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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

says: "their features and mind exactly correspond together; for, except the intense love they bear to their native country, and their utter contempt of any kind of danger in defence of it, I know no other virtue they are possessed of the general observation of the traders among them is just, who affirm them to be divested of every property of a human being, except shape and language."

The French had acquired great influence over the Choctaws, as, indeed, over nearly every tribe in North America with whom they had maintained friendly intercourse. Adair enlarges upon the artful policy with which they conciliated and bribed the leaders and orators of the nation. Besides this, he says: "the masterly skill of the French enabled them to do more with those savages, with trifles, than all our experienced managers of Indian affairs have. been able to effect by the great quantities of valuable goods they gave them with a very profuse hand. The former bestowed their small favors with exquisite wisdom; and their value was exceedingly enhanced by the external kindly behavior and well-adapted smooth address of the giver."

The nation of the Chickasaws, at the time of which we are speaking, was settled near the sources of the Tombigbee, a few miles eastward of the head waters of the Tallahache.. They numbered about four hundred and fifty warriors, but were greatly reduced since their ancient emigration from the west. They were said to have formerly constituted one family with the Choctaws, and to have been able to bring one thousand men into the field at the time of their removal. Due allowance must of course be made for mistake and exaggeration in these early traditions.

The Chickasaws were ever inimical to the French and friendly to the English colonists. It was by their efforts. that the neighboring tribe of the Natchez was stirred up to attack the French settlements, in 1729. The French

had, unadvisedly, imposed a species of tax upon the Natchez, demanding a dressed buck-skin from each man of the tribe, without rendering any return; but, as some of that people afterwards reported to Adair, "the warriors' hearts grew very cross, and loved the deer-skins."

The Chickasaws were not slow to foment a disturbance upon intelligence of this proceeding, and sent messengers, with presents of pipes and tobacco, to counsel an attack upon the exercisers of such tyranny. Nothing so strongly excites an Indian's indignation as any attempt at taxation, and the Natchez were easily persuaded that the French had resolved to crush and enslave them. It took about a year to ripen the plot, as the Indians are "slow in their councils on things of great importance, though equally close and intent."

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It was in the month of November, (1729,) that the Indians fell upon the French settlement. The commandant had received some intimation of the intended attack from a woman of the tribe, but did not place sufficient dependence upon it to take any efficient steps for the protection of his charge. The whole colony was massacred: men, women, and children, to the number of over seven hundred — Adair says fifteen hundred perished by the weapons of the savages. The triumph of the Natchez was, however, but of short duration. The French came upon them in the following summer with a large army, consisting of two thousand of their own soldiers and a great array of their Choctaw allies. The Natchez were posted at a strong fort near a lake communicating with the Bayou D'Argent, and received the assailants with great resolution and courage. They made a vigorous sally, as the enemy approached, but were driven within their defences, and "bombarded with three mortars, which forced them to fly off different ways.' The Choctaws took many prisoners, some of whom were tortured to death, and the rest shipped to the West Indies as slaves.

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The remnant of the Natchez fled for safety to the ChickThis brought about a war between the French and the last-mentioned tribe, in which, if we may believe Adair, the Indians had decidedly the advantage. He tells of one engagement, in which the French and their Indian allies had surrounded the Chickasaw settlements in the night, with the exception of one, which stood at some distance from the rest, called Amalahta. The besiegers beset every house, and killed all who came out: "but at the dawn of day, when they were capering and using those flourishes that are peculiar to that volatile nation, the other town drew round them, stark naked, and painted all over red and black; thus they attacked them, killed numbers on the spot, released their brethren, who joined them like enraged lions." The Indians belonging to the French party fled, but the whites were all killed except two, “an officer, and a negro, who faithfully held his horse till he mounted, and then ran along side of him. A couple of swift runners were sent after them, who soon came up with them, and told them to live and go home, and inform their people, that as the Chickasaw hogs had now a plenty of ugly French carcasses to feed on till next year, they hoped then to have another visit from them and their red friends; and that, as messengers, they wished them safe home."

On another occasion, the same historian informs us that the French approached the Chickasaw stockade, strangely disguised, and protected from the balls of the enemy by paddings of wool. The Indians were to the last degree astonished both at their appearance and invulnerability, and were about to desist from active resistance, and resort to the skill of their own necromancers to oppose what they thought must be "wizards, or old Frenchmen carrying the ark of war against them." As the enemy approached, and began to throw hand-grenades into the fort,

they were quickly undeceived, and set in earnest about the work of defence. They pulled the matches out of the grenades, or threw them back among the French; and, sallying forth, directed an effective fire at the legs of the enemy, who were speedily driven off. "I have two of these shells," says Adair, "which I keep with veneration, as speaking trophies over the boasting Monsieurs and their bloody schemes."

CHAPTER II.

COLONIZATION OF GEORGIA. - EARLY INTERCOURSE WITH THE NA-
TIVES.
INTRIGUES OF THE REVEREND THOMAS

TOMOCHICHI.

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BOSOMWORTH. .-CHEROKEE WAR OF 1759.-ATTAKULLAKULLA AND OCCONOSTOTA. — MURDER OF INDIAN HOSTAGES.-COLONEL MONTGOMERY'S EXPEDITION. DESTRUCTION OF THE EASTERN CHEROKEE TOWNS.- BATTLE NEAR ETCHOE. - CAPITULATION AT FORT LOUDON. -INDIAN TREACHERY.-CAMPAIGN OF colonel grant, AND COMPLETE REDUCTION OF THE CHEROKEES.

WHEN the little colony of one hundred and fourteen souls, under the guidance of James Edward Oglethorpe, commenced the settlement of Georgia, in the winter of 1733, the upper and lower Creeks laid claim to the whole territory south-west of the Savannah. The only natives residing in the vicinity at Yamacraw-were peaceably disposed towards the settlers, but the governor of the infant colony thought it advisable to put himself upon safe grounds as respected the Indian claims. He therefore secured the services of a half-breed woman, named Mary Musgrove, who could speak English, and, by her mediation, brought about a conference with the chiefs of the tribe at Savannah, the seat of the new settlement.

Mary had formerly married a white trader from Caro

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