The Colonial and Revolutionary Period--1654-1784

It was not until 1654 that the English first came into contact with

the Cherokee, called in the records of the period Rechahecrians,

a corruption of Rickahockan, apparently the name by which they were

known to the Powhatan tribes. In that year the Virginia colony,

which had only recently concluded a long and exterminating war with

the Powhatan, was thrown into alarm by the news that a great body of

six or seven hundred Rechahecrian Indians--by which is probably meant

that number of warriors--from the mountains had invaded the lower

country and established themselves at the falls of James river, where

now is the city of Richmond. The assembly at once passed resolutions

"that these new come Indians be in no sort suffered to seat themselves

there, or any place near us, it having cost so much blood to expel and

extirpate those perfidious and treacherous Indians which were there

formerly." It was therefore ordered that a force of at least 100 white

men be at once sent against them, to be joined by the warriors of all

the neighboring subject tribes, according to treaty obligation. The

Pamunkey chief, with a hundred of his men, responded to the summons,

and the combined force marched against the invaders. The result

was a bloody battle, with disastrous outcome to the Virginians, the

Pamunkey chief with most of his men being killed, while the whites

were forced to make such terms of peace with the Rechahecrians that

the assembly cashiered the commander of the expedition and compelled

him to pay the whole cost of the treaty from his own estate. [41]

Owing to the imperfection of the Virginia records we have no means

of knowing the causes of the sudden invasion or how long the invaders

retained their position at the falls. In all probability it was only

the last of a long series of otherwise unrecorded irruptions by the

mountaineers on the more peaceful dwellers in the lowlands. From a

remark in Lederer it is probable that the Cherokee were assisted also

by some of the piedmont tribes hostile to the Powhatan. The Peaks of

Otter, near which the Cherokee claim to have once lived, as has been

already noted, are only about one hundred miles in a straight line from

Richmond, while the burial mound and town site near Charlottesville,

mentioned by Jefferson, are but half that distance.

In 1655 a Virginia expedition sent out from the falls of James river

(Richmond) crossed over the mountains to the large streams flowing

into the Mississippi. No details are given and the route is uncertain,

but whether or not they met Indians, they must have passed through

Cherokee territory. [42]

In 1670 the German traveler, John Lederer, went from the falls of James

river to the Catawba country in South Carolina, following for most

of the distance the path used by the Virginia traders, who already

had regular dealings with the southern tribes, including probably

the Cherokee. He speaks in several places of the Rickahockan, which

seems to be a more correct form than Rechahecrian, and his narrative

and the accompanying map put them in the mountains of North Carolina,

back of the Catawba and the Sara and southward from the head of Roanoke

river. They were apparently on hostile terms with the tribes to the

eastward, and while the traveler was stopping at an Indian village

on Dan river, about the present Clarksville, Virginia, a delegation

of Rickahockan, which had come on tribal business, was barbarously

murdered at a dance prepared on the night of their arrival by their

treacherous hosts. On reaching the Catawba country he heard of white

men to the southward, and incidentally mentions that the neighboring

mountains were called the Suala mountains by the Spaniards. [43] In

the next year, 1671, a party from Virginia under Thomas Batts explored

the northern branch of Roanoke river and crossed over the Blue ridge

to the headwaters of New river, where they found traces of occupancy,

but no Indians. By this time all the tribes of this section, east of

the mountains, were in possession of firearms. [44]

The first permanent English settlement in South Carolina was

established in 1670. In 1690 James Moore, secretary of the colony,

made an exploring expedition into the mountains and reached a point at

which, according to his Indian guides, he was within twenty miles of

where the Spaniards were engaged in mining and smelting with bellows

and furnaces, but on account of some misunderstanding he returned

without visiting the place, although he procured specimens of ores,

which he sent to England for assay. [45] It may have been in the

neighborhood of the present Lincolnton, North Carolina, where a dam

of cut stone and other remains of former civilized occupancy have

recently been discovered (11). In this year, also, Cornelius Dougherty,

an Irishman from Virginia, established himself as the first trader

among the Cherokee, with whom he spent the rest of his life. [46]

Some of his descendants still occupy honored positions in the tribe.

Among the manuscript archives of South Carolina there was said to be,

some fifty years ago, a treaty or agreement made with the government of

that colony by the Cherokee in 1684, and signed with the hieroglyphics

of eight chiefs of the lower towns, viz, Corani, the Raven (Kâ'lanû);

Sinnawa, the Hawk (Tla'nuwa); Nellawgitehi, Gorhaleke, and Owasta, all

of Toxawa; and Canacaught, the great Conjuror, Gohoma, and Caunasaita,

of Keowa. If still in existence, this is probably the oldest Cherokee

treaty on record. [47]

What seems to be the next mention of the Cherokee in the South Carolina

records occurs in 1691, when we find an inquiry ordered in regard to

a report that some of the colonists "have, without any proclamation

of war, fallen upon and murdered" several of that tribe. [48]

In 1693 some Cherokee chiefs went to Charleston with presents for

the governor and offers of friendship, to ask the protection of

South Carolina against their enemies, the Esaw (Catawba), Savanna

(Shawano), and Congaree, all of that colony, who had made war upon

them and sold a number of their tribesmen into slavery. They were told

that their kinsmen could not now be recovered, but that the English

desired friendship with their tribe, and that the Government would

see that there would be no future ground for such complaint. [49]

The promise was apparently not kept, for in 1705 we find a bitter

accusation brought against Governor Moore, of South Carolina, that he

had granted commissions to a number of persons "to set upon, assault,

kill, destroy, and take captive as many Indians as they possible

[sic] could," the prisoners being sold into slavery for his and their

private profit. By this course, it was asserted, he had "already almost

utterly ruined the trade for skins and furs, whereby we held our chief

correspondence with England, and turned it into a trade of Indians

or slave making, whereby the Indians to the south and west of us are

already involved in blood and confusion." The arraignment concludes

with a warning that such conditions would in all probability draw down

upon the colony an Indian war with all its dreadful consequences. [50]

In view of what happened a few years later this reads like a prophecy.

About the year 1700 the first guns were introduced among the Cherokee,

the event being fixed traditionally as having occurred in the girlhood

of an old woman of the tribe who died about 1775. [51] In 1708 we

find them described as a numerous people, living in the mountains

northwest from the Charleston settlements and having sixty towns,

but of small importance in the Indian trade, being "but ordinary

hunters and less warriors." [52]

In the war with the Tuscarora in 1711-1713, which resulted in the

expulsion of that tribe from North Carolina, more than a thousand

southern Indians reenforced the South Carolina volunteers, among

them being over two hundred Cherokee, hereditary enemies of the

Tuscarora. Although these Indian allies did their work well in the

actual encounters, their assistance was of doubtful advantage, as

they helped themselves freely to whatever they wanted along the way,

so that the settlers had reason to fear them almost as much as the

hostile Tuscarora. After torturing a large number of their prisoners

in the usual savage fashion, they returned with the remainder, whom

they afterward sold as slaves to South Carolina. [53]

Having wiped out old scores with the Tuscarora, the late allies of

the English proceeded to discuss their own grievances, which, as we

have seen, were sufficiently galling. The result was a combination

against the whites, embracing all the tribes from Cape Fear to the

Chattahoochee, including the Cherokee, who thus for the first time

raised their hand against the English. The war opened with a terrible

massacre by the Yamassee in April, 1715, followed by assaults along

the whole frontier, until for a time it was seriously feared that

the colony of South Carolina would be wiped out of existence. In a

contest between savagery and civilization, however, the final result

is inevitable. The settlers at last rallied their whole force under

Governor Craven and administered such a crushing blow to the Yamassee

that the remnant abandoned their country and took refuge with the

Spaniards in Florida or among the Lower Creeks. The English then made

short work with the smaller tribes along the coast, while those in

the interior were soon glad to sue for peace. [54]

A number of Cherokee chiefs having come down to Charleston in

company with a trader to express their desire for peace, a force of

several hundred white troops and a number of negroes under Colonel

Maurice Moore went up the Savannah in the winter of 1715-16 and made

headquarters among the Lower Cherokee, where they were met by the

chiefs of the Lower and some of the western towns, who reaffirmed

their desire for a lasting peace with the English, but refused to

fight against the Yamassee, although willing to proceed against some

other tribes. They laid the blame for most of the trouble upon the

traders, who "had been very abuseful to them of late." A detachment

under Colonel George Chicken, sent to the Upper Cherokee, penetrated

to "Quoneashee" (Tlanusi'yi, on Hiwassee, about the present Murphy)

where they found the chiefs more defiant, resolved to continue the

war against the Creeks, with whom the English were then trying to

make peace, and demanding large supplies of guns and ammunition,

saying that if they made a peace with the other tribes they would

have no means of getting slaves with which to buy ammunition for

themselves. At this time they claimed 2,370 warriors, of whom half

were believed to have guns. As the strength of the whole Nation was

much greater, this estimate may have been for the Upper and Middle

Cherokee only. After "abundance of persuading" by the officers, they

finally "told us they would trust us once again," and an arrangement

was made to furnish them two hundred guns with a supply of ammunition,

together with fifty white soldiers, to assist them against the tribes

with which the English were still at war. In March, 1716, this force

was increased by one hundred men. The detachment under Colonel Chicken

returned by way of the towns on the upper part of the Little Tennessee,

thus penetrating the heart of the Cherokee country. [55]

Steps were now taken to secure peace by inaugurating a satisfactory

trade system, for which purpose a large quantity of suitable

goods was purchased at the public expense of South Carolina, and a

correspondingly large party was equipped for the initial trip. [56]

In 1721, in order still more to systematize Indian affairs, Governor

Nicholson of South Carolina invited the chiefs of the Cherokee to a

conference, at which thirty-seven towns were represented. A treaty

was made by which trading methods were regulated, a boundary line

between their territory and the English settlements was agreed upon,

and an agent was appointed to superintend their affairs. At the

governor's suggestion, one chief, called Wrosetasatow(?) [57] was

formally commissioned as supreme head of the Nation, with authority to

punish all offenses, including murder, and to represent all Cherokee

claims to the colonial government. Thus were the Cherokee reduced from

their former condition of a free people, ranging where their pleasure

led, to that of dependent vassals with bounds fixed by a colonial

governor. The negotiations were accompanied by a cession of land,

the first in the history of the tribe. In little more than a century

thereafter they had signed away their whole original territory. [58]

The document of 1716 already quoted puts the strength of the

Cherokee at that time at 2,370 warriors, but in this estimate the

Lower Cherokee seem not to have been included. In 1715, according to

a trade census compiled by Governor Johnson of South Carolina, the

tribe had thirty towns, with 4,000 warriors and a total population

of 11,210. [59] Another census in 1721 gives them fifty-three towns

with 3,510 warriors and a total of 10,379, [60] while the report of

the board of trade for the same year gives them 3,800 warriors, [61]

equivalent, by the same proportion, to nearly 12,000 total. Adair,

a good authority on such matters, estimates, about the year 1735,

when the country was better known, that they had "sixty-four towns

and villages, populous and full of children," with more than 6,000

fighting men, [62] equivalent on the same basis of computation to

between 16,000 and 17,000 souls. From what we know of them in later

times, it is probable that this last estimate is very nearly correct.

By this time the colonial government had become alarmed at the advance

of the French, who had made their first permanent establishment in

the Gulf states at Biloxi bay, Mississippi, in 1699, and in 1714

had built Fort Toulouse, known to the English as "the fort at the

Alabamas," on Coosa river, a few miles above the present Montgomery,

Alabama. From this central vantage point they had rapidly extended

their influence among all the neighboring tribes until in 1721 it

was estimated that 3,400 warriors who had formerly traded with

Carolina had been "entirely debauched to the French interest,"

while 2,000 more were wavering, and only the Cherokee could still

be considered friendly to the English. [63] From this time until

the final withdrawal of the French in 1763 the explanation of our

Indian wars is to be found in the struggle between the two nations

for territorial and commercial supremacy, the Indian being simply the

cat's-paw of one or the other. For reasons of their own, the Chickasaw,

whose territory lay within the recognized limits of Louisiana, soon

became the uncompromising enemies of the French, and as their position

enabled them in a measure to control the approach from the Mississippi,

the Carolina government saw to it that they were kept well supplied

with guns and ammunition. British traders were in all their towns,

and on one occasion a French force, advancing against a Chickasaw

palisaded village, found it garrisoned by Englishmen flying the British

flag. [64] The Cherokee, although nominally allies of the English,

were strongly disposed to favor the French, and it required every

effort of the Carolina government to hold them to their allegiance.

In 1730, to further fix the Cherokee in the English interest, Sir

Alexander Cuming was dispatched on a secret mission to that tribe,

which was again smarting under grievances and almost ready to join

with the Creeks in an alliance with the French. Proceeding to the

ancient town of Nequassee (Nikwasi', at the present Franklin, North

Carolina), he so impressed the chiefs by his bold bearing that they

conceded without question all his demands, submitting themselves

and their people for the second time to the English dominion and

designating Moytoy, [65] of Tellico, to act as their "emperor" and to

represent the Nation in all transactions with the whites. Seven chiefs

were selected to visit England, where, in the palace at Whitehall,

they solemnly renewed the treaty, acknowledging the sovereignty of

England and binding themselves to have no trade or alliance with any

other nation, not to allow any other white people to settle among

them, and to deliver up any fugitive slaves who might seek refuge

with them. To confirm their words they delivered a "crown", five

eagle-tails, and four scalps, which they had brought with them. In

return they received the usual glittering promises of love and

perpetual friendship, together with a substantial quantity of guns,

ammunition, and red paint. The treaty being concluded in September,

they took ship for Carolina, where they arrived, as we are told by

the governor, "in good health and mightily well satisfied with His

Majesty's bounty to them." [66]

In the next year some action was taken to use the Cherokee and Catawba

to subdue the refractory remnant of the Tuscarora in North Carolina,

but when it was found that this was liable to bring down the wrath

of the Iroquois upon the Carolina settlements, more peaceable methods

were used instead. [67]

In 1738 or 1739 the smallpox, brought to Carolina by slave ships,

broke out among the Cherokee with such terrible effect that, according

to Adair, nearly half the tribe was swept away within a year. The

awful mortality was due largely to the fact that as it was a new and

strange disease to the Indians they had no proper remedies against it,

and therefore resorted to the universal Indian panacea for "strong"

sickness of almost any kind, viz, cold plunge baths in the running

stream, the worst treatment that could possibly be devised. As the

pestilence spread unchecked from town to town, despair fell upon the

nation. The priests, believing the visitation a penalty for violation

of the ancient ordinances, threw away their sacred paraphernalia as

things which had lost their protecting power. Hundreds of the warriors

committed suicide on beholding their frightful disfigurement. "Some

shot themselves, others cut their throats, some stabbed themselves

with knives and others with sharp-pointed canes; many threw themselves

with sullen madness into the fire and there slowly expired, as if they

had been utterly divested of the native power of feeling pain." [68]

Another authority estimates their loss at a thousand warriors, partly

from smallpox and partly from rum brought in by the traders. [69]

About the year 1740 a trading path for horsemen was marked out by the

Cherokee from the new settlement of Augusta, in Georgia, to their towns

on the headwaters of Savannah river and thence on to the west. This

road, which went up the south side of the river, soon became much

frequented.4 Previous to this time most, of the trading goods had

been transported on the backs of Indians. In the same year a party

of Cherokee under the war chief Kâ'lanû. "The Raven," took part in

Oglethorpe's expedition against the Spaniards of Saint Augustine. [70]

In 1736 Christian Priber, said to be a Jesuit acting in the French

interest, had come among the Cherokee, and, by the facility with

which he learned the language and adapted himself to the native

dress and mode of life, had quickly acquired a leading influence

among them. He drew up for their adoption a scheme of government

modeled after the European plan, with the capital at Great Tellico,

in Tennessee, the principal medicine man as emperor, and himself as

the emperor's secretary. Under this title he corresponded with the

South Carolina government until it began to be feared that he would

ultimately win over the whole tribe to the French side. A commissioner

was sent to arrest him, but the Cherokee refused to give him up,

and the deputy was obliged to return under safe-conduct of an escort

furnished by Priber. Five years after the inauguration of his work,

however, he was seized by some English traders while on his way to

Fort Toulouse, and brought as a prisoner to Frederica, in Georgia,

where he soon afterward died while under confinement. Although his

enemies had represented him as a monster, inciting the Indians to

the grossest immoralities, he proved to be a gentleman of polished

address, extensive learning, and rare courage, as was shown later on

the occasion of an explosion in the barracks magazine. Besides Greek,

Latin, French, German, Spanish, and fluent English, he spoke also the

Cherokee, and among his papers which were seized was found a manuscript

dictionary of the language, which he had prepared for publication--the

first, and even yet, perhaps, the most important study of the language

ever made. Says Adair: "As he was learned and possessed of a very

sagacious penetrating judgment, and had every qualification that

was requisite for his bold and difficult enterprise, it was not to

be doubted that, as he wrote a Cheerake dictionary, designed to be

published at Paris, he likewise set down a great deal that would

have been very acceptable to the curious and serviceable to the

representatives of South Carolina and Georgia, which may be readily

found in Frederica if the manuscripts have had the good fortune to

escape the despoiling hands of military power." He claimed to be a

Jesuit, acting under orders of his superior, to introduce habits of

steady industry, civilized arts, and a regular form of government

among the southern tribes, with a view to the ultimate founding of

an independent Indian state. From all that can be gathered of him,

even though it comes from his enemies, there can be little doubt that

he was a worthy member of that illustrious order whose name has been

a synonym for scholarship, devotion, and courage from the days of

Jogues and Marquette down to De Smet and Mengarini. [71]

Up to this time no civilizing or mission work had been undertaken

by either of the Carolina governments among any of the tribes

within their borders. As one writer of the period quaintly puts

it, "The gospel spirit is not yet so gloriously arisen as to seek

them more than theirs," while another in stronger terms affirms,

"To the shame of the Christian name, no pains have ever been taken

to convert them to Christianity; on the contrary, their morals are

perverted and corrupted by the sad example they daily have of its

depraved professors residing in their towns." [72] Readers of Lawson

and other narratives of the period will feel the force of the rebuke.

Throughout the eighteenth century the Cherokee were engaged in

chronic warfare with their Indian neighbors. As these quarrels

concerned the whites but little, however momentous they may have

been to the principals, we have but few details. The war with the

Tuscarora continued until the outbreak of the latter tribe against

Carolina in 1711 gave opportunity to the Cherokee to cooperate in

striking the blow which drove the Tuscarora from their ancient homes

to seek refuge in the north. The Cherokee then turned their attention

to the Shawano on the Cumberland, and with the aid of the Chickasaw

finally expelled them from that region about the year 1715. Inroads

upon the Catawba were probably kept up until the latter had become so

far reduced by war and disease as to be mere dependent pensioners upon

the whites. The former friendship with the Chickasaw was at last broken

through the overbearing conduct of the Cherokee, and a war followed of

which we find incidental notice in 1757, [73] and which terminated in

a decisive victory for the Chickasaw about 1768. The bitter war with

the Iroquois of the far north continued, in spite of all the efforts

of the colonial governments, until a formal treaty of peace was brought

about by the efforts of Sir William Johnson (12) in the same year.

The hereditary war with the Creeks for possession of upper Georgia

continued, with brief intervals of peace, or even alliance, until

the United States finally interfered as mediator between the rival

claimants. In 1718 we find notice of a large Cherokee war party moving

against the Creek town of Coweta, on the lower Chattahoochee, but

dispersing on learning of the presence there of some French and Spanish

officers, as well as some English traders, all bent on arranging an

alliance with the Creeks. The Creeks themselves had declared their

willingness to be at peace with the English, while still determined

to keep the bloody hatchet uplifted against the Cherokee. [74] The

most important incident of the struggle between the two tribes was

probably the battle of Tali'wa about the year 1755. [75]

By this time the weaker coast tribes had become practically extinct,

and the more powerful tribes of the interior were beginning to take the

alarm, as they saw the restless borderers pushing every year farther

into the Indian country. As early as 1748 Dr Thomas Walker, with a

company of hunters and woodsmen from Virginia, crossed the mountains

to the southwest, discovering and naming the celebrated Cumberland

gap and passing on to the headwaters of Cumberland river. Two years

later he made a second exploration and penetrated to Kentucky river,

but on account of the Indian troubles no permanent settlement was then

attempted. [76] This invasion of their territory awakened a natural

resentment of the native owners, and we find proof also in the Virginia

records that the irresponsible borderers seldom let pass an opportunity

to kill and plunder any stray Indian found in their neighborhood.

In 1755 the Cherokee were officially reported to number 2,590 warriors,

as against probably twice that number previous to the great smallpox

epidemic sixteen years before. Their neighbors and ancient enemies,

the Catawba, had dwindled to 240 men. [77]

Although war was not formally declared by England until 1756,

hostilities in the seven year's struggle between France and England,

commonly known in America as the "French and Indian war," began in

April, 1754, when the French seized a small post which the English

had begun at the present site of Pittsburg, and which was afterward

finished by the French under the name of Fort Du Quesne. Strenuous

efforts were made by the English to secure the Cherokee to their

interest against the French and their Indian allies, and treaties were

negotiated by which they promised assistance. [78] As these treaties,

however, carried the usual cessions of territory, and stipulated for

the building of several forts in the heart of the Cherokee country,

it is to be feared that the Indians were not duly impressed by

the disinterested character of the proceeding. Their preference

for the French was but thinly veiled, and only immediate policy

prevented them from throwing their whole force into the scale on

that side. The reasons for this preference are given by Timberlake,

the young Virginian officer who visited the tribe on an embassy of

conciliation a few years later:

I found the nation much attached to the French, who have the

prudence, by familiar politeness--which costs but little and often

does a great deal--and conforming themselves to their ways and

temper, to conciliate the inclinations of almost all the Indians

they are acquainted with, while the pride of our officers often

disgusts them. Nay, they did not scruple to own to me that it

was the trade alone that induced them to make peace with us,

and not any preference to the French, whom they loved a great

deal better.... The English are now so nigh, and encroached daily

so far upon them, that they not only felt the bad effects of it

in their hunting grounds, which were spoiled, but had all the

reason in the world to apprehend being swallowed up by so potent

neighbors or driven from the country inhabited by their fathers,

in which they were born and brought up, in fine, their native soil,

for which all men have a particular tenderness and affection.

He adds that only dire necessity had induced them to make peace with

the English in 1761. [79]

In accordance with the treaty stipulations Fort Prince George was

built in 1756 adjoining the important Cherokee town of Keowee, on

the headwaters of the Savannah, and Fort Loudon near the junction

of Tellico river with the Little Tennessee, in the center of the

Cherokee towns beyond the mountains. [80] By special arrangement

with the influential chief, Ata-kullakulla (Ata'-gûl'`kalû'), [81]

Fort Dobbs was also built in the same year about 20 miles west of

the present Salisbury, North Carolina. [82]

The Cherokee had agreed to furnish four hundred warriors to cooperate

against the French in the north, but before Fort Loudon had been

completed it was very evident that they had repented of their promise,

as their great council at Echota ordered the work stopped and the

garrison on the way to turn back, plainly telling the officer in charge

that they did not want so many white people among them. Ata-kullakulla,

hitherto supposed to be one of the stanchest friends of the English,

was now one of the most determined in the opposition. It was in

evidence also that they were in constant communication with the

French. By much tact and argument their objections were at last

overcome for a time, and they very unwillingly set about raising the

promised force of warriors. Major Andrew Lewis, who superintended the

building of the fort, became convinced that the Cherokee were really

friendly to the French, and that all their professions of friendship

and assistance were "only to put a gloss on their knavery." The fort

was finally completed, and, on his suggestion, was garrisoned with

a strong force of two hundred men under Captain Demeré. [83] There

was strong ground for believing that some depredations committed

about this time on the heads of Catawba and Broad rivers, in North

Carolina, were the joint work of Cherokee and northern Indians. [84]

Notwithstanding all this, a considerable body of Cherokee joined the

British forces on the Virginia frontier. [85]

Fort Du Quesne was taken by the American provincials under Washington,

November 25, 1758. Quebec was taken September 13, 1759, and by the

final treaty of peace in 1763 the war ended with the transfer of

Canada and the Ohio valley to the crown of England. Louisiana had

already been ceded by France to Spain.

Although France was thus eliminated from the Indian problem, the

Indians themselves were not ready to accept the settlement. In the

north the confederated tribes under Pontiac continued to war on their

own account until 1765. In the South the very Cherokee who had acted

as allies of the British against Fort Du Quesne, and had voluntarily

offered to guard the frontier south of the Potomac, returned to rouse

their tribe to resistance.

The immediate exciting cause of the trouble was an unfortunate

expedition undertaken against the hostile Shawano in February,

1756, by Major Andrew Lewis (the same who had built Fort Loudon)

with some two hundred Virginia troops assisted by about one hundred

Cherokee. After six weeks of fruitless tramping through the woods,

with the ground covered with snow and the streams so swollen by rains

that they lost their provisions and ammunition in crossing, they

were obliged to return to the settlements in a starving condition,

having killed their horses on the way. The Indian contingent had

from the first been disgusted at the contempt and neglect experienced

from those whom they had come to assist. The Tuscarora and others had

already gone home, and the Cherokee now started to return on foot to

their own country. Finding some horses running loose on the range,

they appropriated them, on the theory that as they had lost their own

animals, to say nothing of having risked their lives, in the service

of the colonists, it was only a fair exchange. The frontiersmen took

another view of the question however, attacked the returning Cherokee,

and killed a number of them, variously stated at from twelve to

forty, including several of their prominent men. According to Adair

they also scalped and mutilated the bodies in the savage fashion to

which they had become accustomed in the border wars, and brought the

scalps into the settlements, where they were represented as those

of French Indians and sold at the regular price then established by

law. The young warriors at once prepared to take revenge, but were

restrained by the chiefs until satisfaction could be demanded in the

ordinary way, according to the treaties arranged with the colonial

governments. Application was made in turn to Virginia, North Carolina,

and South Carolina, but without success. While the women were still

wailing night and morning for their slain kindred, and the Creeks were

taunting the warriors for their cowardice in thus quietly submitting

to the injury, some lawless officers of Fort Prince George committed

an unpardonable outrage at the neighboring Indian town while most

of the men were away hunting. [86] The warriors could no longer be

restrained. Soon there was news of attacks upon the back settlements

of Carolina, while on the other side of the mountains two soldiers

of the Fort Loudon garrison were killed. War seemed at hand.

At this juncture, in November, 1758, a party of influential chiefs,

having first ordered back a war party just about to set out from

the western towns against the Carolina settlements, came down to

Charleston and succeeded in arranging the difficulty upon a friendly

basis. The assembly had officially declared peace with the Cherokee,

when, in May of 1759, Governor Lyttleton unexpectedly came forward

with a demand for the surrender for execution of every Indian who

had killed a white man in the recent skirmishes, among these being

the chiefs of Citico and Tellico. At the same time the commander at

Fort Loudon, forgetful of the fact that he had but a small garrison in

the midst of several thousands of restless savages, made a demand for

twenty-four other chiefs whom he suspected of unfriendly action. To

compel their surrender orders were given to stop all trading supplies

intended for the upper Cherokee.

This roused the whole Nation, and a delegation representing every

town came down to Charleston, protesting the desire of the Indians for

peace and friendship, but declaring their inability to surrender their

own chiefs. The governor replied by declaring war in November, 1759,

at once calling out troops and sending messengers to secure the aid

of all the surrounding tribes against the Cherokee. In the meantime

a second delegation of thirty-two of the most prominent men, led by

the young war chief Oconostota, (Âgan-stâta), [87] arrived to make

a further effort for peace, but the governor, refusing to listen to

them, seized the whole party and confined them as prisoners at Fort

Prince George, in a room large enough for only six soldiers, while

at the same time he set fourteen hundred troops in motion to invade

the Cherokee country. On further representation by Ata-kullakulla

(Ata'-gûl'`kalû'), the civil chief of the Nation and well known as

a friend of the English, the governor released Oconostota and two

others after compelling some half dozen of the delegation to sign a

paper by which they pretended to agree for their tribe to kill or

seize any Frenchmen entering their country, and consented to the

imprisonment of the party until all the warriors demanded had been

surrendered for execution or otherwise. At this stage of affairs the

smallpox broke out in the Cherokee towns, rendering a further stay in

their neighborhood unsafe, and thinking the whole matter now settled

on his own basis, Lyttleton returned to Charleston.

The event soon proved how little he knew of Indian temper. Oconostota

at once laid siege to Fort Prince George, completely cutting off

communication at a time when, as it was now winter, no help could well

be expected from below. In February, 1760, after having kept the fort

thus closely invested for some weeks, he sent word one day by an Indian

woman that he wished to speak to the commander, Lieutenant Coytmore. As

the lieutenant stepped out from the stockade to see what was wanted,

Oconostota, standing on the opposite side of the river, swung a bridle

above his head as a signal to his warriors concealed in the bushes,

and the officer was at once shot down. The soldiers immediately broke

into the room where the hostages were confined, every one being a

chief of prominence in the tribe and butchered them to the last man.

It was now war to the end. Led by Oconostota, the Cherokee descended

upon the frontier settlements of Carolina, while the warriors across

the mountains laid close siege to Fort Loudon. In June, 1760, a strong

force of over 1,600 men, under Colonel Montgomery, started to reduce

the Cherokee towns and relieve the beleaguered garrison. Crossing the

Indian frontier, Montgomery quickly drove the enemy from about Fort

Prince George and then, rapidly advancing, surprised Little Keowee,

killing every man of the defenders, and destroyed in succession

every one of the Lower Cherokee towns, burning them to the ground,

cutting down the cornfields and orchards, killing and taking more

than a hundred of their men, and driving the whole population into

the mountains before him. His own loss was very slight. He then

sent messengers to the Middle and Upper towns, summoning them to

surrender on penalty of the like fate, but, receiving no reply, he

led his men across the divide to the waters of the Little Tennessee

and continued down that stream without opposition until he came in

the vicinity of Echoee (Itse'yi), a few miles above the sacred town

of Nikwasi', the present Franklin, North Carolina. Here the Cherokee

had collected their full force to resist his progress, and the result

was a desperate engagement on June 27, 1760, by which Montgomery was

compelled to retire to Fort Prince George, after losing nearly one

hundred men in killed and wounded. The Indian loss is unknown.

His retreat sealed the fate of Fort Loudon. The garrison, though hard

pressed and reduced to the necessity of eating horses and dogs, had

been enabled to hold out through the kindness of the Indian women,

many of whom, having found sweethearts among the soldiers, brought

them supplies of food daily. When threatened by the chiefs the women

boldly replied that the soldiers were their husbands and it was their

duty to help them, and that if any harm came to themselves for their

devotion their English relatives would avenge them. [88] The end was

only delayed, however, and on August 8, 1760, the garrison of about

two hundred men, under Captain Demeré, surrendered to Oconostota

on promise that they should be allowed to retire unmolested with

their arms and sufficient ammunition for the march, on condition of

delivering up all the remaining warlike stores.

The troops marched out and proceeded far enough to camp for the night,

while the Indians swarmed into the fort to see what plunder they might

find. "By accident a discovery was made of ten bags of powder and

a large quantity of ball that had been secretly buried in the fort,

to prevent their falling into the enemy's hands" (Hewat). It is said

also that cannon, small arms, and ammunition had been thrown into

the river with the same intention (Haywood). Enraged at this breach

of the capitulation the Cherokee attacked the soldiers next morning

at daylight, killing Demeré and twenty-nine others at the first

fire. The rest were taken and held as prisoners until ransomed some

time after. The second officer, Captain Stuart (13), for whom the

Indians had a high regard, was claimed by Ata-kullakulla, who soon

after took him into the woods, ostensibly on a hunting excursion,

and conducted him for nine days through the wilderness until he

delivered him safely into the hands of friends in Virginia. The

chief's kindness was well rewarded, and it was largely through his

influence that peace was finally brought about.

It was now too late, and the settlements were too much exhausted, for

another expedition, so the fall and winter were employed by the English

in preparations for an active campaign the next year in force to

crush out all resistance. In June 1761, Colonel Grant with an army of

2,600 men, including a number of Chickasaw and almost every remaining

warrior of the Catawba, [89] set out from Fort Prince George. Refusing

a request from Ata-kullakulla for a friendly accommodation, he crossed

Rabun gap and advanced rapidly down the Little Tennessee along the

same trail taken by the expedition of the previous year. On June 10,

when within two miles of Montgomery's battlefield, he encountered

the Cherokee, whom he defeated, although with considerable loss to

himself, after a stubborn engagement lasting several hours. Having

repulsed the Indians, he proceeded on his way, sending out detachments

to the outlying settlements, until in the course of a month he had

destroyed every one of the Middle towns, 15 in all, with all their

granaries and cornfields, driven the inhabitants into the mountains,

and "pushed the frontier seventy miles farther to the west."

The Cherokee were now reduced to the greatest extremity. With some of

their best towns in ashes, their fields and orchards wasted for two

successive years, their ammunition nearly exhausted, many of their

bravest warriors dead, their people fugitives in the mountains, hiding

in caves and living like beasts upon roots or killing their horses for

food, with the terrible scourge of smallpox adding to the miseries of

starvation, and withal torn by factional differences which had existed

from the very beginning of the war--it was impossible for even brave

men to resist longer. In September Ata-kullakulla who had all along

done everything in his power to stay the disaffection, came down to

Charleston, a treaty of peace was made, and the war was ended. From

an estimated population of at least 5,000 warriors some years before,

the Cherokee had now been reduced to about 2,300 men. [90]

In the meantime a force of Virginians under Colonel Stephen had

advanced as far as the Great island of the Holston--now Kingsport,

Tennessee--where they were met by a large delegation of Cherokee,

who sued for peace, which was concluded with them by Colonel Stephen

on November 19, 1761, independently of what was being done in South

Carolina. On the urgent request of the chief that an officer might

visit their people for a short time to cement the new friendship,

Lieutenant Henry Timberlake, a young Virginian who had already

distinguished himself in active service, volunteered to return with

them to their towns, where he spent several months. He afterward

conducted a delegation of chiefs to England, where, as they had come

without authority from the Government, they met such an unpleasant

reception that they returned disgusted. [91]

On the conclusion of peace between England and France in 1763,

by which the whole western territory was ceded to England, a great

council was held at Augusta, which was attended by the chiefs and

principal men of all the southern Indians, at which Captain John

Stuart, superintendent for the southern tribes, together with the

colonial governors of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and

Georgia, explained fully to the Indians the new condition of affairs,

and a treaty of mutual peace and friendship was concluded on November

10 of that year. [92]

Under several leaders, as Walker, Wallen, Smith, and Boon, the tide of

emigration now surged across the mountains in spite of every effort

to restrain it, [93] and the period between the end of the Cherokee

war and the opening of the Revolution is principally notable for a

number of treaty cessions by the Indians, each in fruitless endeavor

to fix a permanent barrier between themselves and the advancing

wave of white settlement. Chief among these was the famous Henderson

purchase in 1775, which included the whole tract between the Kentucky

and Cumberland rivers, embracing the greater part of the present state

of Kentucky. By these treaties the Cherokee were shorn of practically

all their ancient territorial claims north of the present Tennessee

line and east of the Blue ridge and the Savannah, including much

of their best hunting range; their home settlements were, however,

left still in their possession. [94]

As one consequence of the late Cherokee war, a royal proclamation

had been issued in 1763, with a view of checking future encroachments

by the whites, which prohibited any private land purchases from the

Indians, or any granting of warrants for lands west of the sources of

the streams flowing into the Atlantic. [95] In 1768, on the appeal of

the Indians themselves, the British superintendent for the southern

tribes, Captain John Stuart, had negotiated a treaty at Hard Labor

in South Carolina by which Kanawha and New rivers, along their whole

course downward from the North Carolina line, were fixed as the

boundary between the Cherokee and the whites in that direction. In

two years, however, so many borderers had crossed into the Indian

country, where they were evidently determined to remain, that it was

found necessary to substitute another treaty, by which the line was

made to run due south from the mouth of the Kanawha to the Holston,

thus cutting off from the Cherokee almost the whole of their hunting

grounds in Virginia and West Virginia. Two years later, in 1772,

the Virginians demanded a further cession, by which everything east

of Kentucky river was surrendered; and finally, on March 17, 1775,

the great Henderson purchase was consummated, including the whole

tract between the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers. By this last cession

the Cherokee were at last cut off from Ohio river and all their rich

Kentucky hunting grounds. [96]

While these transactions were called treaties, they were really

forced upon the native proprietors, who resisted each in turn and

finally signed only under protest and on most solemn assurances

that no further demands would be made. Even before the purchases

were made, intruders in large numbers had settled upon each of the

tracts in question, and they refused to withdraw across the boundaries

now established, but remained on one pretext or another to await a

new adjustment. This was particularly the case on Watauga and upper

Holston rivers in northeastern Tennessee, where the settlers, finding

themselves still within the Indian boundary and being resolved to

remain, effected a temporary lease from the Cherokee in 1772. As

was expected and intended, the lease became a permanent occupancy,

the nucleus settlement of the future State of Tennessee. [97]

Just before the outbreak of the Revolution, the botanist, William

Bartram, made an extended tour of the Cherokee country, and has

left us a pleasant account of the hospitable character and friendly

disposition of the Indians at that time. He gives a list of forty-three

towns then inhabited by the tribe. [98]

The opening of the great Revolutionary struggle in 1776 found the

Indian tribes almost to a man ranged on the British side against

the Americans. There was good reason for this. Since the fall of

the French power the British government had stood to them as the

sole representative of authority, and the guardian and protector

of their rights against constant encroachments by the American

borderers. Licensed British traders were resident in every tribe and

many had intermarried and raised families among them, while the border

man looked upon the Indian only as a cumberer of the earth. The British

superintendents, Sir William Johnson in the north and Captain John

Stuart in the south, they knew as generous friends, while hardly a

warrior of them all was without some old cause of resentment against

their backwoods neighbors. They felt that the only barrier between

themselves and national extinction was in the strength of the British

government, and when the final severence came they threw their whole

power into the British scale. They were encouraged in this resolution

by presents of clothing and other goods, with promises of plunder

from the settlements and hopes of recovering a portion of their lost

territories. The British government having determined, as early as

June, 1775, to call in the Indians against the Americans, supplies

of hatchets, guns, and ammunition were issued to the warriors of all

the tribes from the lakes to the gulf, and bounties were offered for

American scalps brought in to the commanding officer at Detroit or

Oswego. [99] Even the Six Nations, who had agreed in solemn treaty to

remain neutral, were won over by these persuasions. In August, 1775,

an Indian "talk" was intercepted in which the Cherokee assured Cameron,

the resident agent, that their warriors, enlisted in the service of

the king, were ready at a signal to fall upon the back settlements of

Carolina and Georgia. [100] Circular letters were sent out to all those

persons in the back country supposed to be of royalist sympathies,

directing them to repair to Cameron's headquarters in the Cherokee

country to join the Indians in the invasion of the settlements. [101]

In June, 1776, a British fleet under command of Sir Peter Parker, with

a large naval and military force, attacked Charleston, South Carolina,

both by land and sea, and simultaneously a body of Cherokee, led by

Tories in Indian disguise, came down from the mountains and ravaged

the exposed frontier of South Carolina, killing and burning as they

went. After a gallant defense by the garrison at Charleston the British

were repulsed, whereupon their Indian and Tory allies withdrew. [102]

About the same time the warning came from Nancy Ward (14), a noted

friendly Indian woman of great authority in the Cherokee Nation, that

seven hundred Cherokee warriors were advancing in two divisions against

the Watauga and Holston settlements, with the design of destroying

everything as far up as New river. The Holston men from both sides

of the Virginia line hastily collected under Captain Thompson and

marched against the Indians, whom they met and defeated with signal

loss after a hard-fought battle near the Long island in the Holston

(Kingsport, Tennessee), on August 20. The next day the second division

of the Cherokee attacked the fort at Watauga, garrisoned by only forty

men under Captain James Robertson (15), but was repulsed without loss

to the defenders, the Indians withdrawing on news of the result at

the Long island. A Mrs. Bean and a boy named Moore were captured

on this occasion and carried to one of the Cherokee towns in the

neighborhood of Tellico, where the boy was burned, but the woman,

after she had been condemned to death and everything was in readiness

for the tragedy, was rescued by the interposition of Nancy Ward. Two

other Cherokee detachments moved against the upper settlements at the

same time. One of these, finding all the inhabitants securely shut

up in forts, returned without doing much damage. The other ravaged

the country on Clinch river almost to its head, and killed a man and

wounded others at Black's station, now Abingdon, Virginia. [103]

At the same time that one part of the Cherokee were raiding the

Tennessee settlements others came down upon the frontiers of Carolina

and Georgia. On the upper Catawba they killed many people, but the

whites took refuge in the stockade stations, where they defended

themselves until General Rutherford (16) came to their relief. In

Georgia an attempt had been made by a small party of Americans to

seize Cameron, who lived in one of the Cherokee towns with his Indian

wife, but, as was to have been expected, the Indians interfered,

killing several of the party and capturing others, who were afterward

tortured to death. The Cherokee of the Upper and Middle towns, with

some Creeks and Tories of the vicinity, led by Cameron himself, at

once began ravaging the South Carolina border, burning houses, driving

off cattle, and killing men, women, and children without distinction,

until the whole country was in a wild panic, the people abandoning

their farms to seek safety in the garrisoned forts. On one occasion

an attack by two hundred of the enemy, half of them being Tories,

stripped and painted like Indians, was repulsed by the timely arrival

of a body of Americans, who succeeded in capturing thirteen of the

Tories. The invasion extended into Georgia, where also property was

destroyed and the inhabitants were driven from their homes. [104]

Realizing their common danger, the border states determined to strike

such a concerted blow at the Cherokee as should render them passive

while the struggle with England continued. In accord with this plan

of cooperation the frontier forces were quickly mobilized and in

the summer of 1776 four expeditions were equipped from Virginia,

North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to enter the Cherokee

territory simultaneously from as many different directions.

In August of that year the army of North Carolina, 2,400 strong,

under General Griffith Rutherford, crossed the Blue ridge at Swannanoa

gap, and following the main trail almost along the present line of

the railroad, struck the first Indian town, Stikâ'yi, or Stecoee,

on the Tuckasegee, near the present Whittier. The inhabitants having

fled, the soldiers burned the town, together with an unfinished

townhouse ready for the roof, cut down the standing corn, killed one

or two straggling Indians, and then proceeded on their mission of

destruction. Every town upon Oconaluftee, Tuckasegee, and the upper

part of Little Tennessee, and on Hiwassee to below the junction

of Valley river--thirty-six towns in all--was destroyed in turn,

the corn cut down or trampled under the hoofs of the stock driven

into the fields for that purpose, and the stock itself killed or

carried off. Before such an overwhelming force, supplemented as it

was by three others simultaneously advancing from other directions,

the Cherokee made but poor resistance, and fled with their women

and children into the fastnesses of the Great Smoky mountains,

leaving their desolated fields and smoking towns behind them. As was

usual in Indian wars, the actual number killed or taken was small,

but the destruction of property was beyond calculation. At Sugartown

(Kûlsetsi'yi, east of the present Franklin) one detachment, sent to

destroy it, was surprised, and escaped only through the aid of another

force sent to its rescue. Rutherford himself, while proceeding to the

destruction of the Hiwassee towns, encountered the Indians drawn up

to oppose his progress in the Waya gap of the Nantahala mountains,

and one of the hardest fights of the campaign resulted, the soldiers

losing over forty killed and wounded, although the Cherokee were

finally repulsed (17). One of the Indians killed on this occasion

was afterward discovered to be a woman, painted and armed like a

warrior. [105]

On September 26 the South Carolina army, 1,860 strong, under Colonel

Andrew Williamson, and including a number of Catawba Indians, effected

a junction with Rutherford's forces on Hiwassee river, near the present

Murphy, North Carolina. It had been expected that Williamson would join

the northern army at Cowee, on the Little Tennessee, when they would

proceed together against the western towns, but he had been delayed,

and the work of destruction in that direction was already completed,

so that after a short rest each army returned home along the route

by which it had come.

The South Carolina men had centered by different detachments in the

lower Cherokee towns about the head of Savannah river, burning one

town after another, cutting down the peach trees and ripened corn,

and having an occasional brush with the Cherokee, who hung constantly

upon their flanks. At the town of Seneca, near which they encountered

Cameron with his Indians and Tories, they had destroyed six thousand

bushels of corn, besides other food stores, after burning all the

houses, the Indians having retreated after a stout resistance. The

most serious encounter had taken place at Tomassee, where several

whites and sixteen Cherokee were killed, the latter being all scalped

afterward. Having completed the ruin of the Lower towns, Williamson

had crossed over Rabun gap and descended into the valley of the

Little Tennessee to cooperate with Rutherford in the destruction

of the Middle and Valley towns. As the army advanced every house

in every settlement met was burned--ninety houses in one settlement

alone--and detachments were sent into the fields to destroy the corn,

of which the smallest town was estimated to have two hundred acres,

besides potatoes, beans, and orchards of peach trees. The stores of

dressed deerskins and other valuables were carried off. Everything

was swept clean, and the Indians who were not killed or taken were

driven, homeless refugees, into the dark recesses of Nantahala or

painfully made their way across to the Overhill towns in Tennessee,

which were already menaced by another invasion from the north. [106]

In July, while Williamson was engaged on the the upper Savannah,

a force of two hundred Georgians, under Colonel Samuel Jack, had

marched in the same direction and succeeded in burning two towns on

the heads of Chattahoochee and Tugaloo rivers, destroying the corn

and driving off the cattle, without the loss of a man, the Cherokee

having apparently fallen back to concentrate for resistance in the

mountains. [107]

The Virginia army, about two thousand strong, under Colonel William

Christian (18), rendezvoused in August at the Long island of the

Holston, the regular gathering place on the Tennessee side of the

mountains. Among them were several hundred men from North Carolina,

with all who could be spared from the garrisons on the Tennessee

side. Paying but little attention to small bodies of Indians, who

tried to divert attention or to delay progress by flank attacks,

they advanced steadily, but cautiously, along the great Indian warpath

(19) toward the crossing of the French Broad, where a strong force of

Cherokee was reported to be in waiting to dispute their passage. Just

before reaching the river the Indians sent a Tory trader with a

flag of truce to discuss terms. Knowing that his own strength was

overwhelming, Christian allowed the envoy to go through the whole camp

and then sent him back with the message that there could be no terms

until the Cherokee towns had been destroyed. Arriving at the ford,

he kindled fires and made all preparations as if intending to camp

there for several days. As soon as night fell, however, he secretly

drew off half his force and crossed the river lower down, to come upon

the Indians in their rear. This was a work of great difficulty; as the

water was so deep that it came up almost to the shoulders of the men,

while the current was so rapid that they were obliged to support each

other four abreast to prevent being swept off their feet. However,

they kept their guns and powder dry. On reaching the other side they

were surprised to find no enemy. Disheartened at the strength of the

invasion, the Indians had fled without even a show of resistance. It

is probable that nearly all their men and resources had been drawn

off to oppose the Carolina forces on their eastern border, and the

few who remained felt themselves unequal to the contest.

Advancing without opposition, Christian reached the towns on Little

Tennessee early in November, and, finding them deserted, proceeded to

destroy them, one after another, with their outlying fields. The few

lingering warriors discovered were all killed. In the meantime messages

had been sent out to the farther towns, in response to which several

of their head men came into Christian's camp to treat for peace. On

their agreement to surrender all the prisoners and captured stock

in their hands and to cede to the whites all the disputed territory

occupied by the Tennessee settlements, as soon as representatives of

the whole tribe could be assembled in the spring, Christian consented

to suspend hostilities and retire without doing further injury. An

exception was made against Tuskegee and another town, which had been

concerned in the burning of the boy taken from Watauga, already noted,

and these two were reduced to ashes. The sacred "peace town," Echota

(20), had not been molested. Most of the troops were disbanded on

their return to the Long island, but a part remained and built Fort

Patrick Henry, where they went into winter quarters. [108]

From incidental notices in narratives written by some of the

participants, we obtain interesting side-lights on the merciless

character of this old border warfare. In addition to the ordinary

destruction of war--the burning of towns, the wasting of fruitful

fields, and the killing of the defenders--we find that every Indian

warrior killed was scalped, when opportunity permitted; women, as

well as men, were shot down and afterward "helped to their end";

and prisoners taken were put up at auction as slaves when not killed

on the spot. Near Tomassee a small party of Indians was surrounded

and entirely cut off. "Sixteen were found dead in the valley when

the battle ended. These our men scalped." In a personal encounter

"a stout Indian engaged a sturdy young white man, who was a good

bruiser and expert at gouging. After breaking their guns on each

other they laid hold of one another, when the cracker had his thumbs

instantly in the fellow's eyes, who roared and cried 'canaly'--enough,

in English. 'Damn you,' says the white man, 'you can never have

enough while you are alive.' He then threw him down, set his foot

upon his head, and scalped him alive; then took up one of the broken

guns and knocked out his brains. It would have been fun if he had

let the latter action alone and sent him home without his nightcap,

to tell his countrymen how he had been treated." Later on some of

the same detachment (Williamson's) seeing a woman ahead, fired on

her and brought her down with two serious wounds, but yet able to

speak. After getting what information she could give them, through a

half-breed interpreter, "the informer being unable to travel, some of

our men favored her so far that they killed her there, to put her out

of pain." A few days later "a party of Colonel Thomas's regiment,

being on a hunt of plunder, or some such thing, found an Indian

squaw and took her prisoner, she being lame, was unable to go with

her friends. She was so sullen that she would, as an old saying is,

neither lead nor drive, and by their account she died in their hands;

but I suppose they helped her to her end." At this place--on the

Hiwassee--they found a large town, having "upwards of ninety houses,

and large quantities of corn," and "we encamped among the corn, where

we had a great plenty of corn, peas, beans, potatoes, and hogs," and

on the next day "we were ordered to assemble in companies to spread

through the town to destroy, cut down, and burn all the vegetables

belonging to our heathen enemies, which was no small undertaking,

they being so plentifully supplied." Continuing to another town,

"we engaged in our former labor, that is, cutting and destroying

all things that might be of advantage to our enemies. Finding here

curious buildings, great apple trees, and white-man-like improvements,

these we destroyed." [109]

While crossing over the mountains Rutherford's men approached a

house belonging to a trader, when one of his negro slaves ran out

and "was shot by the Reverend James Hall, the chaplain, as he ran,

mistaking him for an Indian." [110] Soon after they captured two

women and a boy. It was proposed to auction them off at once to

the highest bidder, and when one of the officers protested that the

matter should be left to the disposition of Congress, "the greater

part swore bloodily that if they were not sold for slaves upon the

spot they would kill and scalp them immediately." The prisoners were

accordingly sold for about twelve hundred dollars. [111]

At the Wolf Hills settlement, now Abingdon, Virginia, a party sent

out from the fort returned with the scalps of eleven warriors. Having

recovered the books which their minister had left behind in his cabin,

they held a service of prayer for their success, after which the fresh

scalps were hung upon a pole above the gate of the fort. The barbarous

custom of scalping to which the border men had become habituated in

the earlier wars was practiced upon every occasion when opportunity

presented, at least upon the bodies of warriors, and the South Carolina

legislature offered a bounty of seventy-five pounds for every warrior's

scalp, a higher reward, however, being offered for prisoners. [112] In

spite of all the bitterness which the war aroused there seems to be no

record of any scalping of Tories or other whites by the Americans (21).

The effect upon the Cherokee of this irruption of more than

six thousand armed enemies into their territory was well nigh

paralyzing. More than fifty of their towns had been burned, their

orchards cut down, their fields wasted, their cattle and horses

killed or driven off, their stores of buckskin and other personal

property plundered. Hundreds of their people had been killed or had

died of starvation and exposure, others were prisoners in the hands

of the Americans, and some had been sold into slavery. Those who

had escaped were fugitives in the mountains, living upon acorns,

chestnuts, and wild game, or were refugees with the British. [113]

From the Virginia line to the Chattahoochee the chain of destruction

was complete. For the present at least any further resistance was

hopeless, and they were compelled to sue for peace.

By a treaty concluded at DeWitts Corners in South Carolina on May 20,

1777, the first ever made with the new states, the Lower Cherokee

surrendered to the conqueror all of their remaining territory in South

Carolina, excepting a narrow strip along the western boundary. Just

two months later, on July 20, by treaty at the Long island, as had

been arranged by Christian in the preceding fall, the Middle and Upper

Cherokee ceded everything east of the Blue ridge, together with all

the disputed territory on the Watauga, Nolichucky, upper Holston,

and New rivers. By this second treaty also Captain James Robertson

was appointed agent for the Cherokee, to reside at Echota, to watch

their movements, recover any captured property, and prevent their

correspondence with persons unfriendly to the American cause. As the

Federal government was not yet in perfect operation these treaties

were negotiated by commissioners from the four states adjoining the

Cherokee country, the territory thus acquired being parceled out to

South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. [114]

While the Cherokee Nation had thus been compelled to a treaty of peace,

a very considerable portion of the tribe was irreconcilably hostile

to the Americans and refused to be a party to the late cessions,

especially on the Tennessee side. Although Ata-kullakulla sent word

that he was ready with five hundred young warriors to fight for the

Americans against the English or Indian enemy whenever called upon,

Dragging-canoe (Tsiyu-gûnsi'ni), who had led the opposition against

the Watauga settlements, declared that he would hold fast to Cameron's

talk and continue to make war upon those who had taken his hunting

grounds. Under his leadership some hundreds of the most warlike and

implacable warriors of the tribe, with their families, drew out from

the Upper and Middle towns and moved far down upon Tennessee river,

where they established new settlements on Chickamauga creek, in the

neighborhood of the present Chattanooga. The locality appears to

have been already a rendezvous for a sort of Indian banditti, who

sometimes plundered boats disabled in the rapids at this point while

descending the river. Under the name "Chickamaugas" they soon became

noted for their uncompromising and never-ceasing hostility. In 1782, in

consequence of the destruction of their towns by Sevier and Campbell,

they abandoned this location and moved farther down the river, where

they built, what were afterwards known as the "five lower towns," viz,

Running Water, Nickajack, Long Island, Crow town, and Lookout Mountain

town. These were all on the extreme western Cherokee frontier, near

where Tennessee river crosses the state line, the first three being

within the present limits of Tennessee, while Lookout Mountain town

and Crow town were respectively in the adjacent corners of Georgia

and Alabama. Their population was recruited from Creeks, Shawano, and

white Tories, until they were estimated at a thousand warriors. Here

they remained, a constant thorn in the side of Tennessee, until their

towns were destroyed in 1794. [115]

The expatriated Lower Cherokee also removed to the farthest western

border of their tribal territory, where they might hope to be secure

from encroachment for a time at least, and built new towns for

themselves on the upper waters of the Coosa. Twenty years afterward

Hawkins found the population of Willstown, in extreme western Georgia,

entirely made up of refugees from the Savannah, and the children so

familiar from their parents with stories of Williamson's invasion

that they ran screaming from the face of a white man (22). [116]

In April, 1777, the legislature of North Carolina, of which Tennessee

was still a part, authorized bounties of land in the new territory

to all able-bodied men who should volunteer against the remaining

hostile Cherokee. Under this act companies of rangers were kept

along the exposed border to cut off raiding parties of Indians and to

protect the steady advance of the pioneers, with the result that the

Tennessee settlements enjoyed a brief respite and were even able to

send some assistance to their brethren in Kentucky, who were sorely

pressed by the Shawano and other northern tribes. [117]

The war between England and the colonies still continued, however,

and the British government was unremitting in its effort to secure the

active assistance of the Indians. With the Creeks raiding the Georgia

and South Carolina frontier, and with a British agent, Colonel Brown,

and a number of Tory refugees regularly domiciled at Chickamauga,

[118] it was impossible for the Cherokee long to remain quiet. In the

spring of 1779 the warning came from Robertson, stationed at Echota,

that three hundred warriors from Chickamauga had started against the

back-settlements of North Carolina. Without a day's delay the states

of North Carolina (including Tennessee) and Virginia united to send

a strong force of volunteers against them under command of Colonels

Shelby and Montgomery. Descending the Holston in April in a fleet of

canoes built for the occasion, they took the Chickamauga towns so

completely by surprise that the few warriors remaining fled to the

mountains without attempting to give battle. Several were killed,

Chickamauga and the outlying villages were burned, twenty thousand

bushels of corn were destroyed and large numbers of horses and cattle

captured, together with a great quantity of goods sent by the British

Governor Hamilton at Detroit for distribution to the Indians. The

success of this expedition frustrated the execution of a project by

Hamilton for uniting all the northern and southern Indians, to be

assisted by British regulars, in a concerted attack along the whole

American frontier. On learning, through runners, of the blow that had

befallen them, the Chickamauga warriors gave up all idea of invading

the settlements, and returned to their wasted villages. [119] They,

as well as the Creeks, however, kept in constant communication with

the British commander in Savannah. In this year also a delegation of

Cherokee visited the Ohio towns to offer condolences on the death of

the noted Delaware chief, White-eyes. [120]

In the early spring of 1780 a large company of emigrants under

Colonel John Donelson descended the Holston and the Tennessee to the

Ohio, whence they ascended the Cumberland, effected a junction with

another party under Captain James Robertson, which had just arrived

by a toilsome overland route, and made the first settlement on the

present site of Nashville. In passing the Chickamauga towns they

had run the gauntlet of the hostile Cherokee, who pursued them for a

considerable distance beyond the whirlpool known as the Suck, where

the river breaks through the mountain. The family of a man named

Stuart being infected with the smallpox, his boat dropped behind,

and all on board, twenty-eight in number, were killed or taken by the

Indians, their cries being distinctly heard by their friends ahead who

were unable to help them. Another boat having run upon the rocks, the

three women in it, one of whom had become a mother the night before,

threw the cargo into the river, and then, jumping into the water,

succeeded in pushing the boat into the current while the husband of

one of them kept the Indians at bay with his rifle. The infant was

killed in the confusion. Three cowards attempted to escape, without

thought of their companions. One was drowned in the river; the other

two were captured and carried to Chickamauga, where one was burned and

the other was ransomed by a trader. The rest went on their way to found

the capital of a new commonwealth. [121] As if in retributive justice,

the smallpox broke out in the Chickamauga band in consequence of the

capture of Stuart's family, causing the death of a great number. [122]

The British having reconquered Georgia and South Carolina and destroyed

all resistance in the south, early in 1780 Cornwallis, with his

subordinates, Ferguson and the merciless Tarleton, prepared to invade

North Carolina and sweep the country northward to Virginia. The Creeks

under McGillivray (23), and a number of the Cherokee under various

local chiefs, together with the Tories, at once joined his standard.

While the Tennessee backwoodsmen were gathered at a barbecue to

contest for a shooting prize, a paroled prisoner brought a demand

from Ferguson for their submission; with the threat, if they refused,

that he would cross the mountains, hang their leaders, kill every man

found in arms and burn every settlement. Up to this time the mountain

men had confined their effort to holding in check the Indian enemy,

but now, with the fate of the Revolution at stake, they felt that the

time for wider action had come. They resolved not to await the attack,

but to anticipate it. Without order or authority from Congress, without

tents, commissary, or supplies, the Indian fighters of Virginia, North

Carolina, and Tennessee quickly assembled at the Sycamore shoals of

the Watauga to the number of about one thousand men under Campbell of

Virginia, Sevier (24) and Shelby of Tennessee, and McDowell of North

Carolina. Crossing the mountains, they met Ferguson at Kings mountain

in South Carolina on October 7, 1780, and gained the decisive victory

that turned the tide of the Revolution in the South. [123]

It is in place here to quote a description of these men in buckskin,

white by blood and tradition, but half Indian in habit and instinct,

who, in half a century of continuous conflict, drove back Creeks,

Cherokee, and Shawano, and with one hand on the plow and the other

on the rifle redeemed a wilderness and carried civilization and free

government to the banks of the Mississippi.

"They were led by leaders they trusted, they were wonted to Indian

warfare, they were skilled as horsemen and marksmen, they knew how

to face every kind of danger, hardship, and privation. Their fringed

and tasseled hunting shirts were girded by bead-worked belts, and the

trappings of their horses were stained red and yellow. On their heads

they wore caps of coon skin or mink skin, with the tails hanging down,

or else felt hats, in each of which was thrust a buck tail or a sprig

of evergreen. Every man carried a small-bore rifle, a tomahawk, and

a scalping knife. A very few of the officers had swords, and there

was not a bayonet nor a tent in the army." [124]

To strike the blow at Kings mountain the border men had been forced

to leave their own homes unprotected. Even before they could cross

the mountains on their return the news came that the Cherokee were

again out in force for the destruction of the upper settlements, and

their numerous small bands were killing, burning, and plundering in the

usual Indian fashion. Without loss of time the Holston settlements of

Virginia and Tennessee at once raised seven hundred mounted riflemen

to march against the enemy, the command being assigned to Colonel

Arthur Campbell of Virginia and Colonel John Sevier of Tennessee.

Sevier started first with nearly three hundred men, going south

along the great Indian war trail and driving small parties of the

Cherokee before him, until he crossed the French Broad and came upon

seventy of them on Boyds creek, not far from the present Sevierville,

on December 16, 1780. Ordering his men to spread out into a half

circle, he sent ahead some scouts, who, by an attack and feigned

retreat, managed to draw the Indians into the trap thus prepared,

with the result that they left thirteen dead and all their plunder,

while not one of the whites was even wounded. [125]

A few days later Sevier was joined by Campbell with the remainder

of the force. Advancing to the Little Tennessee with but slight

resistance, they crossed three miles below Echota while the Indians

were watching for them at the ford above. Then dividing into two

bodies, they proceeded to destroy the towns along the river. The

chiefs sent peace talks through Nancy Ward, the Cherokee woman

who had so befriended the whites in 1776, but to these overtures

Campbell returned an evasive answer until he could first destroy

the towns on lower Hiwassee, whose warriors had been particularly

hostile. Continuing southward, the troops destroyed these towns,

Hiwassee and Chestuee, with all their stores of provisions, finishing

the work on the last day of the year. The Indians had fled before

them, keeping spies out to watch their movements. One of these,

while giving signals from a ridge by beating a drum, was shot by

the whites. The soldiers lost only one man, who was buried in an

Indian cabin which was then burned down to conceal the trace of

the interment. The return march was begun on New Year's day. Ten

principal towns, including Echota, the capital, had been destroyed,

besides several smaller villages, containing in the aggregate over

one thousand houses, and not less than fifty thousand bushels of corn

and large stores of other provision. Everything not needed on the

return march was committed to the flames or otherwise wasted. Of all

the towns west of the mountains only Talassee, and one or two about

Chickamauga or on the headwaters of the Coosa, escaped. The whites

had lost only one man killed and two wounded. Before the return a

proclamation was sent to the Cherokee chiefs, warning them to make

peace on penalty of a worse visitation. [126]

Some Cherokee who met them at Echota, on the return march, to talk

of peace, brought in and surrendered several white prisoners. [127]

One reason for the slight resistance made by the Indians was probably

the fact that at the very time of the invasion many of their warriors

were away, raiding on the Upper Holston and in the neighborhood of

Cumberland gap. [128]

Although the Upper or Overhill Cherokee were thus humbled, those of the

middle towns, on the head waters of Little Tennessee, still continued

to send out parties against the back settlements. Sevier determined to

make a sudden stroke upon them, and early in March of the same year,

1781, with 150 picked horsemen, he started to cross the Great Smoky

mountains over trails never before attempted by white men, and so

rough in places that it was hardly possible to lead horses. Falling

unexpectedly upon Tuckasegee, near the present Webster, North Carolina,

he took the town completely by surprise, killing several warriors

and capturing a number of women and children. Two other principal

towns and three smaller settlements were taken in the same way,

with a quantity of provision and about 200 horses, the Indians

being entirely off their guard and unprepared to make any effective

resistance. Having spread destruction through the middle towns,

with the loss to himself of only one man killed and another wounded,

he was off again as suddenly as he had come, moving so rapidly that

he was well on his homeward way before the Cherokee could gather for

pursuit. [129] At the same time a smaller Tennessee expedition went

out to disperse the Indians who had been making headquarters in the

mountains about Cumberland gap and harassing travelers along the road

to Kentucky. [130] Numerous indications of Indians were found, but

none were met, although the country was scoured for a considerable

distance. [131] In summer the Cherokee made another incursion, this

time upon the new settlements on the French Broad, near the present

Newport, Tennessee. With a hundred horsemen Sevier fell suddenly upon

their camp on Indian creek, killed a dozen warriors, and scattered the

rest. [132] By these successive blows the Cherokee were so worn out and

dispirited that they were forced to sue for peace, and in midsummer of

1781 a treaty of peace--doubtful though it might be--was negotiated

at the Long island of the Holston. [133] The respite came just in

time to allow the Tennesseeans to send a detachment against Cornwallis.

Although there was truce in Tennessee, there was none in the South. In

November of this year the Cherokee made a sudden inroad upon the

Georgia settlements, destroying everything in their way. In retaliation

a force under General Pickens marched into their country, destroying

their towns as far as Valley river. Finding further progress blocked by

heavy snows and learning through a prisoner that the Indians, who had

retired before him, were collecting to oppose him in the mountains, he

withdrew, as he says, "through absolute necessity," having accomplished

very little of the result expected. Shortly afterward the Cherokee,

together with some Creeks, again invaded Georgia, but were met on

Oconee river and driven back by a detachment of American troops. [134]

The Overhill Cherokee, on lower Little Tennessee, seem to have been

trying in good faith to hold to the peace established at the Long

island. Early in 1781 the government land office had been closed

to further entries, not to be opened again until peace had been

declared with England, but the borderers paid little attention to

the law in such matters, and the rage for speculation in Tennessee

lands grew stronger daily. [135] In the fall of 1782 the chief, Old

Tassel of Echota, on behalf of all the friendly chiefs and towns,

sent a pathetic talk to the governors of Virginia and North Carolina,

complaining that in spite of all their efforts to remain quiet the

settlers were constantly encroaching upon them, and had built houses

within a day's walk of the Cherokee towns. They asked that all those

whites who had settled beyond the boundary last established should

be removed. [136] As was to have been expected, this was never done.

The Chickamauga band, however, and those farther to the south, were

still bent on war, being actively encouraged in that disposition by the

British agents and refugee loyalists living among them. They continued

to raid both north and south, and in September, 1782, Sevier, with 200

mounted men, again made a descent upon their towns, destroying several

of their settlements about Chickamauga creek, and penetrating as far

as the important town of Ustana'li, on the headwaters of Coosa river,

near the present Calhoun, Georgia. This also he destroyed. Every

warrior found was killed, together with a white man found in one of

the towns, whose papers showed that he had been active in inciting

the Indians to war. On the return the expedition halted at Echota,

where new assurances were received from the friendly element. [137]

In the meantime a Georgia expedition of over 400 men, under General

Pickens, had been ravaging the Cherokee towns in the same quarter,

with such effect that the Cherokee were forced to purchase peace

by a further surrender of territory on the head of Broad river in

Georgia. [138] This cession was concluded at a treaty of peace held

with the Georgia commissioners at Augusta in the next year, and was

confirmed later by the Creeks, who claimed an interest in the same

lands, but was never accepted by either as the voluntary act of their

tribe as a whole. [139]

By the preliminary treaty of Paris, November 30, 1782, the long

Revolutionary struggle for independence was brought to a close, and

the Cherokee, as well as the other tribes, seeing the hopelessness

of continuing the contest alone, began to sue for peace. By seven

years of constant warfare they had been reduced to the lowest depth of

misery, almost indeed to the verge of extinction. Over and over again

their towns had been laid in ashes and their fields wasted. Their best

warriors had been killed and their women and children had sickened and

starved in the mountains. Their great war chief, Oconostota, who had

led them to victory in 1780, was now a broken old man, and in this

year, at Echota, formally resigned his office in favor of his son,

The Terrapin. To complete their brimming cup of misery the smallpox

again broke out among them in 1783. [140] Deprived of the assistance

of their former white allies they were left to their own cruel fate,

the last feeble resistance of the mountain warriors to the advancing

tide of settlement came to an end with the burning of Cowee town,

[141] and the way was left open to an arrangement. In the same year

the North Carolina legislature appointed an agent for the Cherokee

and made regulations for the government of traders among them. [142]