attacks; and, in 1750, Governor James Glen threatened to offer a
reward for the killing of any Northern Indian in the limits of South
Carolina. The next year peace between the two nations was effected at
the Albany Conference.
Footnote 109:
Lawson in 1701: They were “a very large nation, containing many
thousand people.” _History of North Carolina_ (1903 ed.) p. 20.
Footnote 110:
The name as given by Gallatin (_Archaeologia Americana_, II, 90) is,
properly, Tsalakies. Mooney goes more into detail: “In the Lower
dialect, with which the English settlers first became familiar, the
form is Tsa-ragi. In the other dialects the form is Tsa-lagi.”
_Myths_, 182; with Gatschet in accord, _Migration Legend_, 24. De Soto
chroniclers wrote it: Chalaque. The present standard form, Cherokee,
dates back at least to 1708. Mooney says (_Myths_, 15) that the name
by which the Cherokees call themselves is Yunwiya, signifying “real or
principal people”; and that on ceremonial occasions they frequently
speak of themselves as the Kituhwagi (or Cuttawa). The Tennessee River
was in very early times called the Cussate (Moll Map, 1715).
Footnote 111:
Mooney says seemingly refers to the fact that the tribe occupied a
cave country; followed by Hodge, _Handbook_, I, 245, “cave people.”
But Starr, the Cherokee historian, agrees with Adair: A-che (fire)
ahgi (he takes). _Early History_, 7.
Footnote 112:
Gatschet: Otari (above) Erati (low). Mooney, Otari or Atari
(mountain).
Footnote 113:
Among the traders in 1730-35 were: Anthony Deane, said to have been a
learned man, Cornelius Dougherty, Eleazar Wiggan, Alexander Long,
Ludovick Grant, a man of intelligence and influence, David Dowie,
Joseph Cooper and Gregory Haines.
Footnote 114:
In 1715 Col. Chicken was assured that the Valley Towns alone had by
count 2,370 fighting men, one-half the number equipped with guns.
Footnote 115:
Of 1760-61.
Footnote 116:
Compare the accordant account of DeBrahm in Williams, _Early Travels
in the Tennessee Country_, 193; also 477.
Footnote 117:
Flowing towards territory claimed by the French. Thus, it seems, came
also the name of French Broad River, in Western North Carolina and
East Tennessee.
Footnote 118:
Also the Catawbas in the same and in the following year. On small-pox:
Du Prazt, _History_, 305; Hamilton, _Colonial Mobile_, 209 _et seq._
In September, 1739, chiefs of the Cherokees complained that their
people had been poisoned by bad rum brought in by traders, but on
inquiry it was ascertained that unlicensed traders had during the
preceding summer carried small-pox to their nation. Harris, _Memorials
of Oglethorpe_, 214.
Footnote 119:
Guinea negroes.
Footnote 120:
The Indians made much use of the root of the white nettle, which
because of its caustic and detergent properties, was used for
cleansing ulcers and proud-flesh. Bartram’s _Observations_, 45. But
the “mountain alum” appears to be cranesbill (_geranium maculatum_) an
astringent, recognized as such by medical authorities today.
Footnote 121:
Hospital for sailors.
Footnote 122:
For map showing the upper part of this path, Williams, _Early Travels
in the Tennessee Country_, 114.
Footnote 123:
Mooney, _Myths_, 459; Williams, _Memoirs of Timberlake_, 73.
Footnote 124:
The Ustitlu legend. _Ibid._
Footnote 125:
The upper or Flanders Path is described by Crane, _The Southern
Frontier_, 135.
Footnote 126:
By way of supplement to and corroboration of Adair, in respect of this
very remarkable man, Christian Gottlieb Piber, who declared in a
petition that he had a wife and four children in Saxony, the following
brief account by Ludovick Grant is given, because not so well known as
others. Priber landed at Charles Town, but, it seems, made his way to
a district in the country. Grant says that Priber went from Amelia
Township on Santee River into the Cherokee nation; that he called
himself a German but was certainly an agent of the French; that he
lived in the town of Telliquo (Great Tellico); that he trimmed his
hair in the Indian manner and painted as they did, going, generally,
naked, except for a shirt and flap; that he told the Cherokees that
they had been tricked out of a great part of their lands, and in the
future they should make no concessions, and should trade with the
English and French alike, and they would then be courted by both. He
proposed a new system of government, under which all things should be
held in common; even their wives should be so, and the children looked
upon as those of the public and taken care of as such. Priber urged
that the “seat of government be moved nearer to the French at
Coosawattee, where in ancient times a town stood belonging to the
Cherokees; and that they should admit into their society Creeks and
Catawbas, French and English, all colours and complexions; in short,
all who were of their principles.” Priber wrote a letter to the South
Carolina government, signed by him as “prime minister,” which opened
the eyes of South Carolinians to the danger of his continuing longer
among the Indians. Grant confirms Adair as to the journey to the
Alabama Fort of the French on his way to Mobile and as to his arrest.
“His negro who jumped into the river to make his escape, they shot
dead.” Grant fixed the length of Priber’s stay as “about three years
[Adair says five and the true period was six or seven years] among the
Cherokees”—a “most notorious rogue and iniquitous fellow who if he had
been permitted to live much longer in that country would undoubtedly
have drawn that nation over to the French interest.” _Relation_, in S.
C. Hist. Mag., X, 54. See also letter from Fredrica in _S. C. Gazette_
of Aug. 15, 1743: “The Creek Indians have at last brought Mr. Priber
prisoner here; he is a little ugly man, but speaks all languages
fluently ... he talks very prophanely against all religions, but
chiefly the Protestant; he was for setting up a town at the foot of
the mountains among the Cherokees, which was to be a city of refuge
for all criminals, debtors and slaves. ... There was a book found upon
him in his own writing ready for the press, which he owns and glories
in and believes it is by this time printed, but will not tell where,
in which ... he lays down the rules of government which the town is to
be governed by, to which he gives the title of _Paradise_. He
enumerates many whimsical privileges and natural rights ...
particularly dissolving marriages and allowing community of women and
all kinds of licenciousness; the book is drawn up very methodically,
and full of learned quotations; it is extremely wicked, yet has
several flights full of invention, and it is a pity so much wit is
applied to so bad a purpose.” A comparison of the “Red Empire” with
the Russian Soviet of the present day is more than suggested. See
further on Priber: Crane, _A Lost Utopia_, Sewanee Review, Jan’y,
1919; Mereness, _Travels in the American Colonies_, 248; Williams,
_Early Travels in the Tennessee Country_, 154 _et seq._, and Mooney,
_Myths_, 36.
Footnote 127:
Col. Fox. Before he was sent in Ludovick Grant had been commissioned
to make the arrest. His _Relation_ gives the account: “I sometime
after went up into the Townhouse to try what could be done; but I
found that he [Priber] was well apprized of my design and laughed at
me, desiring me to try it, in so insolent a manner that I could hardly
bear it.... After which Coll. Fox was sent up on the same service with
several persons to attend and assist him; and, having endeavoured by
several messages and letters to decoy and draw him out of Town, but
all in vain, he at length laid hold of him in the Townhouse, for which
he liked to have suffered. The Indians took it very much amiss and
told him that as the Country was their own they might do what they
thought proper ... wishing him [Fox] to get out of their Country
directly.” _S. C. Mag. of History_, X, 54 _et seq._
Footnote 128:
The subsequent history of the Cherokees corroborates Adair’s statement
as to the attitude of the town of Great Tellico. It was there that
Lantagnac plotted for the downfall of Ft. Loudoun. Williams, _Early
Travels in the Tennessee Country_, 177.
Footnote 129:
Gov. James Glen, Adair’s dislike of whom is here and elsewhere fully
apparent.
Footnote 130:
Gov. Wm. Henry Lyttleton.
Footnote 131:
Gov. Dinwiddie: “We have had 148 Cherokees, 124 Catawbas etc. at Fort
Loudown [Winchester, Va.].... The Cherokees have been guilty of many
disorders in marching through this Country and killed a Chickasaw
Warrior.” _Papers_, II, 633, 641, 663, 673. Cherokees were used with
good results as scouts; a party of six reported a sally of the French
from Fort DuQuesne (Pittsburgh) and Col. George Washington (June,
1757) feared that Fort Cumberland would fall. Fernow, _Ohio Valley in
Colonial Days_, 150 _et seq._ The Chickasaws also sent warriors to aid
the British and Americans. They at Ft. Loudoun (in Virginia) were
under Washington, who wrote of them: “Those Indians who are coming
should be showed all possible respect, and the greatest care should be
taken of them, as upon them much depends. It is a critical time, they
are very humorsome, and their assistance very necessary. One false
step might lose us all that, but even turn them against us.” Morton,
_Story of Winchester_, 76.
Footnote 132:
On this occurrence consult Virginia _House of Burgesses Journals_,
1758-61, p. 6 _et seq._; Koontz, _The Virginia Frontier_, 1754-1763,
92, and Carroll’s _South Carolina Collection_, II, 97.
Footnote 133:
For Lantagnac’s intrigues in behalf of the French: Williams, _Early
Travels in the Tennessee Country_, 177 _et seq._
Footnote 134:
They raided on the Yadkin River and threatened to attack the Moravian
towns: _Moravian Records_, I, 232.
Footnote 135:
Probably the Eastern band on the Savannah River.
Footnote 136:
Incidents at Ft. Prince George in Upper South Carolina.
Footnote 137:
See for Georgiana, p. 484 M _post_.
Footnote 138:
Col. Archibald Montgomery succeeded to the title and peerage in
October, 1769; thus is shown Adair’s revision of his work to that
date, at least.
Footnote 139:
The retreat of Col. Montgomery led to the downfall of Fort Loudoun.
Footnote 140:
Under Col. Wm. Byrd III. The biting comment of Adair was justified.
Williams, _Memoirs of Lt. Timberlake_, 14. Timberlake was with Byrd.
Footnote 141:
Adair was in active service as captain of the Eastern Chickasaws—but
he modestly and barely refers to the fact. See the editor’s
Introduction to this volume.
Footnote 142:
Edmund Atkins, formerly a Charles Town merchant, in partnership with
John Atkins. _S. C. Gazette_, Oct. 4, 1746. He was, also, member of
the Council of State in 1748.
Footnote 143:
Hamilton says that the true Indian name was Yaha Tasky Stonake, called
by the English The Mortar and by the French Le Loup. _Colonial
Mobile_, 229. He was under French influence, and gave the British and
colonials much trouble because of his power among his people, the
Creeks, and his influence with one element of the Overhill Cherokees
in the fateful year 1760. See _N. C. Col. Rec._, VI, 259 _et seq._;
313, as to his aiding in the downfall of Ft. Loudoun. After the
surrender of the garrison, The Mortar was taken over the fort by the
Cherokees and shown the “great guns”—the cannon. Before setting off to
his own country The Mortar and his gang of Creeks broke into the
Little Carpenter’s house and plundered it, evidently to punish the
Cherokee chief for the part he had taken in behalf of the English. The
Mortar was accompanied home by a group of the Cherokees. That he was
influential, at the incitement of Lantagnac, in the downfall of Ft.
Loudoun, is manifest.
Footnote 144:
This savage attack on Atkins occurred among the Creeks in the Alabama
Country (Cussatah Town) Sept. 28, 1759. He was struck by a Cherokee on
the head with a tomahawk but escaped without fatal injury. The
intrigues of the French soon brought the Overhill Cherokees to
flagrant outbreak against the English.
Footnote 145:
It has been suggested that The Mortar began the settlement to which
resorted the disaffected of the Creeks and Cherokees—later known as
Chickamaugas, always a lawless band, rather than a tribe.
Footnote 146:
The best authorities on the Creeks are Hawkins and Swanton, in the
books cited _ante_ and _post_.
Footnote 147:
A doctrine preached later by Thomas Jefferson when President.
Footnote 148:
Perhaps Galphin. The account is corroborated by Swanton, _Early
History of Creeks_, 421, 437.
Footnote 149:
Ft. Toulouse, near the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers.
Footnote 150:
Probably “John Ross, Indian Trader,” mentioned as grantee of land at
Augusta, in _Ga. Col. Recs._, VI, 229.
Footnote 151:
It would be interesting to know in what year Adair penned these lines.
Footnote 152:
Or Tombekbe, now Jones Bluff of Tombigbee River, where the Alabama
Great Southern crosses the stream in West Alabama; established by
Bienville, 1735.
Footnote 153:
The Koasati Indians, once located on Tennessee River below the present
Chattanooga, are treated of in Swanton’s _Early History of the
Creeks_, 201-207, 211.
Footnote 154:
The Boiling Pot or Suck in Tennessee River, near Hale’s Bar, near
Chattanooga.
Footnote 155:
George Galphin and Lachlan McGillivray (McGilwray in the Dedication of
Adair’s book).
Galphin, a Scotchman, located at an early day (c. 1739) at Silver
Bluff, later Gaphinton, on Savannah River, South Carolina side, a few
miles below the site of Augusta, Ga., where he built a trading post
and engaged in the Indian trade, chiefly to the Creeks. He is said to
have been the earliest trader in that section. Ft. Augusta dated from
1736; and it is likely that Galphin and Adair were in close touch
shortly afterwards. Galphin at the outbreak of the Revolution
sympathized with the colonists, and on Oct. 2, 1775, he was appointed
commissioner of Indian affairs for the Southern District, thus
realizing the ambition of Adair for his friend. For a number of years
he had an important part in affairs affecting the Indians, the value
of which is best summarized in a letter to him from Henry Laurens from
the Continental Congress, Sept. 16, 1777: “I congratulate upon your
success in treating with the Creek Indians. I hold the States of So.
Carolina and Georgia, as well as the United States, much indebted to
your unwearied labours for the present good disposition of those
Savages, and as their continuance in this temper depends much upon
your exertions, so we are all bound to pray your life and health.”
Burnett, _Letters of Members of Const. Cong._, II, 494. Galphin
appears to have been a considerable trader in the town of Coweta, the
principal town of the Lower Creeks. He took a leading part in the
affairs of his own colony, and in those of Georgia just across the
river. In 1754 he was influential in keeping up the English connection
with the Chickasaws—doubtless through his partner in the trade, Adair.
Through his intervention, munitions of war were then sent to the
Chickasaws by Georgia, to enable them to hold their land, “save
themselves, wives and children from being made slaves of their enemies
the French.” Galphin was largely instrumental in the success of the
great Indian Congress held at Augusta in 1773, referred to by Adair.
Therefor in 1848 a claim, prosecuted by his family, was allowed by the
Congress of the United States. Galphin was a man of intelligence and
great force of character. He died in 1780.
Lachlan McGillivray also lived near Augusta, where his name, alongside
that of Galphin, may be found attached to early documents relating to
the defense of the neighborhood against danger. He was also a trader,
mainly to the Creeks, and many reports of his on Indian affairs are to
be found in the South Carolina Archives. He was the father of the
noted half-breed chief of the Creek Indians, Alexander McGillivray,
who played such an important part in the South in the closing decades
of the previous century. As his name indicates, he also was a
Scotchman; and a descendant of his was a minor leader among the
Chickasaws about 1815-20. Lachlan McGillivray was a man of fine native
parts, but had not the talents and did not reach the rank of Galphin.
Footnote 156:
By Matthew Roche, of the “Sphynx Company,” for which see later. A
letter of Adair was incorporated in the pamphlet, and it may not be
doubted that Adair figured not a little in the preparation and
composition of its contents.
Footnote 157:
Capt. John Stuart, who was rescued by Attakullakulla at the downfall
of Ft. Loudoun, was principal superintendent of Indian affairs at the
South, from 1762 to the end of the colonial era.
Footnote 158:
Evidently “on”—a misprint.
Footnote 159:
The records abound in proofs of the awe in which the Chickasaws were
held by the other tribes of the Southern and Northern Indians.
Footnote 160:
Described by Lord Adam Gordon in 1764, Wolf King was a sensible old
man, who said he might be one hundred years old. Mereness, _Travels in
the American Colonies_, 385.
Footnote 161:
The Shawnees were hereditary enemies of the Cherokees, but usually
allies of the Creeks. By capture or intermarriage there was quite an
admixture of Shawnee blood among the Cherokees. The small party
referred to in the text may have been one of this character.
Footnote 162:
The reference seems to be to Gov. James Glen, who made such an effort.
Footnote 163:
Lachlan McGillivray. The archives at Columbia bear out Adair’s
statements on this point.
Footnote 164:
Bienville gave their number of warriors in 1725-26 as 8,000 and the
_Colonial Records of Georgia_ state a higher number. There had been a
frightful loss of life in the numerous wars fought with the Chickasaws
under French incitement. In wars with the Creeks, 1765-1771, they lost
about three hundred warriors, Gallatin, _Synopsis, etc._, 100. Cushman
draws a brighter picture of the Choctaws, but Milfort makes a
distinction between the Northern and Southern Choctaws, giving to the
former superior qualities. The earliest mention of them is found in
the De Soto narratives, 1540.
Footnote 165:
The reference is to the firms of Baynton, Wharton & Morgan, and Franks
& Co.
Footnote 166:
George Johnstone.
Footnote 167:
Adair was not well up on North Carolina geography. The Yadkin does not
flow into the Cape Fear River.
Footnote 168:
Charles Stuart, seemingly a brother of John Stuart, was deputy
superintendent.
Footnote 169:
The reference is to Col. Abraham Wood, of Virginia, and to his sending
out Batts and Fallam in 1671—not 1654 or 1664. Adair is here following
Cox’s _Carolana_. See Alvord and Bidgood, _First Explorations of the
Trans-Allegheny Region_, 191, and Williams, _Early Travels in the
Tennessee Country_, 17. Capt. Bolton made no such discovery in 1670.
Footnote 170:
Dr. Cox, of London, father of the author of _Carolana_ and a
proprietor of West (New) Jersey but never in America, did send Capt.
Bond by sea to, then up the Mississippi about one hundred miles, in
1698; the vessel was turned back by Iberville acting for the French,
at a place ever since called “the English turn,” just below New
Orleans.
Footnote 171:
Adair is yet following the _Carolana_ of Daniel Cox, son of Dr. Cox,
taking no notice of the journeys of Marquette and Jolliet in 1673 and
of La Salle in 1682.
Footnote 172:
The fort was abandoned in January, 1768.
Footnote 173:
Gov. James Glen. As corroborative of Adair: “We have advices from some
of our traders that the Choctaw Indians (for many years past in the
French interest) have invited them into their towns to trade,
promising them a guard of 400 men; and as a testimony of their good
intentions they brought with them the scalps of three Frenchmen.” _S.
C. Gazette_, Nov. 4, 1746.
Footnote 174:
The celebrated and double-faced Red Shoes, leader of a faction of the
Choctaws. He took part with the French in the war of 1736; but proving
insolent after the war, Vaudreuil stopped the supply of arms and
ammunition to his party. Further incensed by the discovery of a
Frenchman from Ft. Tombekbe in adultery with his favorite wife, Adair
found him ripe for heading a faction of the Choctaws against the
French. Adair’s influence was exerted to that end in 1746, for in
October of that year, De Beauchamp was among the friendly Choctaws,
warning them against Adair, “that trader who was at the Chikachas
[Chickasaws], mentioning him by name,” and offering a reward for the
death of Red Shoes. Mereness, _Travels in the American Colonies_, 290
_et seq._ A fratricidal war broke out among the Choctaws. Red Shoes’
party with a band of the Creeks, in June, 1748, not 1747 as Adair
states from memory, made an attack on the German settlement (Quartier
des Alemands) as stated by Adair. Vaudreuil was more fortunate in
compassing the death of Red Shoes later in 1748, seemingly through
Jean Grondel. The fiat went forth that the arch-intriguer must die. He
was set upon and killed while convoying to his towns a train of
English goods from Charles Town. English traders saved the goods; and,
by making a distribution of them, managed to revive the war, placing a
brother of Red Shoes at the head of his partisans. This faction was
soon defeated and put to rout by Grandpre, then commandant at Ft.
Tombikbe. In the event, the connection of Red Shoes and Adair was
unfortunate for both.
Footnote 175:
The reference is to the two unsuccessful campaigns of the French
against the Chickasaws under Bienville.
Footnote 176:
The Chickasaws’ horses were favorites throughout the South. Barton in
his _New View_ says: “It is a well established fact that the
Chickasaws brought with them from the West those beautiful horses
called Chickasaw breed.” Major Robert Rogers in his _Concise Account
of North America_, says that the Chickasaws are supposed to have
introduced the horse, and had large droves of them in 1762. But others
attribute the origin to De Soto’s visit among them. Hugh Williamson
(_Observations_, 80) in 1811 said: “Those Indians were originally
furnished by De Soto with a breed of Spanish horses. The Indians,
towards the middle of the last century, discovered that their horses
were a valuable article of commerce.... The traders in all cases
bought their largest horses.” Smyth (1774) in North Carolina
“purchased a beautiful Chickasaw horse, named so from a nation of
Indians who are very careful of preserving a fine breed of Spanish
horses they have long preserved, unmixed with any other.” _A Tour_, I,
139. In 1785 Henry Laurens, Jr., of Charleston, wrote of being
“informed by a Friend of his expectations of a string of five and
forty horses from the Chickasaws which are generally esteemed as good
horses as any in America.” _So. Car. Hist. Mag._, XXIV, 11. The horse,
it seems, was not introduced among the Cherokees until the beginning
of the seventeenth century, and then probably from the Chickasaws.
Byrd says that the Indians “were utter strangers to all our beasts of
carriage before the slothful Europeans came amongst them.” The
Seminoles of Florida also had horses of Andalusian breed, brought over
by the Spaniards. Bartram, _Travels_, 213. The Chickasaw breed was in
high repute in East Tennessee in the last decade of the eighteenth
century. A celebrated sire “Piomingo,” named for the great chief, was
advertised as “a fine Spanish horse raised in the Chickasaw nation.”
Knoxville _Gazette_, Mar. 24, 1792.
Footnote 177:
For accordant statement: Williams, _Memoirs of Timberlake_, 79;
Lawson, _History of North Carolina_ (1903 ed.) 133.
Footnote 178:
This ecomium on the Chickasaws finds full confirmation on the part of
historians and travelers, French, Spanish and English:
“The nation of the Chickasaws is very warlike. The men have regular
features, well shaped and neatly dressed; they are fierce, and have a
high opinion of themselves. The nations who border upon them who speak
the Chickasaw language best value themselves upon it.” (Du Pratz.)
“They are accounted and esteemed the bravest Indians upon the main,
which makes good the common observation that the bravest soldiers are
generally the most civil to prisoners.” (Eveleigh.)
“They are the most indefatigable and most valiant of all the Indians.”
(Rev. John Wesley.)