagement of affairs in South Carolina, war with the
Cherokees was in prospect towards the middle of the year 1759, and
flagrant in the winter and summer following.[i14] In June a force of
about eleven hundred men under Colonel Archibald Montgomery (later Lord
Eglington) started from Charles Town to reduce the Cherokee towns and
relieve the province’s garrison at Fort Loudoun-on-Little Tennessee,
which had been beseiged by the Cherokees, aided by Creeks.
Adair in his _History_ says that “having been in a singular manner
recommended to his Excellency [Lyttleton], the general, I was preëngaged
for that campaign”—to lead a body of the Eastern Chickasaws. In the
course of preparations Lieutenant-Governor Bull transmitted to the
legislature the offer of Adair to lead without pay the eastern band of
the Chickasaws settled on the Savannah River; these to act as a scouting
party in advance of the troops. Of this small detachment at Saluda Old
Town we get glimpses. Governor Lyttleton in his march up-country was
“joined by 40 Chickasaws, 27 good gunmen, all likely young fellows. The
Chickasaws were drawn up in line and received the Governor with rested
arms. They were all dressed and painted in war attire. At night the
Cherokees attempted to send a string of wampum to the Chickasaws.”[i15]
“Last night [November 17, 1759] we arrived here in five days march from
the Congaree. We met at this camp twenty-seven Chickasaws, the only
allies we have yet seen; they are sprightly young fellows and hearty in
our cause.”[i16]
The Chickasaws would have been valuable as scouts, but for some reason
they were not so used. Montgomery’s campaign went well in the Lower
Cherokee Country, but disaster overtook it in the Middle towns. The
troops “fell into an ambuscade, by which many were wounded; and tho’ the
enemy were everywhere driven off, yet the number of our wounded
increased so fast that it was thought advisable to return as fast as
possible. In these covers a handful of men may ruin an army.” Fort
Loudoun was left to its sad fate.[i17]
South Carolina was in deep humiliation over the retreat of Montgomery to
Fort Prince George. From that place (July 19, 1760) it was reported:
“This morning about nine o’clock arrived here capt. John Brown, with 13
white men dressed and painted like Indians, and 43 Chickasaws, who came
with intent to join Col. Montgomery, not having heard of his return. The
declaration of capt. John Brown, who, with capt. Adair, heads the
Chickasaws, that are come to join Col. Montgomery, imports that the day
before he left the Breed Camp, the Chickasaws advised him, if he wanted
to save his life to go immediately and leave his effects to their care
... for there was no trusting the Creeks any longer who had agreed to
fall on the English.”[i18]
Letters from the expeditionary force, yet preserved in the archives at
Columbia, show that Captain Adair and his party of Chickasaws were bold
and active, doubtless serving as scouts.[i19] In July following, the sum
of two hundred pounds, currency, was included in the appropriation bill
as his compensation. Adair, in 1759, was for attacking and vigorously
pressing the war, but his advice was not attended to. In the meantime
aid had come to the Cherokees from the Creeks under Great Mortar.
Carolina’s prestige was in eclipse, and another campaign was planned for
1761, led by Colonel James Grant, Virginia troops advancing, though
leisurely,[i20] under Colonel Wm. Byrd III, to assist in the subjugation
of the Cherokees in the Overhill towns. Adair’s _History_ indicates his
connection with Grant’s expedition, but is barren of details and it has
proven difficult to trace elsewhere the part he took.
To the far-away Chickasaws, the trader turned to recoup his fortunes
after the termination of the Cherokee War and his repulse in the matter
of his second memorial. There was real need for Adair’s services on the
part of that gallant people. The French were attempting to make a breach
between them and the Choctaws. They were “in great want of ammunition”
and goods.[i21] Adair chose Mobile as mart for his peltry, after the
surrender of the country by the French under the peace treaty of 1763.
Existing records testify to the fact that Adair aided the authorities in
efforts to prevent the Chickasaws being debauched by rum and to hold
unprincipled traders in leash. He supported the commissary of the
government of West Florida, in February, 1766, in the arrest and
prosecution of John Buckles and Alexander McIntosh, in a “Memorandum of
some Material Heads,” in which his powers of invective did not fail to
outcrop: McIntosh “debauched the Indians with rum to the uneasiness and
disgust of orderly traders, the loss of their numerous outstanding debts
and every chance of fair trade ... faithful to his black trust, in his
Arabian-like method of plundering the Indians.... He would make a new
Hell of this place, and it is hoped that he may go thru’ Purgatory
properly.”[i22]
It was during this stay (1761-68) among them that the greater portion of
his _History of the American Indians_ was written. He left his oft-tried
and true friends, the Chickasaws, in the early part of May, 1768,[i23]
and went to the North—doubtless to interview Sir Wm. Johnson for
materials with which to enlarge the scope of his work, his own
experience and observations having been confined to the leading tribes
of the South.
Of Adair in London in 1775 we have not a glimpse. Did he visit Scotland
and Ireland among his kinsmen?
His closing years constitute for the researcher the most baffling period
of his career. Dr. James B. Adair in his _Adair History and Genealogy_
(1924) says that he settled and married in North Carolina after his
return from London in 1775. The locality and name of the woman he is
supposed to have married are not given. On the other hand, Emmett Starr,
the Cherokee historian and genealogist, states in a letter to the writer
that Adair never married. If an inference may be indulged, it seems that
it was in the western part of North Carolina that he settled—the region
west of the Alleghanies, now known as Lower East Tennessee, near the
Tennessee-Georgia line. There a landing on Conesauga River bore the name
“Adair,” a point of transit of shipments by way of the Hiwassee after
portage from Hildebrand’s landing on the Hiwassee, in a somewhat later
period. Just across the state line in Georgia is the village of Adair.
Another fact adds weight to the inference: the descendants of Adair
related their nativity to that region. Without doubt Adair left his
blood strain among the Cherokee and Chickasaws. As those of colonial
days would express it, he was too “full-habited” to have made himself an
exception to the custom of traders resident among the red tribes to form
alliance with Indian maidens, with resultant offspring.
Emmett Starr, in his _History of the Cherokee Indians_, 403, gives:
“1^1———— Adair
1^2 John Adair m. Jennie Kilgore
2^2 Edward Adair m. Elizabeth Martin.”
The name of the mother of these two sons of “—— Adair” is not given.
Starr’s genealogical table gives the descendants down to recent times,
among them those of the Mayes family. The blank in the name of the
father may be supplied from a sketch of Joel Bryan Mayes, a Cherokee
chief, and chief justice of the court of last resort of the Cherokee
Nation, in _Appleton’s Encyclopedia of American Biography_, IV, 275:
Mayes “was born in the Cherokee reservation in Georgia, October 2, 1833.
His mother was of mixed blood and descended on the paternal side from
James Adair, an Indian agent [trader] under George III.”[i24]
Starr in a letter to the editor says: “John and Edward Adair, brothers,
married Cherokees and have had a numerous progeny. Their descendants
furnished the most brilliant strain in the old Cherokee Nation,
especially when their blood was blended with the blood of descendants of
General Joseph Martin,[i25] of Virginia-Tennessee, whose descendants
have always been numerous in the Nation. Two of these, William Penn
Adair and Lucian Burr Bell were the brainiest men that I ever met.”
Elizabeth Martin, mentioned above, was in girlhood a resident of Lower
East Tennessee, at Wachowee on a branch of Hiwassee River. Her mother,
Betty, was the daughter of the great Nancy Ward, the Beloved Woman of
the Overhill Cherokees and friend of the white race, and her father was
General Joseph Martin, agent of Virginia among the Cherokees.[i26]
Miss Skinner in her _Pioneers of the Old Southwest_, seemingly
fascinated by Adair, gives 15 of 285 pages to him and his book. She
attributes the arrest of Briber to Adair. “As a Briton, Adair
contributed to Priber’s fate.... Since the military had failed, other
means must be employed; the trader provided them.” This is without
justification in fact. She is fairer elsewhere in her estimate of Adair,
whom she called “Tennessee’s first author”: “His voluminous work
discloses a man not only of wide mental outlook but a practical man with
a sense of commercial values.... The complete explanation of such a man
as Adair we need not expect to find stated anywhere—not even in and
between the lines of his book. The conventionalist would seek it in
moral obliquity; the radical in a temperament that is irked by the
superficialities that comprise so large a part of conventional
standards. The reason for his being what he was is almost the only thing
Adair did not analyze in his book. Perhaps, to him, it was
self-evident.”
That Adair was a man of liberal education, for his period, seems clear.
A self-disclosure is that of his applying himself to the mastery of the
rudiments of the Hebrew language among the redmen whom he was studying.
A curious picture that calls for an effort at visualization is that of
Adair, the forest student, traversing the toilsome trail to Charles Town
with peltry to trade for books. It is somewhat difficult to see him,
again, at the head of a band of painted warriors faring forth along the
Massac trace through the dense woods of what is now West Tennessee, or
along the early Natchez trail, west of the Tennessee River and in the
same region, bound for the North on a mission which was, in essence, one
for the British Empire and against that Empire’s antagonist for the
Great Valley of the Mississippi. Yet harder to see in the lover of
erudition is the rollicking Adair, in near-abandon in a period of
stress, finding “brave and cheerful companionship” with an illiterate
and coarse-grained white man, the two riding carelessly along a
dangerous path, singing as they went, each braced by “a hearty draught
of punch,” and further companioned by a keg of rum. Wherever and however
seen, his was an unusual figure, riding, we may be sure, a coveted
Chickasaw steed through vast forest reaches, silhouetted against a
background of forest-green. Whether knight errant or dare-devil, or a
commingling of both, he rode into mundane immortality. He has broken
into every book of comprehensive biography, in whatever language, which
has any sort of pretension of thoroughness.
Adair was a good diplomat in dealing with his inferiors. He was not
diplomatic in his attitude towards those who were officially his
superiors. An acridity of speech, an unsmooth temper and not a little
vanity brought him to breach with such when he deemed himself
mistreated. In an audience with Governor Glen his own words “seemed to
lie pretty sharply upon him.” Adair was a good hater: of Glen, the
French and the Romanists, in particular. But, as is not unusual in such
cases, he was ardent in his friendships—for the Chickasaws in
particular. As “an English Chickasaw,” he recognized in that tribe all
that was best in the Amerind: love of their land, constancy in hatred
and friendship, sagacity, alertness and consummate intrepidity.
THE BOOK
Adair purposed a publication of his book several years before the date
of its actual London publication in 1775. In the _South Carolina
Gazette_ of September 7, 1769, it was said: “An account of the origin of
the primitive inhabitants and a history of those numerous warlike tribes
of Indians, situated to the westward of Charles Town are subjects
hitherto unattempted by any pen.... Such an attempt has been made by Mr.
James Adair, a gentleman who has been conversant among the Cherokees,
Chickesaws, Choctaws, etc., for thirty-odd years past; and who, by the
assistance of a liberal education, a long experience among them and a
genius naturally formed for curious enquiries, has written essays on
their origin, language, religion, customary methods of making war and
peace, etc.” It was also announced that the author was “going over to
England soon to prepare for publication.” The _Savannah Georgia Gazette_
of October 11, 1769, carried a similar item, of date New York, February
27th.
In October both these newspapers published Adair’s prospectus of the
book, proposed to be sold by subscription. In the “Proposals” the title
was displayed in customary title-form—differing much in wording from the
title page of the 1775 publication:
“_Proposals for printing by Subscription_: Essays on the Origin,
History, Language, Religion, and religious Rites, Priests or Magi,
Customs, Civil Policy, Methods of declaring and carrying on War, and
of making Peace, Military Laws, Agriculture, Buildings, Exercise,
Sports, Marriage and Funeral Ceremonies, Habits, Diet, Temper,
Manners, etc., of the Indians on the Continent of North America,
particularly of the several Nations or Tribes of the Catawbas,
Cherokees, Creeks, Chickesaws, and Choctaws, inhabiting the Western
Parts of the Colonies of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and
Georgia. Also some Account of the Countries, Description of Uncommon
Animals, etc., interspersed with useful Observations relating to the
Advantages arising to Britain from her Trade with those Indians; of
the best Method of managing them, and of conciliating their
Affections, and therefore extending the said Trade. Also several
interesting Anecdotes Collected in a Residence of the great Part of 33
years among the Indians themselves,
By JAMES ADAIR.
“_Conditions_: The Work will be Comprised in two Octavo Volumes, and
be put to press in London, as soon as a sufficient number of
Subscriptions are obtained, and will be printed on a good Paper, with
Letter entirely new.
“The Price to Subscribers will be two Spanish Dollars, one of which
will be paid at the Time of subscribing, and the other on the Delivery
of the Books.
“Subscriptions are taken by the Printer of this _Gazette_.”
There is no evidence that Adair in pursuance of his purpose went to
London at this time. He did go to New York in 1768 and there in the
early part of the following year issued a prospectus, in like manner.
While there he visited Sir William Johnson at Johnson Hall. This visit,
with subsequent incidents, is shown in a correspondence between Johnson,
Gage and Adair which appears in _The Documentary History of New York_,
IV, 251-252, 259-262. The letters afford side-lights on our author and
his book:
Johnson to General Gage:
Johnson hall Decr. 10th 1768
“Dear Sir: This letter is addressed to you at the intreaty of the
Bearer Mr. Adair, who I am informed was for many years a Trader of
first consequence amongst the Cherokees &c. I believe his present
Circumstances are very indifferent but he conceives he has a prospect
of some advantages in view from the Publication of a manuscript he has
wrote on the Manners, Customs & History of the Southern Indians,
tending to prove their descent from the Hebrews, which performance
shews him a man well acquainted with the Languages, and very Curious
in his Remarks. His design is to go for England and (if he may be
allowed) to take some Chickasaws with him, & as none of that Nation
were ever there he conceives it would be for the public advantage to
Shew them the greatness and power of the English.
“I apprehend that your Patronage in whatever shape you may please to
Countenance his design, is his principal object. If he is worthy of it
in any degree my recommendation is needless—His appearance may not be
much in his favor and his voluminous Work may rather be deemed Curious
than entertaining, but he is certainly well acquainted with the
Southern Indians, and a man of Learning tho Rusticated by 30 years
residence in a Wild Country—He thinks that I could serve him by
mentioning him to you, and I hope that his importunity in consequence
of that opinion will apologize for the Liberty I have taken in Giving
you this Trouble.”
Adair to Johnson, of March or April, 1769:
“Sire, About a month ago, I did myself ye pleasure of writing to you,
both in complyance to yr kindly request, and my own ardent
inclination. And, now, I re-assume it, returning you my most hearty
thanks, for your civilities and favours of each kind.
“In a great measure, I ascribe to you, my Maecenas, that ye Revd.
Messrs. Inglis and Ogilvie, ye Professors of ye College, and a good
many of ye Learned, here, including, in a very particular manner, the
good-humourd, the sensible, the gay, ye witty, & polite, Sir Henry
Moore, have taken me into their patronage; Tho’ I’m sorry to say that
Genrl Gage paid so little regard to yr friendly letter in my behalf,
as not to order his Aid de Camp to introduce me when I called to wait
on him. Indeed he subscribed for two Setts of my Indian Essays and
History. And so do several other Gent on account of their reputed
merit; for ye Learned applaud ye performance. In short, Sir, I look
down, with a philosophic eye, on that, or any such, neglect as a most
imaginary trifle. Especially, if what I said to a curious &
inquisitive Son of Caledonia, concerning ye well-known mismanagement,
& ill situation, of our Indian affairs, westwardly, should have
occasioned it; For truth will prevail, when painted with its genuine
honest colours.
“In ye historical part, I shall put myself under yr most friendly
patronage, and yt of Sir Henry Moore, and do myself ye particular
favour of writing to each of you, from ye southward, before I sett off
to England, next summer. As His Excelly has not only induced ye Honble
members of His Majestys Council to give a sanction to my performance,
and engaged to perswade ye Commons House of Assembly to follow their
Copy; But, likewise to continue to take in subscriptions, till ye
Books are published, and remit me a Bill, on ye agent, at London, as
soon as he has heard, by ye public accounts, of their being in the
Press. I’m hopeful, you’ll be pleased to excuse my freedom of
infolding, in this, a New-York printed Proposal; and that yr patriotic
temper will incite You to shew it to such Lovers of letters, as
frequent your Hall, in order to gain, at least, nominal subscriptions,
and give a sanction to the Treatise in Europe. Likewise, yt when I do
myself ye honour of writing to you, again, you’ll be so kind as to
remit me their names, at London, according to request.
“I’ve room to be pretty certain, that four of yr learned friends here;
viz, the Revd Doctor Acmody, the Revd Doctor Cooper, and ye Revd
Messrs Inglis and Ogilvie, A.M. will, thro’ a true benevolence of
heart, recommend me to the notice of ye President of ye Society for
propogating ye Gospel, in order to obtain a missionary for our old
friendly Chickosahs; and likewise, their patronage in ye publication
of my Indian work. When you’re writing to my Lord Hillsborough, should
yr own public spirit induce you to recommend me to his patronage it
would prove a great advance towards obtaining satisfaction for what ye
Governmt is indebted me. That, & ye like, I leave yr own kindness of
heart, which always leads and directs you, in support of a generous
cause.
“Please to give my most hearty respects to yr cheerful and most
promising favourite son, Sir John, to ye gay, ye kindly, & ye witty
Coll Johnson, to his discreet and most amiable Lady, & their pretty
little Sheelah Grah, who is ye lovely and lively picture of them both.
To all yours, One by one; To Coll Class & his Lady; To ye Gent with
you, &c; and to accept ye same, from,
“Great Sir Yr very obliged & most Hble Servt
“JAMES ADAIR.”
Adair to Johnson, New York, April 30th, 1769:
“Great Sire, Tho’ I’m just on ye point of returning southwardly, by ye
way of Philadelphia; yet my gratitude & intense affection incite me to
send you these lines in return for yr kindness to me at yr hospitable
Hall; And for yr kindly patronage of my weak & honest productions, on
ye Origin of ye Indian Americans. All ranks of ye learned, here, have
subscribed to their being published in London, a half year, hence. And
ye two volumes, Octavo, wh they consist of, I do myself ye particular
honour, from an innate generous principle, to dedicate to you & Sir
Henry Moore; For tho’ he has not seen ye manuscripts, yet, on ye
strong recommendations of ye Learned, he has patronised me, both here,
and in ye Islands, and every where else, that his good nature &
philosophic temper you’d think of. My great Hybernian Maecenas, as
yo’ve approved of my Indian performance, from yr own knowledge and
accurate observations, I’m fully perswaded, that, upon my
sollicitation, you’ll take some convenient opportunity to recommend me
to ye notice of Lord Hillsborough, yr friends in Ireland, &c. For, you
know, I came from ye Southward, on purpose to apply to yr friendly
mediation, of which General Gage has taken notice, on the account, as
I’m informed by the Clergy, of certain (supposed) Stuart’s principles.
Opposition makes honest men, only, the more intent and ther’s a
certain time for every thing. As ye two letters I did myself ye
pleasure to write to you, from ys place, sufficiently indicate,
according to my opinion.
“Please to excuse ys hurry’d-off scroll and to give my sincere and
lasting respects to yr honb extensive family, one by one; and to
accept the same, from
“Great Sire yr obliged, & very devoted Hble Servt
“JAMES ADAIR.”
Johnson to Adair, May 10, 1769:
“Sir, I have received two of your Letters since your departure, a
third which you speak of, never came to hands, but from the others I
find with pleasure that you have met with the Countenance & patronage
of the Gentlemen you mention & I sincerely wish they may prove of
Service to you, tho’ I am concerned that you met with any neglect from
the quarter you speak of however I am hopefull that the protection you
have hitherto found will prove a good introduction to your Curious
performance, & that its publication will tend to your reputation &
Interest, to which I shall gladly Contribute as far as in me Lyes. I
am obliged to you for your Intentions respecting the Dedication, which
I should chuse to decline but that I would not disappoint your good
intentions, tho’ I would check the flowings of a friendly pen which
unrestrained might go farther than is consistent with my inclinations.
“I return you your printed proposals, Subscribed to by myself & family
with Two or Three others, which are as many as I have hitherto had an
opportunity of Laying them before, & the time you spent in these parts
has enabled you I presume to know enough of its Inhabitants not to be
Surprised that a Work of that Nature shod meet with such Small
encouragement. Sir John, Col. Johnson &c thank you kindly for the
manner in which you have remembered them, heartily wishing you
success, & be assured that I shall be glad to serve you in your
undertaking as well as to hear of your prosperity being Sir,
“Your real Well Wisher & very humble Servt
“WM. JOHNSON.”