Georgia, East and West-Florida, and the Choktah and Chikkasah nations,
the one 200, and the other 300 miles up the Missisippi. It extends 180
computed miles, from north to south. It is called the Creek
country,[146] on account of the great number of Creeks, or small bays,
rivulets and swamps, it abounds with. This nation is generally computed
to consist of about 3500 men fit to bear arms; and has fifty towns, or
villages. The principal are _Ok-whûs-ke_, _Ok-chai_, _Tuk-ke-bat-che_,
_Tal-lâ-se_, _Kow-hé-tah_, and _Cha-hâh_. The nation consists of a
mixture of several broken tribes, whom the Muskohge artfully decoyed to
incorporate with them, in order to strengthen themselves against hostile
attempts. Their former national names were _Ta-mé-tah_, _Tae-keo-ge_,
_Ok-chai_, _Pak-ká-na_, _Wee-tam-ka_; with them is also one town of the
_Sha-wa-no_, and one of the _Nah-chee_ Indians; likewise two great towns
of the _Koo-a-sâh-te_. The upper part of the Muskohge country is very
hilly—the middle less so—the lower towns, level: These are settled by
the remains of the _Oosécha_, _Okone_, and _Sawakola_ nations. Most of
their towns are very commodiously and pleasantly situated, on large,
beautiful creeks, or rivers, where the lands are fertile, the water
clear and well tasted, and the air extremely pure. As the streams have a
quick descent, the climate is of a most happy temperature, free from
disagreeable heat or cold, unless for the space of a few days, in summer
and winter, according to all our American climes. In their country are
four bold rivers, which spring from the Apalahche mountains, and
interlock with the eastern branches of the Missisippi. The Koosah river
is the western boundary of their towns: It is 200 yards broad, and runs
by the late Alebahma, to {257} Mobille, eastward. Okwhuske lies 70 miles
from the former, which taking a considerable southern sweep, runs a
western course, and joins the aforesaid great stream, a little below
that deserted garrison; since the year 1764, the Muskohge have settled
several towns, seventy miles eastward from Okwhuske, on the Chatahooche
river, near to the old trading path. This great lympid stream is 200
yards broad, and lower down, it passes by the Apalahche, into Florida;
so that this nation extends 140 miles in breadth from east to west,
according to the course of the trading path.
Their land is generally hilly, but not mountainous; which allows an army
an easy passage into their country, to retaliate their insults and
cruelties—that period seems to advance apace; for the fine flourishing
accounts of those who gain by the art, will not always quiet a suffering
people. As the Muskohge judge only from what they see around them, they
firmly believe they are now more powerful than any nation that might be
tempted to invade them. Our passive conduct toward them, causes them to
entertain a very mean opinion of our martial abilities: but, before we
tamely allowed them to commit acts of hostility, at pleasure, (which
will soon be mentioned) the traders taught them sometimes by strong felt
lessons, to conclude the English to be men and warriors. They are
certainly the most powerful Indian nation we are acquainted with on this
continent, and within thirty years past, they are grown very warlike.
Toward the conclusion of their last war with the Cheerake, they defeated
them so easily, that in contempt, they sent several of their women and
small boys against them, though, at that time, the Cheerake were, the
most numerous. The Choktah were also much inferior to them, in several
engagements they had with them; though, perhaps, they are the most
artful ambuscaders, and wolfish savages, in America.—But, having no
rivers in their own country, very few of them can swim, which often
proves inconvenient and dangerous, when they are in pursuit of the
enemy, or pursued by them. We should be politically sorry for their
differences with each other to be reconciled, as long experience
convinces us they cannot live without shedding human blood somewhere or
other, on account of their jealous and fierce tempers, in resentment of
any kind of injury, and the martial preferment each obtains for every
scalp of an enemy. They are so extremely anxious to be distinguished by
high war-titles, that sometimes a small party of warriors, on failing of
success in their campaign, have been detected in murdering {258} some of
their own people, for the sake of their scalps. We cannot expect that
they will observe better faith towards us—therefore common sense and
self-love ought to direct us to chuse the least of two unavoidable
evils; ever to keep the wolf from our own doors, by engaging him with
his wolfish neighbours: at least, the officious hand of folly should not
part them, when they are earnestly engaged in their favourite element
against each other.[147]
All the other Indian nations we have any acquaintance with, are visibly
and fast declining, on account of their continual merciless wars, the
immoderate use of spirituous liquors, and the infectious ravaging nature
of the small pox: but the Muskohge have few enemies, and the traders
with them have taught them to prevent the last contagion from spreading
among their towns, by cutting off all communication with those who are
infected, till the danger is over. Besides, as the men rarely go to war
till they have helped the women to plant a sufficient plenty of
provisions, contrary to the usual method of warring savages, it is so
great a help to propagation, that by this means also, and their artful
policy of inviting decayed tribes to incorporate with them, I am assured
by a gentleman of distinguished character,[148] who speaks their
language as well as their best orators, they have increased double in
number within the space of thirty years past, notwithstanding their
widows are confined to a strict state of celibacy, for the full space of
four years after the death of their husbands. When we consider that two
or three will go several hundred miles, to way-lay an enemy—the
contiguous situation of such a prodigious number of corrupt, haughty,
and mischievous savages to our valuable colonies, ought to draw our
attention upon them. Those of us who have gained a sufficient knowledge
of Indian affairs, by long experience and observation, are firmly
persuaded that the seeds of war are deeply implanted in their hearts
against us; and that the allowing them, in our usual tame manner, to
insult, plunder, and murder peaceable British subjects, only tempts them
to engage deeper in their diabolical scenes of blood, till they commence
a dangerous open war against us: the only probable means to preserve
peace, is either to set them and their rivals on one another, or by
prudent management, influence them to employ themselves in raising silk,
or any other staple commodity that would best suit their own temper and
climate. Prudence points out this, but the task is too arduous for
strangers ever to be able to effect, or they care not about it. {259}
Before the late cession of East and West Florida to Great Britain, the
country of the Muskohge lay between the territories of the English,
Spaniards, French, Choktah, Chikkasah, and Cheerake.—And as they had a
water carriage, from the two Floridas; to secure their liberties, and a
great trade by land from Georgia and South-Carolina, this nation
regulated the Indian balance of power in our southern parts of
North-America; for the French could have thrown the mercenary Choktah,
and the Missisippi savages, into the scale, whenever their interest
seemed to require it. The Muskohge having three rival Christian powers
their near neighbours, and a French garrison on the southern extremity
of the central part of their country ever since the war of the year
1715; the old men, being long informed by the opposite parties, of the
different views, and intrigues of those European powers, who paid them
annual tribute under the vague appellation of presents, were become
surprisingly crafty in every turn of low politics. They held it as an
invariable maxim, that their security and welfare required a perpetual
friendly intercourse with us and the French; as our political state of
war with each other, would always secure their liberties: whereas, if
they joined either party, and enabled it to prevail over the other,
their state, they said, would then become as unhappy as that of a poor
fellow, who had only one perverse wife, and yet must bear with her
froward temper; but a variety of choice would have kept off such an
afflicting evil, either by his giving her a silent caution against
behaving ill, or by enabling him to go to another, who was in a better
temper. But as the French Alebahma Garrison[149] had been long directed
by skilful officers, and supplied pretty well with corrupting brandy,
taffy, and decoying trifles at the expence of government, they
industriously applied their mischievous talents in impressing many of
the former simple and peaceable natives with false notions of the ill
intentions of our colonies. In each of their towns, the French gave a
considerable pension to an eloquent head-man, to corrupt the Indians by
plausible pretexts, and inflame them against us; who informed them also
of every material occurrence, in each of their respective circles. The
force of liquors made them so faithful to their trust, that they
poisoned the innocence of their own growing families, by tempting them,
from their infancy, to receive the worst impressions of the British
colonists: and as they very seldom got the better of those prejudices,
they alienated the affections of their offspring, and riveted their
bitter enmity against us. That conduct of the Christian French has fixed
many of the Muskohge {260} in a strong native hatred to the British
Americans, which being hereditary, must of course increase, as fast as
they increase in numbers; unless we give them such a severe lesson, as
their annual hostile conduct to us, has highly deserved since the year
1760. I shall now speak more explicitly on this very material point.
By our superintendant’s strange pursuit of improper measures to appease
the Muskohge, as before noticed, the watchful French engaged the
irritated Great Mortar to inspire his relations to cut off some of our
traders by surprise, and follow the blow at the time the people were
usually employed in the corn-fields, lest our party should stop them, in
their intended bloody career. They accordingly began their hostile
attack in the upper town of the nation, except one, where their
mischievous red abettor lived: two white people and a negroe were
killed, while they were in the horsepen, preparing that day to have set
off with their returns to the English settlements. The trader, who was
surly and ill-natured, they chopped to pieces, in a most horrid manner,
but the other two they did not treat with any kind of barbarity; which
shews that the worst people, in their worst actions, make a distinction
between the morally virtuous, and vicious. The other white people of
that trading house, happily were at that time in the woods;—they heard
the savage platoon, and the death, and war-whoop, which sufficiently
warned them of their imminent danger, and to seek their safety by the
best means they could. Some of them went through the woods after night,
to our friend towns; and one who happened to be near the town when the
alarm was given, going to bring in a horse, was obliged to hide himself
under a large fallen tree, till night came on. The eager savages came
twice, pretty near him, imagining he would chuse rather to depend on the
horse’s speed, than his own: when the town was engaged in dividing the
spoils, his wife fearing she might be watched, took a considerable sweep
round, through the thickets, and by searching the place, and making
signals, where she expected he lay concealed, fortunately found him, and
gave him provisions to enable him to get to our settlements, and then
returned home in tears: he arrived safe at Augusta, though exceedingly
torn with the brambles, as his safety required him to travel through
unfrequented tracts. In the mean while, the savages having by this
inflamed their greedy thirst for blood, set off swiftly, and as they
darted {261} along sounding the news of war, they from a few, increased
so fast, that their voices conveyed such thrilling shocks to those they
were in quest of, as if the infernal legions had broken loose through
their favourite Alebahma, and were invested with power to destroy the
innocent. The great Okwhusketown, where they reached, lay on the western
side of the large easternmost branch of Mobille river, which joins a far
greater western river, almost two miles below the late Alebahma; and the
English traders store-houses lay opposite to the town. Those red
ambassadors of the French, artfully passed the river above the town, and
ran along silently to a gentleman’s dwelling house, where they first
shot down one of his servants, and in a minute or two after, himself:
probably, he might have been saved, if he had not been too desperate;
for a strong-bodied leading warrior of the town was at his house when
they came to it, who grasped him behind, with his face toward the wall,
on purpose to save him from being shot; as they durst not kill himself,
under the certain pain of death. But very unluckily, the gentleman
struggled, got hold of him, threw him to the ground, and so became too
fair a mark.—Thus the Frenchified savages cut off, in the bloom of his
youth, the son of J. R. Esq;[150] Indian trading merchant of Augusta,
who was the most stately, comely, and gallant youth, that ever traded in
the Muskohge country, and equally blest with every social virtue, that
attracts esteem. The very savages lament his death to this day, though
it was usual with him to correct as many of the swaggering heroes, as
could stand round him in his house, when they became impudent and
mischievous, through the plea of drinking spirituous liquors: when they
recover from their bacchanal phrenzy, they regard a man of a martial
spirit, and contemn the pusillanimous.
While the town was in the utmost surprise, the ambitious warriors were
joyfully echoing—“all is spoiled;” and sounding the death-whoop, they,
like so many infernal furies commissioned to destroy, set off at full
speed, dispersing their bloody legions to various towns, to carry
general destruction along with them. But before any of their companies
reached to the Okchai war-town, (the native place of the Great Mortar)
the inhabitants had heard the massacre was begun, and according to their
rule, killed two of our traders in their house, when quite off their
guard: as these traders were brave, and regardless of danger by their
habit of living, the savages were afraid to bring their arms with them,
it being unusual, {262} by reason of the secure situation of the town. A
few therefore entered the house, with a specious pretence, and
intercepted them from the fire-arms, which lay on a rack, on the front
of the chimney; they instantly seized them, and as they were loaded with
large shot, they killed those two valuable and intrepid men, and left
them on the fire—but if they had been a few minutes fore-warned of the
danger, their lives would have cost the whole town very dear, unless
they had kindled the house with fire-arrows.
Like pestilential vapours driven by whirlwinds, the mischievous savages
endeavoured to bring desolation on the innocent objects of their fury,
wherever they came: but the different flights of the trading people, as
well as their own expertness in the woods, and their connections with
the Indians, both by marriage and other ties of friendship, disappointed
the accomplishment of the main point of the French diabolical scheme of
dipping them all over in blood. By sundry means, a considerable number
of our people met at the friendly house of the old Wolf-King, two miles
from the Alebahma Fort, where that faithful stern chieftain treated them
with the greatest kindness. But, as the whole nation was distracted, and
the neighbouring towns were devoted to the French interest, he found
that by having no fortress, and only forty warriors in his town, he was
unable to protect the refugees. In order therefore to keep good faith
with his friends, who put themselves under his protection, he told them
their situation, supplied those of them with arms and ammunition who
chanced to have none, and conveyed them into a contiguous thick swamp,
as their only place of security for that time; “which their own valour,
he said, he was sure would maintain, both against the French, and their
mad friends.” He was not mistaken in his favourable opinion of their war
abilities, for they ranged themselves so well, that the enemy found it
impracticable to attack them, without sustaining far greater loss than
they are known to hazard.—He supplied them with necessaries, and sent
them safe at length to a friendly town, at a considerable distance,
where they joined several other traders, from different places, and were
soon after safely escorted to Savanah.
It is surprising how those hardy men evaded the dangers they were
surrounded with, especially at the beginning, and with so little loss.
One of {263} them told me, that while a party of the savages were on a
corn-house scaffold, painting themselves red and black, to give the
cowardly blow to him and his companion, an old woman overheard them
concerting their bloody design, and speedily informed him of the
threatening danger: he mentioned the intended place of meeting to his
friends, and they immediately set off, one this way, and another that,
to prevent a pursuit, and all met safe, to the great regret of the
Christian French and their red hirelings. I was informed that another
considerable trader, who lived near a river, on the outside of a town,
where he stood secure in the affection of his savage brethren, received
a visit from two lusty ill-looking strangers, without being discovered
by any of the inhabitants. They were anointed with bear’s oil, and quite
naked, except a narrow slip of cloth for breeches, and a light blanket.
When they came in, they looked around, wild and confused, not knowing
how to execute the French commission, consistently with their own
safety, as they brought no arms, lest it should have discovered their
intentions, and by that means exposed them to danger. But they seated
themselves near the door, both to prevent his escape, and watch a
favourable opportunity to perpetrate their murdering scheme. His white
domestics were a little before gone into the woods; and he and his
Indian wife were in the storehouse, where there chanced to be no arms of
defence, which made his escape the more hazardous. He was nearly in the
same light dress, as that of his visitants, according to the mode of
their domestic living: he was about to give them some tobacco, when
their countenances growing more gloomy and fierce, were observed by his
wife, as well as the mischievous direction of their eyes; presently
therefore as they bounded up, the one to lay hold of the white man, and
the other of an ax that lay on the floor, she seized it at the same
instant, and cried, “husband fight strong, and run off, as becomes a
good warrior.” The savage strove to lay hold of him, till the other
could disengage himself from the sharp struggle the woman held with him;
but by a quick presence of mind, the husband decoyed his pursuer round a
large ladder that joined the loft, and being strong and swift-footed, he
there took the advantage of his too eager adversary, dashed him to the
ground, and ran out of the house, full speed to the river, bounded into
it, soon made the opposite shore, and left them at the store-house, from
whence the woman, as a trusty friend, drove them off, with the utmost
despight,—her family was her {264} protection. The remaining part of
that day, he ran a great distance through the woods; called at night on
such white people, as he imagined his safety allowed him, was joined by
four of them, and went together to Pensacola. Within three or four days
march of that place, the lands, they told me, were in general, either
boggy and low, or consisting of sandy pine-barrens. Although they were
almost naked, and had lived for many days on the produce of the woods,
yet the dastardly Spaniards were so hardened against the tender feelings
of nature in favour of the distressed, who now took sanctuary under the
Spanish flag, as to refuse them every kind of assistance; contrary to
the hospitable custom of the red savages, even towards those they devote
to the fire. A north-country skipper, who rode in the harbour, was
equally divested of the bowels of compassion toward them,
notwithstanding their pressing entreaties, and offers of bills on very
respectable persons in Charles-Town. But the commandant of the place
soon instructed him very feelingly in the common laws of humanity; for
on some pretext, he seized the vessel and cargo, and left the
narrow-hearted miser to shift for himself, and return home as he could:
those unfortunate traders were kindly treated however by the head-man of
an adjacent town of the Apalahche Indians, who being a considerable
dealer, supplied them with every thing they stood in need of, till, in
time, they were recalled; for which they soon very thankfully paid him
and the rest of his kind family, with handsome presents, as a token of
their friendship and gratitude.
In the mean while, some of the eloquent old traders continued in their
towns, where the red flag of defiance was hung up day and night, as the
French had no interest there: and, in a few other towns, some of our
thoughtless young men, who were too much attached to the Indian life,
from an early pursuit in that wild and unlimited country, chose to run
any risk, rather than leave their favourite scenes of pleasure. In the
day-time, they kept in the most unfrequented places, and usually
returned at night to their friend’s house: and they followed that
dangerous method of living a considerable time, in different places,
without any mischance. One of them told me, that one evening, when he
was returning to his wife’s house on horse-back, before the usual time,
he was overtaken by a couple of young warriors, who pranced up along
aside of him. They spoke very kindly according to their custom, that
they might shed blood, like wolves, without hazarding their own
carcases. As neither of them had any weapons, except a long knife round
their neck in a sheath, they were afraid to attack him, on {265} so
hazardous a lay. Their questions, cant language, and discomposed
countenances, informed him of their bloody intentions, and cautioned him
from falling into any of their wily stratagems, which all cowards are
dextrous in forming. When they came to a boggy cane-branch, they strove
to persuade him to alight, and rest a little, but finding their labour
in vain, they got down: one prepared a club to kill him, and the other a
small frame of split canes tied together with bark, to bear his
scalp—seeing this, he set off with the bravado whoop, through the high
lands, and as he rode a swift horse, he left them out of sight in an
instant. He took a great sweep round, to avoid an after-chase. At night,
he went to the town, got fire-arms, and provisions, and soon arrived
safe in Georgia.