nations I am acquainted with. It is surprising to hear the wily turns
they use, in persuading a person to grant them the favour they have in
view. Other nations generally behave with modesty and civility, without
ever lessening themselves by asking any mean favours. But the Choktah,
at every season, are on the begging lay. I several times told their
leading men, they were greater beggars, and of a much meaner spirit,
than the white-haired Chikkasah women, who often were real objects of
pity. I was once fully convinced that none was so fit to baffle them in
those low attempts without giving offence, as their own country-men.
One, in my presence, expatiated on his late disappointment and losses,
with the several unexpected causes, and pressingly sollicited his
auditor as a benevolent kinsman, to assist him in his distress: but the
other {304} kept his ear deaf to his importunity, and entirely evaded
the artful aim of the petitioner, by carrying on a discourse he had
begun, before his relation accosted him as a suppliant. Each alternately
began where they had left off, the one to inforce the compliance of his
prayer, and the other, like the deaf adder, to elude the power of its
charming him. Nature has in a very surprising manner, endued the Indian
Americans, with a strong comprehensive memory, and great flow of
language. I listened with close attention to their speeches, for a
considerable time; at last the petitioner despairing of impressing the
other with sentiments in his favour, was forced to drop his false and
tragical tale, and become seemingly, a patient hearer of the conclusion
of the other’s long narrative, which was given him with a great deal of
outward composure, and cool good-nature.
In the years 1746 and 1747, I was frequently perplexed by the Choktah
mendicants; which policy directed me to bear, and conceal as well as I
could, because I was then transacting public business with them. In
1747, one of their warriors and a Chokchooma came to me for presents;
which according to my usual custom in those times, I gave, though much
less than they presumed to expect. The former, strongly declaimed
against the penurious spirit of the French, and then highly applauded
the open generous tempers of the English traders: for a considerable
time, he contrasted them with each other, not forgetting, in every point
of comparison, to give us the preference in a high degree. He was endued
with so much eloquence and skill as to move the passions, and obtain his
point. A considerable number of Chikkasah warriors who were present,
told me soon after, that his skilful method of addressing me for a
bottle of spirituous liquors, seemed to them astonishing: an old beloved
man replied, that the worst sort of snakes were endued with the greatest
skill to insnare and suck their prey, whereas, the harmless have no such
power.
The Indians in general do not chuse to drink any spirits, unless they
can quite intoxicate themselves. When in that helpless and sordid
condition, weeping and asking for more _ookka hoome_, “bitter waters,” I
saw one of the drunkard’s relations, who some time before had taken a
like dose, hold the rum-bottle to the other’s head, saying, when he had
drank deep, “Hah, you were very poor for drinking.” Though I appealed to
all the Chikkasah warriors present, that rum never stood on hand with
me, when the {305} people were at home, and several time affirmed to the
importunate Choktah, that it was entirely expended; yet my denial served
only to make him more earnest: upon this, I told him, that though I had
no _ookka hoome_, I had a full bottle of the water of _ane hoome_,
“bitter ears,” meaning long pepper, of which he was ignorant, as he had
seen none of that kind. We were of opinion that his eager thirst for
liquor, as well as his ignorance of the burning quality of the pepper,
and the resemblance of the words, which signify things of a hot, though
different nature, would induce the bacchanal to try it. He accordingly
applauded my generous disposition, and said, “his heart had all the
while told him I would not act beneath the character I bore among his
country-people.” The bottle was brought: I laid it on the table, and
told him, as he was then spitting very much, (a general custom with the
Indians, when they are eager for any thing) “if I drank it all at one
sitting, it would cause me to spit in earnest, as I used it, only when I
ate, and then very moderately; but though I loved it, if his heart was
very poor for it, I should be silent, and not in the least grudge him
for pleasing his mouth.” He said, “your heart is honest indeed; I thank
you, for it is good to my heart, and makes it greatly to rejoice.”
Without any farther ceremony, he seized the bottle, uncorked it, and
swallowed a large quantity of the burning liquid, till he was near
strangled. He gasped for a considerable time, and as soon as he
recovered his breath, he said _Hah_, and soon after kept stroaking his
throat with his right hand. When the violence of this burning draught
was pretty well over, he began to flourish away, in praise of the
strength of the liquor, and bounty of the giver. He then went to his
companion, and held the bottle to his mouth, according to custom, till
he took several hearty swallows. This Indian seemed rather more sensible
of its fiery quality, than the other, for it suffocated him for a
considerable time; but as soon as he recovered his breath, he tumbled
about on the floor in various postures like a drunken person, overcome
by the force of liquor. In this manner, each of them renewed their
draught, till they had finished the whole bottle, into which two others
had been decanted. The Chikkasah spectators were surprised at their
tasteless and voracious appetite, and laughed heartily at them,
mimicking the actions, language, and gesture of drunken savages. The
burning liquor so highly inflamed their bodies that one of the Choktah
to cool his inward parts, drank water till he almost burst: the other
rather than bear the ridicule of the people, and the inward fire that
{306} distracted him, drowned himself the second night after in a broad
and shallow clay hole, contiguous to the dwelling house of his uncle,
who was the Chikkasah Archimagus.
There was an incident, something similar, which happened in the year
1736, in _Kanootare_, the most northern town of the Cheerake. When all
the liquor was expended, the Indians went home, leading with them at my
request, those who were drunk. One, however, soon came back, and
earnestly importuned me for more _Nawohti_, which signifies both physic
and spirituous liquors. They, as they are now become great liars,
suspect all others of being infected with their own disposition and
principles. The more I excused myself, the more anxious he grew, so as
to become offensive. I then told him, I had only one quarter of a bottle
of strong physic, which sick people might drink in small quantities, for
the cure of inward pains: and laying it down before him, I declared I
did not on any account choose to part with it, but as his speech of few
words, had become very long and troublesome, he might do just as his
heart directed him concerning it. He took it up, saying his heart was
very poor for physic, but that would cure it, and make it quite
streight. The bottle contained almost three gills of strong spirits of
turpentine, which in a short time, he drank off. Such a quantity of the
like physic would have demolished me, or any white person. The Indians
in general, are either capable of suffering exquisite pain longer than
we are, or of shewing more constancy and composure in their torments.
The troublesome visitor soon tumbled down and foamed prodigiously.—I
then sent for some of his relations to carry him home. They came—I told
them he drank greedily, and too much of the physic. They said, it was
his usual custom, when the red people bought the English physic. They
gave him a decoction of proper herbs and roots, the next day sweated
him, repeated the former draught, and he soon got well. As those
turpentine spirits did not inebriate him, but only inflamed his
intestines, he well remembered the burning quality of my favourite
physic, which he had so indiscreetly drank up, and cautioned the rest
from ever teizing me for any physic I had concealed, in any sort of
bottles, for my own use; otherwise they might be sure it would spoil
them, like the eating of fire.
The Choktah are in general more slender than any other nation of savages
I have seen. They are raw-boned, and surprisingly active in
ball-playing; {307} which is a very sharp exercise, and requires great
strength and exertion. In this manly exercise, no persons are known to
be equal to them, or in running on level ground, to which they are
chiefly used from their infancy, on account of the situation of their
country, which hath plenty of hills, but no mountains; these lie at a
considerable distance between them and the Muskohge. On the survey of a
prodigious space of fertile land up the Missisippi, and its numberless
fine branches, we found the mountains full three hundred miles from that
great winding mass of waters.
Though the lands of West-Florida, for a considerable distance from the
sea-shore, are very low, sour, wet, and unhealthy, yet it abounds with
valuable timber for ship-building, which could not well be expended in
the long space of many centuries. This is a very material article to so
great a maritime power, as Great Britain, especially as it can be got
with little expence and trouble. The French were said to deal pretty
much that way; and the Spaniards, it is likely, will now resume it, as
the bounty of our late ministry has allowed the French to transfer
New-Orleans to them, and by that means they are able to disturb the
British colonies at pleasure. It cannot fail of proving a constant bone
of contention: a few troops could soon have taken it during the late
war, for it was incapable of making any considerable resistance; and
even French effrontery could not have presumed to withhold the giving it
up, if the makers of our last memorable peace had not been so extremely
modest, or liberal to them. If it be allowed that the first discoverers
and possessors of a foreign waste country, have a just title to it, the
French by giving up New Orleans to Great Britain, would have only ceded
to her, possessions, which they had no right to keep; for Col. Wood[169]
was the first discoverer of the Missisippi, who stands on public record,
and the chief part of ten years he employed in searching its course.
This spirited attempt he began in the year 1654, and ended 1664. Capt.
Bolton made the like attempt, in the year 1670. Doctor Cox[170] of New
Jersey sent two ships Anno 1698, which discovered the mouth of it; and
having failed a hundred miles up, he took possession of the whole
country, and called it Carolana: whereas the French did not discover it
till the year 1699,[171] when they gave it the name of Colbert’s-river,
in honour of their favourite minister, and the whole country they called
Loisinana, which may soon be exchanged for Philippiana—till the
Americans give it another and more desirable name. {308}
The Choktah being employed by the French, together with their other red
confederates, against the English Chikkasah, they had no opportunity of
inuring themselves to the long-winded chace, among a great chain of
steep craggy mountains. They are amazingly artful however in deceiving
an enemy; they will fasten the paws and trotters of panthers, bears, and
buffalos, to their feet and hands, and wind about like the circlings of
such animals, in the lands they usually frequent. They also will mimick
the different notes of wild fowl, and thus often outwit the savages they
have disputes with. Their enemies say, that when at war, it is
impossible to discover their track, unless they should be so lucky as to
see their persons. They act very timorously against the enemy abroad,
but behave as desperate veterans when attacked in their own country.
’Till they were supplied by the English traders with arms and
ammunition, they had very little skill in killing deer; but they improve
very fast in that favourite art: no savages are equal to them in killing
bears, panthers, wild cats, &c. that resort in thick cane-swamps; which
swamps are sometimes two or three miles over, and an hundred in length,
without any break either side of the stream.
About Christmas, the he and she bears always separate. The former
usually snaps off a great many branches of trees, with which he makes
the bottom of his winter’s bed, and carefully raises it to a proper
height, with the green tops of large canes; he chooses such solitary
thickets as are impenetrable by the sunbeams. The she bear takes an old
large hollow tree for her yeaning winter-house, and chuses to have the
door above, to enable her to secure her young ones from danger. When any
thing disturbs them, they gallop up a tree, champing their teeth, and
bristling their hair, in a frightful manner: and when they are wounded,
it is surprising from what a height they will pitch on the ground, with
their weighty bodies, and how soon they get up, and run off. When they
take up their winter-quarters, they continue the greater part of two
months, in almost an entire state of inactivity: during that time, their
tracks reach no farther than to the next water, of which they seldom
drink, as they frequently suck their paws in their lonely recess, and
impoverish their bodies, to nourish them. While they are employed in
that surprising task of nature, they cannot contain themselves in
silence, but are so well pleased with their repast, that they continue
singing _hum um um_: as their pipes are none of the weakest, the Indians
by this {309} means often are led to them from a considerable distance,
and then shoot them down. But they are forced to cut a hole near the
root of the tree, wherein the she bear and her cubs are lodged, and
drive them out by the force of fire and suffocating smoke; and as the
tree is partly rotten, and the inside dry, it soon takes fire. In this
case, they become very fierce, and would fight any kind of enemy; but,
commonly, at the first shot, they are either killed or mortally wounded.
However, if the hunter chance to miss his aim, he speedily makes off to
a sappling, which the bear by over-clasping cannot climb: the crafty
hunting dogs then act their part, by biting behind, and gnawing its
hams, till it takes up a tree. I have been often assured both by Indians
and others, who get their bread by hunting in the woods, that the
she-bear always endeavours to keep apart from the male during the
helpless state of her young ones; otherwise he would endeavour to kill
them; and that they had frequently seen the she bear kill the male on
the spot, after a desperate engagement for the defence of her young
ones. Of the great numbers I have seen with their young cubs, I never
saw a he bear at such times, to associate with them: so that it seems
one part of the Roman Satyrist’s fine moral lesson, inculcating peace
and friendship, is not just, _Scœvis inter se convenit Ursis_.
At the time Mobille (that grave-yard for Britons) was ceded to
Great-Britain, the lower towns of the Choktah brought down all the
Chikkasah scalps they had taken, in their thievish way of warring, and
had them new painted, and carried them in procession on green boughs of
pine, by way of bravado, to shew their contempt of the English. They
would not speak a word to the Chikkasah traders, and they sollicited the
French for their consent to re-commence war against us, and establish
them again by force of arms, in their western possessions; but they told
them, their king had firmly concluded upon the cession, through his own
benevolence of heart, to prevent the further effusion of innocent
blood.—By this artful address, they supported their credit with the
savages, in the very point which ought to have ruined it.
When the Choktah found themselves dipped in war with the Muskohge; they
sollicited the English for a supply of ammunition, urging with much
truth, that common sense ought to direct us to assist them, and deem the
others our enemies as much as theirs. But Tumbikpe-garrison was
evacuated through the unmanly fear of giving umbrage to the Muskohge,
{310} at the very time it would have been of the utmost service to the
general interest of our colonies to have continued it.
The commander concealed his timorous and precipitate retreat,[172] even
from me and another old trader, till the very night he confusedly set
off for Mobille by water, and left to us the trouble of apologizing to
the savages for his misconduct. But after he got to a place of safety,
he flourished away of his wisdom and prowess. As a just stigma on those
who abuse their public trust, I cannot help observing, that in imitation
of some other rulers, he persuaded the Indians not to pay us any of our
numerous out-standing debts, though contrary to what was specified in
our trading licences. They have not courage enough to venture their own
valuable lives to those red marts of trade; if they had, they would
persuade the Indians rather to pay their debts honestly, year by year,
as we trust them in their want, and depend on their promise and
fidelity. The gentlemen, who formerly traded with the Muskohge, told me
that the Georgia-governor, through a like generous principle, forgave
that nation once all the numerous debts they owed the traders. But as
soon as the Indians understood they would not be credited again, under
any circumstances whatsoever, they consented to pay their debts, and
declared the Governor to be a great mad-man, by pretending to forgive
debts contracted for valuable goods, which he never purchased, nor
intended to pay for.
Though the French Louisianians were few, and far dispersed, as well as
surrounded by the savages, yet close application and abilities in their
various appointments, sufficiently made up their lack of numbers. When,
and where, their security seemed to require it, they with a great deal
of art fomented divisions among their turbulent red neighbours, and
endeavoured to keep the balance of power pretty even between them.
Though they had only one garrison in the country of the Muskohge, and
another in that of the Choktah, yet the commanders of those two posts,
managed so well, that they intimidated those two potent nations, by
raising misunderstandings between them, and threatening (when occasion
required) to set the one against the other, with their red legions of
the north, unless ample satisfaction was speedily given by the offending
party, and solemn promises of a strict observance of true friendship for
the time to come. How far our super-intendants, and commissioners of
Indian affairs, have imitated that wise {311} copy, our traders can
feelingly describe: and it will be a happiness, if our three western
colonies have not the like experience, in the space of a few years. We
assure them, that either the plan, or the means, for producing such an
effect, has been pretty well concerted by the authors of that dangerous
and fatal peace between the Muskohge and Choktah. Their own party indeed
will greatly applaud it, and so will the much obliged Spaniards,
especially if they soon enter into a war with Great Britain. It is to be
wished, that those who preach peace and good-will to all the savage
murderers of the British Americans, would do the same as to their
American fellow-subjects,—and not, as some have lately done, cry peace
to the Indians, and seek to plunge the mercenary swords of soldiers into
the breasts of those of our loyal colonists, who are the most powerful
of us, because they oppose the measures of an arbitrary ministry, and
will not be enslaved.
In the year 1766, the Choktah received a considerable blow from the
Muskohge. Their old distinguished war-leader, before spoken of, _Minggo
Humma Echéto_, set off against the Muskohge, with an hundred and sixty
warriors, to cut off by surprise one of their barrier towns: as the
waters were low, a couple of runners brought him a message from the
nation, acquainting him there were two white men on their way to the
Muskohge, and therefore desired him to send them back, lest they should
inform them of the expedition, and by that means, endanger the lives of
the whole. But though he treated these traders kindly at his war camp,
and did not shew the least diffidence of them respecting their secrecy;
and sent this account back by the running messengers to his advisers,
that the English were his friends, and could not be reasonably suspected
of betraying them, if it were only on the situation of their own trading
business, which frequently called them to various places,—yet those
base-minded and perfidious men violated the generous faith reposed in
them, and betrayed the lives of their credulous friends. They set off
with long marches, and as soon as they arrived in the country of the
Muskohge, minutely informed them of the Choktah’s hostile intentions,
and number, and the probable place of attacking the aforesaid camp, to
the best advantage. The news was joyfully received, and, as they had
reason to believe they could surprise the enemy, or take them at a
disadvantage, in some convenient {312} place near their own barriers, a
number of chosen warriors well prepared, set off in order to save their
former credit, by revenging the repeated affronts the Choktah leader had
given them in every engagement. He, in the most insulting manner, had
often challenged their whole nation to meet him and his at any fixt time
of a moon, and place, and fight it out, when the conquerors should be
masters of the conquered—for the Muskohge used to ridicule the Choktah
by saying, they were like wolf-cubs, who would not take the water, but
the thick swamp, as their only place of security against the enemy. It
must here be remembered, that the Indians in general, are guided by
their dreams when they attend their holy ark to war, reckoning them so
many oracles, or divine intimations, designed for their good: by virtue
of those supposed, sacred dictates, they will sometimes return home, by
one, two, or three at a time, without the least censure, and even with
applause, for this their religious conduct. Thus, one hundred and twenty
of these Choktah, after having intimidated themselves apart from the
rest, with visionary notions, left the war-camp and returned home. Our
gallant friend, _Minggo Humma Echeto_, addressed his townsmen on this,
and persuaded them to follow him against the enemy, saying, it was the
part of brave warriors to keep awake, and not dream like old women. He
told them their national credit was at stake for their warlike conduct
under him; and that honour prompted him to proceed against the hateful
enemy, even by himself, though he was certain his townsmen and warlike
relations would not forsake him. Forty of them proceeded, and next day
they were surrounded by an hundred and sixty of the Muskohge, several of
whom were on horseback to prevent their escape. When the Choktah saw
their dangerous situation, and that they had no alternative but a
sudden, or lingering death, they fought as became desperate men,
deprived of hope. While their arrows and ammunition lasted, they killed
and wounded a considerable number of the opposite party: but the enemy
observing their distressed situation, drew up into a narrow circle, and
rushed upon the remaining and helpless few, with their guns, darts,
clubs, and tomohawks, and killed thirty-eight. They were not able to
captivate but two, whom they destined for the fiery torture: but at
night, when the camp was asleep in too great security, one of them
fortunately made his escape out of a pair of wooden stocks. They had
flattered him with the hopes of being redeemed; but he told them he was
{313} too much of a warrior to confide in their false promises. He got
safe home, and related the whole affair.