INDIAN WARS AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS.

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of war and the high-sounding titles of the warrior, they heeded not distance, and contemned suffering, and braved danger, in seeking out their enemy; and seldom met their foes but to subdue them.

Each tribe of the above nation had its chief, and each body of chiefs its head chief, or great warrior; and the hereditary descent was always in the female line. These chiefs and beloved men, as their counsellors were called, ruled the nation, holding frequent councils, hearing complaints, adjusting differences, receiving European agents, making replies to their friendly talk, declaring war, leading out to battle, announcing cessation of hostilities, and gathering all around the council fire, to smoke the calumet of peace.

Their wars were seldom fair-fought fields, where each met each in full array; but a series of ambuscades, stratagems, massacres, and surprises, wasting and fretting each other by harassing blows, until one party retired from the contest. The prowess of the warrior was reckoned by the number of his war-scalps; and the death of a warrior was lamented and avenged. Their prisoners they treated with cruelty, turning them over to the women and children, whose joy it was to inflict upon them horrid tortures, and make their deaths as lingering and painful as the ingenuity of merciless savages could devise.

Their social institutions were necessarily imperfect. They were united by the affinities of tribes. Marriage with any of a kindred blood, though far remote, was forbidden. The wife was sought by the females of both parties, and bargained for as merchantable wares. The rites of marriage were simple, its duties stringent, its liberties none. Infidelity was punished with death, though before marriage great looseness of virtue pre

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OCCUPATIONS, LANGUAGES, AMUSEMENTS.

vailed. Divorce could be easily obtained, and polygamy was permitted to all who could afford the additional expense. The children remained with the mother, and the property she brought with her could not be used by the husband.

The occupation of the Indians was mostly hunting, fishing, and war; their weapons were the bow and arrow, and the scalping-knife, Their warlike character was graduated by the number of their scalps; and when conquered, they exulted in that fortitude which enabled them to bear the severest tortures with the unflinching spirit of a true Brave. The women were generally made to bear the burden of labour, though among the Creeks the men gave some assistance. Their dress was simple, consisting mostly of skins, variously painted, and decorated with tawdry ornaments, according to their fancy or ability. Their wigwams were rude and temporary, and the conveniences of life few and unrefined. The languages of the tribes inhabiting Georgia were diverse in their character, the Muscogee being the most prevalent; though there were tribes which formed a part of this confederacy which did not use the Creek tongue. All the Indian languages were susceptible of strong expressions and forcible appeals—of abrupt sentences and bold metaphors-which gave a vigour and strength to their eloquence, at times approaching to the sublime.

The Indians loved the dance, of which they had many kinds, and especially did they rejoice in the "wardance," and the "war-song," on the eve of battle, in which they recounted the deeds of their ancestors, and expressed their contempt of death. They all believed in a Great Spirit; in a future world, where the brave men would live in a glorious hunting-ground,

THEIR VIEW OF DEATH. THEIR DESTINY.

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accompanied with beautiful women; and that they should pass their eternity in a round of perpetual pleasures. When death came to the Indian, he looked boldly in his face, and quaked not at his terrors. He called indeed upon the Spirit he had worshipped, and invoked the aid of the "medicine men;" but believing that when he departed this life he should enter upon another and perhaps similar scene, he bowed his head, and was laid in the grave, with his pipe and tomahawk, his bow and arrows, his bowl of corn and venison, that he might hunt and be refreshed in his journey to the land of spirits.

Thus lived and died the Indian. The light of their council-fires has been removed from the sea-board to the mountains; from the mountains to the great valley of the Father of Waters. Eastward of the Alleghany range, scarcely an Indian can now be found. They have vanished before the march of the pale man journeying towards the setting sun-hastened onwards by the advancing waves of civilization; and will either be swept away by that civilization, or become partakers of its benefits. "Passing away" is the destiny of the red men; their memorials are fast displaced by the structures of civilized society; and soon the Indian will live but in the traditions and history of the past. The prophecy uttered over four thousand years ago, "God shall enlarge Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem,"" is daily fulfilling; and ere long its full accomplishment shall be recorded in the book of time, and in the great volume of our future history.

12 Genesis ix. 27.

BOOK SECOND.

CHAPTER I.

THE COLONIZATION OF GEORGIA.

THE story of our colonial birth and infancy, is ever interesting and attractive. We love to trace back our political lineage, and run up the civil genealogy of our forefathers. The same spirit which caused the earlier Athenians to call themselves Autochthones, and wear golden grasshoppers in their hair, in proof of their indigenous origin,' and which led the Romans to link their genealogy to the gods, still lives and animates the human bosom. Ours, however, is a more rational feeling. We seek not our origin among the fictions of mythology; nor boast a descent from groveling insects or fabled divinities. Satisfied at finding our infant colony born of philanthropy, cradled by benevolence, and guarded by valour, we seek no higher source, and say to mercy, Thou art our mother; and to charity, Thou hast nurtured us.

By the first charter of Charles II. to the Lords Pro

1 Thucydides, i. 6.

2 Niebuhr's Rome.