Franklin Township (part 2 of 19)

"The proprietors of Carolina, disaatisfiRd with their own system, applied lo the celebrated Mr. Ixvke for the plan of a constitution. They thiit this profoand and accurate reasoner munt be deeply skilled in the science of guvernmcnL In com^iliance with their request, he frnmed a body of fundamental laws, which were approved and adopted. A palatine for life was to be chosen from among the propriotoTB, who was to act as president of the paktine court, which waa to be composed of all those who were entrusted with the execution of the IMS -! granted by the charter. A body of hereditary nobility j was created, to be denominated landgrares and caciquex, the former to be invested with four baronies, consisting each of four thouaand acres, and the latter to have two, contaiLing each two thousand acres of land. These estates were to descend with the dignities forever. The provincial legislature, den^minaU^d a parliament, nas to consist of the proprietors, in the absence of any one of whom his place was to bo aupplied by a deputy appointed by himself, of the nobility, and of the representatives of the freeholders, who were elected by districts. These discordant materials were to compose a single body, which could initiate nothing. The bills to be laid before it were to be prepared in a grand council, composed of the goii'emor, the nobility, and the deputies of the proprietors, who were invested also with the execative powers. At the end of every century, the laws were to become vdd without the fbmtality of a repeal. Various judicatories were erected, and numerous miaiite perplexing regulations were made."

it produced was increased by a rurooor that the proprieton designed to dismember the province. At length these diseon* tents broke oat into open insurrection, and resulted, as h been narrated, in the establishment, under Culpeper, of independent government. Thus furnishing, in the language of the same writer, additional evidence to the many affotded by history, of the great but neglected truth, that ezperienee is the only safe school in which the science of government is to be acquired, and that the theories of the closet roust have the stamp of practice, before they can be received with imp* plicit confidence. The truth is, the people of Albemarle were, perhaps of all communities, the least favourable for a fair experiment of the philosophic system of Mr. Locke. It contained scarcely a single feature suited to the wants of a primitive people. Most of its provisions were in conflict with their interests. They needed little legislation and less goTemment, and heretofore they had legislated for and governed themselves. ** The representative principle, indeed the right of self-government, seems to have been, if not an inheritance to the Carolina colonists, certainly cognate and inborn. Thej were the * freest of the free.' Self-government was epidemie to them. It was inherited from them. It has descended without allov or adulteration to their descendants bevondthe mountain. Its contagion has afiected the original territorial boundaries of Carolina, has crossed the Mississippi, pervades all Texas, approaches Mexico and^alifornia, and can have its ardour quenched only by the waves of the Pacific. From the germ at Albemarle sprang, remotely, our independence ; and the seed sown in 1677, although it required the culture of ninety-eight years to bring it to maturity, continued to vegetate, till it produced the rich harvest of American ind^ pendence." * discontents in Virginia assumed a serious aspect ; and about the same time that Gulpeper was revolutionizing Albemarle, a rebellion appeared at Jamestown, and was headed by Bacon, a member of the council. It was so far successful as to produce the flight of Governor Berkeley from the capital, a convention of the people, a new election of burgesses, and a new government. A civil war followed ; the insurgents burned Jamestown, and would probably have entirely subverted the authority of the governor, but for the sudden death of their daring leader.

The pacification which followed the death of Bacon, was itnn S ^^^o^P^oi^d "^i^b increased emigration and an exten- I sion of the settlements into the valley of Virginia. In 1090, they reached to the Blue Ridge, and explorations of the distant West were soon after undertaken. " Early in his ad- \ IW4 S n^J'^^^ration, Colonel Alexander Spotswood, Lieu- ^

( tenant-Governor of Virginia, was the first who passed the Apalachian mountains, or Great Blue Hills, and the gentlemen, his attendants, were called Knights of the Horseshoe, having discovered a horse pass," * ** Some rivers have been discovered on the west side of the Apalachian mountains, which fall into the River Ohio, which falls into the River Mississippi below the River Illinois." f It is said that Governor Spotswood passed Cumberland Gap during his tour of exploration, and gave the name to that celebrated pass, the mountain and the river, which they have ever since borne.

Intestine wars prevailed among the numerous Indian tribes in Carolina, and the colonists, as the means of their own security, had fomented these disputes between the natives. As early as 1693, twenty chiefs of the Cherokee nation waited upon Governor Smith, and solicited the protection of his government against the Esaw and Congaree (Coosaw) % Indians, who had lately invaded their country and taken prisoners. The governor Expressing a disposition to cultivate their friendship, promised to do what he could for their defence. In 1711, the Tuscaroras, Corees, and other tribes, attempted the extermination of the settlers upon Roanoke. One hundred and thirty-seven were massacred. The news of the disaster reaching Charleston, Governor Craven sent Colonel Barnwell, with six, hundred militia and nearly four hundred Indians, to their relief. These allies consisted, in part, of the Cherokees and Creeks. The Tuscaroras were subdued, and the hostile part of the tribe emigrated to the vicinity of Oneida Lake, and became the sixth nation of the Iroquois confederacy. ** Thus the power of the natives was broken, and the interior forests became safe places of resort to the emigrant.'^ *

The alliance between the colonists of Carolina and the aboriginal inhabitants, perhaps never cordial, was certainly of short duration. In less than five years after Colonel Barnwell's expedition against the Tuscaroras, every Indian tribe, from Florida to Cape Fear, had united in a confederacy for the destruction of the settlements in Carolina. The Con** garees, Catawbas, Cherokees and Creeks, had joined the Yamassees in this conspiracy. They had recently received presents, and guns and ammunition from the Spaniards at St. Augustine ; and it has been supposed that the defection of the Indians may be traced to their authority and seductive influence. The confederates, after spreading slaughter and desolation through the unsuspecting settlements, were met by 1716 ^ Governor Craven at Salkehachie, and defeated and I driven across the Savannah.

In 1 71 9, a domestic revolution took place in the southern part of Carolina. The proprietary government had, from the operation of several causes, become unpopular with the people. An association was therefore formed for uniting the whole province against the government of the proprietors, and '' to stand by their rights and privileges." The members elected to the assembly '' voted themselves a convention dele* gated by the people, and resolved on having a governor of their own choosing." The new form of government went into operation without the least confusion or-struggle.f in the valley of the Mississippi, and established New-Orleans npon its bank. It had become evident that their intention was, not only to monopolize the Indian traffic in the West, but by a chain of forts on the great passes from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, to confine the English colonies to narrow limits along the coast of the Atlantic, and, by their influence with the natives, to^ retard their growth and check their expansion westward. Traders from Carolina had already penetrated to the country of the Chickasaws and Choctaws, but had been driven from the villages of the latter by the influence of Bienville, of Louisiana. By prior discovery, if not by conquest or occupancy, France claimed the whole valley of the Mississippi. '' Louisiana stretched to tlfe head-springs of the Alleghany and the Monongahela, of the Kenhawa and the Tennessee. Half a mile from the head of the southern branch of the Savannah river is Herbert's Spring, which flows to the Mississippi ; strangers* who drank of it would say they had tasted of French waters.^' This remark of Adair may probably explain the English name of the principal tributary of the Holston. Traders and hunters from Carolina, in exploring the country and passing from the head waters of Broad river, of Carolina, and falling upon those of the stream with which they inosculate west of the mountain, would hear of the French claim, as Adair did, and call it, most naturally, French Broad.

M. Charleville, a French trader from Crozafs colony at 1114 \ New-Orleans, came among the Shawnees then inhab- I iting the country upon the Cumberland river, and traded with them. His store was built upon a mound near the present site of Nashville, on the west side of Cumberland river, near French Lick Creek, and about seventy yards from each stream. M. Charleville thiis planted upon the banks of the Cumberland the germ of civilization and commerce, unconscious that it contained the seminal principle of future wealth, consequence and empire.

built and garrisoned Fort Toalouse, Tombeckbee, in the country of the Ghoctaws, Assumption, on the Chickasaw Bluff, and Paducah, at jthe mouth of Cumberland, and trading posts at different points along the Tennessee riveri indicated future conflict of territorial rights, if not aggression and hostility between the English and French colonies. Colonial rivalry prompted each to ingratiate itself with and secure the trade and friendship of the native tribes.

In pursuance of this policy. Governor Nicholson, in 1721, sent a message to the Cherokees, inviting them to a general congress, in order to treat of friendship and commerce. The chieftains of thirty-seven different towns met him. He made them presents, smoked with them the pipe of peace, laid off their boundaries, and appointed an agent to superintend their affairs. With the Creeks he also made a treaty of commerce and peace, and appointed an agent to reside among them. In 1730, the projects of the French, for uniting Canada and Louisiana, began to be developed. Already had they extended themselves northwardly from the Gulf of Mexico, and had made many friends among the Indians west of Carolina. To counteract their intentions, it was the wish of Great Britain to convert the Indians into allies or subjects, and to make with them treaties of union and alliance. For this purpose. Sir Alexander Cumming was sent out to treat with the Cherokees, who then occupied the lands about the head of Savannah and backward among the Apalachian mountains. They were computed to amount to more than twenty thousand, six thousand of whom were warriors. Sir \ Alexander having summoned the Lower, Middle, Valley I and Over-hill settlements, met in April the chiefs of all the Cherokee towns at Nequassee,''^ informed them by whose authority he was sent, and demanded of them to acknowledge themselves the subjects of his sovereign. King George, and to promise obedience to his authority. Upon which the chiefs, falling on their knees, solemnly promised obedience and fidelity, calling upon all that was terrible to fall upon them if they violated their promise. Sir Alexander then, by their unanimons consent, nominated Moytoy* commander and chief of the Cherokee nation. The crown was brought from Tenassee,t their chief town, which, with five eagle tails and four scalps of their enemies, Moytoy presented to Sir Alexander, requesting him, on his arrival at Britain, to lay them at his majesty's feet. But Sir Alexander proposed to Moytoy, that he should depute some of his chiefs to accompany him to England, and do homage in person to the great king Six of them, accordingly, did accompany him, and, being admitted to the royal presence, promised, in the name of their nation, to continue forever his majesty's faithful and obedient subjects.;]; A treaty was then drawn up and executed formally,§ of friendship, alliance and commerce. With- ' oat mentioning the Spaniards and French, it is plain that some of its provisions were intended to exclude their traders from any participation in trafiic with the Cherokees, and to prevent any settlements or forts from being made by them in their country. In consequence of this treaty, a condition of friendship and .peace continued for many years between this tribe and the colonists.

In 1732, the colony of Georgia was projected, and the governor of it, Oglethorpe, effected a treaty with the Lower and Upper Creeks, a large tribe, numbering together betweea twenty and thirty thousand. To-mo-chi-chi was their chief, and with his queen and other Indians accompanied Oglethorpe to London. This alliance of the Creeks and Cherokees with the colonists promised security from the approaches of the Spanish and French in Florida and Louisiana.

These treaties, however, were not considered sufficient guarantees to the southern English colonies of permanent security and quiet. The tribes with which they had been negotiated were in close proximity with rfval nations, and f TUs M the first place in any of the authorities we have consulted, that Tenaasee is meatiooed. The town, thus called, was on the west bank of the present Little Tennessee river, a few miles above the mouth of Tellico, and afterward gmve the name to Tennessee river and to the state.

were easily seduced from their fidelity to a distant monaral^ i by the machinations of French emissaries amongst tbedu j It was, therefore, deemed necessary to adopt further measurfli of protection and defence against future defection and attadb The Carotin as and Georgia were now royal provinces. . Tto crown had already granted them many favours and indiit gences for promoting their success and prosperity, and Ibr. securing them against external enemies. What further t^ vours they expected, may be learned from a memorial aoA representation of the condition of Carolina transmitted to his majesty, bearing date April 9, 1734, and signed by tlitt governor, president of the council, and the speaker of' assembly.* The memorial, after enumerating instances the royal care and protection of these distant parts of dominion, represents -

" That being the southern frontier of aU his American po6ses8ioil%i they are peculiarly exposed to danger from tlie strong castle of Bt^^ Augustine, garrisoned by fuur hundred Spaniards, who have seven! ] nations of Indians under their subjection ; that the French have erectsA^ a considerable town near Fort Thoulous on Mobile river, and sev^il ' other forts and garrisons, somt* of which are not above three hundred miles from their settlement, and that their poss<^ons upon the Miaaiisippi are strengthened by constant accessions from Canada ; that thev garrisons and rangers are producing disaffection to the English among the Indian tribes, one of which, the Choctaws, consists of above five thousand fighting men ; that they are paving the way for an invasion of the English colonies, by the erection of the Alabama fort in the oentro of the Upper Creeks, which is well garrisoned and mounted with fourteen cannon, and which, with the liberal presents they are making to them, has overawed and seduced them from their allegiance to the dAtish crown, and from a dependence upon British manufactures for their supplies. An expedient is then proposed, to recover and confirm the Indiana to his raajef^ty^s interest, and that is, by presents to withdimir them from the French alliance, and by building forts araon^ them to enable us to rodu^ Fort Alabama, and prevent the Oherokees from joining our enemies and making; us a prey to the French and savages. The Cherokee nation has lately become very insolent to our traders, and we b^ leave to inform your' majesty that the building and mounting some forts among them may keep them steady in. their fidelity to n8| and that the means of the province are inadequate to its defence-^the militia of Carolina and Georgia not exceeding three thousand five hoxH dred men."

Louisiana had, in the meantime, reverted from the Missis* ( sippi Company to the crown of France ; and it con- ( tinned to be the policy of Louis to unite the extremes of his North American possessions by a cordon of forts along the Mississippi river. The Chickasaws had been an obstacle to the accomplishment of this purpose. They had resisted the insinuations of French emissaries, and were indeed considered unfriendly to them. It was, therefore, determined to subdue them. A joint invasion, carried into their country from opposite directions, by Bienville and D'Artaguette, terminated disastrously to France. A further invasion was projected, and

''In the last of June, an army, oomposed of twelve hundred whitea^ ( and twice that number of red and black men, took up its quar- ( ters in Fort Assumption, on the bluff of Memphis ; the re* smitB from France - the Canadians - sunk under the climate. In th« March of next vear, a small detachment proceeded towards the Chickar taw country ; mey were met by messengers who supplicated for peacS| and Bienville gladly accepted the calumet The fort at Memphis was naed - ^the Chickasaws remained the undoubted lords of their country."*

From Kaskaskia to Baton Rouge was a wilderness, and the present Tennessee was again without a single civilized inhabitant, two centuries after Europeans had visited it.

In this year there was a handsome fort at Augusta, where { there was a small garrison of about twelve or fifteen ( men, besides officers. The safety the traders derived from this fort, drew them to that point. Another cause of the growth of the place, was the fertility of the lands around it. The Cherokee Indians marked out a path from Augusta to their nation, so that horsemen could then ride from Savannah to all the Indian nations.

** The boundary line between the provinces of Virginia and North- ( Carolina was this year continued, by commissioners appointed by ( the legislatures of the respective provinces, to Holstein river, directly opposite to a place called the Steep Rock."f t Martin. Una if the first time that this tributary of the Tennessee river is yitMaed. Haywood says it was o&lled Holston, from a man of that name wha mt diseoverad and lived upon it.

The settlements in Virginia were gradually extended aloBg i *^^ beautiful valley in the direction of Tennessee. ( Those of North-Carolina had reached the delightful country between the Yadkin and Catawba, and Port Dobbs was built in 1756, and had a small neighbourhood of farmers and graziers around it. It stood near the Yadkin, aboat twenty miles west of Salisbury,* and had been erected agreeably to the stipulations of a treaty held by Col. Wnddle with Atta-Culla-Culla, the Little Carpenter, in behalf of the Cherokees. It was usually garrisoned by fifty men. The Indians paid little regard to the treaty, as the next spring they killed some people near the Catawba.

To prevent the influence of the French among the Indian tribes, it became necessary to build some forts in the heart of their country. This policy had been suggested to the crown by the authorities of South-Carolina, in their memo* rial, as already mentioned. A friendly message was received by Governor Glen from the chief warrior of the Over*hiil Settlements in the Cherokee nation, acquainting him that

Sineral coDgress with the nation, and renew their former treaties of end»hip. Accordingly, the governor appointed a time and place tat holding a treaty.**

^ After the usual ceremonies were over, the governor sat down under a spreading tree, and Chulochcullaf being chosen speaker for^tlie Cherokee nation, took a seat bef«ide him. The other warriors, about five hundred in number, stood around them in solemn silence and deep attention. The governor then arose and made a ppen^h in the name of hia king, representing his great power, wealth and goodness, and his particular regard for hia children, the Cherokees ; and added, that he had many presents to make to them, and expected them, in n^tum, to surrt*nder a share of their territories, and demanded lands to build two forts upon fai their country, to protect them against their enemies, and to be a retreat to their finends and allies. He represented to them the great poverty and wicked designs of the French, and hoped they would permit nona of them to enter their towns.* When the governor had finished hia speech, Chulocbculia arose, and, holding his bow in one hand, hia ahaft of arrows and other symbols in the other, spoke to the following efl^: 'What I now speak, our father, the great king, should hear. Wa are brothers to the people of Carolina - one house covers us all.' Then taking a boy by the hand, he presented him to the governor, saying - * We, our wives and our children, are all children of the great King Oeoige. I have .brought this child, that when he grows up he may remember pur agreement on this day, and tell it to the next generation, that it may be known forever.' Then, opening his bag of earth and laying it at the governor's feet, said - ' We freely surrender a part of our landa to the great king. The French want our possessions, but we will defend them while one of our nation shall remain alive.' Then shewing hia bows and arrows, he added - ' These are all the arms we can make for our defence. We hope the king will pity his children, tha CSierokees, and send us guns and ammunition. We fear not tha Fkench. Give us arms, and we will go to war against the enemies of the great king.' Then, delivering the governor a string of wampum in ocNQ&mation of what he had sud, he added - * My speech is at an end ; It is the voice of the Cherokee nation. I hope the governor will send ft to the kingi that it may be kept forever.' "

At this treaty a large cession of territory was made to the kingy and deeds of conveyance were formally executed by the head men, in the name of the whole people.

Soon after this cession, Governor Glen built Fort Prince George upon the Savannah, near its source, and three hundred miles from Charleston, and within gun-shot of an Indian town, called Keowee. It contained barracks for one hundred ihen, and was well mounted with cannon, and designed for a defence of the western frontier of the province.

The earl of Loudon, who had been appointed commander { of the king's troops in America, and governor of the I province of Virginia, came over in the spring of this year. He sent Andrew Lewis to build another fort on Tennessee river, on the southern bank, at the highest point of its navigation, nearly opposite to the spot on which Tellico Block House has since been placed, and about thirty miles fix>m the present town of Knoxville ; the fort was called, in

- There is naaoa to believe that the French at this time had trading estaUishments oo tiie TennesBce river, about the Muscle Shoals, in close propin^aity with tlie Over-bill Cherokees, and that in their hunting, trapping and trading ezour- I, they bad aaoeoded to the centre of East Tennessee.

honour of the earl, Fort Loudon. Lewis informed Governor Dobbs that, on his arrival at Chota, he had received the kindest usage from Old Hop, the Little Carpenter, and that the Indians in general expressed their readiness to comply with the late treaty with the Virginia commissioners (Byrd and Randolph). They manifested this disposition while the fort was building ; but when it was finished, and they were pressed to fulfil their engagements, and send warriors to Virginia, they equivocated. Lewis observed that the French and their Indian allies, the Savannahs, kept a regular cor* respondence with the Cherokees, especially those of the great town of Tellico. He expressed his opinion that some scheme was on foot for the distress of the English back settlers, and that the Cherokees greatly inclined to join the Frenoli. While he was at Chota, messengers had come to the Little Carpenter, (Atta-Culla-Culla,) from the Nantowees, the Sa^ vannahs, and the French at the Alabama fort. He took notice that the object of the communications were indas^ triously concealed from him, and that a great alteration in that chiefs behaviour towards him had ensued. In return, towards the latter part of September, a Frenchman, who had Jived a considerable time among the Cherokees, accompanied by a Cherokee woman, who understood the Shawnee tongue, went from Chota to the Alabama fort, and to the Savannah Indians. The object of his visit to the French, was to press them for the accomplishment of a promise the commander of the fort had made, to send and have a fort built among the Cherokees, near the town of Great Tellico. The communication concluded, by observing that the Indians had expressed a wish that Captain Dennie, (Demer^ ?) *' sent by the Earl of Loudon, with a corps of two hundred men to garrison the fort, might return to Virginia, the Indians being displeased at seeing such a large number of white people, well armed, among them, expressing a belief that their intention was to destroy any small force that might be sent, in order to take the fort and surrender it to the French. On this information, Captain Hugh Waddle was sent with a small force to reinforce Captain Dennie."*

Long Island Fort Bitilt

Fort Loudon was then estimated to be five hundred miles from Charleston, and Hewitt remarks, that it was a place to which it was very difficult at all times, but, in case of a war with the Cherokees, utterly impracticable, to convey necessary supplies. Prince. George and Loudon were garrisoned by the king's independent companies of infantry stationed there. ** The Indians invited artizans into Fort Loudon by donations of land, which they caus<'.d to be signed by their own chief, and, in one instance, by Governor Dobbs of North- Carolina."* ^ These stronghplds were garrisoned by troops from Britain ; and the establishment of these defences in the interior, led to the rapid accumulation of settlers in all the choice places in their neighbourhood.^t Loudon is remarkable as being the first fort or other structure erected in Tennessee by Anglo-Americans.];

The continued possession of Fort Du Quesne enabled the French to preserve their ascendancy over the Indians, and to hold undisturbed control over almost the entire country west of the Alleghany mountains. The spirit of Britain rose in full proportion to the occasion, and Mr. Pitt, in a circular letter to the colonial governors, promised to send a large force to America to operate by sea and land against the French, and called upon them to raise troops to assist in that measure. In furtherance of that object, Virginia, pushing her settlements south-west, and guarding and protecting them, as they advanced, by forts and garrisons, had built Fort Lewis near the present village of Salem, in Bottetourt county. In 1758, Col. Bird, in pursuit of the French and Indians, who had recently taken Vaux's Fort on Roanoke, marched his regiment, and built Fort Chissel and stationed a garrison in it. It stood a few miles from New river, near the road leading from what is since known as Inglis' Ferry.

Col. Bird continued his expedition further, and erected another fort, in the autumn of this year, on the north bank of Holston, nearly opposite to the upper end of the Long Island, now the property of Col. Netherland. It was situated upon

% In Hajwood, the time of its erection is given in 1767. I have chosen to fi>ll«v HmwiU, who vrote in 1779, and gives it as it is in the text, 1766.

a beautiful level, and was built upon a large plan, with proper bastions, and the wall thick enough to stop the force. of small cannon shot. The gates were spiked with large nails, so that the wood was all covered. The army wintered there in the winter of 1758. The line between Virginia and North-Carolina had not then been extended beyond the Steep Rock. Long Island Fort was believed to be upon the territory of the former, but as it is south of her line, the Virgi-J nians have the honour of having erected the second Anglo- American fort within the boundaries of Tennessee.

In the spring of 1758, the garrison of Fort Loudon was augmented to two hundred men. In a few months, by the arrival of traders and hunters, it grew into a thriving village.

In the meantime, the French garrison at Fort Du Quesne, \ ^®s^^*^^ '^y their Indian allies, and unequal to the I maintenance of the place against the army of General Forbes that approached it, abandoned the fort, and escaped in boats down the Ohio. The English took possession of it, and, in compliment to the popular minister, called it Pittsburg. In the army of Forbes were several Cherokees, who had accompanied the provincial troops of North and South-Carolina.

" The capture of Fort Du Quesne, though a brilliant termination of the several campaigns so successfully prosecuted from the northern colonies against the French, was followed by disastrous consequences as to the frontier settlements in the south. The scene of action was only ehanged from one place to another, and the baneful influence of those active and enterprising enemies that had descended the Ohio, soon manifested itself in a more concentrated form among the Upper Cherokees ; the interior position of whose country furnished facilities of immediate and frequent intercourse with the defeated and exasperated Frenchmen, who now ascended the Tennessee river and penetrated to their mountain fastnesses. An unfortunate quarrel with the Virginians helped to forward their intrigues, and opened an easier access into the towns of the savages. The Cherokees, as before remarked, had, agreeably to their treaties, sent a number of their warriors to assist in the reduction of Du Quesne. Returning home through the back parts of Yiriginia, some of them, who had lost their horses on the expedition, laid hold on Buch as they found running at large, and appropriated them. The Virginians resented the injury by killing twelve or fourteen of the unsuspecting warriors, and taking several more prisoners. This ungrateful conduct, from allies whose frontiers they had defended and recovoredi aravued at once a spirit of deep reaentment and deadly retaliation.'' * * * "The flame soon spread through the upper towns. The garrison of Fort Loudon, consisting of about two hundred men, under th« ooraoiand of Captains Demeri: and Stuart, was, from its remote position from the white settlements, the first to notice the dissffection of the Indians, and to suffer from it. The soldiers, as usual, making excur- into the woods, to procure fr&^h provisions, were attacked by them, and some of them were killed. From tliis time such dangers threatened the garrison, that every one was confined within the small bonndari'jB of the fort"! * * * "All communication with the settlements across the mountains, from whic& they received supplies, was cut x4Sj and the soldiers, having no other sources from which provisions oonld be obtained, had no prospect lefl them but famine or death. Parties of the young warriors rushed down upon the frontier settlements, and the work of massacre became general along the borders of Carolina.'*! - * * " Governor Lyttleton, receiving intelligence of these OQtmges, prepared to chastise the enemy, and summoned the militia of the province to asiserable at Congaree." * * * u^ treaty was inade afterwards, signed by the governor and only six of the head men ; in this, it was agreed that the twenty-two chieftains should be kept as hostages, confined in Fort Prince George, until the same number of Indians, guilty of murder, should be deHvered up, and that the Cherokees shonld kill or take prisoner every Frenchman that should presume to oome into the naUon.'^§

The treaty, however, illy expressed the sentiment of the tribe. And, immediately after the return of the governor and the dispersion of his army from Fort Prince George, hostilities were renewed, and fourteen whites were killed within a mile of the fort. Under a pretence of procuring a { release of the hostages, Oconostota approached and ( surprised the fort, and faithlessly fired upon and killed its officers. Exasperated to madness by this outrage, the garrison fell upon the hostages, and killed them to a man. This was followed by a general invasion of the frontier of Carolina, and an indiscriminate butchery of men, women and children.

ICblonel, afterwards General , Sumpter, accompanied Oconostota and bis GbevokM delegation on their visit to Charlestown. Returning with that distinfiiWied ehief to the seat of his empire, he there found anions the Indians one Bnroo Des Johnnes, a Frendi Canadian, who spoke seven of the Indian lannages. Sumpter, suspecting the baron of being an incendiary sent to excite m several tribes to hostility against their white neighbours, with characteristic letohrtioD Arrested him ; taking him single-handed, n spite of the opposition of the Indiana, am], at much personal risk, carrying him piisoner to Fort Princa OMfge. Det Johnnes was afterwards sent to Charleston, where he was eiaminad, and though not proved guilty, it was deemed expedient to send him to England.

Prompt measures were adopted to restrain and piuiish these excesses. Application was made to the neighbouring provinces, North-Carolina and Virginia, for assistance, and seven troops of rangers were raised to patrol the frontiersi and the best preparation possible was made for chastising the enemy, so soon as the regulars coming from the north should arrive. Before the end of April, 1760, Colonel Montgomery landed with his troops, and, being joined by several volunteer companies, hastened to the rendezvous at Congarces, where he was met by the whole strength of the province, and immediately set out for the Cherokee country. His march wa^ spirited and expeditious. Little Keowee was surprised by a night attack, and every warrior in it put to the sword. Estatoe was reduced to ashes. Sugaw Town, and every other settlement in the lower nation, suffered the same fate.

*' Montgomery, after the loss of but four men, advanced to the relief -f Fort Prince George, vfh\ch had been for some time invested by the savages. From this place a message was sent to the Middle Settlements, inviting the Cherokees to sue for peace, and also to Captains Demerd and Stuart, the commanding officers at Fort Loudon, requesting them to obtain peace with the Upper Towns. Finding the enemy not disposed to listen to terms of accommodation, he determined to penetrate through the dismal wilderness between him and the Middle Towns." * * * "Captain Morrison^s rangers had scarcely entered the valley near Etchoe, when the savages sprang from their lurking den^ fired upon and killed the captain, and wounded a number of his men. A heavy fire began on both sides. The battle continued above an hour. Colonel Montgomery lost in the . engagement twenty men, and had seventy-six wounded. The Indians, it is believed, lost more. But the repulse was far from being decisive, and Colonel Montgomery, finding it impracticable to penetrate the woods further with his wounded men^ returned to Fort Prince George with his army, and soon after departed for New-York.

^* In the meantime, the distant garrison of Fort Loudon, consisting of two hundred men, was reduced to the dreadful alternative of perishing by hunger or submitting to the mercy of the enraged Cherokees. The Governor of South-Carolina hearing that the Virginians had'undertaken to relieve it, for a while seemed satisfied, and anxiously waited to hear the news of that happy event. But they, like the Carolinians, were unable to send them assistance. So remote was the fort from any setUement, and so difficult was it to march an army through the barren wilderness, where every thicket concealed an enemy, and to carrv, at the tame time, sufficient supplies along with them, that Uie Virginians had dropped all thoughts of the attempt Ph>vi8ion8 being entirelj exluHUted at Fort Loudon, the garrison was upon the point of starving. t'or a whole month they had no other subsistence than the flesh of lean horMB and dogs, and a small supply of Indian beans, procured stealthily for them by some friendly Cherokee women. The officers had long endeavoured to animate and encourage the men with the hope of suoeonr ; but now, being blockaded night and day by the enemy, and having no resource left, they threatened to leave the fort, and die at once by the hands of savages, rather than perish slowly by famine. In this extremity, the commander was obliged to call a council of war to consider what was proper to be done ; when the officers were all of opinion, that it was impossible to hold out longer, and therefore agreed to surrender the fort to the Cherokees, on the best terms that could be obtained from ihem. For this purpose Captain Stuart, an officer of great sagacity and address, and much beloved by those of the Indians who remained in the British interest, procured leave to go to Chota, one of the principal towns in the neighbourhood, where he obtained the following terms of capitolation, which were signed by the commanding officer and two of the Cherokee chiefs. ' That the garrison of Fort Loudon march out with their arms and drums, each soldier having as much powder and ball as their officer shall think necessary for the march, and all the baggaffe they may choose to carry ; that the garrison be permitted to march to Virginia or Fort Prince George, as the commanding officer shall think proper, unmolested ; and that a number of Indians be appointed to «Mort them, and hunt for provisions during the march ; that such soldiers aa are lame, or by sickness disabled from marching, be received into the Indian towns, and kindly used until they recover, and then be allowed to return to Fort Prince George ; that the Indians do provide for the garrison as many horses as they conveniently can for their march, agreeing with the officers and soldiers for payment ; that the fort, great

SDB, powder, ball and spare arms, be delivered to the Indians without ud or further delay, on the day appointed for the march of the troops.'*

*^ Agreeable to this stipulation, the garrison delivered up the fort, and marched out with their arms, accompanied by Ocouostota, Judd's ftiendy the prince of Chota, and several other Indians, and that day went

* Great inms. Of these there were twelve. It is difficult to conceive how the CinnoD of Fort Loudoo, in 1756, had been transported to a point so interior and ioMoesible. A wa^on had not then passed the head of HoUton, and not till the autumn of 1776 had one come as low down that stream as the Long Island, with nroviaoiis for the supply of Fort Patrick Henrv. Artillery could not have been bioq^ down the Ohio and up the Tennessee, for after the loss of Du Qucsne the Freodi stiU held undisturbed possession of the rivers below. The cannon at Loudoo were most probably taken there across the mountain from Augusta or Fort Priooe George wnen reinforcements were sent to its relief In this case the transportatkn of the great guns must have been made along a narrow mountain trace vpeo pack horses - requiring in the more difficult gorges even yet found in the interrmuDg country, the assistance of the soldiers. It is barely possible that those CMBwn may have been brought from Fort Lewis or Fort Chissel, to the head waters ef Holaton, and carried down that stream, and up the Little Tennessee to Loudon. ~ I no tradition on the subject in Tennessee.

fifteen miles on their way to Fort Prince George. At night Hbay oamped upon a plain about two nailes from Taliquo, an Indian towii| when all their attendants, upon one pretence or another, left them ; which the officers considered as no good sign, and therefore placed a strict guard around their camp. During the night they remained nitmolested, but next morning alH>ut break of day, a soldier ^m an oatpost came running in, and informed them that he saw a vast number of Indians, armed and painted in the most dreadful manner, creeping among the bushes, and advancing in order to surround them. Scaroelj had the officer time to order his men to stand to their arms, when tha savages poured in upon them a heavy fire from different quarters^ accompanied with the most hideous yells, which struck a panic into the soldiers, who were so much enfeebled and dispirited that they were incapable of making any efl^tual resistance. Captain Demer6, with three other officers, and about twenty-six privates, fell at the first onset. Some fled into the woods, and were afterwards taken prisoners and confined among the towns in the valley. Captain Stuart and those that remained, were seized, pinioned, and brought back to Fort Loudon. No sooner had Aj;takullakulla heard that his fiiend Mr. Stuart had escaped, than he hastened to the fort, and purchac»ed him from the Indian that took him, giving him his rifle, clothes, and all he could command by way of ransom. He then took possession of Captain Demer^'s house, where he kept his prisoner as one of his family, and fi*eely shared with him the little provisions his table afibrded, until a Mr opportunity should ofier ioT rescuing him fix)m the hands of the savages ; but the poor soldiers were kept in a miserable state of captivity for some time, and then redeemed by the province at great expense.

" While the prisoners were confined at Fort Loudon, Oconoetota fi^rmed the design of attacking Fort Prince George. To this bold undertaking he was the more encouraged, as the cannon and ammunition surrendered by the garrison would, under the direction of French offioen who were near him, secure its success. Messengers were therefore dispatched to the valley towns, requesting their warriors to meet him at Stickoee.

^ By accident a discoveiy 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. This discovery had nearly proved fatal to Captain Stuart ; but the interpreter had such presence of mind as to assure the incensed savages that these warhke storee were concealed without Stuart's knowledge or consent. The supply of ammunition being sufficient for the siege, a council was held at Chota, to which the captive Stuart was taken. Here he was reminded of the obligations he was under for having his life spared, and as they had determined to take six cannon and two cohoms against Prince Geor^, the Indians told him he must accompany the expedition - ^manage the artillery -and wrjte such letters to the commandant as they should dictate to him. They further informed him that if that officer should refuse to surrender, they had determined to bum the prisoners one by one before his face, and try whether he could be so obstinate as to hold out while his friends were expiring in the flames.

Escape Of Captain 8Tuabt. So

** Captain Sttlart was much alarraed at his present sitnation , and from that moment resolved to make his escape or |)eri»h in the attempt He -privately communicated his design to Attakullakulla and told him that the thought of bearing arms against his countrymen harrowed his feelings, and he invoked his assistance to accomplish his release. The old warrior took him by the hand - told him he was his friend, and was folly apprised of the designs of his countrymen, and pledged his efforti to deliver him from danger. AttakullHkulla claim^^d Captain Stuart as his prisoner, and resorted to stratagem to rescue him. lie told the other Indians that he intended to go a hunting for a few days, and to take his prisoner with him. Accordingly they departed, accompanied bj ihe warrior's wife, his brother and two soldiers. The distance to the firontier settlements was great, and the utmost expedition was necessary to prevent surprise from Indians pursuing thom Nine days and nights did they travel through a dreary wilderness, shaping their course by the Ban aod moon for Virginia. On the tenth they arrived at the banks of Hokton*8 river, where they fortunately fell in with a party of three hnodred men, sent out by Colonel Bird for the relief of Fort Loudon. On the fourteenth day the captain reached Colonel Bird's camp on the ihrntiera of Virginia. His faithful friend, AttakullakuUa, was here loaded with presents and pro\isions, and sent back to protect the unhappy prisr bnera till they should be ransomed, and to exert his influence widi the Gherokees for the restoration of peace."

After Captain Stuart^s escape, he lost no time in concerting' measures of relief to his garrison. An express was at once forwarded to the Governor of South-Carolina to inform him of the disaster at Fort Loudon, and of the designs of the enemy against Fort Prince George. The prisoners that had sarvived the hardships of hunger, disease and captivity, at London, were ransomed and delivered up to the commanding officer at Fort Prince George.

This account of the siege and capitulation of Fort Loudon, and of the attack upon the retiring garrison, has been copied or condensed from " Hewitt's Historical Account of South- Carolina and Georgia,'' as republished in the valuable historical collection of Carroll. Being written in 1779, soon aftor the transactions which it relates took place, Hewitt's work is considered authentic, and may be fully relied on as being generally correct. Still in some of the details other bbtorians differ from him. One of them gives another verrion of the assault upon the camp the morning after the evacuation of the fort. Haywood says: ''At this place, about day-break, the Indians fell upon and destroyed the whole troop, men, women and children, except three men,

Jack, Stuart and Thomas, who were saved by the friendly exertions of the Indian chief called the Little Carpenter ; except also, six men, who were in the advance guard, and who escaped into the white settlements." * * * " It is said that between two and three hundred men, besides women and children, perished in this massacre. The Indians made a fence of their bones, but after the war they were, by the advice of Oconostota, King of the Over-hill Cherokees, removed and buried, for fear of stirring afresh the hostility of the English traders, who began again to visit them." Such, too» has been the prevalent tradition.

In addition to the concealment within the fort of the ammunition, as already related, Haywood mentions that the garrison threw their cannon, with their small arms and am** munition, into the river. After the close of the war the Cherokees excused their perfidy in violating the terms of the capitulation, and their barbarous massacre of the garrison, by imputing bad faith on the part of the whites in hiding the warlike stores surrendered with the fort.

Associations connected with Loudon as the first English fort erected within the State of Tennessee, the mournful fate of its garrison, and the tragic issue of the earliest Anglo- American settlement planted upon our soil, have invested the history of Old Fort Loudon with a romantic and melancholy interest - one that may be deemed elsewhere disproportioned to its real importance. But the writer persuades himself that the tediousness of the preceding details - scarcely in consonance with the object of these annals - will be excused, when it is considered, that hereafter no opportunity will present itself of again recording 4he surrender of a fort or the capture and massacre of a garrison. In the narration of the events upon which he will soon enter, it will be the grateful duty of the annalist to show, that in all their border conflicts, in their wild adventures into the wilderness, in their frequent invasions of neighbouring tribes, in their glo^ rious participation in the struggle for independence and freedom, in all their wars with European or American enemies, the sons of Tennessee have every where achieved success, triumph, victory, conquest and glory.

The indecisive battle at Etchoe and the catastrophe in' the valley of the Tennessee, served only to stimulate Cherokee aggression; and Canada being now reduced, an adequate force was at once sent from the north for the defence of the floathern provinces. Col. Grant, early in 1761, arrived in Charleston with the British regular troops. A provincial regiment had been raised, and it accompanied the army to the Cherokee country. Among its field officers were Middleton, Laurens, Moultrie, Marion, Huger and Pickens - afterwards so highly distinguished in the service of the country. The army arrived at Fort Prince George on the 27th of May. Attakullakulla hearing that a formidable army approached his nation, hastened to the camp of Col. Grant and proposed ( terms of accommodation. But it was known that the I temper of his countrymen was averse to peace, and his proposals received no encouragement.

** The Cherokees encountered Grant, with all their strength, near the town of Etehoe, on the %pot where they had fought with Montgomery ID the proTiona campaign. For three hours did the engagement continne, until the persevering valour of the whites succeeded in expelling ihe Indians from the field. ****** Their granaries a^ eom fields were destroyed, and their miserable femilies driven to the boren mountains. The national spirit was, for a while, subdued, and they humbly sued for peace, through the medium of the old and fiiondly chief, Attakullakulla. * I am come,' said the venerable chie^ *to see what can be done for my people, who are in great distress.' Ks prayer was granted, peace was ratified between the parties, and ths sad of this bloody war, which was supposed to have originated in the machinations of French emissaries, was among the last humbling blows given to the expiring power of France in North America.

-- The peace which followed this victory over the Cherokees, and the ezpnision of the French and Spaniards from the borders of the southern provinces, brought with it a remarkable increase of population and prosperity. Multitudes of emigrants from Europe and the middle provincee came out in rapid succession to the interior, and pursuing the devkras progress of the streams, sought out their sources, and planted their little settlements on the sides of lofty hills, or in the bosom of lovely vallies.''*

Emigrants from Ireland sought the wilds of America, throDgh two avenues. The one by the Delaware Bay, whose chief port was Philadelphia - the other by a more southern landing - the port of Charleston. Those landing at the latter place, immediately sought the fertile forests of the upper Carolinas, where they met a counter tide of emigration. Those who landed on the Delaware, after the desirable lands, east of the AUeghanies, in Pennsylvania, were occupied, turned their course southward, and soon meeting the southern tide, the stream turned westward to the wilderness long known as *' the backwoods, or beyond the mountains," now as Tennessee. These two streams from the same original fountain - Ireland - meeting and intermingling in the new soil, preserve the characteristic difference ; the one possessing much of the air and manner of Pennsyiva- Ilia, and the other of Charleston.*

But, as yet, Tennessee was a desert and a wilderness. The Adelantado of Cuba and his proud cavaliers had, indeed^ looked upon its south-western angle, but resisted with unyielding spirit by the aboriginal inhabitants, the chivalry of Spain were driven across its western boundary, and glad to escape savage resentment for their during invasion, buried themselves in the solitudes beyond it. At a later period, La Salle and his voyageurs had coasted along the shores of the great mediterranean of the west, and claimed for the monarch of France the magnificent valley watered by its tributaries ; and Marquette, in his pious zeal for his church, had attempted the conversion of the natives from heathenism and barbarity to the worship of the God of Heaven. Later still, England and her colonies had penetrated far into the western wilds, and erected a fort and planted an infant settlement upon the distant banks of the Tennessee. But the efforts of Spain, of France, and of England, had been alike ansuccessful in founding, upon the soil of Tennessee, a per^ manent establishment of civilized man. The colonists of the Carolinas and of Virginia had been steadily advancing to the west, and we have traced their approaches in the direction of our eastern boundary, to the base of the great Apalachian range. Of the country beyond it, little was positively known or accurately understood. A wandering Indian would imperfectly delineate upon the sand, a feeble outline of its more prominent physical features - its magnificent riverSy'witli their numerous tributaries - its lofty mountains, its dark forests, its extended plains and its vast extent A voyage in a canoe, from the source of the Hogohegee* to the Wabash,f required for its performance, in their figurative language, ''two paddles, two warriors, three moons." The Ohio itself was but a tributary of a still larger river, of ^vrhose source, size and direction, no intelligible account oould be communicated or understood. The Muscle Shoals And the obstructions in the river above them, were represented as mighty cataracts and fearful whirlpools, and the Sttck, as an awful vortex. The wild beasts with which the illimitable forests abounded, were numbered by pointing to the leaves upon the trees, or the stars in a cloudless Ay.

These glowing descriptions of the west seemed rather to Vtinialate than to satisfy the intense curiosity of the approaching settlers. Information more reliable, and more minute, was, from time to time, furnished from other sources. In the Atlantic cities, accounts had been received from French and Spanish traders, of the unaparalleled beauty and fertility of the western interior. These reports, highly coloured and amplified, were soon received and known upon the frontier. Besides, persons engaged in the interior traffic with the southwestern Indian tribes had, in times of peace, penetrated their territories - traded with and resided amongst the natives - and upon their return to the white settlements^ confirmed what had been previously reported in favour of the distant countries they had seen. As early as 1690, Doherty, a trader from Virginia, had visited the Gherokees, anTafter* wards lived among them a number of years. In 1730, Adair, from South-Carolina, had travelled, not only through the towns of this tribe, but had extended his tour to most of the nations south and west of them. He was not only an enters prising trader, but an intelligent tourist. To his observations upon the several tribes which he visited, we are indebted for most that is known of their earlier history. They were published in London in 1775.

In 1740 other traders went among the Cherokees from Virginia. They employed Mr. Y^ugban as a packman, to transport their goods. West of Amelia county, the country was then thinly inhabited ; the last hunter's cabin that he saw was on Otter river, a branch of the Staunton, now in Bedford county, Va. The route pursued was along the Great Path, to the centre of the Cherokee nation. The traders and packmen generally confined themselves to this path till it crossed the Little Tennessee river, then spreading themselves out among the several Cherokee villages west of the moantain, continued their traffic as low down the Great Tennessee as the Indian settlements upon Occochappo or Bear Creek, below the Muscle Shoals, and there encountered the competition of other traders, who were supplied from New-Orleans and Mobile. They returned heavily laden with peltries, to Charleston, or the more northern markets, where they were sold at highly remunerating prices. A hatchet, a pocket looking-glass, a piece of scarlet cloth, a trinket, and other articles of little value, which at Williamsburg could be bought for a few shillings, would command from an Indian hunter on the Hiwassee or Tennessee peltries amounting in value to double the number of pounds sterling. Exchangei were necessarily slow, but the profits realized from the operation were immensely large. In times of peace this traffic attracted the attention of many adventurous traders. It became mutually advantageous to the Indian, not less than to the white man. The trap and the rifle, thus bartered for, procured, in one day, more game to the Cherokee hunter than his bow and arrow and his dead-fall would have secured during a month of toilsome hunting. Other advantaees resulted from it to the whites. They became thus acquainted with the great avenues leading through the hunting grounds and to the occupied country of the neighbouring tribes - an important circumstance in the condition of either war or peace. Further, the traders were an exact thermometer of the pacific or hostile intention and feelings of the Indians with whom they traded. Generally, they were foreigners, most frequently Scotchmen, who had not been long in the country, or upon the frontier, who, having experienced none of the craelties, depredations or aggressions of tlie Indians, cherished none of ti^^^^wrint and spirit of reta^ liation bom with, and ever^^^^^Biifested.by the Ameri' can settler. Thus, free fro^^^^Hty agninst the abori^- nes, the trader was alIo\v-ec^WBBK.in in the village where he traded unmolested, even when its warriors were singing the war song or hrandishing the war club, preparatory to an invasion or massacre of the whites. Timely warning was thns often given by a returning packman, to a feeble and nnsospecting settlement, of the perSdyand emelty meditated against it.

This gainful oommeree was, for a time, engrossed by the traders ; bat the monopoly was not allowed to continue long. Their rapid acoamulations soon, excited the cupidity of an-. other class of adventurers ; and the huntVi in his turn, became a co-pfoneer with the trader, in the march of oiviliza* tion to the wilde of the West. As the agricultural population approached the eastern base of the AUeghanies, the game became scarce, and was to be found by severe toil in almost inaccessible recesses and coves of the moantain. Packmen, returning from their trading expeditions, carried with them evidences, not only of the abundance of game across the mountains, but of the facility with which it was procured. Hunters began to accompany the traders to the Indian towns ; but, unable to brook the tedious delay of pro- <siring peltries by traffic, and impatient of restraint, they struck boldly into the wilderness, and western-like, to use a western phrase, set up for themselves. The reports of their return, and of their successful enterprise, stimulated other advqpturers to a similar undertaking. "As early as 1748, Doctor Thomas Walker, of Virginia, in company with Colonels Wood, Fatten and Buchanan, and Captain Charles Campbell, and a number of hunters, made an exploring tour upon the western waters. Passing Powell's valley, he gave the name of ' Cumberland' to the lofty range of mountains on the west. Tracing this range in a south-western direction, he came to a remarkable depression in the chain: through this he passed, o^jtMriy' Cumberland Gap.' On the western side of the nM^F^^Ijl a beautiful mountain

Stream, which he named * Cumberland river,' all in hononr of the Duke of Cumb^Hj^faen prime minister of England.''* These name^^^^^^r since been retained, and, with Loudon, are belie^^^^^He only names in Tennessee of English origin. ^^1^^

Although Fort Loudon was erected as early as 1756, upon the Tennessee, yet it was in advance of any white settle^ ments nearly one hundred and fifty miles, and was» as has been related, destroyed in 1760. The fort, too, at Long Island, within the boundaries of the present State of Tennessee, was erected in 1758, but no permanent settlements had yet been 'formed near it. Still, occasional settlers had began to fix their habitations in the south-western section of Virginia, and, as early as 1754, six families were residing west of New River. ** On the breaking out of the French war, the Indians, in alliance with the French, made an irruption into these settlements, and massacred Burke and his family. The other families, finding their situation too perilous to be maintained, returned to the eastern side of New River ; and the renewal of the attempt to carry the white settlements farther west, was not made until after the close of that war."t Under a mistaken impression that the Virginia line, whea ( extended west, would embrace it, a grant of land was ( this year made, by the authorities of Virginia, to Edmund Pendleton, for three thousand acres of land, lying in Augusta county, on a branch of the middle fork of the Indian river, called West Greek,!]: now Sullivan county, Tennessee. In this year. Doctor Walker again passed over Clinch' and { Powell's river, on a tour of exploration into wh^ is ( now Kentucky. The Cherokees were now at peace with the whites, and hunters from the back settlements began with safety to pe-

X The original patent, signed by Governor Dinwiddie, and now in the possewioii of the writer, was presented to Idm fay T. A. R. Nelson, Esq., of Joiiesbons Ten* nessee. It ia piobably the oldest grant in the state.

I'rai \ "^^^^tc deeper and further into the wilderness of Ten- ( nessee. Several of then^biefly from Virginia, hearing of the abundance of gameVith which the woods were stocked, and allured by the p||l»splcts of gain, which might be drawn from this source, formed themselves into a company, composed of Wallen, Scaggs, Blevins, Cox, and fifteen others and came into the valley, since known as Garter's Valley, in Hawkins county, Tennessee. They hunted eighteen months upon Clinch and Powell's rivers. Wallen's Creek and Wallen's Ridge received their name from the leader of tl^ company ; as, also, did the station which they erected in the present Lee county, Virginia, the name of Wallen^s Station. They penetrated as far north as Laurel Mountain, in Kentucky, where they terminated their journey, having met with a body of Indians, whom they supposed to be Shawnees. At the head of one of the companies that visited the West this year *' came Daniel Boon, from the Yadkin, in North- Carolina, and travelled with them as low as the place w&ere Abingdon now stands, and there left them."

This is the first time the advent of Daniel Boon to the western wilds has been mentioned by historians, or by the fleveral biographers of that distinguished pioneer and hunter. There is reason, however, to believe that he had hunted upon Watauga earlier. The writer is indebted to N. Gammon, Esq., formerly of Jonesboro, now a citizen of Knoxville, for the following inscription, still to be seen upon a beech tree* standing in sight and east of the present stage-road, leading from Jonesboro to Blountsville, and in the valley of Boon's Creek, a tributary of Watauga.

Boon was eighty-six years old when he died, which was September, 1820. He wa^thus twenty-six years old when the inscription was madeftWhen he left the company of hunters in 1761, as mentionedS^bove by Haywood, it is probable that he did so to revisit the theatre of a former hant upon the creek that still bears his name, and where hit camp is still pointed ont near its banks. It is not improbable, indeed, that he belonged to, or accompanied, the party of Doctor Walker, on his first, or certainly on his second, tour of exploration in 1760. The inscription is sufficient authority, as this writer conceives, to date the arrival of Boon in Tennessee as early as its date, 1700, thus preced* ing the permanent settlement of the country nearly ten years.

1762 \ ®^ ^ftin and hunted on the waters of Clinch; they ( crossed the Blue Ridge at the Flower Gap, New river, at Jones's Ford, and the Iron Mountain at the Blue Spring ; they travelled down the south fork of Holston, and crossing the north fork and going to the Elk Garden, on the waters of Clinch, they discovered some Indian signs: they extended their journey, in the same direction, to the Hunters' Valley - so named from their travelling to and down it several days to Black- water Creek. They fixed their station-camp near the Tennessee line, and on the present road from Jonesville to Rogersville. Some of the same company travelled down to Greasy Rock Creek, and fixed a station-camp there. It stood near the present line between Hawkins and Claibourne counties.*

*A s^nU signed Arthur Dobbe, Governor of the Province of North-CaroUiUi, William Beamer, Senr., Superintendent and Deputy Adjutant in and for the Cherokee Nation, and William Beamcr, Junr., Interpreter, and the Little Carpenter, Half King of the Cherokee Nation of the Oyer-hill Towns, and Matthew Tool, Interpreter, made to Captain Patrick Jack, of the Province of Pennsylvania, is recorded io Register's office of Knox county. It purports to have been made at a council held at Tennessee river, March 1, 1757 ; and the consideration u^ four hundred dollars, and conveys to Captain Jack fifteen miles square south of Tennessee river. The grant itaelf^ confirmatory of the purchase by Jack, is dated at atveneral Council met at Catawba river. May 7, 1762, and is witnessed by Nathaniel Alexander.

Daniel Boon, who still lived on the Yadkin, though he had llU. i previously hunted on the western waters, came again ( this year to explore the country, being employed for this purpose by Henderson ^ Company. With him came Samuel Callaway, his kinsman, and the ancestor of the respectable family of that name, pioneers of Tennessee, Kentacky and Missouri. Callaway was at the side of Boon when, approaching the spurs of the Cumberland Mountain^ and in of the vast herds of buffalo grazing in the vallies between them, he exclaimed, ** I am richer than the man mentioned in scripture, who owned the cattle on a thousand hills - ^I own the wild beasts of more than a thousand vallies.''

After Boon and Callaway, came another hunter, Henry Seaggins, who was also employed by Henderson. He extended his exploration to the Lower Cumberland, and fixed his station at M ansco's Lick.

^About the last of June, 1766, Col. James Smith set off to explore the J great body of rich lands, which, by conversing with the Indians, ( he understood to be between the Ohio and Cherokee rivers, and lately ceded by a treaty made with Sir William Johnston, to the King of Great Britain. He went, in the first place, to Holston river, and thence travelled westwardly in company with Joshua Horton, Uriah Stone and William Baker, who came from Carlisle, Pa., - ^four in all - and a slave, aged 18, belonging to Horton. They explored the country south of Kentucky, and no vestige of a white man was to be found there, more than there is now at the head of the Missouri. They also explored Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, from Stone's river down to the Ohio. Stone^a river is a branch of Cumberland, and empties into it eight or ten miles above Nashville. It was so named in the journal of these explorers, after Mr. Stone, one of their number, and has ever since retained the name. When they came to the mouth of Tennessee, Col. Smith concluded to retain home, and the others to proceed to the Illinois. They gave to CoL Smith the greater part of their powder and lead - amounting only to lialf a pound of the former, and a proportionate quantity of lead. Mr. Horton, also, left with him his slave : and Smith set off with him through the wilderness, to Carolina. Near a buf^o path, they made them a shelter ; but, fearing the Indians might pass that way and discover his fire place, he removed to a greater distance from it After remaining there mx weeks, he proceeded on his journey, and arrived in Carolina in October. He thence travelled to Fort Chissel, and from there returned home to Conaoo^heague, in the fedl of 1767."*

This exploration of Col. Smith was, with the exception of Scaggins'sy the first that had been made of the country ivest of Cumberland Mountain, in Tennessee, by any of the Anglo- American race. The extraordinary fertility of the soil upon the Lower Cumberland - the luxuriant cane-breaks upon the table-lands of its tributaries - its dark .ind variegated forestits rich flora - its exuberant pasturage - in a word, the exact adaptation of the country to all the wants and purposes of a great and flourishing community, impressed the explorer with the importance of his discovery, and of its great valae to such of his countrymen as should al\orwards come in and possess it Not strange was it, that the recital of what he had seen during his long and perilous absence, should excite in Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvnnia, as he passed homeward, an urgent and irrepressible desire to emigrate to, and settle, this El Dorado of the West.*

During this year John Findley, a fearless Indian trader from 1H*I f North-Carolina, accompanied by several comrades, vis- ( ited the West. Passing through Upper East Tennessee to the Cumberland Gap ,he continued his explorations to the Kentucky river.

Indeed, the spirit of exploration and adventure was now a mania: it had become an epidemic - numbering among its subjects every bold, fearless, daring, ambitious, intrepid backwoodsman. Companies of these, varying in number from two to forty, accumulated in rapid succession upon the border settlements, from the Monongahela to the »SavannaIi, and excited in the minds of the more discreet and sagacious settlers, apprehension of renewed hostilities from the now friendly natives of the country. They clearly foresaw that an avalanche of population, concentrating thus upon the frontier, could not be restrained from precipitating itself across an ideal line-^ the feeble barrier that now separated the two races. These apprehensions were not without foundation.

" The peace of 1763 had secured to Great Britain the right of territorial fiovereignty to the country east of the Mississippi, to which Franca

* Colonel Crogfaan, b his Journal, May 31, 1765, pawning down the Ohio rirer, mentions '* the month of the river Kentucky, or Holsteo's rirer "* The bead cif Holston may previously have been seen, and probably was supposed to run in tte direction of the Kentucky river.

hMd previoiiBlj asserted the paramount right of territory and dominion. The change of this right of dominion, whether real or imaginary, necessalilj fiidlitated the transrarigration of British colonists frcm their Atlantic settlements to the newly acquired territory on the western waters. * * * Bat the treaty of Paris had made no stipulation for the tribes who had been in alliance with France, and who claimed to be independent nations, and the real owners of the territory ceded by her. They liad been no party to the treaty of peace, and they refused to be bound by any transfer which the French King should make of their country to tne English. Every excursion, therefore, into their hunting grounds, was, at first, viewed with dissatisfaction and jealousy, and at a later period, resisted as an encroachment upon their rights and an invasion of their soil. This jealousy against the English colonists was the more sasily excited in the mincU of the Indians, as the French had always taken pains to impress upon them the inordinate desire and determination of England to occupy their lands and to dispossess them of their whole country. To quiet, as far as possible, any discontent from this sonroe, and to remove any apprehension that the British government designed to extend its jurisdiction over the territory of the Indians, the

Srodamation of King George was issued, Oct. 7, 1763, prohibiting all. y le provincial governors from granting lands, or issuing land warrants, ^ to be located upon any territory \\\ug west of the mountains, or west of the sources of those streams which flow into the Atlantic, and all settlements by the subjects of Great Britain, west of the sources of the Atlantic rivers. The proclamation of the king further ' strictly enjoined and required that no private persons do presume to purchase from the Indians any lands, ice. And that if the Indians should be inclined to dispose of their lands, the same shall be purchased only for us, in our name, at some general meeting or assembly of the Indians, to be held for that purpose, by the governor or commander-in-chief of our colony respectively.' "*

It was further directed and required, that ''all traders should take out licenses from their respective governors, for carrying on commerce with the Indians." In accordance, also, with the provisions of this proclamation, the boundaries of the Indian hunting grounds were fixed, and a superintendent of Indian affairs was appointed for the southern district* This office was conferred upon Captain John Stuart, who, as- we have already seen, owed his life, at the massacre of the garrison at Fort Loudon, to the clemency and interposition of his captor, a Cherokee chief.

However well intended, this proclamation of the distant king was a dead letter. In the back woods of America, it received no hearty response - exacted not the lowest whisper of obedience. It was every where, and by all classes of disregarded. Masses of population were, npon the western boundary of all the middle and southern colonies, ready and impatient for the occupancy of the new lands in the wilderness. Hunters and traders had discovered and explored them. They knew the avenues by which they could be reached, and had spread abroad among their countrymen enchanting accoants of their value and beauty. Another circumstance hastened the more perfect exploration and future settlement of tl^ western country. It was the bounty given in these very lands, by several of the provinces, with the approbation of the crown, to the officers and soldiers who had served in the British army, in their wars with the French and their Indian allies.* These, with the script and military warrants in their hands, and accompanied by hundreds of surveyors and agents, were constantly employed in selecting and locating their respective claims. The proclamation of the king could not deter them from their locations and surveys. Even the wise and virtuous George Washington and Chancellor Livingston admitted it to be intended merely to quiet the jealous apprehensions of the Indians, against the advance of the white settlements on the western side of the mountains. It was not, in any wise, designed, really, to check the ultimate occupation of the country. Virginia, viewing the proclamation in no other light than as a temporary expedient to quiet the minds of the Indians, soon afterwards patented considerable tracts of land on the Ohio, far beyond the Apalacbian mountains.f Thus the discontents of the Indiana were increased, and by the opening of the spring of 1768, along the whole line of the western frontier, from the sources of the Susquehannah to those of the Tennessee, they became exasperated, and united in their determination to check furher encroachments, and to enforce an observance of their rights ; still they refrained from open hostilities, while the

* By the proclamation of the king, the govemon were directed to grant " to erery person having the rank of a field officer, 6000 acres ; to every captain, 8000 Seret ; to every subaltern or staff officer, 2000 acres ; to every non-commissionad officer, 200 acres ; and to every private, 50 acres.

'^ Ii May of this year, an appeal was made to the prpper autho- ( rities, to restrain further encroachments on the part of the frontier ( people, upon the lands claimed by the Indians. Some of the settlements now being formed upon the head of the Kenhawa, and the north fork of Holston, were upon territory to which the Indian title had not been extinguished, and parties of woodmen, explorers, and surveyors, were distributed in the Tallies below, preparatory to a further occupancy. The superintendents of Indian affidrs were, accordingly, instructed by the royal government to establish the boundaries between the whites and the Indians, and to purchase from the latter the lands already occupied by the king's subjects. But what tribe owned these lands ? Who were the proprietors of the soil !"

At the time of its earliest exploration, the country east and north of the Tennessee river was not in the occupancy of any Indian tribe. Vestiges were then found, and, indeed, still remain, of an ancient and dense population - indicating higher progress in civilization and the arts than has been attained by more modern tribes in this part of the continent. A fresh hunting camp was occasionally found,

^ But in their frequent peregrinations and trading expeditions through the vast territories between the Ohio and the Tennessee rivers, the first traders, hunters and explorers never found, within that extent of country, a single wigwam or modern Indian village. The Indian settlements nearest to the frontier border of the Carolinas, and of south-western' Virginia, were on the Sciota and Miami, in the north, and on the waters of the Little Tennessee in the south. From these points the various war or hunting parties issued, to engage in the one or the other pursuit, as the passions or the opportunities of their expeditions might lead. Here the Choctaws, Chickasaws or Cherokees, of the south, used to engage with the various tribes of the Miami Confederacy, of the north ; here they indulged thsir. nsiiiOD Idt hunting, in the profusion of game afforded by TenneMse <>HkJbfeiM||^ That part of these two states embraced within the boMllJ^^^^HfeBedy was one great park, where the skill of the uncivilised haoter was praetioed, Mid a central theafanti upon which the desperate conflicts of savage warriors and hloodj rivula were perpetrated. JBy common agreement of all the surrounding tribes, this whole section of country seems to have been reserved for these purposes, from permanent occupancy ; and so much was it exempted from settlement, that south of the Ohio, and north and east of the Tennessee, it is not known that a single village was settled by the Indians ; yet no situations have generally delighted savage tribes, so much as the margins of water courses ; the opportunities of navigation, and of fishing, unite to attract them to such spots. Some known and acknowledged ihhibition must have, therefore, prevented the settlement and possession of this great Mesopotamia. W hat was it ? On this subject, tradition and history are alike indistinct and unsatisfactory."*

At the point of time to which these annals have reached, the territory of which we are speaking was claimed, though not occupied, by the Confederacy of the Six Nations. These were called by the early French historians, Iroqouis, and by the English, Mohawks. In 1672 these tribes conquered the Illinois and Shawanee Indians, the latter of whom were also incorporated with them. To these 'conquests they added, in 1685, that of the Miamis, and about the same time carried their victorious arms westward to the Mississippi, and south* ward to what is now Georgia. In 1711 they incorporated with them the Tuscaroras, when expelled from North-Caro" Iina.t Gov. Pownal, in his *' culministration of the British Colonies," says that these tribes carried their arms as far south as Carolina and as far west as the Mississippi, over a vast country, twelve hundred miles in length and six hun* dred in breadth, where they destroyed whole nations, of whom there are no accounts remaining among the English : and, continues the same writer, the rights of these tribes to the hunting lands on the Ohio may be fairly proved by their conquests over the Shawanees, Delawares, &c., as they stood possessed thereof at the peace of Ryswick, in 1607. In further confirmation of this Indian title. Butter adds :

^ It must be mentioned that Lewis Evans represents, in his map of the Middle Colonies of Great Britain, the country on the south-easterly side of the Ohio river, as the hunting lands of the Six Nations. In the analysis to his map, he expressly says that the Shawneese, who were onoe a most considerable nation, have been subdued by the confederates, and their oountiy baa sinoe become their property. At a celebrated treatf , held more than a centuiy since iEtt Lancaster, the statement made by the delegates in attendance from the Six Nations to Dr. Franklin, was, *- that all the world knows that we conquered all (he nations back of the great mountains ; we conquered the nations residing there, and that land, if the Viiginians ever get a good right to it, it must be by ns.' These Indian claims are solemnly appealed to in a diplomatic memorial, addressed by the British ministry to the Duke Mirepoix, on the part of France, June 7, 1755. 'It is a certain truth, states the memorial, that these lands ha^ belonged to the Confederacy, and as they have not been given up or made over to the English, belong stiU to the same Indian Nations.' The court of Great Britain maintained, in this negotiation, that the confederates were, by origin or by right of conquest, the lawful proprietors of the river Ohio and the territory in question. In support of this anoient aboriginal title, Butler adds the further testimony of Dr. Mitchell's map of North America, made with the documents of the Colonial office before him. In this map, the same as the one by which the boundaries in the treaty of Paris, in 1783, were adjusted, the Doctor observes, * tliat the Six Nations have extended their territories ever since the year 1672, when they subdued and were incorporated with the ancient Shawaneese, the $uiUve proprietors of these countries.' This, he adds, is con6rmcd by their own claims and possessions in 1742, which include all the bounds aa laid down in the map, and none have even thought fit to dispute them,"*

Such was the aboriginal title to the greater part of Tennessee in 1767, when the white settlers approached its easti ^^^ boundary. On the 6th of May of this year a ( deputation of the Six Nations presented to the superintendent of Indian affairs, a formal remonstrance against the continued encroachments of the whites upon their lands. The subject was immediately considered by the royal go- ; and near the close of summer, orders were issued|to Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Northern Indian Affairs, instructing him to convene the chiefs, warriors and sachems of the tribes most interested. Agreeably to these orders, Sir William Johnson convened the delegates of the Six Nations, and their confederates and dependents, at Fort Stan wix, (now Utica, N. Y.,) October 24.. Three thousand two hundred Indians, of seventeen different tribes, tributaries to the Confederacy, or occupying territories coterminous with iheirs, attended. On the 5th of November, a treaty of limits and a deed of cession to the King of England, were signed. In this, the delegates of their respective natioM aver that '* they are the true and absolute proprietors of the lands thus ceded^ and that for the considerations mentioDedy ^ we have continued the line south to the Cherokee or Hogoh^ gee rivers* because the same is^ and we declare it to be,our iruo bounds with the Southern Indians^ and that we have an imdoubted right to the country as far south as that river. ^

The cession thus made by the Six Nations, of the country north and east of the Tennessee river, is the first deed fitKQ any of the aboriginal tribes for any territory within the boundaries of our state. The title of the Confederates to thes^ lands was, by the treaty of Fort Stanwix, forever transferred from them; but other tribes contended that the Six Nations had not an exclusive claim to them, but that they Were the common hunting grounds of the Cherokees and Chieka* saws also. In the journal of the commissioners, detaU* ing the progress of the treaty, the tribes represented, dz;c., no mention is made of delegates in attendance from any of the southern Indian tribes. It is said by Haywood, that some visiting Cherokees were present at the treaty, who upon their route had killed game for their support, and on their arrival at Fort Stanwix, immediately tendered the skins to the Indians of the Six Nations, saying : " they are yours ; we killed them after we passed the big river," as they always designated the Tennessee. This would seem to imply an acquiescence on their part, in the validity of the claim of the Six Nations. These claimed the soil, not as its aboriginal owners, but by the right of conquest ; and all tradition concurs in admitting their right to that extent. But the Cherokees had long exercised the privilege of hunting upon these lands, and therefore regarded, with jealousy and dissatisfaction, the approaches of the white settlements. Mr. Stuart, the Superintendent of Southern Indian Affairs, was therefore instructed to assemble the southern Indians for the purpose of establishing a boundary with them ; and before negotiations with the confederates at Fort Stanwix had begun, he concluded a treaty with the Cherokees at Hard Labour, in South-Carolina, October 14, 1768. By this treaty, it was agreed that the south-westem boundary of Virginia should be a line ^ extending from the point where the northern line of North-Carolina intersects the Cherokee hunting gronndS} about thirty-six miles east of Long Island, in the Hcdston river, and thence extending in a direct course, north by eaatp to Ghiswell's Mine, on the east bank of the Kenhawia river, and thence down that stream to its junction with the Ohio." This line, however, did not include all the settlements then made ; and even during the progress of the treaty, the settlers were advancing further west, and erecting their cabiQS north-west of the Holston, and upon the branches of the Clinch and Poweirs river, within the limits of the Indian territory. This fact being ascertained, a subsequent treaty booame necessary for the adjustment of a new boundary and the remuneration of the savages for an additional extent of oountry.''*

Aborigines Of Tennessee

At the time of its first exploration, Tennessee was a vast and almost unoccupied wilderness - a solitude over which an Indian hunter seldom roamed, and to which no tribe put in a distinct and well defined claim. For this reason, and on account of the mildness of its climate, and the rich pasturage furnished by its varied ranges of plain and mountain, Tennessee^ in common with Kentucky, had become an extensive park, of which the beasts of the forest held undisturbed possession. Into these wild recesses, savage daring did not oflen venture to penetrate. Equi-distant from the settled territories of the southern and northern Indian tribes, it remained, by common consent, uninhabited by either, and little explored. The approach of civilization, from several directions, began to abridge the territories of surrounding Indian nations ; and the margin o^his great terra incognita was occasionally visited by parties of savages in pursuit of game, and as places of retreat finom the encroachments of a superior race. In these respects, the value of the country began to be appreciated as hunting grounds, and as affording immunity from the molestations of civilized man. Vague and uncertain claims to several por^ tions of the territory, were asserted by as many several tribes ; but no part of the present Tennessee was held by the actual and permanent occupancy of the Indians, except that section embraced by the segment of a circle, of which Tennessee river is the periphery, from the point where it intersects the North-Carolina line to that where this stream enters the State of Alabama. This was settled by the Cherokees. All of Tennessee, besides this, was uninhabited, though a portion of it was claimed or occupied as hunting grounds by the Shawnees, the Chickasaws,the Choctaws and the Cherokees.

The limits of these several territorial claims were ill defined and indistinct. An ideal line, merely, passing through boundless forests and pathless mountains, with no river or other notorious object to ascertain its exactness, became the occasion of misunderstanding between rival Indian nations.

The earlier French explorers, and geographers after them, designate the banks of the Lower Cumberland as the country of the Shawnees. Numerous villages are laid down on the map, published with Marquette's Journal in 1681, within the present boundaries of Tennessee. They were a wandering nation - one of their tribes being mentioned as dwelling for a time in Eastern Virginia, and anothei% soon after, on the headwaters of the Savannah. Adair, little more than a century since*, ^ saw the chief part of the main camp of the Shawano, consisting of about four hundred and fifty persons, on a tedious ramble to the Muskoghee country, where they settled, seventy miles above the Alabahma garrison."

The late General Robertson learned fVom the Indian J, that more than a century and a half ago, (1665,) the Shawnees occupied the country from the Tennessee river to where Nashville now is, and north of the Cumberland ; and that about 1700, they left this country and emigrated north, and were re- oeived a§ a wandering tribe by the Six Nations, but were not allowed to have there any claim to the soil. As late as 1764, the Shawnees moved from Green river, in Kentucky, where a part of them' then resided, to the Wabash.

In 1772, the Little Com Planter, a most intelligent Gherokne chief, narrated, that the Shawnees, a hundred years bej^re» by the permission of his nation, removed from the Savannah river to Cumberland. That many years afterwards, the two nations becoming unfriendly, the Cherokees marched, in a large body, to the frontiers of the Shawnees - and dividing themselves into several small parties, unexpectedly and treacherously, as Little Corn Planter expressed himself - ^fell iqpon the Shawnees, and put a great many of them to death. The sorvivors then forted themselves, and maintained a protracted war in defence of their possession of the country. At length the Ghickasaws became the allies of the Cherokees ; and the expulsion of the Shawnees from the Cumberland valley was gradually effected. This was about the beginning of the last centary. A few years later, when Monsieur Char- 1*^14 i l^vil'® opened a store where Nashville now is, he oc- ( cupied this fort of the Shawnees, as his dwelling. They were then, and had been for several years, so harassed by their enemies, that small parties of them had been, for a long time, gradually withdrawing from the country ; and their nomber had become so inconsiderable, that they determined to abandon Cumberland entirely, and soon after did so. The GkickasawB, hearing of the intended removal of the Shawnees, raeolved to strike an effectual blow against them, and, if pos- -ible» possess themselves of their stores. For this purpose, a large party of Chickasaw warriors posted themselves on both sides of Cumberland, above the mouth of Harpeth, provided with canoes, to prevent escape by water. Their attack was -nccessful. All the Shawnees were killed, and their property was captured by the Chickasaws.

The hostilities between these tribes not being brought to a doee, by any formal treaty of peace, they continued to destroy each other as often as opportunity offered. At length, afraid of meeting each other, all of these tribes wholly forsook the coontry ; and for sixty years it remained not only unoccupied by either, bat was seldom visited by a hunting party. In this way, when it iv^as first explored and began to be settled by the whites, the whole country west of Gamberland moontain was found uninhabited, and abounding with all the wild beasts of the forest.

Small parties of wandering Shawnees occasionally infested the frontiers, and from their familiarity with the mountains^ the rivers, and the paths to and from the country, were able to inflict serious damage to the infant settlements. A {Morl of the banditti who afterwards infested the narrows of the Tennessee river, and committed such enormous outrages on emigrants and navigators, at these celebrated passes, were Shawnees.

In the map accompanying Adair's book, the river from the head of Holston to the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio, is called Cherake. The Cumberland is called Old Shauvanon, or river of the Shawnees. Near the source of the latter stream, a tributary of the Tennessee takes its rise ; it is probably intended for the modem Clinch. The Hiwassee is called Euphasee, of which Chestoe is a confluent. Ten-* nase is the stream now known as Little Tennessee.

This nation of Indians inhabited the country east of the Mississippi, and north of the Choctaw boundary ; their Villages and settlements were generally south of the 35th degree of north latitude, but they claimed all the territory within the present States of Tennessee and Kentucky, which lies between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, and a considerable portion north of the former. These they claimed as hunting* grounds, though they had few or no permanent settlements within them. Tradition assigns to this tribe, when they first emigrated to this country, a very considerable population, but when Adair first visited them, (1735,) the Chickasaw warriors were estimated below five hundred. Though thus inconsiderable in numbers, the Chickasaws were war^ like and valiant. They exercised an unwonted influence over the Natches, Choctaws and other tribes. Their peaceable but brave warriors, were instrumental in preventing hostilities between their more numerous neighbouring tribes, or in concentrating their hostile operations against the

Ucheeb, Mubkooebs And Chuokee8

At the time of De Soto's invasion, this tribe, as has been already mentioned, occupied the same territory which has since been the seat of that nation, extending south from the mouth of the Tennessee river, to the country of the Natches and Choctaws. Chickasaw tradition assigns to this tribe a residence, at one time, upon the Savannah. Chonubbec, one of their chieftains, said, that when his tribe occupied the country opposite to and east of Augusta, Georgia, hostilities arose between their people and the Creeks, and forced a great part of them to migrate to the country bordering on the MiBsissippi, while another fragment of their tribe was subdoed by, and became incorporated with, the Creeks. As late as 1795, the Chickasaws presented to Congress their claim for lands on the Savannah.

There is a close affinity between the Chickasaws and Ghootaws, in their physical appearances, their languages, onstomSy traditions and laws. These tribes are believed to have had a common origin.

A small tribe of Uchees once occupied the country near the mouth of Hiwassee. Their warriors were exterminated in a desperate battle with the Cherokees. Little elsje is known of them.