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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 F 326.P59 1896 
 
 History of Alabama and incidentally of G 
 
 3 1924 006 057 503 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924006057503 
 
ALBERT James Pickett. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 ALABAMA 
 
 AND INCIDENTALLY OF 
 
 GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI, 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD. 
 BY 
 
 ALBERT JAMES PICKETT. 
 
 REPUBLISHED BY 
 
 ROBERT C RANDOLPH, 
 
 OF SHEFFIELD, ALA. 
 1896. 
 
Entered according to the act of Congress, by Albiskt James Fiokett, on the 
 
 27th January, 1851, in the Clerk's OflSoe of the District Court of the United States 
 
 for the Middle District of Alabama. 
 
 MATT. GAKLE, 
 
 ClerK U. S. D. C. M. D. of Ala. 
 
 Copyright 1878 by Mes. Sarah S. Pickett. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 As a token of my sincere esteem, and of the high respect I feel for their 
 
 talents and character, as well as in consideration of the 
 
 deep interest which they have taken in my 
 
 literary enterprises, 
 
 I DEDICATE THESE VOLUMES TO 
 
 BENJAMIN FITZPATEICK, JOHN ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, 
 
 AETHUK FRANCES HOPKINS, THOMAS JAMES JUDGE 
 WILLIAM LOWNDES YANCEY, EDMUND STROTHER DARGAN, 
 
 FRANCIS BUGBEE, THADDBUS SANPORD, 
 WILLIAM PARISH CHILTON, BURWELL BOYKIN, 
 
 JOSHUA LANIER MARTIN, ALEXANDER BOWIE, BASIL MANLY, 
 SILAS PARSONS, NICHOLAS DAVIS AND CLEMENT C. CLAY, JR., 
 
 OF ALABAMA : 
 
 GEORGE M. TROUP AND JOHN M. BERRIEN, 
 
 OF GEOBGIA : 
 
 JOHN H. F. CLAIBORNE AND JOHN W. MONETTE, 
 
 OF MISSISSIPPI : 
 
 LESLIE A. THOMPSON AND WALKER ANDERSON, 
 OF FLOBIDA : 
 
 CHARLES GAYARRE AND SAMUEL F. WILSON, 
 
 OF LOCISIANA ! 
 
 DANIEL GRAHAM, 
 
 OF TENNESSEE : 
 
 ARTHUR P. HAYNE, FRANCIS W. PICKENS, 
 
 JAMES H. HAMMOND, W. GILMOKB SIMS, RICHARD YBADON, 
 
 MITCHELL KING AND HENRY W. CONNER, 
 
 OF SODTH CAROLINA : 
 
 A. J. PICKETT 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 CHAPTER. 
 
 Preface ' 
 
 I. De Soto in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi l"? 
 
 II. Tlie Aborigines of Alabama and the Surrounding States . . 58 
 
 III. The Modern Indian of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. 74 
 
 IV. Mobilians , Chatots, Thomes and Tensas 118 
 
 V, The Chootaws and Chiokasaws 1^3 
 
 VI. The Cherokees ^^^ 
 
 VII. Ancient Mounds and Fortifications in Alabama 148 
 
 VIII. The French in Alabama and Mississippi 160 
 
 IX. The Colony of Louisiana Granted to Crozat 183 
 
 X. The India or Mississippi Company 209 
 
 XI. Terrible Massacre at Natchez 236 
 
 XII. The Englishl in Georgia. 258 
 
 XIII. Jesuit Priests or Missionaries 270 
 
 XIV. The French Battles upon the Tomblgby 279 
 
 XV. Bienville Leaves the Colony— His Character 299 
 
 XVI. Horrible Death of Beaudrot and the Swiss Soldiers 304 
 
 XVII. Bossu's Visits to the French Forts upon the Alabama and 
 
 Tombigby Rivers 309 
 
6 HISTOKT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 XVIII. The Occupation of Alabama and Mississippi by the 
 
 English ■ ^^^ 
 
 XtX. Hardships of the Early Emigrants 331 
 
 XX. Journey of Bartram through Alabama 388 
 
 XXI. An Account of the' McGillivray Family— The Kevolu- 
 
 tionary War 342 
 
 XXII. Extreme Perils and Sufferings of the Natchez Kef ugees.. 352 
 
 XXIII. The Spaniards in Alabama and Mississippi 365 
 
 XXIV. Bloody Scenes in Alabama and Georgia 378 
 
 XXV. The Deep Intrigues of McGillivray 385 
 
 XXVI. The First Yazoo Sale— Bowles, the Freebooter 408 
 
 XXVII . Singular Inhabitants of Alabama , 416 
 
 XXVIII. Death of McGillivray— Bloody Scenes 426 
 
 XXIX. The French Minister, Genet— His Designs Upon the 
 
 Southwest .' 438 
 
 XXX. The Second Yazoo Sale 443 
 
 XXXI. The Americans in Alabama and Mississippi 460 
 
 XXXII. Governor Troup, or the Mcintosh Family — Incidents in 
 
 the Mississippi Territory 476 
 
 XXXIII. The Arrest of Aaron Burr in Alabama 488 
 
 XXXIV. St. Stephens — Huntsville — Indian Commerce — Kemper 
 
 Expeditions 503 
 
 XXXV. Tecumseh — Civil War Among the Creeks 510 
 
 XXXVI. Battle of Burnt Corn — Arrival of Gen. Claiborne's Army. . 521 
 
 XXXVII. Terrible Massacre at Fort Mims .528 
 
 XXXVIII. Daring of Heaton— Bloody Scenes — Gaines and the Choc- 
 taws 544 
 
CONTENTS. / 
 
 XXXIX. Battles of Tallasehatohie, Talladega and Auttose 522^' 
 
 XL. Remarkable Canoe Fight— Battle of Holy Ground — Mai^h 
 
 to Cahaba Old Towns 560 
 
 XLl. Battles of Emuokfau, Enitachopco and Calebee 579 
 
 Xfill. Battle of the Horse-Shoe — Weatherford Surrenders Him- 
 self at Fort Jackson 588 
 
 XLIII. Treaty of Fort Jackson — Attack upon Mobile Point — 
 
 March upon Tuscaloosa 599 
 
 XLIV. The British Take Mobile Point— Peace Declared— The 
 
 Alabama Territory 612 
 
 XLV. ' Modern French Colony in Alabama, or the Vine and 
 
 Olive Company 623 
 
 XLVI. Last Territorial Legislature — State Convention 634 
 
 XLVII. The First Legislature of the State of Alabama — Governor 
 
 Bibb 660 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In submitting my first book to the public, I refrain from 
 making apologies jn its behalf, and shall only briefly allude to my 
 labors, in order to show how strenuously I have endeavored to 
 insure its authenticity. I have sought materials for a correct 
 history of my country, wherever they were to be procured, 
 whether in Europe or America, and without regard to cost or 
 trouble. All the Atlantic States have Historical Societies, and 
 books and manuscripts relating to those States have been col- 
 lected. In addition to this, agents have been sent to Europe by 
 different Legislatures, who have transcribed the colonial records 
 which relate to their history. I have had none of these aids. I 
 have been compelled to hunt up and buy books and manuscripts 
 connected with the history of Alabama, and to collect oral infor- 
 mation in all directions. I rejoice, however, to know that a 
 Historical Society has recently been formed at Tuscaloosa by 
 some literary gentlemen, and it gives me pleasure to reflect that 
 the authors who may appear" after my day, will not he subjected 
 to the labor which it has been my lot to undergo. Believing that 
 the historian ought to be the most conscientious of men, writing, 
 as he does, not only for the present age but for posterity, I have 
 endeavored to divest myself of all prejudices, and to speak the 
 truth in all cases. If it should be found, by the most scrutiniz- 
 ing reader, that any of my statements are incorrect, let me say 
 in advance, that when I penned those statements I believed them 
 
10 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 to be true. So anxious have I been to record each incident as it 
 really occurred, that upon several occasions I have traveled over 
 four hundred miles to learn merely a few facts. 
 
 About four years since, feeling impressed with the fact that 
 it was the duty of every man to make himself, in some way, use- 
 ful to his race, I looked around in search of some object, in the 
 pursuit of which I could benefit my fellow-citizens ; for, although 
 much interested in agriculture, that did not occupy one- fourth of 
 my time. Having no taste for politics, and never having studied 
 a profession, I determined to write a History. I thought it 
 would serve to amuse my leisure hours, but it has been the hard- 
 est work of my life. While exhausted by the labor of reconcil- 
 ing the statements of old authors, toiling over old French and 
 Spanish manuscripts, traveling through Florida, Alabama and 
 Mississippi for information, and corresponding with persons in 
 Europe and elsewhere for facts, I have sometimes almost re- 
 solved to abandon the attempt to prepare a History of my 
 State. 
 
 In reference to that portion of the work which relates to the 
 Indians, I will state that my father removed from Anson county, 
 North Carolina, and carried me to the wilds of the " Alabama 
 Territory," in 1818, whfen I was a boy but eight years of age. 
 He established a trading-house in connection with his plantation, 
 in the present county of Autauga. During my youthful days, I 
 was accustomed to be much with the Creek Indians— hundreds 
 of whom came almost daily to the trading-house. For twenty 
 years I frequently visited the Creek nation. Their green corn 
 dances, ball plays, war ceremonies, and manners and customs, 
 are all fresh in my recollection. In my intercourse with them I 
 
PKBFACE. 1 1 
 
 was thrown into the company of many old white men, called 
 "Indian countrymen," who had for years conducted a commerce 
 with them. Some of these men had come to the Creek nation 
 before the revolutionary war, and others being tories, had fled to 
 it during the war, and after it, to escape from whig persecution. 
 They were unquestionably the shrewdest and most interesting 
 men with whom I ever conversed. Generally of Scotch descent, 
 many of them were men of some education. All of them were 
 married to Indian wiveSj and some of them had intelligent and 
 handsome children. From these Indian countrymen I learned 
 much concerning the manners and customs of the Creeks, with 
 whom they had been so long associated, and more particularly 
 with regard to the commerce which they carried on with them. 
 In addition to this, I often conversed with the Chiefs while they 
 were seated in the shades of the spreading mulberry and walnut, 
 upon the banks of the beautiful Tallapoosa. As they leisurely 
 smoked their pipes, some of them related to me the traditions of 
 their country. I occasionally saw Choctaw and Cherokee trad- 
 ers, and learned much from them. I had no particular object in 
 view at that time, except the gratification of a curiosity, which 
 led me for my own satisfaction alone, to learn something of the 
 early history of Alabama. 
 
 In relation to the invasion of Alabama by De Soto, which is 
 related in the first chapter of this work, I have derived much 
 information in regard to the route of that earliest discoverer 
 from statements of General McGillivray, a Creek of mixed blood, 
 who ruled this country with eminent ability from 1776 to 1793. 
 I have perused the manuscript history of the Creeks by Stiggins, 
 a half-breed, who also received some particulars of the route of 
 
12 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 De Soto during his boyhood from the lips of the oldest Indians. 
 My library contains many old Spanish and French maps, with 
 the towns through which De Soto passed correctly laid down. 
 The sites of many of these are familiar to the present population. 
 Besides all these, I have procured from England and France 
 three journals of De Soto's expedition. 
 
 One of these journals was written by a cavalier of the expe- 
 dition, who was a native of Elvas, in Portugal. He finished his 
 narrative on the 10th February, 1557, in the city of Evora, and 
 it was printed in the house of Andrew de Burgos, printer and 
 gentleman of the Lord Cardinal and the Infanta. It was trans- 
 lated into English by Richard Hakluyt in 1609, and is to be 
 found in the supplementary volume of his voyages and discov- 
 eries; London, 1812. It is also published at length in the His- 
 torical Collections of Peter Force, of Washington City. 
 
 Another journal of the expedition was written by the Inca 
 Garcellasso de la Vega, a Peruvian by birth and a native of the 
 city of Cuzco. His father was a Spaniard of noble blood, and his 
 mother the sister of Capac, one of the Indian sovereigns of Peru. 
 Garcellasso was a distinguished writer of that age. He had 
 heard of the remarkable invasion of Florida by De Soto, and he 
 applied himself diligently to obtain the facts. He found out an 
 intelligent cavalier of that expedition, v^ith whom he had minute 
 conversations of all the particulars of it. In addition to this, 
 journals were placed in his hands written in the camp of De 
 Soto — one by Alonzo de Garmona, a native of the town of Priego, 
 and the other by Juan Coles, a native of Zafra. Garcellasso pub- 
 lished his work at an early period in Spanish. It has been trans- 
 lated into French, but never into English. The copy in our 
 
PBBFACE. 13 
 
 hands is entitled " Histoire de la Conquete de la Floride ou rela- 
 tion, de ce qui s'est passe dans la decouverte de ce pais, par Fer- 
 dinand De Soto, Composee en Espagnol, par L'Inca Garcellasso 
 de la Vega, et traduite en Francois, par Sr. Pierre Richelet, en 
 deux tomes ; A. Leide : 1731." 
 
 I have still aiiother journal, and the last one, of the expedi- 
 tion of De Soto. It was written by Biedma, who accompanied 
 De Soto as his commissary. The journal is entitled, "Relation 
 de ce qui arriva pendant le voyage du Captaine Soto, et details 
 sur la nature du pas-qu'il parcourut; par Luis Hernandez de 
 Biedma," contained in a volume entitled " Recuil de Pieces sur la 
 Floride," one of a series of "Voyages et memoires originaux pour 
 servir a L'Histoire de la decouverte de L'Amerique publies pour 
 la premier fois en Francois ; par H. Ternaux-Compans. Paris : 
 1841." 
 
 In Biedma there is an interesting letter written by De Soto, 
 while he was at Tampa Bay, in Florida, which was addressed to 
 some town authorities in Cuba. The journal of Biedma is much 
 less in detail ttoan those of the Portuguese Gentleman and Gar- 
 cellasso, but agrees with them in the relation of the most im- 
 portant occurrences. 
 
 Our own accomplished writer and earliest pioneer in Ala- 
 bania history — Alexander B. Meek, of Mobile — has furnished a 
 condensed, but well written and graphic account of , De Soto's 
 expedition, contained in a monthly magazine, entitled "The 
 Southron," Tuscaloosa, 1839. He is correct as to the direction 
 assumed by the Spaniards over our soil, as well as to the char- 
 acter of that extraordinary conquest. 
 
14 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Theodore Irving, M. A., of New York, has recently issued a 
 revised edition of his Conquest of Florida. Its style is easy and 
 flowing, when the author journalizes in regard to marches 
 through the country, and is exceedingly graphic, when he gives 
 us a description of De Soto's hattles. As I have closely ex- 
 amined the sources from which Mr. Irving has collated his work, 
 I am prepared to state that he has related all things as they are 
 said to have occurred. For the complimentary terms which Mr. 
 Irving has employed in the preface, and also in many of the 
 notes of his late edition, in relation to my humble efforts in en- 
 deavoring to throw new light upon the expedition of De Soto, I 
 beg him to accept my profound acknowledgments. 
 
 There are many gentlemen of talents and distinction, who 
 have unselfishly, nobly and generously interested themselves in 
 my behalf, while engaged in the arduous labors which are now^ 
 brought to a close. I will name John A. Campbell and George 
 N. Stewart, of Mobile ; Alfred Hennen and J. D. B. DeBow, of 
 New Orleans ; the Rev. Francis Hawks, of New York ; William 
 H. Prescott and Jared Sparks, of Massachusetts; the Rev. 
 William Bacon Stevens, of Philadelphia ; W. Gilmore Simms, of 
 South Carolina ; and particularly, John H. F. Claiborne, of Missis- 
 sippi, who placed in my hands the manuscript papers of his 
 father, Gen. F. L. Claiborne, who commanded the southern wing 
 of the army, during the Creek war of 1813 and 1814. The son 
 has requested me to present the manuscript papers of his father 
 as a contribution from him to the Historical Society of Alabama. 
 I shall comply with his request upon the first suitable occasion, 
 There are many other persons who have manifested an interest 
 
PREFACE. 15 
 
 in my behalf, to enumerate all of whom, would be extending this 
 preface to an unreasonable length. While I omit the mention 
 of their names, I shall ever cherish the memory of their atten- 
 tions with the most grateful recollections. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 May, 1851. 
 
HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 De Soto in Alabama, Georgia and Misstssippi. 
 
 The first discovery of Alabama was by Hernando De Soto, a 
 native of Spain, and the son of a squire of Xerez of Badajos. 
 When a youth he went to Peru, enlisted under Pizarro, and, with 
 no property but his sword, won distinguished military reputation. 
 Returning to his native country, and making an imposing ap- 
 pearance at Court, he was made Governor of Cuba, and Adelan- 
 tado of Florida. In the unknown regions of the latter, he re- 
 solved to embark his vast wealth in a splendid expedition, de- 
 signed to conquer a people whom he believed to possess more 
 gold than he had yet beheld in South America. Young men of 
 the best blood in Spain and Portugal, sold their houses and their 
 vineyards and flocked to his standard. Soon he was 
 surrounded by an army of six hundred chosen men, 1538 
 with whom he put to sea, over the bar of San Lucar April 
 de Barremeda. Arriving at Cuba, he consumed a year 
 in arranging the affairs of his government, and in preparation 
 for the great enterprise before him.* At the end of that period, 
 he left his wife, Dona Isabel de Bobadilla, and the Lieu- 
 tenant Governor, in charge of the Island, and sailed for 1539 
 the coast of Florida, with a fleet of nine vessels — five May 12 
 large ships, together with caravels and brigantines. , 
 
 * Portuguese Narrative, pp. 695-700. Garcellasso de la Vega, pp. S9-60. 
 
HISTOEY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 A prosperous voyage soon enabled De Soto to pitch his camp 
 upon the shores of Tampa Bay, in Florida, with an army 
 Ma,y 30 now increased to one thousand men. Sending out de- 
 tachments to capture Indians, from whom he expected 
 to learn something of the country, he found them skilful with 
 the bow and too wily to be easily taken. In one of these sallies, 
 the soldiers under Baltasar de Gallegos charged upon a small 
 number of Indians. At that moment a voice cried out, " I am a 
 Christian ! I am a Christian ! — slay me not." Instantly Alvaro 
 Nieto, a stout trooper, drew back his lance, and lifting the un- 
 known man up behind him, pranced ofE to join his comrades. 
 Panfllo de Narvaez had attempted to overrun this country 
 with a large expedition ; but after disastrous wander- 
 1528 ings, he reached Apalache without finding any gold, — 
 and from thence went to the site of the present St. 
 Marks, where his famished troops embarked for Cuba, in rude 
 and hastily constructed boats, which were soon swallowed by 
 the waves.* Jean Ortiz, the person taken prisoner, and who 
 now in all respects, resembled a savage, was a native of the town 
 of Seville, in Spain. When a youth, he came to this coast with 
 some others in search of Narvaez, and was captured by the 
 Indians, who were about to burn him to death, when he was for- 
 tunately saved through the entreaties of the beautiful daughter 
 of Uceta, the Chief. In the earlier periods of his slavery he was 
 treated with barbarity, and compelled to guard, night and day, 
 a lonely temple, in which the dead were deposited. After having 
 been twelve years a prisoner among these savages, he was joy- 
 fully hastening to the camp of De Soto, when the Castilian 
 words, which he so imploringly uttered, arrested the terrible 
 lance of Alvaro Nieto.f 
 
 Gratified at the appearance of Jean Ortiz, who became his in- 
 
 * A history of the expedition of Narvaez will he found In Barcla, vol. I, folio edition, 
 Madrid, 1749, entitled " Navfragios de Alvar Nunez Cabzea de Vaca y Relaclon de la 
 Jornada que hizo a la Florida, con el Adelantado I'anflio de Narvaez." See, also, fier- 
 rera's History of America, vol. 4, lip. 27-38, vol. 5, pp. 91-105. London : 1740. 
 
 t Portuguese Narrative, pp. 702-704. Garcellasso, pp. 45-64. 
 
DE SOTO IN ALA.BAMA, GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 19 
 
 terpreter, De Soto gave him clothes and arms, and plac- 
 ed him upon a good charger. The Adelantado was now 1539 
 ready to penetrate the interior. His troops were pro- June 
 vided with helmets, breastplates, shields, and coats of 
 steel to repel arrows of the Indians ; and with swords, Bisoayan 
 lances, rude guns called arquebuses, cross-bows, and one piece of 
 artillery. His cavaliers, mounted upon two hundred and thirteen 
 horses, were the most gallant and graceful men of all Spain. 
 Greyhounds, of almost the fleetness of the winds, were ready to 
 be turned loose upon the retreating savages ; and bloodhounds, 
 of prodigious and noted ferocity, were at hand to devour them, if 
 the bloody Spaniards deemed it necessary. To secure the un- 
 happy Indian, handcuffs, chains and neck collars abounded in 
 the camp. Workmen of every trade, with their various- tools, 
 and men of science, with their philosophical instruments and 
 crucibles for refining gold, were in attendance. Tons of iron and 
 steel, and much other metal, various merchandise, and provisions 
 to last two years, were provided by the munificence of the com- 
 mander and his followers. A large drove of hogs, which strange- 
 ly multiplied upon the route, together with cattle and mules, 
 was also attached to the expedition. The establishment of the 
 Catholic religion appears to have been one of the objects ; for, 
 associated with the army, were twelve priests, eight clergymen 
 of inferior rank, and four monks, with their robes, holy 
 relics, and Sacramental bread and wine. Most of them 1539 
 were relatives of the superior officers. Never was an June 
 expedition more complete, owing to the experience of 
 De Soto, who, upon the plains of Peru, had ridden down hun- 
 dreds in his powerful charges, and had poured out streams of 
 savage blood with his broad and sweeping sword ! It is not 
 within our scope to detail the bloody engagements which attend- 
 ed the wanderings of this daring son of Spain, upon the territory 
 of the now State of Florida. Everywhere, but especially in nar- 
 row defiles, the natives showered clouds' of arrows upon the in- 
 
'20 HISTORY OF. ALABAMA. 
 
 vaders. Strong in numbers, and made revengeful by the cruel- 
 ties inflicted by Narvaez, they had determined to fight De Soto 
 until his army was destroyed or driven from their soil. No- 
 where in Florida did he find peace. His gallant troops, however, 
 were successful. The Indians, often put to flight, and as often 
 captured, were laden with chains, while the ponderous baggage 
 of the expedition was unfeelingly thrown upon their backs for 
 transportation. When in camp, they were made to pound corn, 
 and to perform the most laborious and servile drudgery. 
 
 Cutting his way from Tampa, De Soto arrived at 
 
 1539 Anaica Apalache, in the neighborhood of the modern 
 Oct. 27 Tallahassee. Then, as it is yet, a fertile region, he drew 
 
 from this town, and from others which surrounded it, 
 breadstuffs to last him during the winter. The sea, only thirty 
 miles distant, was explored by a detachment, and at the present 
 St. Marks the bones of horses, hewn timbers, and other evidences 
 of Narvaez, were discovered. During the winter all the detach- 
 ments, in their various expeditions, were attacked by the Indians, 
 and the main camp at Apalache was harrassed, day and night, in 
 the fiercest manner, and with the most sanguinary results. At 
 length Captain Maldinado, who had been ordered to sail to the 
 west in some brigantines, which arrived from Tampa Bay, in 
 
 search of a good harbor, returned in February and re- 
 
 1540 ported the discovery of the bay of Ochus, since called 
 Feb. Pensacola, which had a spacious channel, and was pro- 
 tected from the winds on all sides.* Delighted at this 
 
 good news, which enabled the Governor to make a wide circuit 
 in the interior, he now ordered Maldinado to put to sea in the 
 brigantines which then lay in the Apalache Bay, and to sail for 
 Cuba. He w£^s commanded to sail fron: thence to Ochus with a 
 fieet of provisions, clothes, and military supplies, with which to 
 
 • The Portuguese Narrative asserts that Maldinado was sent to the west, at the 
 head of a detachment, by land ; but I adopt the more reasonable statement of G^aroel- 
 lasso, especially as he is sustaiiiedby Biedma, De Soto's commissary. See "Relation de 
 oe qui arriva pendant le voyage du Captalne Soto, par Luis Hernandez de Biedma," 
 p. 59. 
 
DB SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 21 
 
 recruit the expedition, when it should have met him at that point 
 in October.* 
 
 Learning from an Indian slave that a country to the north- 
 east abounded in gold, De Soto broke up his winter 
 encampment, and set out in that direction. He entered 1540 
 the territory of the present Georgia at its southwestern Mar. 3 
 border, and successively crossing the Ockmulgee, Oconee 
 and Ogechee,t finally rested upon the banks of the Savannah, im- 
 mediately opposite the modern Silver Bluff. On the eastern side 
 was the town of Outifachiqui,t where lived an Indian Queen, young, 
 beautiful and unmarried, and who ruled the country around to a 
 vast extent. She glided across the river in a magnificent canoe, with 
 many attendants, and,^ after an interesting interview with De 
 Soto, in which they exchanged presents, and passed many 
 agreeable compliments, she invited him and his numerous fol- 
 lowers over to her town. The next day the expedition 
 crossed the Savannah upon log rafts and in canoes, and 1540 
 quartered in the wigwams and under the spreading April 
 shades of the mulberry. Many interesting things oc- 
 curred at this place, which are mentioned at length by both of 
 the journalists of De Soto, particularly by Garcellasso, but which 
 are here reluctantly omitted in our anxiety to reach the borders 
 of Alabama. 
 
 After a halt of several weeks at Cutifachiqui, De Soto broke 
 
 * Portuguese Narrative, p. 709. Garcellasso, pp. 211-214. 
 
 t Biedma states tbat De Soto crossed a river (while in this part of the country) 
 called the Altapaha. The substitution of only one letter would 4nake it the Altamaha. 
 p. 62. 
 
 % All Indian tradition locates this town at the modern Silver Bluff, which is sit- 
 uated on Vhe east hank of the Savannah, in Barnwell District, South Carolina, and 
 Tvhich is now the property of Governor Hammond. 
 
 In 1736, George Golphin, then a young Irishman, established himself as an Indian 
 trader-at this point, and gave the old site of Cutifachiqui the name of Silver Bluff. The 
 most ancient Indians informed him that this was the place where De Soto found the 
 Indian Princess ; and this tradition agrees with that preserved by other old traders, and 
 handed down to me. Golphin became a very wealthy man, and was for many years one 
 of the most influential persons in Georgia and South Carolina, as we will see hereafter. 
 He left many descendants j among others, the wife of the late Governor Millege, was his 
 daughter; Dr. Thomas G. Holmes, an intelligent man, of Baldwin county, Alal)ama, is 
 his grandson. 
 
 Bertram, in his " Travels," j)age 313, speaking of Silver BlufE, says : "The Spaniards 
 formerly ilxed themselves at this place in the hopes of finding silver." 
 
'22 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 up his camp, and, in company with the beautiful young Qu^en, 
 whom he retained about his person as a hostage, to secure obe- 
 dience among her subjects, and who did not escape 
 1540 from him until the army had nearly accomplished 
 May 3 its route through northern Georgia— marched up the 
 Savannah to its head waters, and rested, for a short 
 time, at a town in the present Habersham county, Georgia. 
 From this place the expedition assumed a direct western 
 course, across northern Georgia, until they struck the head 
 waters of the Coosa river, where they advanced upon the 
 town of Guaxule, containing three hundred houses, and sit- 
 uated between several streams which had their sources in the 
 surrounding mountains. The Chief met De Soto with five hun- 
 dred warriors clothed in light (jostume, after the fashion of the 
 country, and conducted him to his own house — surrendered at 
 the instance of his wife — which stood upon a mound, and was 
 surrounded by a terrace wide enough for six men to promenade 
 abreast.* Having but little corn for the famished troops, the 
 natives collected and gave them three hundred dogs, which the 
 Spaniards had been accustomed to eat in the pine barrens of 
 lower Georgia, " esteeming them as though they had been fat 
 wethers."t Gaining much information about the country, in 
 conversations with the Chief, conducted by the inter- 
 preter, Jean Ortiz, the Governor, after the fourth day's 1540 
 sojourn at Guaxule, marched to the town of Conasauga, May 
 in the modern county of Murray, Georgia. Cross- 
 ing the Conasauga creek, and journeying down its western banks, 
 the Spaniards found it to increase in size, and being joined by 
 other streams, it presently grew larger than the Guadalquiver 
 which passes by Seville.t This was the Oostanaula ; and follow- 
 ing its western side, De Soto, after a very slow march, advanced 
 within seven miles of Chiaha, where he was met by fifteen In- 
 
 * Garcellasso, p. 294. 
 
 t Portuguese Ifarratlve, p. 712. 
 
 t GarcellasBO, 29S. 
 
DE SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 23 
 
 dians, laden with corn, bearing a message from the Chief, 
 inviting him to hasten to his capital, where abundant 1540 
 supplies awaited him. Soon the eager Spaniards stood May 
 before the town of Chiaha, which is the site of the mod- 
 ern Rome. 
 
 The most ancient Cherokee Indians, whose tradition has 
 been handed down to us through old Indian traders, disagree as 
 to the precise place where De Soto crossed the Oostanaula to get 
 over into the town of Chiaha — some asserting that he passed over 
 that river seven miles above its junction with the Etowa, aijd 
 that he marched from thence down to Chiaha, which, all contend, 
 lay immediately at the confluence of the two rivers ; while other 
 ancient Indians asserted that he crossed, with his army, immedi- 
 ately opposite the town. But this is not very important. Coup- 
 ling the Indian traditions with the account by Garcellasso, and 
 that by the Portuguese eye-witness, we are inclined to believe 
 the latter tradition that the expedition continued to' advance 
 down the western side of the Oostanaula, until they halted in 
 view of the mouth of the Etowa. 
 
 De Soto having arrived immediately opposite the 
 great town of Chiaha, now the site of Rome, crossed the 1 540 
 Oostanaula in canoes and upon rafts made of logs pre- June 5 
 pared by the Indians, and took up his quarters in the 
 town.* 
 
 The noble young chief received De Soto with unaffected joy, 
 and made him the following address : 
 
 " Mighty Chief : Nothing could have made me so happy as to 
 be the means of serving you and your warriors. Tou sent me 
 word from Guaxule to have corn collected to last your army two 
 months. Here I have twenty barns full of the best which the 
 country can afford. If I have not met your wishes, respect my 
 tender age, and receive my good will to do for you whatever 
 I am able."t 
 
 * Garcellasso, p. 295. 
 
 t Portuguese Narrative, p. 717. 
 
24 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 The Governor responded in a kind manner, and was then 
 conducted to the Chief's own house, prepared for his accommo- 
 dation. 
 
 Chiaha contained a great quantity of bear's oil in gourds, and 
 walnut oil as clear as butter and equally palatable; and for the 
 only time upon the entire route were seen pots of honey.* The 
 Spaniards, irregularly quartered in the fields, and scattered about 
 at their will, reposed under trees and loitered upon the. banks of 
 the rivers. The horses, reduced in flesh and unfit for battle, 
 grazed upon the meadows. Unaccustomed to allow such loose 
 discipline, De Soto now winked at it, for the natives were 
 friendly, and every soul in the camp needed repose. One day 
 
 the Chief presented the Governor with a string of 
 1540 pearls, two yards in length, and as large as filberts, for 
 June which he received in return pieces of velvet and other 
 
 cloth much esteemed by the Indians. He said that the 
 temple of this town, where the remains of his ancestors were de- 
 posited, contained a vast quantity of these valuables. He invited 
 his distinguished guest to take from it as many as he desired. 
 But the latter declined, remarking that he wished to appropriate 
 nothing to himself from so sacred a place. The Chief, to gratify 
 him in regard to the manner of obtaining these pearls, immedi- 
 ately despatched somejof hislsubjects in four canoes, with instruc- 
 tions to fish all night for the oysters which contained them. In 
 the morning he caused a fire to be made upon the bank. The 
 canoes returned laden, and the natives throwing the oysters upon 
 the glowing coals, succeeded in finding many pearls the size of 
 peas, which De Soto pronounced beautiful, but for the fire, which 
 had robbed them of some of their brilliancy. A soldier, in eat- 
 ing some of the oysters, or, rather, muscles, found one of great 
 
 * I bave often been informed by old bee bunters andlndian countrymen, that after tbe 
 territory of Alabama became partially settled by an American po^pulation, wild bees 
 were mucli more abundant than they were in their earliest recollection. They were in- 
 troduced into the country from Georgia and the Carolinas, and often escaping from 
 their hives to tbe woods, became wild; hence De Soto found no honey in the country 
 at tbe early period in which he invaded it, except at Chiaha. 
 
• DK SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEOEGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 25 
 
 size uninjured, and offered it to the commander for Dona Isabel. 
 He declined the kindness intended his wife, and urged the gener- 
 ous fellow to keep it to buy horses with at Havana. Connois- 
 seurs in camp valued it at four hundred ducats.* While here, a 
 cavalier, named Luis Bravo de Xeres, walking one day upon the 
 bank of the river, threw his lance at a dog, which suddenly dis- 
 appeared under the bluff. Coming up to recover his weapon, he 
 found, to his horror, that it had pierced the temple of Jean 
 Mateos and had killed him. The poor man was quietly fishing 
 on the margin of the stream, and little suspecting that 
 death was at hand. The accident caused deep regret 1540 
 in the camp, the deceased being much esteemed, and, June 
 having the only gray head in the army, was caljed, by 
 way of pleasantry, Father Mateos.f 
 
 About this time a principal Indian from Costa, a town be- 
 low, informed De Soto that in the mountains to the north,, at a 
 place called, Chisca, were mines of copper, and of a yellow metal, 
 still finer and softer. Having seen, upon the Savannah, 
 copper hatchets supposed to be mixed with gold, his 1540 
 attention was deeply aroused upon the subject. Villa- June 
 bos and Silvera, two fearless soldiers, volunteered to 
 explore that region. Furnished with guides by the Chief of 
 Chiaha, they departed upon their perilous journey. 
 
 The Spaniards had basked upon the delightful spot where 
 now stands the town of Rome, for the space of thirty days. The 
 horses had recruited, and the troops had grown vigorous and 
 ready for desperate deeds. De Soto demanded of the hospitable 
 
 * Garcellasso, p 297. The oyster meutionea was the muscle to be found in all the 
 rivers of Alabama.. Heaps of muscle shells are now to be seen on our river banks wher- 
 ever Indians used to live. They were much used by the ancient Indians for some pur- 
 pose, and old warriors have informed me that their ancestors once used the shells to 
 temperithe clay with which they made their vessels. But as thousands of the shells lie 
 banked up, some deep in the ground, we may also suppose that the Indians, in De Soto's 
 time, everywhere in Alabama, obtained pearls from them. There can be no doubtabout 
 the quantity of pearls found in this State and Georgia in 1540, but they were of a coarser 
 and more valueless kind than the Spaniards supposed. The Indians used to perforate 
 them with a heated copper spindle, and string them around their necks and arms like 
 beads— others made toy babies and birds of them. 
 
 t Garcellasso, p. 298. 
 
26 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Chief, through the persuasion of some of his unprincipled officers, 
 a number of females to accompany them in their wanderings. 
 That night the inhabitants quietly left the town and hid them- 
 selves in the bordering forests. The Chief entreated the Gov- 
 ernor not to hold him responsible for their conduct, for, during 
 his minority, an arbitrary uncle ruled them with a despotic will. 
 With^ixty troopers De Soto ravaged the surrounding 
 1540 country, and, provoked at not finding the fugitives, laid 
 June waste their flourishing fields of corn. When afterwards 
 informed that men only would be required to bear the 
 baggage, the Indians returned to Chiaha, apologized for their 
 flight, and yielded to the last proposition.* De Soto then broke 
 up his camp, re-crossed the Oostanaula, and marched down the 
 west side of the Coosa, leaving the generous people of Chiaha 
 well satisfied with presents. On the 2d July, and after seven 
 days slow march, he entered the town of Costa.f The Spaniards 
 were now in Alabama, in the territory embraced in the . 
 county ot Cherokee, and by the side of the Coosa, one 1540 
 of our noblest streams. Never before had our soil been July 
 trodden by European feet ! Never before had our 
 natives beheld white faces, long beards, strange apparel, glitter- 
 ing armor, and, stranger than all, the singular animals bestrode 
 by the dashing cavaliers ! De Soto had discovered Alabama, not 
 by sea, but after dangerous and difficult marches had penetrated 
 her northeastern border with a splendid and well equipped land 
 expedition ! The Atlantic States were quietly discovered by 
 voyagers entering their harbors. Alabama was marched upon 
 by an army, whose soldiers sickened with famine upon the bar- 
 rens of Georgia, and left tracks of blood upon the soil of Florida ! 
 Commanding his camp to be pitched two cross-bow shots 
 from the town, De Soto, with eight men of his guard, approached 
 the Chief of Costp, who received him with apparent friendship. 
 
 * Portuguese Narrative, pp. 718-719. 
 t Portuguese Narrative, pp. 71&-719. 
 
DE SOTO IN ALABAMA, 6E0B6IA AND MISSISSIPPI. 27 
 
 "While they were conversing together some unscrupulous foot- 
 men entered the town and plundered several of the houses. The 
 justly incensed Indians fell upon them with their clubs. Seeing 
 himself surrounded by the natives, and in great personal danger, 
 the Governor seized a cudgel, and, with his usual presence of 
 mind, commenced beating his own men. The savages, observing 
 that he took their* part, became pacified for a moment. In the 
 meantime, taking the Chief by the hand, he led him, with flatter- 
 ing words, towards the camp, where he was presently surrounded 
 by a guard and held as a hostage.* The Spaniards remained 
 under arms all night. Fifteen hundred Indians, armed complete, 
 often made dispositions to charge upon them, vociferating angry 
 and insulting language. Averse to war since he had been so re- 
 peatedly attacked by the Floridians, De Soto restrained his 
 anxious troops. His coolness, together with the influence of a 
 prominent Indian who followed him from Chiaha, put an end to 
 the serious affair.f Three days after this-Villabos and Silvera 
 returned from (Jhisca. They passed into the mountains, found 
 no gold, but a country abounding with lofty hills and stupendous 
 rocks. Dispirited, they returned to a poor town, where the in- 
 habitants gave them a buffalo robe, which they supposed once 
 covered a tremendous animal, partaking of the qualities of the ox 
 and the sheep. t According to Garcellasso, the mines which they 
 reached were of a highly colored copper, and were 
 doubtless situated in the territory of the county of De 1540 
 Kalb. The sick, who were placed in canoes at Chiaha, July 9 
 had by this time arrived down the river. Furnished 
 with the burden carriers by the Chief, who was to the last 
 hour held a prisoner, the Governor left Costa on the 9th of July, 
 - 1540, and crossed over to the east side of the Coosa upon rafts 
 and canoes. , Proceeding down its eastern bank, he encamped the 
 first night at the town of Talle. The Chief came forth to receive 
 
 * Portuguese Narrative, pp. 718-719. 
 
 t Garcellasso, p. 300. 
 
 J; Portuguese Narrative.'p. 719. 
 
28 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 him, and, in a formal speech, begged him to command his ser- 
 vices. Here the Spaniards remained two days, sharing the hos- 
 pitality of the natives. Upon their departure they were supplied 
 with two women and four men. Indeed, De Soto brought from 
 the forests of Florida over five hundred unhappy men and women, 
 secured with chains, driven by keepers, and made to transport 
 the effects of the expedition. When any of them became sick, 
 died, or escaped, it was his policy to supply their places at the 
 first town upon which he marched. He always, however, distri- 
 buted among the principal Indians presents, which were gratify- 
 ing to them, and left at many of the towns pairs of swine to stock 
 the country. 
 
 The expedition now began to enter the far-famed province of 
 Coosa, the beauty and fertility of which were known to all the 
 Indians, even upon the seaside. Garcellasso asserts 
 1540 that it extended three hundred miles, and other authors 
 July agree that it reached over the territory now embraced 
 in the counties of Cherokee, Benton, Talladega and Coo- 
 sa. Continuing through the rich lands of Benton, the expedition 
 passed many towns subject to the Chief of Coosa. Every day 
 they met ambassadors, " one going and another coming," by which 
 De Soto was assured of a hearty welcome at the capital.* With 
 joyful faces the Indians rushed to his lines every mile upon the 
 route, furnishing supplies and assisting the troops from one town 
 to another. The same generous reception attended him upon 
 entering the soil of the county of Talladega. The hospitality of 
 the Coosas surpassed that of any people whom he had yet dis- 
 covered. The trail was lined with towns, villages and hamlets, 
 and " many sown fields which reached from one to the other."t 
 With a delightful climate, and abounding in fine meadows and 
 beautiful little rivers, this region was charming to De Soto and 
 his followers. The numerous barns were full of corn, while acres 
 
 * Portuguese Narrative, p. 719. 
 t Portuguese Narrative, p. 719. 
 
DE SOTO m ALABAMA, GEOEGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 29 
 
 of that which was growing bent to the warm rays of the sun and 
 rustled in the breeze. In the plains were plum trees peculiar to 
 the country, and others resembling those of Spain. Wild fruit 
 clambered to the tops of the loftiest trees, and lower branches 
 were laden with delicious Isabella grapes. 
 
 On the 26th of July, 1540, the army came in sight 
 of the town of Coosa. Far in the outskirts, De Soto was 1540 
 met by the Chief, seated upon a cushion, and riding in a July 26 
 chair supported upon the shoulders of four of his chief 
 men. One thousand warriors, tall, active, sprightly and admira- 
 bly proportioned, with large plumes of various colors on their 
 heads, followed him, marching in regular order. His dress con- 
 sisted of a splendid mantle of martin skins, thrown gracefully 
 over his shoulder, while his head was adorned with a diadem of 
 brilliant feathers. Around him many Indians raised their voices 
 in song, and others made music upon flutes.* The steel-clad 
 warriors of Spain, with their glittering armor, scarcely equalled 
 the magnificent display made by these natives of Alabama. The 
 Chief, receiving De Soto with the warmth of a generous heart, 
 made him the following speech : 
 
 " Mighty Chief ! above all others of the earth ! Although I 
 come now to receive you, yet I received you many days ago deep 
 in my heart. If I had the whole world, it would not give me as 
 much pleasure as I now enjoy at the presence of yourself and 
 your incomparable warriors." My person, lands and subjects are 
 at your service. I will now march you to your quarters with 
 playing and singing."t 
 
 JDe Soto responded in his best style, after which he advanced 
 to the town, conversing with the Chief, who rode in his sedan 
 chair, while the lofty Spaniard sat upon his fiery sreed. The 
 royal house was set apart for the accommodation of the Adelan- 
 tado, and one half of the other houses were surrendered 
 
 * Garoellasso, p. 300. 
 
 t Portuguese Narrative, pp. 719-720. 
 
30 HISTOET OP ALABAMA. 
 
 1540 to the troops. Thp town of Coosa was situated upon the 
 July east bank of the river of that name, between the mouths 
 of the two creeks, now known as Talladega and Tallase- 
 hatchee, one of which is sometimes called Kiamulgee.* It con- 
 tained five hundred houses, and was the capital of this rich and 
 extensive province. 
 
 The Chief of Coosa was twenty-six years of age, well formed, 
 intelligent, with a face beautifully expressive, and a heart honest 
 and generous. He always dined with De Soto. One day he rose 
 from the table, and, in an earnest manner, besought the Governor 
 to select a region anywhere in his dominions, and immediately 
 establish upon it a large Spanish colony. De Soto had contem- 
 plated peopling some beautiful country, and was better pleased 
 with this section than any other, but his imagination still 
 pointed him to some gold region, like Peru. He returned the 
 Chief his profound thanks, adduced many reasons for de- 
 154.0 dining the liberal ofEer, among others, that Maldinado's 
 Aug. ships would await him at the bay of Pensacola. Yet, in 
 the face of all the kindness, the politic and suspicious De 
 Soto kept the Chief about his person, as a hostage, to preserve 
 peace among the Indians, and to extort slaves and provisions. 
 Enraged at the imprisonment of their Chief, the Indians fled to 
 the woods to prepare for war. Four captains, with their compa- 
 nies, were despatched in different directions in pursuit, and 
 returned with many women and men in chains.. Some of the 
 principal of these were released at the entreaty of the Chief, 
 
 * In 1798, Col. Benjamin Hawkins, then Creek Agent, visited the Coosa town, now 
 embraced In the county of Talladega. He accurately describes the inhabitants and the 
 location of the town , which he says was situated on the banks of the Coosa, between the 
 mouths of two creeks, the Indian names of which were Katche and Ufaula. When the 
 French expelled the Natchez from the Mississippi in 1730, some of that tribe sought 
 refuge among the Talladegas— hence the name of one of these creeks in Hawkins' day. 
 When the Americans, in 1832, began to settle this country, they changed the names of 
 these creeks to Talladega, or Kiamulgee. and Tallaseliatcliee. In addition to the testi- 
 mony of Col. Hawkins, many old Indian countrymen have informed me that here was 
 the site of the Coosa town, which was known by that name in their early days. Several 
 ancient French and Spanish maps, in my possession, lay down the town of Coosa at the 
 place described. 
 
 See Hawkins' sketch of the Creek Country in 1798-1799, published by the Historical 
 Society of Georgia, Savannah, 1848. 
 
DB SOTO IN ALABAMA, 6E0B6IA AND MISSISSIPPI. 31 
 
 -while others were carried oft" with the expedition, laden with 
 irons and baggage, and those who were not destroyed at the bat- 
 tle of Maubila were conducted far beyond the Mississippi river.* 
 The Indians returned from the forest, and remained at peace 
 with the Spaniards, but were still dissatisfied at the restrictions 
 imposed upon the liberties of their Ohief. After twenty- 
 five days had been passed at the capital of Coosa, De 1540 
 Soto marched in the direction of the Tallapoosa, leaving Aug. 
 behind a Christian negro, too sick to travel, whom the 
 Indians desired to retain among them on account of his singular 
 hair and sable complexion. He recovered, and was doubtless the 
 distant ancestor of the dark-colored savages seen in that region 
 in more modern times.t The first day the army passed through 
 the large town of Tallemuchasa, within a few hours after it had 
 been abandoned by its inhabitants. The next day the town of 
 Utaua was reached, where De Soto encamped six days, awaiting 
 the abacement of the stream which ran by it, now violently swol- 
 len by incessant rains. As the expedition had not crossed any 
 stream since leaving Coosa, it is probable the one alluded to was 
 the modern Tallasehatchee. The march was continued to Ulle- 
 bahale, situated upon Hatchet creek, which was called a " small 
 river." The town was surrounded by a wall composed of two 
 rows of posts driven deep in the ground, with poles laid hori- 
 zontally between them, the inner and outside of the frame work 
 neatly stuccoed with clay and straw. Port-holes were left at 
 proper distances, forming a defence " as high as a lance." Such 
 was the character of the Indian fortifications from this place on- 
 
 • Portuguese Narrative, p. 720. 
 
 t The Degro left at Coosa was not the only memorial of Be Soto that remained with 
 these people. George Stiggins, whose miother was a Natchez Indian, and whose f.ither 
 was a Scotchman, was born in the Talladega country. He was a fair English scholar, 
 .and a pretty good writer. He had been for years engaged in writing a history of the 
 Creeks, and died some years ago, leaving it in an unfinished state. His son permitted 
 nie to peruse it one day. Stiggins asserts that the Talladegas had, at a late day, a brass 
 kettle-drum and several shields which once belonged to the army of De Soto, and that 
 he had often seen them. The Goosas used them as trophies in their annual festivals. 
 Besides these, De Soto left ho^s and sometimes cattle among the Alal)ama towns, and 
 .such is the origin of these animals among the Indians. Horses and mules were too 
 Taluable to be given away. 
 
32 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 ward. In consequence of the duresse of the Chief of Coosa, whom 
 De Soto carried along with him, but treated with respect and 
 kindness, the Indians of Ullebahale were in arms. Before the 
 
 Spaniards entered the suburbs, twelve principal men, 
 
 1540 armed with bows, and with lofty plumes upon their 
 
 Sept. 14 heads, advanced and volunteered to rescue their beloved 
 
 Chief by arraying a formidable force, but he dissuaded 
 them ' from it. On the opposite side of the creek lived a sub- 
 Chief, who furnished De Soto with thirty women for slaves, and 
 to carry burdens. Then the Adelantado pursued his wanderings, 
 leaving behind Mansano, a native of Salamanca, of noble parent- 
 age, who was lost while rambling in the hills for grapes, which 
 were found in great abundance. The route lay along the modern 
 
 Socapatoy region, in the county of Coosa. The expedi- 
 1540 tion passed the town of Toase, and several others, sub- 
 Sept. 18 ject to the Chief of Tallase, and arrived at the great town 
 
 of that name on the 18th September, 1540. 
 Tallase M'as an extensive town, the principal part of which was 
 encompassed by a wall, similar to that just described, with the 
 addition of terraces. It reposed upon a point of land " almost 
 surrounded by a main river," which was the Tallapoosa.* Ex- 
 tensive fields of corn reached up and down the banks. On the 
 opposite side were othhv towns, skirted with rich fields laden with 
 heavy ears of maize. The beautiful river, rolling its silvery waters 
 through these fertile lands, and the delightful climate, contrib- 
 uted to render the whole prospect most pleasing. But the recep- 
 tion of De Soto among these people was cool and scarcely civil. 
 Some had abandoned their houses at his approach, and gone into 
 the woods. However, the Chief gave him forty Indians. After 
 
 •Some years after De Soto passed through this country, the Muscogees or Creeks came 
 from the iWexican empire, of which they were subjects, and overrun all ^ ast Alabama 
 and the greater portion of Georgia, killing and making slavfs of many of the Alabamas, 
 Ockmulgees, oconees and Uchees, the latter of whom then lived near the modern city of 
 Savannah. Upon the ruins of the Tallase discovered by De Soto, the Muscogees built 
 the town of Tookabatcha, but immediately opposite, across the river, the name of Tal- 
 lase was preserved until they moved to Arkansas, in 1836. This ancient and extensive 
 Indian settlement is now in large cotton plantations. 
 
DE SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 33 
 
 a few days, a noble-looking young savage, of gigantic proportions, 
 and with a face extremely handsome and interesting, visited the 
 marquee. He was ,the son of Tuscaloosa, a potent Chief, whose 
 domains commenced thirty miles below, and extended to the dis- 
 tant Tombigby. He bore an invitation from his father to De 
 Soto to hasten to his capital, where he was making preparations 
 to receive him upon a magnificent scale, and then awaited him 
 upon the eastern confines of his territory. The son was des- 
 patched with a suitable reply, and presents for the father. 
 
 Having remained at Tallase twenty days, De Soto dismissed 
 the Chief of Coosa, with whom he parted upon good terms, 
 crossed the Tallapoosa in canoes and upon rafts, marched down 
 the eastern side, and encamped the first night at Casista, prob- 
 ably the sight of the modern Autose. Delayed in pass- 
 ing the river, he could not have advanced further that 1540 
 day. In the morning the march was resumed. During Oct. 
 this day a large town was discovered, and at night the 
 camp was pitched upon the borders of another. The next day, 
 advancing within six miles of the temporary residence of Tusca- 
 loosa, a halt was made in the woods. Louis de Moscoso, the 
 campmaster, with fifteen horsemen, was despatched to inform 
 the Chief of the proximity of the Governor. Moscoso found the 
 proud Mobilian seated upon two cushions, placed on a large and 
 elegant matting, upon an eminence which commanded a delight- 
 ful prospect. His numerous attendants posted themselves 
 around him, leaving space for the nearer position of his chief men. 
 One of these held over his head a round deerskin shield, with a 
 staff in the middle, resembling an umbrella. Painted with stripes 
 of difiierent colors, it was used as a banner in his wars, but was 
 employed at present in protecting his head from the rays of the 
 sun. Tuscaloosa was 40 years of age, of great stature, with im- 
 mense limbs. He was spare around the waist, and his whole 
 form was admirably proportioned. His countenance was hand- 
 some, but grave and severe. " He was lord , of many territories 
 
 - — 3 
 
34 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 and much people, and was feared by his neighbors and subjects." 
 In vain did Moscoso endeavor to excite his curiosity, by prancing 
 his horses before him. Sometimes he scarcely deigned to raise 
 his eyes, and then, again, he bestowed upon the troopers the most 
 contemptuous smiles. Even 'when De Soto arrived, he preserved 
 the same Haughty demeanor ; but, in consideration of his position 
 as commander-in-chief, he reluctantly advanced, and made the 
 following address : 
 
 " Mighty Chief : I bid you welcome. I greet you as I would 
 my brother. It is needless to talk long. What I have to say can 
 be said in a few words. You shall know how. willing 
 ] 540 I am to serve you. I am thankful for the things which 
 Oct. you have sent me, chiefly because they were yours. I" 
 am now ready to comply with your desires." 
 The Governor replied in true Spanish style, failing not to 
 assure the Chief that, even in distant Indian countries, through 
 which he passed, he had heard of his greatness and power. 
 This interesting scene occurred below Line Creek, in the present 
 county of Montgomery. Both journalists agree that De Soto had 
 advanced thirty-six miles below Tallase. Reposing at this 
 town the space of two days, preparations were made to advance. 
 An of&cer was sent among the horses, to find one large enough 
 to sustain the giant Indian. A large pack horse, the property of 
 the Governor, was selected. Appareled in a rich suit of scarlet, 
 and a cap of the same, given to him by De Soto, the Chieftain, 
 who was a head taller than any of his attendants, mounted upon 
 his horse, with his feet nearly trailing on the ground. 
 1540 Onward the lofty and graceful Mobilian rode, side by 
 Oct. side with the Governor. Marching through the terri- 
 tory embraced in the present counties of Montgomery, 
 Lowndes, and the southeastern part of Dallas, the expedition ar- 
 rived at a town called Piache, seated on a peninsula formed by 
 the windings of a large river, " the same which runs by Tallase, 
 
DE SOTO IIT ALABAMA, GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 35 
 
 but here grown much wider and deeper."* This was the Ala- 
 bama. On the march hither, a distressing disease broke out 
 among the Spaniards, from the want of salt. The death of sev- 
 eral, together with the loathsome, condition of fhe sufferers, 
 spread alarm in the camp. Those who afterwards used ashes 
 with their food, from a weed recommended by the Indians, 
 escaped the dreadful malady .f 
 
 The town of Piaohe was strongly fortified. Its name is 
 probable preserved in a large creek which flows into the Alabama 
 en the northern side, called Chilache. The Indians having no 
 canoes, soon constructed rafts of dry logs and cane, upon which 
 the troops were wafted to the northern or wesj;ern side of the 
 Alabama — according to the conviction of the writer, in the upper 
 part of the county of Wilcox. t 
 
 The expedition assumed a southern' direction, and marched 
 down the western side of the Alabama, over the soil of 
 the present county of Wilcox. De Soto began to read 1540 
 the Mobilian Chief. He was still proud and distant, and Oct. 
 evidently felt that he was a prisoner. Upon the whole 
 route he had been studiously engaged in consulting with his 
 principal men, and in constantly sending runners to the capital 
 with messages. De Soto suspected that he meditated schemes, 
 which aimed at the destruction of the Spaniards. His suspicions 
 were further awakened, when Villabos and another cavalier were 
 believed to have been killed by his, subjects. When asked about 
 them Tuscaloosa indignantly replied, "I am not their keeper." 
 High words ensued between him and De Soto ; but the latter re- 
 strained himself until an opportunity offered of taking deep re- 
 venge on the Chief for his insolence and the death of the two 
 Spaniards. On the third day of the march from Piache, they 
 
 * Garcellasso, p. 310. Portuguese Narrative, p. 722. 
 
 t Garcellasso, pp. 369-370. 
 
 i Biedma says that De Soto occupied two days In passing the river; and he learned 
 from the Indians that Narvaez's barques touched at the mouth of the river (the Ala- 
 bama) in search of water, and that a Christian, named Teodoro, was still among the 
 Indians below— and they exhibited to De Soto a dagger which they had obtained from 
 him. p. 72. 
 
36 HISTOKT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 passed through many populous towns, well stored with corn, 
 beans, pumpkins, and other provisions. In the meantime, Chara- 
 milla and Vasques, two able and discreet cavaliers, T^ere 
 despatched in advance to discover if any conspiracy was going 
 on at the capital. Before daylight, on the fourth mornmg, De 
 Soto placed himself at the head of one hundred horse, and an 
 equal number of foot, and marched rapidly in that direction with 
 the Chief, leaving Moscoso, the camp-master, to bring up the 
 larger portion of the troops. At eight o'clock the same morning, 
 
 the 18th October, 1540, De Soto and Tuscaloosa arrived 
 
 1540 at the capital, called Maubila. It stood by the side of 
 
 Oct. 18 a large river, upon a beautiful plain, and consisted of 
 
 eighty handsome houses, each capacious enough to con- 
 tain a thousand men. They all fronted a large public square. 
 They were encompassed by a high wall, made of immense trunks 
 of trees, set deep in the ground and close together, strengthened 
 with cross-timbers, and interwoven with large vines. A thick 
 mud plaster, resembling handsome masonry, concealed the wood 
 work, while port-holes were abundant, together with towers, 
 capable of containing eight men each, at the distance of fifty 
 paces apart. An eastern and a western gate opened into the 
 town. The writer is satisfied that Maubila was upon the north 
 bank of the Alabaima, and at a place now called Choctaw Bluff, 
 in the county of Clarke, about twenty-five miles above the con- 
 fluence of the Alabama and Tombigby. The march from Piache, 
 the time occupied, the distance from Maubila to the bay of Pen- 
 sacola— computed by Garcellasso and the Portuguese Gentleman 
 at eighty-five miles— and the representations of aged Indians and 
 Indian countrymen, that here was fought the great battle be- 
 tween De Soto and the brave Mobilians, have forcibly con- 
 tributed to make that impression upon his mind. 
 
 De Soto and Tuscaloosa were ushered into the great public 
 square of Maubila with songs, music upon Indian flutes, and the 
 graceful dancing of beautiful brown girls. They alighted from 
 
DE SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 37 
 
 their chargers, and seated themselves under a " canopy of state." 
 Remaining here a short time, the Chief requested that he should 
 no longer be held as a hostage, nor required to follow the army 
 any further. The Adelantado hesitated in reply, which brought 
 Tuscaloosa immediately 'to his feet, who walked off with a lofty 
 and independent bearing, and entered one of the houses. 
 De Soto had scarcely recovered from bis surprise, when 1540 
 Jean Ortiz followed the Chief and announced that Oct. J 8 
 breakfast awaited him at the Governor's table. Tusca- 
 loosa refused to return, and added, " If your Chief knows what is 
 best for him, he will immediately take his troops put of my ter- 
 ritory." In the meantime, Charamilla, one of the spies, informed 
 the Governor that he had discovered over ten thousand men in 
 the houses, the subjects of Tuscaloosa and other neighboring 
 Chiefs ; that other houses were filled with bows, arrows,, stones 
 and clubs; that the old women and children had been sent 
 out of the town., and the Indians were at that moment de- 
 bating the most suitable hour to capture the Spaniards. The 
 General received this startling intelligence with the deep- 
 est solicitude. He secretly sent word to his men to be 
 ready for an attack. Then, anxious to avert a rupture, by 
 regaining possession of the person of the Chief, he approached 
 him with smiles and kind words, but Tuscaloosa scorn- 
 fully turned his back upon him, and was soon lost 1540 
 among the host of excited warriors. At that moment a Oct. 18 
 principal Indian rushed out of the same house, and loudly 
 denounced the Spaniards as eobbbks, thieves and assassins, 
 who should no longer impose on their great Chief, by depriving 
 him of a liberty with which he was born, and his fathers before 
 him. His insolence, and the motions which he made to shoot at 
 a squad of Spaniards with a drawn bow, so incensed Baltasar de 
 Gallegos, that, with a powerful sweep of his sword, he split down 
 his body and let out his bowels ! Like bees in a swarm the sav- 
 ages' now poured out upon the Spaniards. De Soto placel him- 
 
38 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 self at the head of his men, and fought face to face with the 
 enemy, retreating slowly and passing the gate into the plain. 
 His cavalry had rushed to rescue their horses, tied outside the 
 walls, some of which the Indians came upon in time to kill. 
 Still receding to get out of the reach of the enemy, De Soto at 
 length paused at a considerable distance upon the plain. The 
 Mobilians seized the Indian slaves, packed upon their backs the 
 effects of the expedition, which had now arrived and lay scattered 
 about, drove the poor devils within the walls, knocked off their 
 irons, placed bows in their hands, and arrayed them in battle 
 against their former masters. In the first sally, De Soto had 
 five men killed and many wounded, himself among the latter 
 number. Having captured the baggage, the victors covered the 
 ground in advance of the gate, and rent the air with exulting 
 shouts. At that moment the Governor headed his cavalry, and 
 followed by his footmen, charged upon the savage masses ; and, 
 with a terrible slaughter, drove them back into the town. The 
 Indians rushed to the port-holes and towers, and shot upon the 
 invaders clouds of arrows, compelling them again to retire from 
 the walls. A small party of Spaniards were left in a perilous 
 situation. Three cross-bow men, an armed friendly Indian, five 
 of De Soto's guard, some servants and two priests, not having 
 time to join the others when first attacked in the square, took 
 refuge in the house set apart for their commander. The savages 
 sought an entrance at the door, but the unhappy inmates bravely 
 defended it, killing many of the assailants. Others clambered 
 upon the roof to open the covering, but were as successfully re- 
 pulsed; Separated from their friends by a thick wall, 
 1540 and in the midst of thousands of enemies panting to lap 
 Oct. 18 their blood, their destruction appeared inevitable. Dur- 
 . ing the long struggle for existence, the holy fathers en- 
 gaged in earnest prayer for their deliverance, whije the others 
 fought with a desperation which rose with the occasion. 
 
 Seeing the Spaniards again retreat, the Indians rushed 
 
DB SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 39 
 
 through the gates, and dropping down from the walls, engaged 
 fiercely with the soldiers, seizing their sweeping swords and 
 piercing lances ! Three long hours were consumed in the ter- 
 rible conflict, first one side giving way and then the other. 
 Occasionally, De Soto was strengthened by small squads 
 of horsemen who arrived, and without orders, charged into 
 the midst of the bloody melee. The Governor was every- 
 where present in the fight, and his vigorous arm hewed down 
 the lustiest warriors. That sword, which had often been dyed in 
 the blood of Peruvians, was now crimsoned with the gore of a 
 still braver race. The invincible Baltasar de Gallegos, who struck 
 the first blow, followed it up, and was only equaled by the com- 
 mander in the profuse outpouring of savage blood. Far on the 
 borders of the exciting scene rode his brother, Fray Juan, a Do- 
 minican friar, who constantly beckoned him to quit the engage- 
 ment on foot, and take the horse which he bestrode, in 
 order to fight the better. But Baltasar, gloating on 1540 
 blood, heeded him not ; when presently an Indian arrow, Oct. 18 
 which made a slight wound upon the back of the 
 worthy father, caused him to retire to a less dangerous distance. 
 Indeed, during the whole battle the priests kept the plain, watched 
 the awful carnage with intense anxiety, and often fell upon their 
 knees, imploring Almighty God to give victory to the Spaniards. 
 At length the matchless daring of De Soto and his troops 
 forced the Indians to take a permanent position within Maubila, 
 closing after them its ponderous gates. The sun began to lower 
 towards the tops of the loftiest trees, when Mosco^o and the last 
 of the army arrived. He had strangely loitered by the way, al- 
 lowing the soldiers to scatter in the woods and hunt at their leis- 
 ure. His advanced guard heard at a distance the alarum of drums 
 and the clangor of trumpets. "With beating hearts they passed 
 back the word along the scattered lines, from one to the 
 other, and soon the hindmost rushed to the support of their ex- 
 hausted and crimson-stained comrades. Joined by all his force, 
 
40 HISTOKY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 De Soto formed the best armed into four divisions of foot. Pro- 
 vided with bucklers for defense, and battle-axes to demolish the 
 walls, they made a simultaneous charge, at the firing of an arque- 
 buse. Upon the first onset, they were assailed with showers of 
 arrows and dreadful missies. Repeated blows against the gates 
 forced them open. The avenues were filled with eager soldiers, 
 rushing into the square. Others, impatient to get in, battered 
 the stucco from the walls and aided each other to climb over the 
 skeleton works. A horrible and unparalleled carnage ensued. 
 The horsemen remained on the outside to overtake those who 
 might attempt to escape. The Indians fought in the 
 1540 streets, in the square, from the tops of the houses and 
 Oct. 18 walls. The gi'ound was covered with their dead, but 
 not one of the living entreated for quarters. The Span- 
 iards were protected with bucklers and coats of mail, while 
 the poor Indians were only covered with the thin shield which 
 the Great Spirit gave them at the dawn of their existence. 
 The troops entered the town in time to save the two priests and 
 their companions, who had so long held out against such 
 fearful odds. The battle, which now waxed hotter and more 
 sanguinary than ever, cannot be as graphically described as 
 the heroic deeds on either side so justly deserve. Often the 
 Indians drove the troops out of the town, and as often they 
 returned with increased desperation. Near the wall lay a large 
 pool of delicious water, fed by many springs. It was now dis- 
 colored with blood. Here soldiers fell down to slake the intense 
 thirst created, by heat and wounds, and those who were able rose 
 again, and once more pitched into a combat characterized by the 
 most revolting destruction of human life. For some time the 
 young females had joined in the fight, and they now contended 
 side by side with the foremost warriors, sharing in the 
 1540 iadiscriminate slaughter. Heated with excitement, 
 Oct. 1 8 smarting with his wounds, and provoked at the unsub- 
 dued fierceness of the natives, De Soto rushed out 
 
DE SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEOEGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 41 
 
 alone by the gate, threw himself into the saddle, and charged into 
 the town. Calling, with a loud voice, upon " Our Lady and San- 
 tiago," he forced his charger over hundreds of fighting men and 
 women, followed by the brave Nuno Tobar. While opening lanes 
 through the savage ranks and sprinkling his tracks with blood, 
 he rose on one occasion to cast his lance into a gigantic warrior. 
 At that instant a powerful winged arrow went deep into the bot- 
 tom of his thigh. Unable to extract it, or to sit in his saddle, he 
 continued to fight to the end of the battle, standing in his stir- 
 rups. Everywhere, that mighty son of Spain now gorged upon 
 Alabama blood ! His fearless bounds filled the boldest soldiers 
 with renewed courage. At length the houses were set on fire, 
 and the wind blew the smoke and flames in all directions, adding 
 horror to the scene. The flames ascended in mighty volumes! 
 The sun went down, hiding himself from the awful sight ! Mau- 
 bila was in ruins, and her inhabitants destroyed ! 
 
 The battle of Maubila had lasted nine hours. It was disas- 
 trous to De Soto. Eighty-two Spaniards were slain, or died in a 
 few days after the engagement. Among these were Diego De 
 Soto, the nephew of the Governor ; Don Carlos Enriquez, who 
 had married his niece; and Men-Rodriquez, a cavalier of Portu- 
 gal, who had served with distinction in Africa and upon the Por- 
 tuguese frontiers. Other men of rank and blood lost their lives 
 in the terrible conflict, some of whom died in great agony, being 
 shot in the eyes and in the joints of their limbs. Forty-five 
 horses were slain— an irreparable loss, mourned by the whole 
 expedition. All the camp equipage and baggage were consumed 
 in the house where the Indians had stored it, except that of Cap- 
 tain Andres de Vasconeellos, which arrived late in the evening. 
 All the clothes, medicines, instruments, books, much of the 
 armor,' all the pearls; the relics and robes of the priests, their 
 flour and wine, used in the holy sacrament, with a thousand other 
 things which a wilderness could not supply, perished in the 
 flames. The Mobilians were nearly all destroyed. Garcellasso 
 
42 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 asserts that above eleven thousand were slain. The Portuguese 
 Gentleman sets down the number at two thousand five hundred 
 killed within the walls alone. Assuming a point between the' 
 two estimates, it is safe to say that at least six thousand were 
 killed in the town and upon the plains, or were after- 
 
 1540 wards found dead in the woods. These authors also 
 Oct. 18 disagree as to the fate of Tuscaloosa — the one contend- 
 ing that he was consumed in the flames, and the other 
 that he decamped upon the arrival of Moscoso, at the solicita- 
 tion of his people, attended by a small guard, and laden with 
 rich Spanish spoils. It is more probable that the Black Warrior 
 remained in his capital, desiring not to survive the downfall of 
 his people.* 
 
 Upon the ruins of Maubila the Spaniards passed the first, 
 night, in confusion and pain, sending forth groans and cries that 
 fell upon the distant air like the ravings of the damned ! In 
 every direction a sickening and revolting sight was presented. 
 In the slowly receding fire, piles of brave Mobilians cracked and 
 fried upon the glowing coals ! Upon the great square, pyramids 
 of bodies, smeared with blood and brains, lay still unburnt. Out- 
 side the walls, hundreds lay in the sleep of death, still hot from 
 their last desperate exertions, and copiously bleeding from the 
 large orifices made by lances and swords, and discoloring the 
 beautiful grounds upon which they had so often sported 
 
 1540 in their native games. All the Spaniards were wounded 
 Oct. 18 except the holy fathers, and were, besides, exhausted, 
 famished, and intoxicated with the most fiendish desr 
 peration. Seventeen hundred dangerous wounds demanded im- 
 mediate attention. It was often that a soldier had a dozen se- 
 vere ones, with barbed arrows rankling in his flesh. But one 
 surgeon of the expedition survived, and he was slow and un- 
 skillful. Everything, in his department, was devoured by the 
 
 * In describing the battle of Maubila, I have carefully consulted the Portuguese 
 Narrative and GarcellasBo. I find that they are, in the main, sustained by Biedma. 
 See Garcellasso, pp. 312-331— Portuguese Xarrative, pp. 722-725— Biedma, pp. 74-78. 
 
DE SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEOEGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 43 
 
 terrible element. Those who were slightly wounded, adminis- 
 tered to those whom the Indians had pierced deepest. As the 
 soldiers of Cortez did in Mexico, they opened the bodies of some 
 of the savages, and with the fat obtained, bound up the wounds 
 with bandages torn from the garments of the soldiers who were 
 killed. Others rushed to the woods, obtained straw and boughs, 
 and formed against the walls beds and imperfect covering for the 
 wounded and dying. Although severely pierced himself with 
 arrows, and bruised with missiles, yet the generous De Soto un- 
 selfishly gave his whole attention to his men. During 
 that miserable night, many of the unhappy Spaniards 1540 
 joined the priests in fervent appeals to their Heavenly Oct. 18 
 Father for the alleviation of their wretched condition. 
 
 They remained within the walls eight days, and then re- 
 moved to the Indian huts upon the plain. ' De Soto sent out 
 foraging detachments, who found the villages abounding in pro- 
 visions. In the woods and ravines, Indians were found dead, 
 and others lay wounded. The latter were treated with kindness 
 by the Spaniards, who fed them and dressed their wounds. Fe- 
 males of incomparable beauty were captured upon these excur- 
 sions', and added to those who were taken at the close of the bat- 
 tle. From them, the Governor was astounded to learn the deep 
 schemes which Tuscaloosa had planned to capture his army, 
 weeks before his arrival at Maubila. To the Tallases, who com- 
 plained to him that their Chief had given their people to De 
 Soto as slaves, he replied.- "Fear nothing; I shall shortly send 
 the Spaniards back from my country to Tallase in chains, led by 
 your people whom they have enslaved." 
 
 The priests, monks, and best informed laymen, went into 
 convention to determine the propriety of substituting corn meal 
 for flour in the celebration of Mass. They decided that bread 
 made of pure wheat, and wine of the juice of the grape, were re- 
 quired for consecration. After this, the fathers, in lieu of the 
 
44 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 chalices, altar dresses, chasubles, and other sacred ornaments, 
 which had been consumed by fire, made some robes of dressed 
 deer skins, erected rude altars and read the introitus and other 
 prayers of the Mass on Sundays and feasts, omitting the conse- 
 cration. This unusual ceremony was denominated the Dry Mass. 
 While referring to the religious exercises of the Spaniards, 
 it is proper to allude to some of their yices. Upon the whole 
 journey from Tampa Bay to this place, they had passed much of 
 their leisure time in gambling. This vice was common to all 
 classes; those of rank often bet high, staking their 
 1540 money, jewels, horses, effects, and even their female 
 Oct. slaves ! The flre of Maubila destroyed their cards. 
 They how made others of parchment, painted them 
 with admirable skill, and loaned these packs from one company 
 to another, continuing to gamble under trees, upon the river 
 banks, and in their rude huts. 
 
 The report which De Soto had received upon his first arrival 
 at Maubila, that Maldinado and his vessels awaited him at the 
 bay of Pensacola, was now fully confirmed by the females whom 
 he had captured. Refreshed by this good news, which deter- 
 mined him to plant a colony in the wilderness, he dismissed a 
 Chief of that country whom Maldinado had brought into his 
 camp, while at Apalache Anaica. He had always treated him 
 with kindness, and they parted upon the most friendly terms. 
 The Chief set out for Ochus. When it became known in camp 
 that the ships had arrived, joy succeeded the sadness which had 
 universally prevailed. Some of the most distinguished cavaliers 
 secretly talked of sailing from Ochus to Spain, and others to 
 Peru, each resolved upon quitting De Soto and his fortunes. He 
 heard of the conspiracy with painful solicitude, and determined 
 to ascertain if it was founded in seriousness. One dark night he 
 disguised himself and cautiously moved about the camp. 
 1540 Approaching the hut of Juan Caitan, the treasurer, he 
 Nov. overheard an earnest conversation, which satisfied him 
 
DE SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEOEGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 45 
 
 of the truth of what had been intimated. De Soto was 
 startled at the faithless schemers. It altered his plans. He now 
 dreaded to march to Ochus, for he well knew that some of these 
 cavaliers had once deserted Pizarro, leaving him on the island of 
 Gorgonne. He reflected, that his means were exhausted, his 
 hopes of finding a gold country, thus far, blasted, and that he 
 had nothing to tempt the cupidity of recruits ; even the pearls, 
 all he had to exhibit of, his discoveries, having shared the fate of 
 the other effects. These things, connected with a desire to 
 thwart the plans of the conspirators, influenced him to turn his 
 back upon his ships, laden with provisions, clothes, arms, and 
 everything which the whole army needed. 
 
 De Soto became gloomy and morose. Sometimes, in the 
 midst of his desponding fits, a hope of yet finding a gold 
 region shot across his mind, but, like a fiashing meteor, it ex- 
 ploded in darkness, leaving him in deeper despair! He resolved, 
 however, to strike into the wilderness. The wounded had recov- 
 ered enough to march, and he gave orders to break up the camp. 
 On Sunday, the 18th of November, 1540, a direction was assumed 
 to the north. The order fell like a clap of thunder upon 
 the unwilling cavaliers. But they obeyed, for he threat- 1540 
 ened to put to death the first man who should even Nov. 18 
 think of Maldinado and his ships.* The expedition 
 traversed an extremely fertile, but uninhabited country, called Pa- 
 fallaya, now embraced in the counties of Clarke, Marengo and 
 Greene, and, at the expiration of five days, passed the town of 
 Talepataua, and reached another called Cabusto. This was " near 
 a river, wide, deep, and with high bluffs."t The Spaniards'had 
 now arrived upon the Black Warrior, and near the modern town 
 of Erie. Fifteen hundred Indians advanced in battle array, 
 
 * De Soto had no doubt determined to settle a colony in the province of Coosa. The 
 desperate resolution, now formed, of again plunging into unknown regions, was unfor- 
 tunate for him and his followers, and for the historians of Alabama. A colony in Ala- 
 bama, at that early period, would have afforded many rich historic incidents. 
 
 t " Etoit sur un fleuve, grand, profond et haut de bord." Garcellasso, p. 348. The 
 American rivers, of ordinary size, appeared large to the Spaniards, and do even now to 
 all Europeans. 
 
46 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 shouting that a war of " fire and blood " was what they desired. 
 They remembered the destruction of their friends at Maubila, 
 and they were determined to be revenged. Severe skirmishing 
 ensued. The Spaniards drove the savages into the river ; some 
 crossed over in canoes and others swam, and on the opposite side 
 they were joined by a force estimated at eight thousand. For 
 six miles they stretched along the western bank to oppose the 
 crossing of the army. De Soto occupied Cabusto, and was at- 
 tacked every night by detachments of the enemy, who came over 
 secretly in canoes from different directions, and sprang upon him. 
 He at length caused ditches to be cut near the landings, in which 
 he posted cross-bow men and those armed with arquebuses. Af- 
 ter the Indians were repulsed three times from these intrench- 
 ments, they ceased to annoy the Spaniards at night. In the 
 meantime, one hundred men completed in the woods two large 
 boats. They were placed upon sledges, and by the force of 
 horses and mules, and with the assistance of the soldiers, were 
 conveyed to a convenient landing one and a half miles up the 
 river, and launched before day. Ten cavalry and forty infantry 
 entered each of these boats, the former keeping the saddle while 
 the latter rowed rapidly across. Five hundred Indians rushed 
 down the banks and overwhelmed the voyagers with arrows. 
 However, the boats reached the shore, one of them com- 
 1540 ing . to with great difficulty. The soldiers, all of whom 
 Nov. were wounded, sprang out, and, headed by the impetu- 
 ous Silvestre and Garcia, charged the Indians with great 
 resolution. A severe c6nflict continued until the boats returned 
 and 'brought over De Soto with eighty men, who, joining in the 
 flght, forced the Indians to retreat to a distant forest. The ad- 
 vanced wing keeping off the enemy, the whole army soon crossed 
 the river. When all were over, the Indians were driven to their 
 first position, which they had strengthened with pallisades, 
 and from which they continually sallied, skirmishing with the 
 
DE SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 47 
 
 invaders until the sun was lost behind the hills.* Upon the 
 Warrior, De Soto found a delightful country, with towns and 
 •villages well supplied with corn, beans and other provisions. The 
 next day he caused the boats to be broken up, for the iron which 
 they contained, and the expedition inarched in a northern direc- 
 tion, passing through a portion of Greene and Pickens. After 
 five days they reached the Little Tombigby, somewhere in the 
 ■county of Lowndes, Mississippi. Here the Indians had collecter) 
 to dispute the passage. Having recently suffered so severely in 
 contentions with the natives of Alabama, De Soto felt unwilling 
 to expose his army to further loss. Halting two days for the con- 
 struction of a small boat, he despatched in it an Indian, who bore 
 a. message to the Chief, with offers of peace and friendship. Im- 
 mediately upon reaching the opposite bank, the poor fellow was 
 seized and barbarously killed, in the sight of the Governor. His 
 murderers then rent the air with terrific yells and dispersed. De 
 ■Soto conducted his troops unmolested across the river, and 
 marched until he arrived at the town of Chickasa,inthe province 
 ■of that name. It consisted of two hundred houses, and reposed 
 upon a hill extending towards the north, shaded by oak and wal- 
 "iaut trees, and watered by several rivulets. The Spaniards had 
 now reached the territory embraced in the county of Yalobusha. 
 The region was fertile, well-peopled and dotted with villages. 
 The cold weather set in with much severity. In the 
 midst of snow and ice, the army encamped upon the 1540 
 fields opposite the town, until houses could be erected ; Nov. 
 for here De Soto had determined to pass the winter. 
 Foraging parties scoured the country, collected provisions, and 
 captured Indians. The latter were invariably dismissed, with 
 presents for their Chief. 
 
 The Chief at length came to see De Soto, and offered him his 
 lands, person and subjects. He returned, shortly after, with two 
 neighboring Chiefs — Alibamo and Nicalaso. The august trio 
 
 *Fortugnese Narrative, p. 72?. Garcellasso, pp. 348-352. 
 
48 
 
 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 gave the Adelantado one hundred and fifty rabbits, besides man- 
 tles and skins. The Chief of Chickasa became a frequent visitor, 
 and De Soto often sent him home on one of the horses. Having 
 besought the General to aid him in overcoming a prominent and 
 rebellious subject, for the purpose of dividing and de- 
 1541 stroying the army, as was afterwards ascertained, De 
 Jan. Soto marched, with thirty horsemen and two hundred 
 Indians, upon Saquechuma, and destroyed that place by 
 fire. Upon their return to the camp, the principal Indians were 
 feasted upon the flesh of the swine. They were pleased with the 
 first dish of an animal never before seen, and from that time the 
 place where the hogs were kept was often broken in upon dark 
 nights and many stolen. Three of the rogues were caught on one 
 occasion and two of them put to death. The hands of the other 
 were chopped off, and in that painful and helpless situation he was 
 sent to his Chief- On the other side, the Spaniards robbed the In- 
 dians. One day four horsemen, Francisco Osario, a servant of the 
 Marquis of Astorga, called Raynoso, Ribera, the page of the Gov- 
 ernor, andFuentes, his chamberlain, entered a neighboring village 
 and forcibly carried off some valuable skins and mantles. The 
 enraged Indians forsook their town and went into the woods to 
 prepare for war. The robbers were arrested, and Fuentes and 
 Osario were condemned to die. The priests and some of the most 
 distinguished cavaliers pleaded, in vain, for the pardon of the lat- 
 ter. De Soto had thera brought out to have their heads chopped 
 off, when Indians arrived, with a message from the Chief, inform- 
 ing him of the outrage upon his people. At the suggestion of 
 Baltasar de Gallegos, the interpreter cunningly turned it to the 
 advantage of the prisoners. He said to De Soto that the Chief 
 desired him not to execute the robbers, for they had not 
 1541 molested his subjects. He said to the Indian ambassa- 
 March dors that they might return home well assured that the 
 plunderers would be immediately put to death, accord- 
 
DE SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 49 
 
 ing to the wishes of the Chief. The prisoners, in consequence 
 were all set at liberty, rhuch to the joy of the army.* 
 
 Upon the appearance of March, 1541, the thoughts of the 
 unhappy De Soto occasionally turned upon pursuing the journey. 
 He demanded of the Chief two hundred men for burden bearers. 
 An evasive answer was given, and for. several days the Governor 
 was apprehensive of an attack. He posted sentinels, under the 
 supervision of Moscoso. One dark night, when the cold wind 
 was howling awfully, the Chickasaws rushed upon the camp, in 
 four squadrons, sending up yells the most terrific, and adding 
 horror to the scene by the sound of wooden drums and the dis- 
 cordant blasts of conch shells. The houses of the town, in which 
 the larger portion of the troops now lodged, were set on fire by 
 arrows containing burning matches, made of a vegetable sub- 
 stance, which shot through the air like flashing meteors and fell 
 upon the roofs ! Constructed of straw and cane, the wigwams 
 were soon wrapped in flames. The Spaniards, blinded by the 
 smoke, ran out of the houses half dressed, and, in their dismiiy, 
 knew not the best way to oppose the assailants. Some of the 
 horses were burned in the stables and others broke their halters, 
 and running in all directions among the soldiers, increased the 
 unparalleled confusion. Do Soto, and a soldier named Tapier, the 
 first to mount, charged upon the enemy, the former being envel- 
 oped in an overcoat, quilted with cotton three inches thick, to 
 shield him from the arrows. His saddle, which, in the haste, had 
 not been girted, turned with him in one of his sweeping bounds, 
 and he fell heavily to the ground, at the moment his 
 lance had pierced a savage. The soldiers drove off 1541 
 the Indians, who had surrounded him with clubs, and March 
 adjusted his saddle. Vaulting inttf it, he charged in 
 
 • Poor Ortiz never reached his native country, but died in Arlsansas. He was of great 
 service as an interpreter. Understanding only the Floridian language, he conducted 
 conversations through the Indians of di^erent tribes who understood each otlier, and 
 who attended the expedition. In conversing with the Chickasaws, for instance, he 
 commenced with a Floridian, who carried the word to a Georgian, the Georgian to the 
 Coosa, the Coosa to the Mobilian, and the latter to the Chickasaw. In the same tedious 
 manner the answer was conveyed to him and reported to De Soto. 
 
DB SOTO IN ALABAMA, GBOEGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 51 
 
 the thickest of the enemy, and revelled in blood. The Span- 
 iards were now seen, in all directions, engaged in a dreadful 
 fight. Many, however, had just awoke, and now crawled 
 upon their hands and knees out of the devouring flames above 
 them. In a house, at some distance, lay the sick, and those 
 who had not recovered from the wounds which they had re- 
 ceived at Maubila and Cabusto. Hordes of savages pressed upon 
 the poor fellows, and, before thev were rescued, several fell vic- 
 tims. In the meantime, the cavaliers, some without saddles and 
 others without clothes, joined the intrepid De Soto; andnow the 
 awful wind, the flames, the yells and the clangour of arms, made 
 the scene frightfully sublime, and the night one long to be re- 
 membered. Fifty infantry took flight, which was the first in- 
 stance of cowardice upon the march. Nuno Tobar, sword in 
 hand, rushed before them, and with the assistance of a detach- 
 ment of thirty men under Juan de Guzman, arrayed 
 them against the enemy. At that instant, Andres de 1541 
 Vasconcellos, at the head of twenty Portuguese hidalgos, March 
 most of whom had served as horsemen upon the Afri- 
 can frontier, accompanied by Nuno Tobar on foot, forced the 
 savages to retire on one side of the town. At length the Indians 
 fled from the battle field, and were pursued by De Soto and his 
 troops as long as they could distinguish objects by the light of 
 the burning town. Returning from the chase, the Governor 
 found that the engagement had resulted in considerable loss. 
 Forty Spaniards were killed, and among them the) only white 
 woman in camp, the wife of a soldier, whom she had followed 
 from Spain. Fifty horses were lost, either burned or pierced 
 with arrows. Dreading these singular quadrupeds in war, the 
 Indians aimed at their entire destruction, and many were found 
 shot entirely through in the most vital parts. The swine, the 
 increase of which had often kept the Spaniards from starving, 
 when hard pressed for food, were confined in a roofed enclosure, 
 and a number of them were consumed by the fire. De Soto sur- 
 
52 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 veyed the scene with deep mortifloation. He blamed Mosooso 
 for the unfortunate attack. His negligence here, reminded him 
 of his tardy advance upon Maubila, and, in his anger, he deposed 
 his old brother in arms from the rank of camp-master, and be- 
 stowed it upon the bold Baltasar de Gallegos. A suc- 
 1541 cession of losses had attended him since he crossed the 
 March Alabama at Piache. Indeed, from his first landing at 
 Tampa Bay, over three hundred men had fallen by the 
 assaults of the natives. The fire at Chickasa swept the few things 
 saved at Maubila, together with half their wearing apparel. And 
 now many of the unfortunate soldiers shivered in the cold, with 
 scarcely a vestige of clothing. 
 
 In the fit of deep despondency into which he was thrown, De 
 Soto did not forget the duties which a commanding officer owes 
 to his suffering troops. The dead were buried and the wounded 
 properly attended. The Indians, thick upon the plain, and upon 
 the ruined town, remained, a prey for the hungry wolves and 
 birds of carrion. The Spaniards abandoned the sickening spot, 
 and encamped three miles distant, at Chickasilla, or little 
 Chickasa, where they erected a forge and tempered their swords 
 now' seriously injured by the fire. They busied themselves in 
 making shields, lances and saddles. The remainder of the 
 winter was passed in great wretchedness. Intense cold 
 and grievous wounds were not all they had to bear, but often the 
 natives assailed them at night, with the agility and ferocity of 
 tigers ! At sunset they were compelled to evacuate the town, 
 and take position in the field, for fear that fire might be applied 
 to the houses. The ingenuity of one of the soldiers devised mat- 
 tings, four inches in thickness, made of long soft grass, in which 
 those who were not upon guard wrapped themselves, and were 
 somewhat protected from the piercing air. Often De Soto sent 
 forth detachments, who cut down every Indian they overtook ;. 
 yet, in a few succeeding nights, the savages would return and 
 attack the camp. Before daylight on Wednesday, the 15th 
 
DB SOTO IN ALABAMA., GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 53 
 
 March, 1541, Capt. Juan de Guzman, a man of delicate form, but 
 of indomitable courage, was seized by the collar by an athletic 
 Indian, who carried a banner, and jerked from his horse. The 
 soldiers, rushing up, cut the bold fellow to pieces. Others dashed 
 after the main body of Indians, and deep revenge would have 
 been taken, if a monk, fearful that they would be led into an 
 ambush, had not arrested the charge by the cry of, "To the camp ! 
 to the camp ! " Forty Indians fell, two horses were killed, and 
 two soldiers wounded. 
 
 On the 25th of April, 1541, De Soto marched northwest, 
 through a campaign country, thickly populated, and journeying 
 twelve miles, halted in a plain not far from the town of 
 Alibamo. Juan de Anasco, with a foraging party, came 1541 
 in sight of this fortress, which was garrisoned by a large April 
 number of savages, whose bodies were painted in stripes 
 of white, black and red, while their faces were frightfully black- 
 ened. Ued circles surrounded their eyes. These, with head- 
 dresses of feathers and horns, gave them a fantastic and ferocious 
 appearance. The drums sounded alarums, and they rushed out 
 of the fort with fearful whoops, forcing Anasco to retreat to the 
 open fields. The enemy, scorning the inferiority of the detach- 
 ment, pretended to knock oue of the warriors in the head with a 
 club, in front of the fort ; and swinging him by the head and 
 heels near a fire, in insulting mockery, indicated the fate of the 
 Spaniards who should fall into their hands. The irritated Anasco 
 sent three troopers to the camp, who returned with De Soto at 
 the head of a considerable force. The latter assaulted 
 the fortress of Alibamo, leading on his men in three 1541 
 squadrons, commanded by Guzman, Avaro Romo de April 27 
 Cardenoso, and the stout Gonzalo Silvestre. A hundred 
 Alabamas poured out from each portal and met the Spaniards. 
 Upon the first encounter, Diego de Castro, Louis Bravo and 
 Francisco de Figarro fell, mortally wounded. An arrow struck 
 the casque of the Governor with such force that it made his eyes 
 
45 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 flash fire. The victorious Spaniards forced the Alabamas into 
 the fort, pressing them to death by the united shock of cavalry 
 and infantry — the passes of the gates admitting but few of the In- 
 dians at once. The soldiers remembered that they had united with 
 the Chickasaws, and they knew no bounds to the revenge which 
 they now sought. In the rear many savages escaped, by climbing 
 over the walls and through the back portals, pitching into the river 
 which ran by the fort, but far below its foundation. In a short 
 time, De Soto held possession of the interior. Alibamo stood upon 
 the Yazoo river, in the county of Tallahatchie.* It was built of pal- 
 lisades, in the form of a quadrangle, four hundred paces long on 
 either side/ Inner walls divided it into separate parts, enabling 
 the besieged to retreat from one to the other. The centre wall, 
 on the back side, was immediately upon a perpendicular bluff, 
 beneath which flowed a deep and narrow river, across which were 
 
 thrown a few rude bridges. Portions of the fort ap- 
 
 1541 peared to have been recently constructed for defence 
 
 Apr. 27 against the horses. It was decidedly the best fortified 
 
 place yet discovered, except Maubila, but the garrison 
 was greatly inferior in numbers to that of the latter. The out- 
 side portals were too low and narrow for a cavalier to enter on 
 his horse. 
 
 De Soto crossed the river at a ford below the plain, and pur- 
 sued the savages until twilight, leaving many of them in the sleep 
 of death. Four days were consumed at Alibamo in attending to 
 
 * General Le Clero Mllfort, an Intelligent Frencliman, lived in the Creek Nation 
 from 1776 until 1799. He wrote a hlstorjf of the Muscogees or Creeks, and published liis 
 ■work in Paris in 1802. He married the sister of General Alexander MoGillivray, of the 
 Greek tribe. When he arrived in France Bonaparte made him a General of Brigade, and 
 in 1814 he was attacked in his house by a party of Kussians, and rescued by some grena- 
 diers. Shortly afterwards he died, 
 
 Mllfort states that the Alabamas wandered from the northern part of Mexico, and 
 settled upon the Yazoo, and afterwards removed to the river which bears their natue. . 
 This fact, connected with that of the Alibamo fort, mentioned by the journals of De 
 Soto, establishes conclusively that they were the same people. The Alabamas, after De 
 Soto's time, settled on the site of the modern Montgomery, Coosawdaand Washington, 
 below the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa. From these people the river and 
 State took their name. 
 
 " Memoire ou coup d'oeil rapide sur mes difCerens voyages et mon sejour dans la Na- 
 tion Creek, par Le Clerc Mllfort."— pp. 229-i!88. 
 
DE SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEORGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 55 
 
 the wounded. Fifteen Spaniards died — among them the cava- 
 liers first wounded, who were young, valiant, and of the best 
 blood of Spain. So terminated the battle of Alibamo, the last one 
 of the many De" Soto fought, which it is within our province to 
 describe. We have followed that extraordinary adventurer 
 through our State into the heart of Mississippi. A few more 
 words must close the account of his nomadic march, as far as it 
 rests in our hands. 
 
 The Spaniards reached the Mississippi river in May, 1541, 
 and were the first to discover it, unless Cabaca de Vaca crossed 
 it twelve years before in wandering to Mexico with his four com- 
 panions, which is not probable from the evidence aft'orded by his 
 journal. De Soto consumed a year in marching over Arkansas, 
 and returned to the " Father of Waters," at the town of Guachaya. 
 below the mouth of the Arkansas river, on the last of 
 May, 1542. He here engaged in the construction of two 1542 
 brigantines to communicate with Cuba. That great May 
 man, whose spirits had long since forsaken him — ^who 
 had met with nothing but disappointments — and who had, in 
 his most perilous wanderings, discovered no country like Peru 
 and Mexico — became sick with a slow and malignant fever. 
 He appointed Moscoso to the command — bid his officers and 
 soldiers farewell — exhorted them to keep together, in order to 
 reach that country which he was destined never to see — and 
 then CLOSED his byes in death! Thus died Hernando De 
 Soto, one of the most distinguished captains of that or any age. 
 To conceal his death and protect his body from Indian brutali- 
 ties, he was placed in an oaken trough, and silently plunged into 
 the middle of the Mississippi, on a dark and gloomy night. Long 
 did the muddy waters wash the bones of one of the bravest sons 
 of Spain ! He was the first to behold that river — the first to close 
 his eyes in death upon it — and the first to find a grave in its deep 
 and turbid channel. 
 
 Moscoso and the remaining troops again plunged into the 
 
56 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 wilderness west of the Mississippi, with the hope of reaching 
 Mexico. Departing on the 1st of June, 1542, he returned on the 
 1st of December to the Mississippi river, at a point fifty miles 
 above the place where De Soto died. The Spaniards began the 
 construction of seven brigantines, the building of which required 
 the chains of the slaves, saddle-stirrups, and every thing which 
 contained a particle of iron, maije into nails by the erection of 
 forges, the Indian mantles stitched together for sails, and the in- 
 ner bark of trees made into ropes. When these were completed. 
 Gov. Moscoso departed down the vast stream, the 2d of July, 
 1543. The once splendid army of one thousand men was re- 
 duced to three hundred and twenty ! Five hundred 
 1543 slaves were left at the place of embarkation, and Mos- 
 July 2 coso took with him one hundred, among others the 
 beautiful women of Maubila. Twenty-two of the best 
 horses were embarked; the others were killed and dried for food, 
 as were the hogs, a large number of which still remained. The 
 Spaniards were attacked, in descending the river, by fleets of In- 
 dian canoes. In one of these engagements, the brave Guzman 
 and eleven others were drowned, and twenty-five wounded. In 
 sixteen days they reached the Gulf, and put to sea on the 18th 
 July, 1543. Having landed at Tampa Bay on the 30th of May, 
 1 589, they had consumed a little over four years in wandering 
 through Florida, Gdorgia, Alabama, Mississippi and the vast re- 
 gions of .the Arkansas Territory. Tossed by the waves, fam- 
 ished with hunger, parched with thirst, and several times wrecked 
 by tornadoes, the poor Spaniards finally reached the mouth of the 
 river Panuco, upon the Mexican coast, on the 10th September, 
 1543. From thence they went to the town of Panuco. Appareled 
 in skins of deer, buffalo, bear and other animals — with faces hag- 
 gard, blackened, shriveled, and but faintly resembling 
 1543 human beings — they repaired to the church and offered 
 Sept. 13 up thanks to God for the preservation of their lives. 
 Repairing to the City of Mexico, the Viceroy extended 
 
DE SOTO IN ALABAMA, GEOEGIA AND MISSISSIPPI. 57 
 
 to them every hospitality. So did the elegant Castilian ladies of 
 his court, who were enraptured with the beauty of Mobilian 
 females — the high-spirited daughters of Alabama.* 
 
 Maldinado, whom we left at Pensaoola Bay, awaited, in 
 vain, the arrival of De Soto. He and his distinguished asso- 
 ciate, Gomez Arias, at length weighed anchor and sailed 
 along the coast in different directions, hoping to meet the expe- 
 dition at some point. They left signals upon the trees, and at- 
 tached letters to the bark. Returning to Cuba, thev again 
 sailed in search of De Soto in the summer of 1541, and touched 
 frequently upon the Floridian and Mexican coasts, but heard 
 nothing of him. Again, in the summer of 1542, they made a 
 similar voyage, with no better success. Determined not to give 
 up the search for the lost Spaniards, Maldinado and 
 Arias, in the spring of 1543, departed on a long voyage. 1543 
 On the 15tn of October they touched at Vera Cruz, and Oct. 15 
 learned that De Soto had died upon the Mississippi, 
 and that three hundred of his army only had lived to reach Mex- 
 ico. When this sad intelligence was conveyed to Havana, every 
 one grieved, and Dona Isabel, long racked with anxiety, died of a 
 broken heart ! 
 
 •An interesting account of the expedition, from the battle of Alibamo to their en- 
 trance into the city of Mexico, which 1 have rapidly glanced at, may be found in the 
 Portuguese Narrative, pp. 728-762 ; Garcellasso de la Vega, pp. 372-557. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Thb Aborigines of Alabama and the Surrounding States. 
 
 The Indians of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi 
 were so similar in form, mode of living and general habits, in the 
 time of De Soto and of others who succeeded him in penetrating 
 these wilds, that they will all be treated, on the pages of this 
 chapter, as one people. The color was like that of the 
 1540 Indians of our day. The males were admirably propor- 
 tioned, athletic, active and graceful in their movements, 
 and possessed open and manly countenances. The females, not in- 
 ferior in form, were smaller, and many of them beautiful. No 
 ugly or ill-formed Indians were seen, except at the town of Tula, 
 west of the Mississippi. Corpulency was rare ; nevertheless, it 
 was excessive in a few instances. In the neighborhood of Apa- 
 lache, in Florida, the Chief was so fat that he was compelled to 
 move about his house upon his hands and knees. 
 
 The dress of the men consisted of a mantle of the size of 
 a common blanket, made of the inner bark of trees, and a 
 species of flax, interwoven. It was thrown over the shoulders, 
 with the right arm exposed. One of these mantles encircled the 
 body of the female, commencing below the breast and extending 
 nearly to the knees, while another was gracefully thrown over 
 the shoulders, also with the right arm exposed. Upon 
 1540 the St. John's river, the females, although equally ad- 
 vanced in civilization, appeared in a much greater state 
 of nudity — often with no covering in summer, except a moss 
 drapery suspended round the waist, and which hung down in 
 graceful negligence.' Both sexes there were, however, adorned 
 with ornaments, consisting of pretty shells and shining pearls, 
 
ABORIGINES OF ALABAMA AND SUEEOUNDING STATES. 59 
 
 while the better classes wore moccasins and buskins of dressed 
 deer leather. In Georgia and Alabama the towns contained 
 store-houses, filled with rich and comfortable clothing, such as 
 mantles of hemp, and of feathers of every color, exquisitely ar- 
 ranged, forming admirable cloaks for winter; with a 
 variety of dressed deer skin garments, and skins of the 1540 
 martin, bear and panther, nicely packed away in bas- 
 kets.* Fond of trinkets, the natives collected shells from the 
 seaside, and pearls from the beds of the interior rivers. The 
 latter they pierced with heated copper spindles, and strung them 
 around their legs, necks and arms.f The Queen upon the Sa- 
 vannah took from her neck a magnificent cordon of pearls, and 
 twined it round the neck of the warlike but courteous De Soto.f 
 In the interior of the country, pearls were worn in the 
 ears ; but upon the coast, fish bladders, inflated after 1564 
 they had been inserted, were greatly preferred.! The 
 Chiefs and their wives, the Prophets and principal men, painted 
 their breasts and the front part of their bodies with a variety of 
 stripes and characters. Others, like sea-faring people, had their 
 skins punctured with bone needles and indelible ink 
 rubbed in, which gave them the appearance of being 1539 
 tattooed. II Jean Ortiz, so long a prisoner among the 
 Floridians, when discovered by De Soto, was taken for an 
 Indian, on account of his body being " razed " in this manner. IT 
 
 * Portuguese Narrative, p. 711. 
 
 t Portuguese Narrative, p. 701. 
 
 i Portuguese Narrative, p. 714. 
 
 g Le Moyne's Florida plate, 38. Kenaudde Laudouniere, an admiral of France, made 
 a second voyage to Florida, and landed upon its shore in 1664. Attached to this expe- 
 dition was a frenchman, named Jacob Le Moyne, who was an admirable painter. 
 Laudouniere left some soldiers at a Fort which he built upon the St. John's, and with 
 them this accomplished artist. Le Moyne was frequently despatched with small de- 
 tachments along the coast, and at some distance in the interior, to make surveys of the 
 rivers and to cultivate the friendship of the natives. During these excursions he made 
 admirable drawings of the Indians, their houses, farms, games, amusements, manners, 
 customs and religious ceremonies. Eeturning to France, he related his adventures to 
 Charles IX., and exhibited to him his pictures. These, with his explanatory notes, 
 were published by Theodore de Bry, in 1591, in the Latin language, at Frankfort. The 
 copy m my possession, a most interesting book upon the ancient Indians of Florida and 
 the adjoining States, contains forty-two plates, a few specimens of which are intro- 
 duced in this volume. 
 
 II Le Moyne, plate 38. IT Portuguese Narrative, p. 702. 
 
60 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 It will be remembered that the Alabamas, upon the Yazoo, 
 painted in stripes of white, yellow, blacK and red, and 
 " seemed as though they were dressed in hose and doublets."* 
 Lofty plumes of the feathers of the eagle, and other noted birds, 
 adorned the heads of the warriors. At the battle of Vitachuco, 
 in Middle Florida, ten thousand warriors appeared in this mag- 
 nificent native head-dress. They also punished and deformed 
 themselves in the display of their more peculiar ornaments. 
 
 Upon an island in West Florida, they wore reeds thrust 
 1528 through their nipples and under lips.f Indian grandees 
 
 were often seen promenading, of an evening, enveloped 
 in beautiful mantles of deer skins and of the martin, trailing be- 
 hind them, and often held up by attendants. Among the pretti- 
 est ornaments were flat shells, of varied colors, which they sus- 
 pended from girdles around their waists, and which hung down 
 around their hips. 
 
 The bow, the most formidable weapon of the ancient Indians, 
 
 was long, elastic, and exceedingly strong. The string 
 1540 was made of the sinews, of the deer. The arrows, of 
 
 strong young cane, hardened before the fire, were often 
 tipped with buck horn, and invariably pointed either with palm 
 or other hard wood, flints, long and sharp like a dagger, fish 
 bones shaped like a chisel, or diamond flints.t The Spaniards 
 soon ascertained that they pierced as deep as those which they 
 themselves shot from the cross-bow, and were discharged more 
 rapidly. § The quiver which held them was made of fawn or 
 some other spotted skin, and was cased at the lower end with 
 
 thick hide of the bear or alligator. It was always sus- 
 15(54 pended by a leather strap, passing round the neck, 
 
 which permitted it to rest on the lett hip, like a sword. 
 It was capable of holding a great many arrows. Shields were 
 
 •Portuguese Narrative, p. 727. 
 
 tExpeditioti of Narvaez, coutainedin Herrera's History of America, vol. 4, p. 33. 
 
 tGaroellasao de la Vega, p. 266. §Portuguese Narrative, p. 102. 
 
ABOEIGINES OF ALABAMA AND SUEEOFNDING STATES. 61 
 
 universal appendages in war, and were made either of wood, split 
 canes strongly interwoven, alligator hide, and sometimes that of 
 buffalo. The latter was often the case M-est of the Mississippi. 
 Of various sizes, but ordinarily large enough to cover the breast, 
 these round shields were painted with rings and stripes, and sus- 
 pended from the neck by a band. Sometimes a noted Chief pro- 
 tected his breast and a portion of his abdomen with three of 
 them. These, with a piece of bark covering the left arm, to pre- 
 vent the severe rebound of the bow-string, were all that shielded 
 the natives in time of war. Wooden spears, of the usual length, 
 pointed with excellent darts of flsh-bone or flint, were, also, much 
 used. And, strange to say, swords of palm wood, of the proper 
 shape, were often seen. A Chief, in Georgia, seized one of this de- 
 scription, which was borne by one of his servants, and began to cut 
 and thrust with it to the admiration of De Soto and his oflaeers. 
 The war clubs were of two kinds — one, small at the handle, gradu- 
 ally enlarging-at the top in oval form; and the other, with two sharp 
 edges at the end, usually employed in executions. Decoration 
 with plumes, appears to have been more common in general cos- 
 tume and pleasure excursions, than in war. In enterprises of the 
 latter character, the natives sought to appear as ferocious as pos- 
 sible. The skins of the eagle, of the wolf and of the panther,, 
 with the heads of these animals attached, and well 
 preserved, were worn by warriors, while the talons and 1 564 
 claws were inserted as ear ornaments.* 
 
 When about to make war, a Chief despatched a party, who 
 approached near the town of the enemy, and by night stuck ar- 
 rows into the cross-paths and public places, with long locks of 
 human hair waving from them.f After this declaration of war, 
 he assembled his men, who, painted and decorated in the most 
 fantastic and frightful manner, surrounded him on all sides. Ex- 
 cited with seeming anger, he rolled his eyes, spoke in guttural 
 
 * Le Moyne, plates 11, 12, 13, 14. t Le Moyne, plate 33. 
 
62 HISTORT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 accents, and often sent forth tremendous war whoops. The war- 
 riors responded in chorus, and struck their weapons against their 
 sides. With a wooden spear he turned himself reverentially to- 
 wards the sun, and implored of that luminary victory over his 
 enemies. Turning to his men, he took water from a 
 1564 vessel on his right and sprinkled it about, saying, " Thus 
 may you do with the blood of your enemies." Then rais- 
 ing another vessel of water, he poured its entire contents on a 
 fire which had been kindled on his left, and repeated, "Thus may 
 you destroy your enemies and bring home their scalps."* Hav- 
 ing marched his army within the vicinity of the enemy, he bid 
 his prophet to inform him of their number and position, and in 
 what manner it was best to^bring on the attack. The old man, 
 usually a hundred years of age, advanced, and a large circle 
 was immediately formed around him. He placed a shield upon 
 the ground, drew a ring around it five feet in diameter, in which 
 he inscribed various characters. Then kneeling on the shield, 
 and sitting on his feet, so as to touch the earth with no part of 
 his body, he made the most horrible grimaces, uttered the most 
 unnatural howls, and distorted his limbs until his very 
 1564 bones appeared to be flexible. In twenty minutes he 
 ceased his infernal juggling, assumed his natural look, 
 with apparently no fatigue, and gave the Chief the information 
 which he desired.t Some of our ancient natives marched in reg- 
 ular order, with the Chief in the centre, but it was their common 
 habit to scatter in small parties, and take the enemy by surprise. 
 , But in the arrangement of their camp, which was always made 
 at sunset, they were exceedingly particular. They then stationed 
 detachments around the Chief, forming a compact and well-ar- 
 ranged defence.! 
 
 The women who had lost their husbands in battle, at a con- 
 venient time surrounded the Chief, stoop jd at his feet, cov- 
 
 *Le Moyne, plate 11. . t Le Moyne, plate I'^j. t Le Moyne, plate 14. 
 
ABORIGINES OF. ALABAMA AND SUEEOUNDING STATES. 63 
 
 ered their faces with their hands, wept, and implored him to 
 be revenged for the death of their companions. They en- 
 treated him to grant them an allowance duringv their widow- 
 hood, and to permit them to marry again when the time ap- 
 pointed by law expired. They afterwards visited the graves of 
 their husbands and deposited upon them the arms which they 
 used in hunts and wars, and the shells out of which they were 
 accustomed to drink. Having cut off their long hair, they 
 sprinkled it also over their graves,, and then returned home. 
 They did not marry until it had attained its ordinary length.* 
 
 The natives drank a tea, which, ia modern times, was called 
 black drink. It was made by boiling the leaves of the cacina 
 plant until a strong decoction was produced. The Chief took his 
 seat, made of nine small poles, in the centre of a semi-circle of 
 seats ; but his was the most elevated of all. His principal officers 
 approached him by turns, one at a time, and placing their hands 
 upon the top of their heads, sung /*«, he, ya, ha, ha. The whole 
 assembly responded, ha, ha. After which they seated themselves 
 upon his right and left. The women, in che meantime, had pre- 
 pared the black drink, which was served up in conch shells and 
 handed to certain men, who distributed it around. The warriors 
 drank large portions of it, and presently vomited it 
 with great ease. It seemed to have been used at the 1564 
 early period of 1564, as it is at present, to purify the 
 system, and to fulfill a kind of religious rite.f 
 
 The punishments of that day were summary and cruel. For 
 a crime deserving death, the criminal was conducted to the square 
 and made to kneel with his body inclined forward. The execu- 
 tioner placed his left foot upon his back, and with a murderous 
 blow with the sharp-sided club, dashed out his brains. t 
 Jean Ortiz and his companions were stripped naked, 1564 
 and forced to run from corner to corner through the 
 
 *Le Moyne, plate 19. t Le Moyne's Florida, Plate 29. 
 
 X Le Moyne's Florida, plate 32. 
 
64 HISTOKT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 town while the exulting savages shot at them by turns with 
 deadly arrows. Ortiz alone survived, and they next proceeded 
 to roast him upon a wooden gridiron, when he was saved 
 1539-40 by the entreaties of a noble girl.* Whenever they made 
 prisoners of each other, those who were captured were 
 often put to menial services. To prevent them from running 
 away, it was customary to cut the nerves of their legs just above 
 the in step, t 
 
 When a battle was fought, the victors seized upon the enemy 
 and mutilated their bodies in the most brutal manner. With 
 cane knives the arms and legs were cut around, and then severed 
 from the body by blows upon the bones, from wooden cleavers. 
 They thus amputated with great skill and rapidity. The head was 
 also cut around, with these knives, just above the ears, and the 
 whole scalp jerked off. These were then rapidly smoked over a 
 fire, kindled in a small round hole, and borne off in triumph 
 toward home, together with the arms and legs, suspended upon 
 spears.t The joyous and excited inhabitants now as- 
 1 564 sembled upon the square and formed a large area, in which 
 these trophies were hung upon high poles. An old Prophet 
 took a position on one side of the circle, held in his hand a small 
 image of a child, and danced and muttered over it a thousand impre- 
 cations upon the enemy. On the other side, and opposite to him, 
 three warriors fell upon their knees. One of them, who was in the 
 middle, constantly brought down a club, with great force, on a 
 smooth stone, placed before him, while the others, on either side 
 of him, rattled gourds filled with shells and pebbles, all keeping 
 time with the Prophet.§ 
 
 The houses of the Chiefs, with but few exceptions, stood 
 upon large and elevated artificial mounds. When the Indians 
 of 1540 resolved to build a town, the site of which was usually 
 
 * Garcellasso de la Vega. t Garcellasso de la Vega. 
 
 t Le Moyne, plate 15. § Le Moyne, plate 16. 
 
ABORIGINES OF ALABAMA AND SUREOUNLllNtt STATES. . 65 
 
 selected upon low, rich land, by the side of a beautiful stream, 
 they were accustomed, first, to turn their attention to the erec- 
 tion of a mound from twenty to fifty feet high, round on the 
 sides, but fiat on top. The top was capable of sustaining the 
 houses of the Chief, and those of his family and attendants ; 
 making a little village by itself of from ten to twenty cabins, ele- 
 vated high in the air. The earth to make this mound was 
 brought to the spot. At the foot of this eminence a square was 
 marked out, around which the principal men placed their 
 houses. The inferior classes joined these with their wigwams. 
 Some of these mounds had several stairways to ascend 
 them, made by cutting out inchne-planes fifteen or 
 twenty feet wide, fianking the sides with posts, and 1540 
 laying poles horizontally across the earthen steps — thus 
 forming a kind of wooden stairway. But, generally, the lofty 
 residence of the Chief was approached by only one flight of steps. 
 These mounds were perpendicular, and inaccessible, except by 
 the avenues already mentioned, which rendered the houses upon 
 them secure from the attacks of an Indian enemy. Besides the 
 motive for security, a disposition to place the Chief and his fam- 
 ily in acommanding position, and to raise him above his subjects, 
 caused the formation of these singular elevations.* 
 
 Upon the coasts of Florida, the houses were built of timber, 
 covered with palm leaves, and thatched with straw. Those of 
 Toali, between Apalache and the Savannah, and for some dis- 
 tance beyond, were covered with reeds in the manner of tiles, 
 while the walls were extremely neat. In the colder regions of 
 the territories of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, every family 
 possessed a house daubed inside and out with clay, for a winter 
 house, and another, open all around, for summer ; while a crib 
 and kitchen, also, stood near by. The houses of the 
 Chiefs, much larger than the others, had piazzas in front, 1540 
 in the rear of which were cane benches of comfortable 
 
 *6arcella.sso de la Vega, p. 136. 
 
HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 dimensions. Ttiey contained, also, lofts, in which were stored 
 skins, mantles, and corn, the tribute of the subjects.* Upon the 
 head waters of the Coosa, it will be recollected, that De Soto 
 found the house of the Chief standing upon a mound, with 
 a piazza in front, "large enough for six men to prome- 
 enade abreast." t The town of Ochille, in Middle Florida, 
 contained fifty very substantial houses. The Chief's house 
 was built in the form of a large pavilion, upwards of one 
 hundred and twenty feet in length by forty in width, with 
 a number of small buildings, connected like offices.^ Narvaez 
 found a house large enough to contain three hundred men, in 
 which were fishing nets and a tabor with gold bells.§ The In- 
 dian grandeur and spacious dimensions of the houses 
 
 1528 of Maubila, in Alabama, have already been described. 
 In the province of Palisema, west of the Mississippi, the 
 
 house of the Chief was covered with deer skins, which were 
 painted with stripes of various colors, and with animals, while 
 the walls were hung, and the floor carpeted, with the same ma- 
 terials. || In the first town which De Soto discovered, at Tampa 
 Bay, was found a large temple, on the top of which was a wooden 
 bird with gilded eyes. IT The Chief, Uceta, made Jean Ortiz 
 keeper of the temple, situated in a lonely forest in the 
 
 1529 outskirts of the town. In this temple were deposited 
 dead Indians, contained in wooden boxes, the lids of 
 
 which, having no hinges, were kept down with weights. -The 
 
 bodies and bones were sometimes carried off by panthers and 
 
 wolves. In this horrible place was poor Ortiz stationed to 
 
 watch, day and night, and threatened with instant death if he 
 
 allowed a single body to be taken away. At length, constant 
 
 anxiety and fatigue overcame him, and one night he fe\l asleep. 
 
 The heavy falling ot a coflQn-lid awoke him. In his ter- 
 
 1529 ror he seized a bow, and running out, heard the crack- 
 
 , ling of bones amid a dark clump of bushes ! He winged 
 
 • PortuKuese Nan atlve, p. 701. t Garcellasso de la Vega, p. 294. 
 
 t Garcellasso de la Vejra. p. 101. § Herrera, vol. 4. 
 
 II Portuguese Narrative. IF Portuguese Narrative, p. 701. 
 
ABORIGINES OF ALABAMA AND SURROUNDING STATES. 67 
 
 a powerful arrow in that direction. A scuffle ensued, and then 
 all was still ! He moved towards the spot, and found an enor- 
 mous panther, dead, by the side of the body of the child. He re- 
 placed the latter in its box, exultingly dragged the animal into 
 the town, and was from that time respected by- the Indians.* 
 Narvaez, upon first landing, in Florida, found a temple 
 in which were chests, each containing a dead body, cov- 1528 
 ered with painted deer' skins. The Commissary, John 
 Xuarez, consiaering it to be idolatrous, ordered them to be 
 burned. t A remarkable temple was situated in the town of 
 Talomeco, upon the Savannah river, three miles distant from 
 Cutifachiqui, now Silver Bluff. It was more than one hundred 
 feet in length, and forty in width. The walls were high in pro- 
 portion, and the roof steep and covered with mats of split cane, 
 interwoven so compactly that they resembled the rush carpeting 
 of the Moors. (The inhabitants of this part of the country all 
 covered their houses with this matting.) Shells of different sizes, 
 arranged in an ingenious manner, were placed on the outside of 
 the roof. On the inside, beautiful plumes,- shells and 
 pearls were suspended in "the form of festoons, from one 1540 
 to the other, down to the floor. The temple was en- 
 tered by three gates, 3,t each of which were stationed gigantic 
 wooden statues, presenting fierce and menacing attitudes. 
 Some of them were armed with clubs, maces, canoe- paddles, 
 and copper hatchets, and others with drawn bows and long 
 pikes. All these implements were ornamented with rings 
 of pearls and bands of copper. Below the ceiling, on four 
 sides of the temple, arranged in niches, were two rows of wooden 
 statues of the natural size — one of men, with pearls suspended 
 •from their hands, and the other of women. On the 
 side of the walls were; large benches on which sat boxes 1540 
 containing the deceased Chiefs and their families. Two 
 feet below these were statues of the persons entombed, the space 
 
 * Garcellasso de la Vega, pp. 274-282. t Herrera, vol. 4, p. 30. 
 
68 HISTOBT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 between them being filled with shields of various sizes, made of 
 strong woven reeds, adorned with pearls and colored tassels. 
 Three rows of chests, full of valuable pearls, occupied the mid- 
 dle of the temple. Deer skins, of a variety of colors, were packed 
 away in chests, together with a large amount of clothing made 
 of the skins of wild cat, martin; and^other animals. The temple 
 abounded in the most splendid mantles of feathers. Adjoining 
 was a store-house, divided into eight apartments, which con- 
 tained long pikes of copper, around which rings of pearls were 
 coiled, while clubs, maces, wooden swords, paddles, arrows, 
 quivers, bows, round wooden shields, and those of reed and buf- 
 falo hidcy were decorated in like manner.* Everywhere upon 
 the route through Alabama and the neighboring States, De Soto 
 found the temples full of human bones. They were held sacred, 
 but sometimes were wantonly violated by tribes at war with each 
 other. On the west bank of the Mississippi, De Soto, joined by 
 the Indian forces of the Chief Casquin, sacked the town of 
 Pacaha. The invading Indians entered the temple, threw down 
 the wooden boxes containing the dead, trampled upon the bodies 
 and bones, and wreaked upon them every insult and indignity. 
 A few days after the Chief of Pacaha and his people came back 
 to the ruined town, and gathering up the scattered bones in 
 mournful silence, kissed and returned them reverentially to their 
 coffins. t 
 
 The productions of the country were abundant. Peas, beans, 
 
 squashes, pumpkins and corn grew as if by magic. Per^ 
 1540 Simons, formed into large cakes, were eaten in winter, 
 
 together with walnut and bear's oil. A small pumpkin, 
 when roasted in the embers, was delightful, and resembled, in 
 
 taste, boiled chestnuts. Corn was pounded in mortars, 
 152S but Narvaez saw stones for grinding it upon the Florida 
 
 coast.t The Indians prepared their fields by digging up 
 the ground with hoes made of fish bone. When the earth was 
 
 • Garcellasso de la Vega, pp. 274-282. t Portuguese Narrative, n 701 
 t Herrera, vol. 4, p. 30. 
 
ABOBIGINES OF ALABAMA ASTD SUBKOUNDING STATES. 69 
 
 levelled in this manner, others followed with canes, with which 
 they made holes, certain distances apart. The women 
 next came with corn, in baskets, which they dropped in 1564 
 the holes. The virginity and richness of the soil pro- 
 duced the crop without further labor. [See page 50J. The 
 granaries were sometimes erected in the woods, near navigable 
 streams, and were constructed with stone and dirt, and covered 
 with cane mats. Here were deposited corn, fruits, and all kinds 
 of cured meats, for subsistence during the winter hunts 
 in that part of the country. The universal honesty of 1564 - 
 the people was a guarantee that the contents of these 
 granaries would remain undisturbed, until consumed by the 
 owners. 
 
 Hunting and fishing occupied much of the time of the na- 
 tives. The hunter threw over his body the skin of a deer, 
 with the head, horns and legs admirably preserved. Round 
 wooden hoops gave the body of the skin its proper shape, inside 
 of which the Indian placed his body. Then, in a stooping posi- 
 tion, so as to allow the feet to touch the ground, he 
 moved along and peeped through the eye-holes of the 1564 
 deer's head, all the time having a drawn bow. When 
 near enough to the deer, he let fly a fatal arrow. The deer, in 
 that day, unaccustomed to the noise of flre-arms, were gentle and 
 numerous, and easily killed by a strategem like this.* 
 
 At certain periods the Indians were a social people, and in- 
 dulged in large feasts. At other times, they resorted to bow- 
 shooting, ball-plays and dancing.f 
 
 The population was much greater when De Soto was in the 
 country than it has been since. Large armies were frequently 
 arrayed against him. In Patofa, Florida, he was even furnished 
 with seven hundred burden bearers. In Ocute, Georgia, he" was 
 supplied with two hundred of these indispensable men. At 
 
 * Le Moyne's Florida, plate 25. Bossu's Travels in Louisiana, vol. 1, p 269. 
 t Le Moyne, plate 28. 
 
70 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Cafeque, in the same State, four thousand warriors escorted 
 him, while four thousand more transported the effects 
 
 1540 of his army. It has been seen what a numerous popu- 
 lation was found in the province of Coosa, and what 
 
 forces opposed him at Maubila, Chicliasa and Alibamo. 
 
 The ingenuity of the natives, displayed in the construction 
 of mounds, arms, houses and ornaments, was by no means incon- 
 siderable. At Chaquate, west of the Mississippi, earthenware 
 was manufactured equal to that of Estremos or Montremor.* At 
 Tulla, in Arkansas, salt was made from the deposits formed upon 
 the shores of a lake ; and again, at several saline springs. The 
 salt was made intp small cakes, and vended among other tribes 
 for skins and mantles.f The walls which surrounded 
 
 1541 the towns, with their towers and terraces, have already 
 been mentioned in the preceding chapter. Entrench- 
 ments and ditches were also found over the country. The most 
 remarkable of the lat,ter was at Pacha, west of the Mississippi. 
 Here a large ditch, « wide enough for two canoes to pass abreast 
 without the paddles touching," surrounded a walled town. It 
 was cut nine miles long, communicated with the Mississippi, sup- 
 plied the natives with fish and afforded them the privileges of 
 navigation. 
 
 The construction of canoes and barges, connected with the 
 
 things which have already been enumerated, affords abundant 
 
 proof that our aborigines were superior, in some respects, to the 
 
 tribes who afterwards occupied Alabama, but who were 
 
 1541 also ingenious in the manufacture of articles. The 
 
 Queen of Savannah, borne out of her house in a sedan 
 
 chair, supported upon the shoulders of four of her principal men, 
 
 entered a handsome barge which had a tilted top at the 
 
 15'40 stern — under which she took a seat upon soft cushions. 
 
 Many principal Indians likewise entered similar barges, 
 
 and accompanied her to the western side, in the style of a splen- 
 
 * Portuguese Narrative and Garcellasso. t Portuguese Narrative and Grarcellasso. 
 
ABORIGINES OP ALABAMA ANB SUEEOUNDING STATES. 71 
 
 did water procession. When De Soto first discovered the Mis- 
 sissippi, a Chief approached from the other side with two .hun- 
 dred handsome canoes of great size, filled with painted and 
 plumed warriors, who stood erect, with bows in their hands, t,o 
 protect those who paddled. The boats of the Chiefs and princi- 
 pal men had tops — like that of the Georgia Queen — 
 decorated with waving flags and plumes, which floated 1541 
 on the breeze from poles to which they were attached. 
 They are described by the journalists to have been equal to a 
 beautiful army of gallies.* 
 
 The natives worshipped the sun, and entertained great ven- 
 eration for the moon, and certain stars. Whether tbey also be- 
 lieved in a Great Spirit is not stated. When the Indian ambas- 
 sadors crossed the Savannah to meet De Soto, they made three 
 profound bows towards the east, intended for the sun ; three to- 
 wards the west, for the moon ; and three to the Governor.f, Upon 
 the east bank of the Mississippi, all the Indians approached him 
 without uttering a word, and went through precisely the same 
 ceremony; making, however, to him three bows much less rev- 
 erential than those made to the sun and moon. On the other 
 side of that river, he was surrounded by the Chief and his sub- 
 jects. Presently, his Indian majesty sneezed in a loud manner. 
 The subjects bowed their heads, opened and closed their arms, 
 and saluted the Chief with these words, " May the sun guard 
 you " — " May the sun be with you " — " May the sun shine upon 
 you," and "May the sun prosper and defend you."t 
 About the first of March, annually, the natives selected 1541 
 the skin of the largest deer, with the head and legs at- 
 tached; They filled it with a variety of fruit and grain, and 
 sewed it up again. The horns were also hung with garlands of 
 fruit. This skin, in all respects resembling a lairge buck, was 
 carried by all the inhabitants to a plain. There it was placed 
 
 * Portuguese Narrative, p. 729. t Garoellaso de la Vega, p. 256. 
 
 t Garcellasso de la Vega, pp. 439-440. 
 
72 HISTORY OV ALABAMA. 
 
 upon a high post, and just at the rising of the sun, the In- 
 dians fell down on their knees around it, and implored that 
 bright luminary to grant them, the ensuing season, an abun- 
 dance of fruits and provisions, as good as those contained in the 
 skin of the deer.* This was the practice upon the coast 
 1564 of East Florida, and, doubtless, it was observed all over 
 the country. It was certainly a very practical mode of 
 asking favors of the sun. 
 
 When a Chief or Prophet died upon the St. Johns, he was 
 placed in the ground, and a small mound, of conical form, was 
 erected over him. The base of this mound was surrounded with 
 arrows, stuck in regular order. Some sat, and others kneeled 
 around it, and continued to weep and howl for the space of 
 three nights- Chosen women next visited the mound for a 
 long time, every morning at the break of day, at noon, and 
 at night.f Indeed, great respect appears to have been paid 
 to the Chief when alive, and to him a cruel sacrifice was accus- 
 tomed to be made. The first born male child was always brought 
 out before the Chief, who sat upon a bench on one side of a large 
 circle. Before him was a block, two feet high, and near it stooped 
 the young mother, weeping in " great agony. The child was 
 brought forward by a dancing woman, placed upon the block, 
 and a Prophet dashed out its brains with a club; at the same 
 time many females danced, and raised their voices in song.t 
 
 If a Chief desired to marry, he was accustomed to send his 
 
 principal men to select, from the girls of nobility, one of the 
 
 youngest and most beautiful. Painted with various colors and 
 
 adorned with shells and pearls, the chosen one was then placed 
 
 in a sedan chair, the top of which formed an arch of 
 
 1564 green^boughs. When placed by his side, on an elevated 
 
 seat, great pomp and ceremony, an array of ornaments 
 
 • Le Moyne, plate 35. t Le ittoyne, plate 40. t Le Moyne, plate 34. 
 
ABORIGINES OF ALABAMA AND SURROUNDING STATES. 73 
 
 of all kinds, and music and dancing, characterized the affair, while 
 she and her lord were fanned with beautiful feathers. 
 
 The treatment of diseases in that day were few and simple. 
 The doctor sometimes scarified the patient with shells and 
 fishes teeth, and sucked out the blood with his mouth. This he 
 spurted in a bowl, and it was drunk by nursing women who stood 
 by, if the patient was an athletic young man, in order to give 
 their children the same vigor. It was customary, also, to smoke 
 the patient with tobacco, and other weeds, until perspiration 
 ensued and re-action was produced.* 
 
 * Le Moyne, plate 20. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Modern Indians of Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. 
 
 It has been seen that the Indians living in that part of Ala- 
 bama through which De Soto passed, were the Coosas, 
 1550 inhabiting the territory embraced in the present coun- 
 July ties of Benton, Talladega, (Joosa, and a portion of Cher- 
 to okee; the Talla'^, living upoi^ the Tallapoosa and its 
 Nov. tributary streams; the Mobilians extending from near 
 the present city of Montgomery to the commercial em- 
 porium which now bears their name; the Pafallayas or Choctaws, 
 inhabiting the territory of the modern counties of Green, Mar- 
 engo, Tuscaloosa, Sumpter and Pickens; and, in the present State 
 of Mississippi, the Chickasaws, in the valley of the 
 1541 Yalobusha ; and the Alabaifias, upon the Yazool It will, 
 April also, be recollected, that this remarkable Spaniard over- 
 run the rich province of Chiaha, the territory of the pres- 
 ent northwestern Georgia, and that he there found the Chalaques, 
 which all writers upon aboriginal history decide to be the origi- 
 nal name of the Cherokees.f 
 
 The invasion of De Soto resulted in the destruction of an 
 
 immense Indian population,. in all the territory through 
 
 1540 which he passed, except that of Georgia, where he 
 
 March fought no battles. The European diseases, which the 
 
 April natives inherited from the Spaniards, served, also, to 
 
 May thin their population. Again, the constant bloody wars 
 
 in which they were engaged afterwards, among each 
 
 other, still further reduced their numbers. And while the 
 
 bloody Spaniards were wandering over this beautiful country, 
 
 V4 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GBOEGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 75 
 
 ■■ -A 
 
 the Muscogees were living upon the Ohio.* They heard of the. 
 desolation of Alabama, and after a long time came to occupy and 
 re-peqple it. The remarkable migration of this powerful tribe, 
 and that of the Alabamas, will now, for the first time, be related, 
 and that, too, upon the authority of a reliable person, who must 
 here be introduced to the reader. 
 
 Le Clerc Milfort, a young, handsome, and well edu- 
 cated Frenchman, left his native country, sailed across 1775 
 the Atlantic, made the tour of the New England States, 
 and came, at length, to Savannah. A love of adventure led him 
 to the Creek nation, and in May, 1776, he arrived at the great 
 town of Coweta, situated on the Chattahooche river, two miles 
 below the present city of Columbus. There he became 
 acquainted with Colonel McGillivray, the great Chief- 1776 
 tain of the nation, and accompanied him to the Hickory May 
 Ground, upon the banks of the Coosa. Fascinated with 
 the society of this great man, the hospitality of the Indians, and 
 the wide field afforded for exciting enterprise, Milfort resolved 
 to become a permanent inmate of McGillivray's house, then sit- 
 uated at Little Tallase, four miles above Wetumpka. He married 
 his sister, was created Tustenuggee, or Grand Chief of 
 War, and often led Indian expeditions against the Whig 1780 
 population of Georgia, during the American Revolution. May 
 A fine writer, and much of an antiquarianyhe employed 
 some of his leisure hours in preparing a history of the Creeks. ) 
 Remaining in the nation twenty years, he resolved to return to^^ 
 France. In 1796 he sailed from Philadelphia, and it was not long 
 before he was among the gay people from whom he had so long 
 been absent. Bonaparte, at length, heard of this adventurous 
 
 » Alexander McGillivray, whose blood was Scotch, French and Indian, who was 
 made a Colonel In the British service, afterwards a Spanish Commissary with the rank 
 and pay of Colonel, then a Brigadier General by Washington, with full pay — a man of 
 Towering intellect and vast in^rmation, and who ruled the Greek country for a quarter 
 of a century— obtained the information that the Creeks were living upon the Ohio when 
 l)e Soto was here in 1540. He was informed, upon the best traditional authority, tliat 
 the Creek Indians then h£ard of De Soto, and the strange people with him ; and, that, 
 like those whom they had seen in Mexico, they had " hair over their bodies, and carried 
 thunder and lightning in their hands."~4rC 
 
, 76 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 man, and honored him with an audience. He desired to engage 
 his services in forming alliances with the Alabama and Missis- 
 sippi Indians, for the purpose of strengthening his Louisiana pos- 
 sessions. But, finally giving up these possessions, and turning 
 his whole attention to the wars in which he was deeply en- 
 gaged with the allied powers, he still retained Milfort, con- 
 ferring upon him the pay and rank of General of Brigade, 
 but without active employment. In the meantime, General 
 Milfort had published his work upon the Creek Indians.* In 
 1814 his home was attacked by a party of Russians, who had 
 heard of his daring exploits in assisting to repel the allied invad- 
 ers. He barricaded it, and defended himself with desperation. 
 His French wife assisted him to load his guns. At length he was 
 rescued by a troop of grenadiers. Shortly after this 
 1814 General Milfort closed, by death, a career which had 
 been full of event in the savage as well as the civilized 
 world. His wife, at an advanced age, was recently burned to 
 death in her own house at Rheims.t 
 
 When Milfort arrived among the Creeks, the old men often 
 spoke of their ancestors, and they exhibited to him 
 1776 strands of pearls which contained their history and con- 
 July stituted their archives. Upon their arrangement de-- 
 pended their signification, and only principal events 
 were thus preserved. One of their chaplets sometimes related , 
 the history of thirty years. Each year was rapidly distinguished 
 by those who understood them. The old men, therefore, with 
 the assistance of these singular records and strong memories, 
 were enabled to impart to Milfort a correct tradition, the sub- 
 stance of which we give. J 
 
 Hernando Cortez, with some Spanish troops, landed at Vera 
 
 , • Memoire ou coup d'oeil rapide sur mes differens voyages et mon sejour dans la na- 
 tion Creek, by Le Clerc Milfort, Tastanegry pu Grand Chef de Guerre de la nation Creek 
 et General de Brigade ou service de la Kepublique Kranoaise. .A Paris. 1802. 
 t Extract from a Paris paper, published by Galignani t Milfort, p. 47. 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 77 
 
 Cruz in 1519. He fought his way thence to the City of Mexico. 
 In the meantime, Montezuma had assembled his forces 
 from all parts of his empire to exterminate the iiivad- 1519 
 ers. The Muscogees then formed a separate republic on 
 the northwest of Mexico. Hitherto invincible in war, they now 
 rallied to his aid, engaging in the defence of that greatest of 
 aboriginal cities. At length Cortez was successful — Montezuma 
 was killed, his government overthrown, and thousands of his 
 subjects put to the sword. Having lost many of their own war- 
 riors, and unwilling to live in a country conquered by foreign 
 assassins, the Muscogees determined to seek some other 
 land. The whole tribe took up the line of march, and 1520 
 continued eastward until they struck the sources of the 
 Red river. The route lay over vast prairies, abounding with 
 wild animals and fruits, which afforded them all the means of 
 subsistence. In journeying down the banks of the Red river, 
 -they discovered salt lakes and ponds, which were covered with 
 fowl of every description. Consuming months upon the journey, 
 they finally reached a large forest, in which they encamped. 
 The young men, sent in advance to explore the country, le- 
 turned in a month, and announced the discovery of a forest 
 on the banks of the Red river, in which were beautiful sub- 
 terranean habitations. Marching thither, they 'found these 
 caves had been made by buft'alos and other animals, who 
 came there ±o lick the earth, which was impregnated with 
 salt. A town was here laid out, houses, constructed, an ex- 
 tensive field enclosed, and corn, which they had brought with 
 them, planted. Subsisting by the chase and the products of 
 the earth, they passed here several years in health and tran- 
 quility. But even in this remote retreat they eventually found 
 those who would molest them. The Alabamas, who seem also 
 to have been wandering from the west, attacked a party of Mus- 
 cogees, who were hunting, and killed several of them. The Mus- 
 cogees abandoned their- town, which they believed did not afford 
 
HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 them sufficient protection from the buffalo and hu- 
 Probably man foes. They resumed their march in the direc- 
 in 1 527 tion of the camps of the Alabamas, upon whom they 
 had resolved to be avenged. Traversing immense 
 plains, they reached a grove on the Missouri river, having shaped 
 their course in a northern direction from their last settlement. 
 Here they came upon the footprints of the Alabamas. (^e most 
 aristocratic among the Muscogees, called the Family of tEe Wind^ 
 passed the muddy river first. They were followed by the Fam- 
 ily of the Bear ; then by that of the Tiger ; and thus, till the 
 humblest of the tribe had crossed over. Resuming the march, 
 young warriors and the Chiefs formed the advanced guard ; the 
 old men were placed in the rear, and those of an age less ad- 
 vanced on the flanks, while the women and children 
 Probably occupied the centre. Coming within the neighbor- 
 in 1528 hood of the enemy, the main party halted, while 
 the Tustenuggee, or G-rand Chief of War, at the 
 head of the young warriors, advanced to the attack. The Ala- 
 bamas, temporarily dwelling in subterranean habitations, were 
 taken by surprise, and many of them slain. Forced to abandon 
 this place, and retreat from the victors, they did not rally again 
 until they had fled a great distance down on the eastern side of 
 the Missouri. After a time they were overtaken, when several 
 bloody engagements ensued. The Muscogees were triumphant, 
 and the vanquished retreated in terror and dismay to the banks 
 of the Mississippi. The enemy again coming upon them with in- 
 vincible charges, precipitated many of them into the river. Thus, 
 alternately flghting, constructing new towns, and again breaking 
 up their last establishments, these two war-like tribes gradually 
 reached the Ohio river^ and proceeded along its banks almost to 
 the Wabash.* Here, for a long time, the Muscogees resided, and 
 lost sight of the Alabamas, who had established themselves upon 
 the Yazoo, and were there living when De Soto, 1541, attacked. 
 
 * Milfort, pp. 234-259. 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 79 
 
 their fortress.* The Muscogees abandoned their home 
 in the northwestern province of Mexico about the pe- 1520 
 riod of 1520, had consumed fifteen years in reaching the to 
 Ohio, and were there residing when the Spanish inva- 1535 
 sion occurred. How long they occupied that country 
 Milfort does not inform us ; but he states that they finally crossed 
 the Ohio and Tennessee, and settled upon the Yazoo — thus con- 
 tinuing to pursue the unfortunate Alabamas. Delighted with 
 the genial climate, the abundance of fruit and game with which 
 it abounded, they established towns upon the Yazoo, con- 
 structed subterranean habitations, and for some years passed 
 their time most agreeably. It is probable the Alabamas had 
 jBled before their arrival, for the Spaniards had so thinned 
 the number of the latter that it was folly to resist the Musco- 
 gees, who had conquered them when they were much stronger, 
 lyiilfort states that the Alabamas finally advanced to the river 
 which now bears their name. Here, finding a region charming 
 in climate, rich in soil, convenient in navigation, and remote from 
 the country of their enemies, they 'made permanent establish- 
 ments, from the confiuence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa some dis- 
 tance down the Alabama. 
 
 Remembering how often they had been surprised by the 
 Muscogees, and how insecure from the attacks was even a dis- 
 tant retreat, the Alabamas sent forth young warriors westward, 
 to see if their foes were still wandering upon their heels. It hap- 
 pened that a party of the latter were reconnoitering eastward. 
 They met, fought, and some of the Muscogees were killed. In 
 the meantime, the latter tribe had learned what a delightful 
 ■country was occupied by the Alabamas, and this new outrage, 
 ■coupled with a desire to go further south-east, induced them to 
 break up their establishments upon the Yazoo. Without opposi- 
 tion the Muscogees took possession of the lands 
 upon the Alabama, and also those upon the Supposed to 
 Ooosa and Tallapoosa. The Alabamas fled in all be in 1620 
 
 * other Indian traditions in my possession. 
 
80 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 directions, seeking asylums among the Choctaws and other 
 tribes. 
 
 Gaining a firm footing in the new region, enjoying good 
 health, and increasing in population, the Muscogees advanced to 
 the Ockmulgee, Oconee, and Ogechee, and even established a 
 town where now reposes the beautiful city of Augusta. With 
 the Indians of the present State of Georgia, they had combats, 
 but overcame them. Pushing on their conquests, they reduced a 
 warlike tribe called the Uchees, lower down upon the Savannah, 
 and brought the prisoners in slavery to the Chattahoochie.* 
 In 1822, the Big Warrior, who then ruled the Creek confederacy, 
 confirmed this tradition, even going further back than Milfort, 
 taking the Muscogees from Asia, bringing them over the Pacific, 
 landing them near the Isthmus of Darien, and conducting them 
 from thence to this country. " My ancestors were a mighty 
 people. After they reached the waters of the Alabama and took 
 possession of all this country, they went further — conquered the 
 tribes upon the Chattahoochie, and upon all the rivers from 
 thence to the Savannah — yeS, and even whipped the Indians 
 then living in the territory of South Carolina, and wrested much 
 of their country from them." The Big Warrior concluded this 
 sentence with great exultation, when Mr. Compere, to whom he 
 
 was speaking, interposed an unfortunate question: — " If 
 1822 this is the way your ancestors acquired all the territory 
 
 now lying in Georgia, how can you blame the American 
 population in that State for endeavoring to take it from you?" 
 Never after that could the worthy missionary extract a solitary 
 item from the Chieftain, in relation to the history of his 
 people.f 
 
 * Milfort, pp. 269-263. Bartram's Travels in florida, pp. 63, 54, 461. Also traditional 
 MSS. notes in iiiy possession. 
 
 t ReT. Lee Compere's M.-i. notes in my possession. This gentleman was born in 
 England, on Nov. 3, 1790. He came to South Carolinain 1817. The Haptist Missionary 
 Board and that of the General Convention, sent him as amissionary to the Creek nation 
 in 1822. He and his wife, who was an English lady, resided at Tookabatcha (the capital) 
 six years. Mr. Compere made but little progress towards the conversion of the Creeks, 
 owing to the opposition of the Chiefs to the abolition of primitive customs. He was a 
 
MODERN INDIANS OP ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 81 
 
 Sometime after these conquests, the French established 
 themselves at Mobile. The Alabamas, scattered as we have seen, 
 and made to flee before superior numbers, became desir- 
 ous to place themselves under their protection. Anxious 1701 
 to cultivate a good understanding with all the Indian 
 tribes, and to heal old animosities existing among them, the 
 French caused an interview between the Chiefs of the 
 Alabamas and those of the Muscogees, at Mobile. In 1702 
 the presence of M. Bienville, the Commandant of that 
 place, a peace was made, which has not since been violated. The 
 Alabamas returned to their towns, upon the river of that name, 
 which were called Coosawda, Econchate, Pauwocte, Towassau 
 and Autauga, situated on both sides of the river, and embracing 
 a country from the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, for 
 forty miles down. They consented to become members of the 
 Muscogee confederacy, and to observe their national laws, but 
 stipulated to retain their ancient manners and customs. 
 
 Not long afterwards, the Tookabatchas, who had nearly been 
 destroyed by the Iroquois and Hurons, wandered from the Ohio 
 country, and obtained permission from the Muscogees to form a 
 part of their nation. They were willingly received by the cun- 
 ning Muscogees, who were anxious to gain all the strength they 
 could, to prevent the encroachments of the English from South 
 Carolina. Upon the ruins of the western Tallase, where De Soto 
 encamped twenty days, the Tookabatchas built a town and gave 
 it their name.* 
 
 The Tookabatchas brought with them to the Tallapoosa 
 some curious brass plates, the origin and objects of which have 
 much puzzled the Americans of our day, who have seen 
 them. Such information respecting them as has fallen 1759 
 into our possession, will be given. On the 27th July, July 27 
 
 learned man and a respectable writer. He furnished the Indian Bureau, at Washine- 
 ton, with a complete vocabulary of the Muscogee language and also the Lord's Pravtr, 
 all of which is published in the 11th vol. of " Transactions of the American Antiquarian 
 Society," Cambridge, 1836, pp. 381-422. In 1833, 1 often heard Mr. Compere and his \\ ife 
 sing- beautiful hymns in the Creek tongue. He lives in the State of Mississippi. 
 •Milfort, pp. 263-266. 
 
 6 
 
^•2 
 
 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 1759, at the Tookabatcha square, William Balsover, a British, 
 trader, made inquries concerning their ancient relics, of an old 
 Indian Chief, named Bracket, near a hundred years of age. There 
 were two plates of" brass and five of copper. The Indians es- 
 teemed them so much that they were preserved in a private place, 
 known only to a few Chiefs, to whom they were annually en- 
 trusted. They were never brought to light but once in a year, 
 and that was upon the occasion of the Green Corn Celebration, 
 when, on the fourth day, they were introduced in what was 
 termed the " brass plate dance." Then one of the high Prophets 
 carried one before him, under his arm, ahead of the dancers — 
 next to him the head warrior carried another, and then others 
 followed with the remainder, bearing aloft, at the same time, 
 white canes, with the feathers of a swan at the tops. 
 
 Shape of the five coppper plates : One a foot 
 and a half long, and seven inches' wide; the 
 other four a little shorter and narrower. 
 
 ©Shape of the two brass plates: Eighteen 
 inches in diameter, about the thickness of a 
 dollar, and stamped as exhibited upon the face. 
 
 Formerly, the Tookabatcha tribe had many more of these 
 relics, of different sizes and shapes, with letters and inscriptions 
 upon them, which were given to their ancestors by the Great 
 Spirit, who instructed them that they were only to be handled 
 by particular men, who must at the moment be engaged in 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 83 
 
 fasting, and that no unclean woman must be suffered to come 
 near them or the place where they were deposited. 
 Bracket further related, that several of these plates 1759 
 were then buried under the Micco's cabin in Tooka- July 27 
 batcha, and had lain there ever since the first settle- 
 ment of the town ; that formerly it was the custom to place one 
 or more of them in the grave by the side of a deceased Chief of 
 the pure Tookabatcha blood, and that no other Indians in the 
 whole Creek nation had such sacred relics.* Similar accounts 
 of these plates were obtained from four other British traders, 
 " at the most eminent trading house of all English America."! 
 The town of Tookabatcha became, in later times, the capital 
 of the Creek nation ; and many reliable citizens of Alabama have 
 seen these mysterious pieces at the Green Corn Dances, upon which 
 occasions they were used precisely as in the moj'e ancient days.J 
 When the inhabitants of this town, in the autumn of 1836, took 
 up the line of march for their present home in the Arkansas 
 Territory, these plates were transported thence by six Indians, 
 remarkable for their sobriety and moral character, at the head 
 of whom was the Chief, Spoke-oak, Micco. Medicine, made ex- 
 pressly for their safe transportation, was carried along by these 
 warriors. Each one had a plate strapped behind his 
 back, enveloped nicely in buckskin. They carried 1836 
 nothing else, but marched on, one before the other, the 
 whole distance to Arkansas, neither communicating nor con- 
 versing with a soul but themselves, although several thousands 
 were emigrating in company ; and walking, with a solemn 
 religious air, one mile in advance of the others. § How much 
 their march resembled that of the ancient Trojans, bearing off 
 
 * Adair's "American Indians," pp. 178-179. 
 
 t Adair's "American Indians," p. 179. 
 
 t Conversations with Baient Dubois, Abraliam Mordeoal, James Moore, Capt. Wil- 
 liam Walker, Lacklan Durant, Mrs. Sophia McComb, and other persons, who stated 
 that these plates had Roman characters upon them, as well as they could determine 
 from the rapid glances which they could occasionally bestow upon them, while they 
 were being used in the " brass plate -dance." 
 
 § Conversations with Barent Dubois. 
 
84 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 their household gods ! Another tradition is, that the Shawnees 
 gave these plates to the Tookabatchas, as tokens of their friend- 
 ship, with an injunction that they would annually introduce 
 them in their religious observances of the new corn 
 1833 season. But the opinion of Opothleoholo, one of the 
 Dec. most gifted Chiefs of the modern Creeks, went to cor- 
 roborate the general tradition that they were gifts from 
 the Great Spirit.* It will be recollected that our aborigines, in 
 the time of De Soto, undertook the use of copper, and that 
 hatchets and ornaments were made of that metal. The ancient 
 Indians may have made them, and engraved upon their faces 
 hieroglyphics, which were supposed, from the glance only per- 
 mitted to be given them, to be Roman characters. An intelligent 
 New Englander, named Barent Dubois, who had long lived 
 among the Tookabatchas, believed that chese plates originally 
 formed some portion of the armor or musical instruments of De 
 Soto, and that the Indians stole them, as they did the shields, in 
 the Talladega country, and hence he accounts for the Roman let- 
 ters on them. We give no opinion, but leave the reader to deter- 
 mine for himself — having discharged our duty by placing all the 
 available evidence before him. 
 
 The reputation which the Muscogees had acquired for 
 strength and a warlike spirit, induced other tribes who had be- 
 come weak to seek an asylum among them. The Tuskegees 
 wandered down into East Alabama, were received with 
 1700 open arms, and permitted to occupy the territory imme- 
 diately in the fork of the Coosa and Tallapoosa. Upon 
 the east bank of the former a town was erected and called after 
 the name of the tribe. Some time after this the French fort, Tou- 
 louse, was built here; and, one hundred -years afterwards. Fort 
 Jackson was placed upon the same foundation by the Americans. 
 A tribe of the Ozeailles came at the same time, and were 
 
 * Conversations with OpotUleoholo in 1833. 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEOEGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 85 
 
 located eighteen miles aboVe, on a beautiful plain, through which 
 meandered a line creek.* A large tribe of Uchees, made 
 prisoners and brought to Cusseta, upon the Chattahoo- 1700 
 chie, not long afterwards, were liberated and assigned 
 residences upon the creeks which bear their name, flowing 
 through the eastern portion of the county of Russell. Or, upon 
 the authority of Col. Hawkins, the Uchees, formerly living upon 
 tho Savannah in small villages at Ponpon, 8altketcher and Silver 
 Bluflf, and also upon the Ogechee, were continually at war with 
 the Creeks, Cherokees and Cataubas ; but in 1729 an old Chief of 
 Cusseta, called Captain EUick, married three Uchee women and 
 brought them to Cusseta, which greatly displeased his friends. 
 Their opposition determined him to move from Cusseta. With 
 three of his brothers, two of whom also had Uchee wives, he set- 
 tled upon the Uchee creek. Afterwards he collected all that 
 tribe, and with them formed there a distinct community, which, 
 however, became amenable, nationally, to the government of the 
 Muscogees.f 
 
 In 1729, the Natchez masscred the French at Fort Rosalie, 
 now the site of the city of Natchez, and were in turn overpow- 
 ered, and many of them made slaves, while others escaped to the 
 Coosa. In the Talladega country they built two towns, one 
 called Natche and the other Abecouche. Thus a branch of the 
 Natchez also became members of the Muscogee confeideracy. At 
 the close of the Revolutionary War, a party of Savannahs came 
 from that river in company with some Shawnees, from 
 Florida, and formed a town on the east side of the Tal- 1783 
 lapoosa, called Souvanogee ; upon the ruins of which the 
 Americans, in 1819, established the village of Augusta — no re- 
 mains of which now exist. Souvanogee was laid out in conform- 
 ity with their usages and habits, which they retained ; but they 
 
 * Milfon, p. 267. 
 
 t " Sketch of the Creek Country in 1798-99," by Benjamin Hawkins, pp. 61, 62, 63. 
 Also, manuscript traditional notes in my possession, taken from the lips of aged 
 Indian countrymen. 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. »/ 
 
 willingly came under the national government of the confed- 
 eracy.* 
 
 Thus did the Muscogee confederacy gain strength, from time 
 to time, by the migration of broken tribes. When the English 
 began to explore their country, and to transport goods into all 
 parts of it, they gave all the inhabitants, collectively, the name of 
 the " Creeks," on account of the many beautiful rivers and 
 streams vrhich flowed through their extensive domain.f By that 
 name they will, in the future pages of this history, be called. 
 
 The Creek woman was short in stature, but well form c^. 
 Her cheeks were rather high, but her features were generally reg- 
 ular and pretty. Her brow was high and arched, her eye large, 
 black and languishing, expressive of modesty and diffidence. 
 Her feet and hands were small, and the latter exquis- 
 itely shaped. The warrior was larger than the ordinary 1777 
 race of Europeans, often above six feet in height, but 
 was invariably well formed, erect in his carriage, and graceful in 
 every movement. They were proud, haughty and arrogant ; 
 brave and valiant in war ; ambitious of conquest ; restless, and 
 perpetually exercising their arms, yet magnanimous and merci- 
 ful to a vanquished Indian enemy who afterwards sought their 
 .friendship and protection. t Encountering fatigue with 
 ease, they were great travellers, and sometimes went 1780 
 three or four hundred leagues on a hunting expedition. 
 "Formerly they were cruel, but at the present day they are 
 brave, yet peaceable, when not forced to abandon their charac- 
 ter." § 
 
 Like all other Indians, they were fond of ornaments, which 
 consisted of stones, beads, wampum, poicupine quills, eagles' 
 feathers, beautiful plumes, and ear-rings of various descrip- 
 tions. The higher classes were often fantastic in their wear- 
 ing apparel. Sometimes a warrior put on a ruffled shirt of 
 
 * Milfortj pp. 282-283. " Sketch of the Creek Country," by Hawkins, p. 34. Also, ion- 
 versatioDS with Indian countrymen. > 
 
 t Hawkins, p. 19. t Bartram's Travels, pp. 482, 500, 506. § Milfort,'pp. 216-217. 
 
88 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 fine linen, and went out with no other garment except a flap of 
 blue broadcloth, with buskins made of the same. The stillapica 
 or moccasin, embroidered with beads, adorned the feet of the bet- 
 ter classes. Mantles of good broadcloth, of a blue or scarlet 
 color, decorated with fringe and lace, and hung with round sil- 
 ver or brass buttons, were worn by those who could aflt'ord them. 
 When they desired to be particularly gay, vermillion was freely 
 applied to the face, neck and arms. Again, the skin was often 
 inscribed with hieroglyphics, and representations of the sun, 
 moon, stars and various animals.* 'This was performed by punc- 
 turing the parts with gar's teeth, and rubbing in a dye made of 
 the drippings of rich pine roots. These characters were inscribed 
 during youth, and frequently in manhood, every time that a war- 
 rior distinguished himself in slaying the enemy. Hence, 
 1777 when he was unfortunately taken prisoner, he was se- 
 verely punished in proportion to the marks upon his 
 skin, by which he was known to have shed the blood of many of 
 the kindred of those into whose hands he had fallen.f The 
 Creeks wore many ornaments of silver. Crescents or gorgets, 
 very massive, suspended around the neck by ribbons, reposed 
 upon the breast, while the arms, fingers, hats, and even sometimes 
 the necks, had silver bands around them. 
 
 The females wore a petticoat which reached to the middle of 
 the leg. The waistcoat, or wrapper, made of calico, printed linen, 
 or fine cloth, ornamented with lace and beads, enveloped the up- 
 per part of the body. They never wore boots or stockings, but 
 their buskins reached to the middle of the leg. Their hair, 
 black, long and rather coarse, was plaited in wreaths, and ordi- 
 narily turned up and fastened to the crown with a silver' band. 
 This description of dress and ornaments were worn only by the 
 better classes. The others were more upon the primitive Indian 
 order. They were fond of music, both vocal and instrumental ; 
 but the instruments they used were of an inferior kind, such as 
 
 * Bartram's Travels, pp. 482-606. t Adair's American Indians, p. 389. 
 
MODEEN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 89 
 
 the tambour, rattle-gourd, and a kind of flute, made of the joint 
 of a cane or the tibia of the deer's leg. Dancing was practiced to 
 a great extent, and they employed an endless variety of steps.* 
 
 Their most manly and important game was the « ball play." 
 It was the most exciting and interesting game imaginable, and 
 was the admiration of all the curious and learned travellers who 
 witnessed it. The warriors of one town challenged those of an- 
 other, and they agreed to meet at one town, or the other, as may 
 have been decided. For several days previous to the time, those 
 who intended to engage in the amusement took medicine, as 
 though they were going to war. The night immediately pre- 
 ceding was spent in dancing and other ceremonious preparations. 
 On the morning of the play, they painted and decorated them- 
 selves. In the meantime, the news had spread abroad in the 
 neighboring towns, which had collected, at the place designated, 
 an immense concourse of men, women fvnd children — the young 
 and the gay — the old and the grave — together with hundreds of 
 ponies, Indian merchandise, extra wearing apparel, and various 
 articles brought there to stake upon the result. 
 
 The players were all nearly naked, wearing only a piece of 
 cloth called " flap." They advanced towards the immense plain 
 upon which they were presently to exhibit astonishing feats of 
 strength and agility. From eighty to a hundred men were usu- 
 ally on a side. They now approached each other, and were first 
 seen at the distance of a quarter of a mile apart, but their war 
 songs and yells had previously been heard. Intense excitement 
 and anxiety were depicted upon the countenance of the immense 
 throng of spectators. Presently the parties appeared in full trot, 
 as if about to encounter fiercely in fight. They met and 
 soon became intermingled together, dancing and stamp- 1750 
 ing, while a dreadful artillery of noise and shouts went 
 up and rent the air. An awful silence then succeeded. The 
 players retired from each other, and fell back one hundred and 
 
 » Bartram's Travels, pp. 482-506. 
 
90 HISTOKT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 fifty yards from the centre. Thus they were three hundred 
 yards apart. In the center were erected two poles, between 
 which the ball must pass to count one. Every warrior was pro- 
 vided with two rackets or hurls, of singular construction, re- 
 sembling a ladle or hoop-net with handles nearly three feet long. 
 The handle was of wood, and the netting of the thongs of raw 
 hide or the tendons of an animal. The play was commenced by 
 a ball, covered with buckskin, being thrown in the air. The 
 players rushed together with a mighty shock, and he who' caught 
 the ball between his two rackets, ran off with it and hurled it 
 again in the air, endeavoring to throw it between the 
 
 1790 poles in the direction of the town to which he belonged. 
 They seized hold of each other's limbs and hair, tumbled 
 each other over, first trampled upon those that were down, and 
 did everything to obtain the ball, and afterwards to make him 
 who had it, drop it before he could make a successful throw. 
 The game was usually from twelve to twenty. It was kept up 
 for hours, and during the time the players used the greatest ex- 
 ertions, exhibited the most infatuated devotion to their side, were 
 often severely hurt, and sometimes killed, in the rough and un- 
 feeling scramble which prevailed. It sometimes happened that 
 the inhabitants of a town gamed ,away all their ponies, jewels, 
 and wearing apparel, even stripping themselves, upon the issue 
 of the ball play. In the meantime, the women were constantly 
 on the alert with vessels and gourds filled with water, watching 
 every opportunity to supply the players.* 
 
 If a Creek warrior wished to marry, he sent his sister, mother, 
 
 or some female relation, to the female relations of the girl whom 
 
 he loved. Her female relations then consulted the un- 
 
 1798 cles, and if none the brothers, on the maternal side, who 
 
 decided upon the case. If it was an agreeable alliance, 
 
 the bridegroom was informed of it, and he sent, soon after, a blan- 
 
 ket and articles of clothing to the female part of the family of 
 
 * The "Narrative of a Mission to the Creek Nation," by Col. Marinus Willett, pp. 
 108-110. Bartram's Travels, pp. 482-506. 
 
MODEKN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 91 
 
 the bride. If they received these presents, the match was made, 
 and the man was at liberty to go to the house of his wife as soon 
 as he deemed it proper. When he had built a residence, 
 produced a crop, gathered it in, made a hunt and brought 1798 
 home the game, and tendered a general delivery of all to 
 the girl, then they were considered man and wife. 
 
 Divorce was at the choice of either party. The man, how- 
 ever, had the advantage, for he could again marry another woman 
 if he wished ; but the woman was obliged to lead a life of celib- 
 acy until the Boosketuh, or Green Corn Dance, was over. Mar- 
 riage gave no right to the husband over the property of the wife, 
 or the control or management of the children which he miglii 
 have by her. 
 
 Adultei-y was punished by the family of the husband, who 
 collected together, consulted and agreed on the course to pursue. 
 One-half of them then went to the house of the woman, and the 
 other half to the residence of the guilty warrior. They appre- 
 hended, stripped, and beat them with long poles until they were 
 insensible. Then they cropped off their ears, and sometimes 
 their noses, with knives, the edges of which were made rough and 
 saw-like. The hair of the woman was carried in triumph to the 
 square. Strange to say, they generally recovered from 
 this inhuman treatment. If one of the offenders escaped, 1798 
 satisfaction was taken by similar punishment inflicted 
 upon the nearest relative. If both of the parties fled unpunished, 
 and the party aggrieved returned home and laid down the poles, 
 the offense was considered satisfied. But one family in the Creek 
 nation had authority to take up the poles the second time, and 
 that was the Ho-tul-gee, or family of the Wind. The parties 
 might absent themselves until the Boosketuh was over, and then 
 they were free from punishment for this and all other offenses, 
 except murder, which had to be atoned for by death inflicted 
 upon the guilty one or his nearest relative.* 
 
 • Hawkins' " Sketch of the Creek Country," pp. 73-74. 
 
92 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 The Creeks buried their dead in the earth, in a square pit, 
 under the bed where the deceased lay in his house. The grave 
 was lined on the sides with cypress bark, like the curbing of a 
 well. The corpse, before it became cold, was drawn up with 
 cords, and made to assume a squatting position ; and in this 
 manner it was placed in the grave and covered with earth. The 
 gun, tomahawk, pipe, and other articles of the deceased, were 
 buried with him.* 
 
 In 1777, Bartram found, in the Creek nation, fifty towns, 
 with a population of elevep thousand, which lay upon the rivers 
 Coosa, Tallapoosa, Alabama, Chattahoochie and Flint, and the 
 prominent creeks which flowed into them. The Muscogee was 
 the national language, although in some of these towns, the 
 Uchee or Savannah, Alabama, Xatchez and Shawnee tongues 
 prevailed. But the Muscogee was called, by the traders, the 
 " mother tongue," while the others mentioned were termed the 
 " stinkard lingo."t 
 
 The general council of the nation was always held in 
 the principal town, in the centre of which was a large public 
 square, with three cabins of different sizes in each angle, making 
 twelve in all. Four avenues led into the square. The cabins, 
 capable of containing sixty persons each, were so situated that 
 from one of them a person might see into the others. 
 1776 One belonging to the Grand Chief fronted the rising sun, 
 to remind him that he should watch the interests of his 
 people. Near it was the grand cabin, where the councils were 
 held. In the opposite angle, three others belonged to the old 
 men, and faced the setting sun, to remind them that they were 
 growing feeble, and should not go to war. In the two remaining 
 corners were the cabins of the diffferent Chiefs of the nation, the 
 dimensions of which were in proportion to the rank and services 
 of those Chiefs. The whole number in the square was painted 
 red, except those facing the west, which were white, symbolical 
 
 » Bartram, pp. 513-514. t Bartram's Travels, pp. 461-462. 
 
MODERN INDIANS OP ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 93 
 
 of virtue and old age. The former, during war, were decorated 
 with wooden pieces sustaining a chain of rings of wood. This 
 was a sign of grief, and told the warriors they should hold them- 
 selves in readiness, for their country needed their services. 
 These chains were replaced by garlands of ivy leaves during 
 peace. 
 
 In the month of May^ annually, the Chiefs and principal In- 
 dians assembled in the large square formed by these houses, to 
 deliberate upon all subjects of general interest. When they were 
 organized they remained in the square until the council broke 
 up. Here they legislated, eat and slept. During the session, no 
 person, except the principal Chiefs, could approach within less 
 than twenty feet of the grand cabin. The women prepared the 
 food, and deposited it at a prescribed distance, when it 
 was borne to the grand cabin by the subordinate Chiefs. 1776 
 In the center of the square was a fi:ce constantly burn- 
 ing. At sunset the council adjourned for the day, and then the 
 young people of both sexes danced around this fire until a cer- 
 tain hour. As soon as the sun appeared • above the horizon, a 
 drum-beat called the Chiefs to the duties of the day.* 
 
 Besides this National Legislature, each principal town in^the,^ 
 nation had its separate public buildings, as do the States of this 
 American Union ; and like them, regulated their own local affairs. 
 The public square at Auttose, upon the Tallapoosa, in 1777, con- 
 sisted of four square buildings, of the same dimensions and uni- 
 form in sha'pe, so situated as to form a tetragon, enclosing an area 
 of an half kcre. Four passages, of equal width at the corners, 
 admitted pel-sons into it. The frames of these buildings 
 were of wood» but a mud plaster, inside and out, was 1777 
 employed to foi-m neat walls ; except two feet all around 
 under the eaves, left open to admit light and air. One of them 
 was the council house, where the Micco (King), Chiefs and war- 
 riors, with the white citizens, who had business, daily assembled 
 
 * Milfort, pp. 206-208. 
 
94 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 to hear and decide upon all grievances, adopt measures for the 
 better government of the people, and the improvement of the 
 town, and to receive ambassadors from other towns. This building 
 was enclosed on three sides, while a partition, from end to end, di- 
 vided it into two apartments, the back one of which was totally 
 dark, having only three arched holes large enough for a per- 
 son to crawl into. It was a sanctuary of priestcraft, in which 
 were deposited physic-pots, rattles, chaplets of deer's hoofs, the 
 great pipe of peace, the imperial eagle-tail standard, displayed 
 like an open fan, attached to which was a staff as white and clean 
 as it could be scoured. The front part of this building was open 
 like a piazza, divided into three apartments — breast high— each 
 containing three rows of seats, rising one above the other, for the 
 legislators. The other three buildings fronting the square were 
 similar to the one just described, except that they had no 
 sanctuary, and served to accommodate the spectators; they were 
 also used for banqueting houses. 
 
 The pillars and walls of the houses of the square abounded 
 with sculptures and caricature paintings, representing men in 
 different ludicrous attitudes; some with the human shape, hav- 
 ing the heads of the duck, turkey, bear, fox, wol'f and d'eer. 
 Again, these animals were represented with the human head. 
 These designs were not ill-executed, and the outlines were bold 
 and well proportioned. The pillars of the council house were in- 
 geniously formed in the likeness of vast speckled snakes ascend- 
 ing — the Auttoses being of the Snake family.* 
 
 Rude paintings were quite common among the Creeks, and 
 they often conveyed ideas by drawings. No people could pre- 
 sent a more comprehensive view of the topography of a country 
 
 with which they were acquainted, than the Creeks 
 
 me could, in a few moments, by drawing upon the ground. 
 
 Sept. 30 Barnard Roman, a Captain in the British Army, saw at 
 
 Hoopa UUa, a Choctaw town, not far from Mobile, the 
 
 * Bartram's Travels, pp. 448-464. 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 95 
 
 following drawing, executed by the Creeks, which had fallen into 
 the possession of the Chootaws. 
 
 This represents that ten Creek warriors, of the family of the 
 Deer, went into the Choctaw country in three canoes ; that six of 
 them landed, and in marching along a path, met two Choctaw 
 men, two women and a dog ; that the Creeks killed and scalped 
 them. The scalp, in the deer's foot, implies the horror of the ac- 
 tion to the whole Deer family.* 
 
 The great council house in Auttose, was appropriated to 
 much the same purpose as the square, but was more private. 
 It was a vast conical building, capable of accommodating many 
 hundred people. Those appointed to take care of it, daily 
 swept it clean, and provided canes for fuel and to give lights. 
 Besides using this rotunda for political purposes, of a private na- 
 ture, the inhabitants of Auttose were accustomed to take their 
 "black drink" in it. The officer who had charge of this cere- 
 mony ordered the cacina teft to be prepared under an open shed 
 opposite the door of the council house ; he directed bun- 
 dles of dry cane to be brought in, which were previously 1777 
 :split in pieces two feet long. "They were now placed • 
 
 • Barnard Roman's Florida, p. 102. 
 
96 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 obliquely across upon one another on the floor, formkig a spiral 
 line round about the great centre pillar, eighteen inches in thick- 
 ness. This spiral line, spreading as it proceeded round and 
 round, often repeated from right to left, every revolution in- 
 creased its diameter, and at length extended to the distance of 
 ten or twelve feet from the centre, according to the time the as- 
 sembly was to continue." By the time these preparations were 
 completed, it was night, and the assembly had taken their seats. 
 The outer end of the spiral line was fired. It gradually crept 
 round the centre pillar, with the course of the sun, feeding on the 
 cane, and affording a bright and cheerful light. The aged Chiefs 
 and warriors sat upon their cane sofas, which were elevated one 
 above the other, and fixed against the back side of the house, op- 
 posite the door. The white people and Indians of confederate 
 towns sat, in like order, on the left — a transverse range of pil- 
 lars, supporting a thin clay wall, breast high, separating them. 
 The King's seat was in front ; back of it were the seats of the 
 head warriors, and those of a subordinate condition. 
 1777 Two middle-aged men now entered at the door, bearing 
 large conch shells full of black drink. They advanced 
 with slow, uniform and steady steps, with eyes elevated, and sing- 
 ing in a very low tone. Coming within a few feet of the King, they 
 stopped, and rested their -shells on little tables. Presently they 
 took them up again, crossed each other, and advanced obsequi- 
 ously. One presented his shell to the King, and the other to the 
 principal man among the white audience. As soon as they raised 
 them to their mouths the attendants uttered two notes — hoo- 
 ojah! and a-lu-yah ! — which they spun out as long as they could 
 hold their breath. As long as the notes continued, so long did 
 the person drink or hold the shell to his mouth. In this manner 
 all the assembly were served with the "black drink." But when 
 the drinking begun, tobacco, contained in pouches made of the 
 skins of the wild cat, otter, bear and rattlesnake, was distributed 
 among the assembly, together with pipes, and a general smoking 
 
MODERN IlfDIAlSrS, OF ALABAMA, GEOBGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 97 
 
 commenced. The King began first, with a few whiffs from the 
 great pipe, blowing it ceremoniously, first toward the sun, next 
 toward the four cardinal points, and then toward the 
 white audience. Then the attendants passed this pipe 1777 
 to others of distinction. In this manner, thes« dignified 
 and singular people occupied some hours in the night, until the 
 spiral line of canes was consumed, which was a signal for re- 
 tiriiig.* 
 
 Twenty-one years after the visit of Bartram to the Creek 
 nation. Col. Benjamin Hawkins, to whom Washington had con- 
 fided important trusts in relation to the tribes south of the Ohio, 
 penetrated these wilds. He found the public buildings, . at that 
 period similar to those already described, with, however, some 
 exceptions, which may have been the result of a slight change of 
 ancient customs. 
 
 Every town had a separate government, and public buildings 
 for business and pleasure, with a. presiding ofHcer, who was 
 called a King, by the traders, and a Mieco, by the In- 
 dians. This functionary received all public characters, 1 798 
 heard their talks, laid them before his people, and, in re- 
 turn, delivered the talk of his own town. He was always chosen 
 from some noted family. The Micco of Tookabatcha was of the 
 Eagle tribe (Lum-ul-gee.) When they were put into office, they 
 held their stations for life, and when dead, were succeeded by 
 their nephewp. The Micco could select an assistant when he be 
 •came infirm, or for other causes, subject to the approval of the 
 principal men of the town. They generally bore the name of 
 the town which they governed, as Cusseta Micco, Tookabatcha 
 Micco, etc. 
 
 " Choo-co-thiuc-co, (big house) the town house or public 
 square, consists of four buildings of one story, facing each other, 
 
 * Bartram's Travels, pp. 418-454. The site of Auttose is now embraced in Macon 
 county, and is a cotton plantation, the property of tlie Hon. George Goldthwalte, Judue 
 of the Kighth Judicial Circuit. On the morning of the 29th of November, 1813, abattle 
 was fought here between the Creeks and the Georgians— the latter commanded by Gen 
 John Floyd 
 
 -7 
 
98 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 forty by sixteen feet, eight feet pitch ; the entrance at each cor- 
 ner. Each building is a wooden frame supported on posts set in 
 the ground, covered with slabs, open in front like a piazza, di- 
 vided into three rooms, the back and ends clayed up to the 
 plates. Each division is divided lengthwise into two seats. The 
 front, two feet high, extending back half way, covered with reed 
 mats or slabs ; then a rise of one foot and it extends back, covered 
 in like manner, to the side of the building. On these seats they 
 lie or sit at pleasure. 
 
 "THE BANK OF THE BUILDINGS WHICH FORM THE SQUARE. 
 
 " 1st. Mic-ul-gee in-too-pau, the Miccd's cabin. This fronts 
 the east, and is occupied by those of the highest rank. The cen- 
 ter of the building is always occupied by the Micco of the town, 
 by the Agent for Indian affairs, when he pays a visit to a town, 
 by the Miccos of other towns, and by respectable white 
 people. 
 
 « The division to the right is occupied by the Mic-ug-gee 
 (Miccos, there being several so called in every town, 
 1798 from custom, the origin of which is unknown), and the 
 councillors. These two classes give their advice in rela- 
 tion to war, and are, in fact, the principal councillors. 
 
 « The division to the left is occupied by the E-ne-hau-ulgee 
 (people second in command, the head of whom is called by the 
 traders second man.) These have the direction of the public 
 works appertaining to the town, such as the public buildings, 
 building houses in town for new settlers, or working in the 
 fields. Tney are particularly charged with the ceremony of the 
 a-ce, (a decoction of the cassine yupon, called by the traders 
 black drink), under the direction of the Micco. 
 
 "2d. Tus-tun-nug-ul-gee in-too-pau, the warriors' cabin. This 
 fronts the south. The head warrior sits at the end of the cabin, 
 and in his division the great warriors sit beside each other. The 
 uext.in rank sit in the center division, and the young warriors in 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEOEGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 99 
 
 the third. The rise is regular by merit from the third to the 
 first division. The Great Warrior, for this is the title of the 
 head warrior, is appointed by the Micco and councillors from 
 among the greatest war characters. 
 
 " When a young man is trained up and appears well quali- 
 fied for tihe fatigues and hardships of war, and is promising, the 
 Micco appoints him a governor, or, as the name imports, a leader 
 (Is-te-puc-cau-chau), and if he listinguishes himself they elevate 
 him to the center cabin. A man who distinguishes him- 
 -self repeatedly in warlike enterprises, arrives to the rank of the 
 Great Leader (Is-te-puc-cau-chau-thlucco.) This title, though 
 greatly coveted, is seldom attained, as it requires a long course of 
 years, and great and numerous successes in war. 
 
 " The second class of warriors is the Tusse-ki-ul-gee. All who 
 go to war, and are in company when a scalp is taken, get a war- 
 name. The leader reports their conduct and they receive a name 
 accordingly. This' is the Tus-se-o-chif-co or war-name. The 
 ierm leader, as used by the Indians, is a proper one. The 
 war parties all march in Indian file, with the leader in front, un- 
 til coming on hostile ground. He is then in the rear. 
 
 " 3d. Is-te-chaguc-ul-gee in-too-pau, the cabin oj the beloved 
 men. This fronts the north. There are a great many men who 
 have been war leaders and who, although of various ranks, have 
 become estimable in long course of public service. They 
 sit themselves on the right division of the cabin of the 
 Micco, and are his councillors. The family of the Micco, and 
 great men who have distinguished themselves occupy this cabin 
 of the Beloved Men. 
 
 " 4th. Hut-te-mau-hug-gee, the cabin of the young people and 
 their associates. This fronts the west. 
 
 " THE CONVENTION' OE THE TOWN. 
 
 "The Micco, councillors and warriors meet every day in the 
 public Bquare, sit and drink of the black tea, talk of the news, the 
 
100 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 public and domestic concerns, smoke their pipes, and play Thla- 
 chal-litch-cau (roll the bullet). Here all complaints are intro- 
 duced, attended to and redressed. 
 
 " 5th. Chooc-ofau-thluc-co, the rotundo or assembly room, 
 called by the traders 'hot housed This is near the square, and 
 is constructed after the following manner : Eight posts are 
 driven into the ground, forming an octagon of thirty feet in 
 diameter. They are twelve feet high, and large enough to support 
 the roof. On these five or six logs are placed, of a side, drawn in 
 as they rise. On these, long poles or rafters, to suit the height of 
 the building, are laid, the upper ends forming a point, and the 
 lower ends projecting out six feet from the octagon, and resting 
 on the posts, five feet high, placed in a circle round the octagon, 
 with plates on them, to which the rafters are tied with splits. 
 The rafters are near together and fastened with splits. These are 
 covered with clay, and that of pine bark. The wall, six feet from 
 the octagon, is clayed up. They have a small door, with a small 
 portico curved round for five or six feet, then into the house. 
 
 " The space between the octagon and wall is one entire sofa, 
 where the visitors lie or sit at pleasure. It is covered with reed, 
 mat or splits. 
 
 " In the centre of the room, on a small rise, the fire is made 
 of dry cane, or dry old pine slabs, split fine, and laid in a spiral 
 line. This is the assembly room for all people, old and young. 
 They assemble every night and amuse themselves with dancing, 
 singing or conversation. Amd here, sometimes, in very cold 
 weather, the old and naked sleep. 
 1798 "In all transactions which require secrecy, the rul- 
 
 ers meet here, make their fire, deliberate and decide."* 
 
 A very interesting festival, common not only to the Creeks, 
 but to many other tribes, will now be described. As Col. Haw- 
 kins was, in all respects, one of the most conscientious and relia- 
 ble men that ever lived, his account, like the preceding, will be 
 
 * Sketch of the Creek Country in 1798-1799, by Benjamin Hawkins, pp. 68-72. 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. ,101 
 
 copied in his own style. Of the many descriptions of the Green 
 Corn Dance, in our possession, that by the honest and indefati- 
 gable Creek Agent is the most minute and most readily, under- 
 stood. 
 
 "boos-ke-tau.' 
 
 "The Creeks celebrate this festival in the months of July and 
 August. The precise time is fixed by the Micco and councillors, 
 and is sooner or later, as the state of affairs of the town 
 or the early or lateness of their corn will suit. In Cus- 1798 
 setuh this ceremony lasts for eight days. In some towns 
 of less note it is but four days. 
 
 "FIRST DAT. 
 
 "In the morning the warriors clear the yard of the square, 
 and sprinkle white sand, when the black drink is made. The fire- 
 maker makes the fire as early in the morning as he can, by 
 friction. The warriors cut and bring into the square four logs, ■ 
 each as long as a man can cover by extending his two arms. 
 These are placed in the center of the squar3, end to end, forming 
 a cross, the outer ends pointed to the cardinal points ; in the cen- 
 ter of the cross the new fire is made. During the first four days 
 they burn out these first four logs. 
 
 "The Pin-e-bun-gau (turkey dance) is danced by the women 
 of the Turkey tribe, and while they are dancing the possau is 
 brewed. This is a powerful emetic. It is drank from 
 twelve o'clock to the middle of the afternoon. After 1798 
 this, Toc-co-yula-gau (tad-pole) is danced by four women 
 and four men. In the evening the men dance E-ne-hou-bun-gau 
 (the dance of the people second in command). This they dance 
 till daylight. 
 
 " SECOND DAT. 
 
 "About ten o'clock the women dance Its-ho-bun-gau (gun 
 dance) J ;. After twelve o'clock the men go to the new fire, take 
 
102 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 some of the ashes, rub them on the chin, neck and abdomen, and 
 jump head foremost into the river, and then return into the 
 square. The women having prepared the new corn for the feast, 
 the men take some of it and rub it between their hands, then on 
 their faces and breasts, and then they feast. 
 
 '' THIKD DAT. 
 
 " The men sit in the square. 
 
 "FOURTH DAT. 
 
 " The women go early in the morning and get the new flre, 
 
 clean out their hearths, sprinkle them with sand, and make their 
 
 fires. The men finish burning out the first four logs, 
 
 1798 and they take ashes, rub them on their chin, neck and 
 
 abdomen, and they go into the water. This day they 
 
 eat salt, and they dance Obungauchapco (the long dance). 
 
 "FIFTH DAT. 
 
 " They get four new logs, and place them as on the first day, 
 and they drink the black drink. 
 
 "SIXTH AND SEVENTH DATS. 
 
 " They remain in the square. 
 
 " EIGHTH DAT. 
 
 " They get two large pots, and their physic plants, the names 
 
 of which are : 
 
 Mic-ca-ho-you-e-juh, Co-hal-le-wau-gea, 
 
 Toloh, - Chofeinsack-cau-fuck-au, 
 
 A-che-nau, Cho-fe-mus-see, 
 
 Cap-pau-pos-cau, Hillis-hutke, 
 
 Chu-lis-sau (the roots), To-te-cuh-chooe-his-see, 
 Tuck-thlau-lus-te, "Welau-nuh, 
 
 To-te-cul-hil-lis-so-wau, Oak-chon-utch-co. 
 
 These plants are put in pots and beat up with water. The chem- 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 103 
 
 ists, E-lic-chul-gee, called by the traders physic-makers, blow 
 into it through a small reed, and then it is drank by the men and 
 rubbed over their joints till the afternoon. 
 
 " They collect old corn cobs and pine burs, put them into a 
 pot and burn them to ashes. Four very young virgins bring 
 ashes from their houses and stir them up. The men take white 
 clay and mix it with water in two pans. One pan of clay and 
 one of the ashes are carried to the cabin of the Micco, and the 
 other two to that of the warriors. They then rub themselves 
 with the clay and ashes. Two men, appointed to that office, 
 bring some flowers of tobacco of a small kind, It?ch-au-chee-Ie- 
 pue-pug-gee, or, as the name imports, the old man's 
 tobacco, which was prepared on the first day and put in 1798 
 a pan in the cabin of the Micco, and they gave ,a little of 
 it tg every one present. 
 
 « The Micco and councillors then go four times around the 
 flre, and every time they face the east they throw some of the 
 flowers into the flre. They then go, and stand to the west. The 
 warriors then repeat the same ceremony. 
 
 "A cane is stuck up at the cabin of the Micco, with two white 
 feathers at the end of it. One of the flsh tribe (Thlot-logulgee) 
 takes it, just as the sun goes down, and goes off to the river, fol- 
 lowed by all. When he gets half way down the river he gives 
 the death whoop, which he repeats four times between the square 
 and the water's edge. Here they all place themselves as thick 
 as they can stand near the edge of the water. He sticks 
 up the cane at the water's edge, and they all put a grain 1798 
 of the old man's tobacco on their heads and in each ear. 
 Then, at a signal given four different times, they throw some inta 
 the river; and every man, at a signal, plunges into the river and 
 picks up four stones from the bottom. With these they cross 
 themselves on their breasts four times, each time throwing a 
 stone into the river and giving the death whoop. They then 
 wash themselves, take up the cane and feathers, return and stick 
 
104 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 it up in the square, and visit through the town. At night they 
 dance 0-bun-gau-hacljo (mad dance), and this finishes the 
 ceremony. 
 
 « This happy institution of the Boos-ke-tau restores man to 
 nimself, to his family, and to his nation. It is a general am- 
 nesty, which not only absolves the Indians from all 
 1798 crimes, murder alone excepted, but seems to bring guilt 
 itself into oblivion."* 
 
 With some slight variations, the Green Corn Dance was thus 
 celebrated throughout the Creek confederacy. At the town of 
 Tookabatcha,' however, it will be recollected, that on the fourth 
 day, the Indians introduced the " brass plates." At Coosawda, 
 the principal town of the Alabamas, they celebrated a Boosketau 
 of four days each, of mulberries and beans, when these fruits re- 
 spectively ripened.! 
 
 James Adair, a man of learning and enterprise, lived more 
 than thirty years among the Chickasaws, and had frequent in- 
 tercourse with the nations of the Muscogees, Cherokees and 
 Choctaws, commencing in 1735. He was an Englishman, and 
 was connected with the extensive commerce carried on 
 1735 at an early period with these tribes. While among the 
 Chickasaws, with whom he first began to reside in 
 1744, he wrote a large work on aboriginal history. When he re- 
 turned to his mother country, he published this work, the 
 " American Indians," a ponderous volume of near five hundred 
 pages, at London, in 1775. Well acquainted with the Hebrew 
 language, and having, in his long residence with the Indians, ac- 
 quired an accurate knowledge of their tongue, he devoted the 
 larger portion of his work to prove that the latter were originally 
 Hebrews, and were a portion of the lost tribes of Israel. He as- 
 serts, that at the Boosketaus of the Creeks and other tribes 
 within the limits of Alabama, the warriors danced around the 
 
 . * Hawkins' Sketch of the Creek Country, pp, 75-78. 
 ' -f" Adair's American Indians, p. y7. 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GBOEGIA, MISSISSIPPI, 105- 
 
 holy fire, during which the elder Priest invoked the Great Spirit, 
 while the others responded Halelu! Halelu! then HaUluiah! 
 Haleluyah! He is ingenious in his arguments, and introduces 
 many strange things to prove, to his own satisfaction, that the 
 Indians were descendants of the Jews — seeking, throughout two 
 hundred pages, to assimilate their language, manners and cus- 
 toms. He formed his belief that they were originally the same 
 people, upon their division into tribes, worship of Jehovah, no- 
 tions of a theocracy, belief in the ministration of angels, language 
 and dialects, manner of computing time, their Prophets 
 and High Pi-iests, festivals, fasts and religious rites, 1740 
 daily sacrifices, ablutions and anointings, laws of un- 
 cleanliness, abstinence from unclean things, marriages, divorces, 
 and punishments for adultery, other punishments, their towns of 
 refuge, purification and ceremony preparatory to war, their orna- 
 ments, manner of curing the sick, burial of, the dead, mourning 
 for the dead,~raising seed to a deceased brother, choice of names 
 adapted to their circumstances and times, their own traditions, 
 and the accounts of our English writers, and the testimony 
 which the Spanish and other authors have given concerning the 
 primitive inhabitants of Peru and Mexico. 
 
 He insists that in nothing do they differ from the Jews except 
 in the rite of circumcision, which, he contends, their ancestors 
 dispensed with, after they became lost from the other tribes, on 
 account of the danger and inconvenience of the execution of that 
 rite, to those engaged in a hunting and roving life. That 
 when the Israelites were forty years in the wilderness, 1740 
 even then they attempted to dispense with circumci- 
 sion, but Joshua, by his stern authority, enforced its Observance. 
 The difference in food, mode of living and climate are relied upon 
 by Adair, to account for the difference in the color, between the 
 Jew and Indian, and also why the one has hair upon the body in 
 profusion and the other has not.* 
 
 * Adair's American Indians, pp. r6-i!20. 
 
106 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Adair is by no means alone in his opinion of the descent of 
 the American Indians. Other writers, who have lived among 
 these people, have arrived at the same conclusion. Many of the 
 old Indian countrymen with whom we have conversed believe in 
 their Jewish origin, while others are of a different opinion. 
 Abram Mordecai, an intelligent Jew, who dwelt fifty years in the 
 Creek nation, confidently believed that the Indians were origi- 
 nally of his people,, and he asserted that in their "Green Corn 
 Dances he had heard them often utter in grateful tones the-word 
 yavoyaha! yavoyaha! He was always informed by the Indians 
 that this meant Jehovah, or the Great Spirit, and that they were 
 then returning thanks for the abundant harvest with which they 
 were blessed.* 
 
 Colonel Hawkins concludes his account of the religious and 
 war ceremonies of the Creek Indians as follows : 
 
 " At the age of ^om fifteen to seventeen, the ceremony of 
 initiating youth to manhood is performed. It is called the Booske- 
 tau, in like manner as the annual BooSketau of the nation. A 
 youth of the proper age gathers two handfuls of the 
 1798 Sou-watch-cau, a very bitter root, which he eats a whole 
 day. Then he steeps the leaves in water and drinks it. 
 In the dusk of the evening he eats two or three spoonfuls of 
 boiled grits. This is repeated for four days, and during this time 
 he remains in a house. The Sou-watch-cau has the effect of m- 
 toxicating and maddening. The fourth day he goes out, but must 
 put on a pair of new moccasins (stillapicas). For twelve moons 
 he abstains from eating bucks, except old ones, and from turkey 
 cocks, fowls, peas and salt. During this period he must not pick 
 his ears or scratch his head with his fingers, but use a small 
 stick. For four moons he must have a tire to himself to cook his 
 food, and a little girl, a virgin, may cook for him. His food is 
 
 • Conversations with Abram Mordecai, a man of ninety-two years of age, whom I 
 found in Dudleyville, Tallapoosa county, in the fall of 1847. His mind was fresh in the 
 recollection of early incidents. Of ■ him I shall have occasion to speak in another por- 
 tion of the work. 
 
MODBEN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEOEGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 107 
 
 boiled grits. The fifth moon any person may cook for him, but 
 he must serve himself first, and use one pan and spoon. Every 
 new moon he drinks for four days thepossau (button snakeroot), 
 an emetic, and abstains for three days from all food, except in 
 the evening a little boiled grits (humpetuh hutke). The twelfth 
 moon he performs, for four days, what he commenced with on 
 the first. The fifth day he comes out of his house, gathers corn 
 cobs, burns them to ashes, and with these rubs his body 
 all over. At the end of this moon he sweats under 1798 
 blankets, then goes into water, and thus ends the cer- 
 emony. This ceremony is sometimes extended to four, six or 
 eight moons, or even to twelve days only, but the course is the 
 same. 
 
 " During the whole of this ceremony the physic is adminis- 
 tered by the Is-te-puc-cau-chau-thlucco (Great Leader), who, in 
 speaking of the youth under initiation says, ' I am physicing 
 him '— (Boo-se-ji-jite saut li-to mise-cha). Or 'I am teaching 
 him all that it is proper for him to know'-^(nauk o-mul-gau. e-muc- 
 e-thli-jite saut litomise cha). The youth during this initiation 
 does not touch any one except young persons, who are under a 
 like course with himself. And if he dreams, he drinks the 
 possau." * 
 
 Whenever Creeks were forced to take up arms, the Tuste- 
 nuggee caused to be displayed in the public places a club; part of 
 which was painted red. He sent it to each subordinate Chief, 
 accompanied with a number of pieces of wood, equal to the num- 
 ber of days that it would take that Chief to present himself at 
 the rendezvous. The War Chief alone had the power of 
 appointing that day. When this club had arrived, each 1778 
 Chief caused a drum to be beat before the grand cabin 
 where he resided. All the inhabitants immediately presented 
 themselves. He informed them of the day and place where he 
 intended to kindle his fire. He repaired to that place before the 
 
 * Hawkins', pp. 78-79. 
 
108 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 appointed day, and rubbed two sticks together, which produced 
 fire. He kindled it in the midst of a square, formed by four 
 posts, sufiBiciently extended to contain the number of warriors he 
 desired to assemble. As soon as the day dawned, the Chief 
 placed himself between the two posts which fronted the east, and 
 held in his ^and a package of small sticks. When a warrior en- 
 tered the enclosure, which was open only on one side, he threw 
 down a stick and continued until they were all gone, the number 
 of sticks being equal to the number of warriors he required. 
 Those who presented themselves afterwards could not be admit- 
 ted, and they returned home to hunt, indicating the place where 
 they could be found if their services should be needed. 
 1778 Those who thus tardily presented themselves were 
 badly received at home, and were reproached for the 
 slight desire they had testified to defend their country. 
 
 The warriors who were in the inclosure remained there, and 
 for three days took the medicine of war. Their wives brought 
 them their arms, and all things requisite for the campaign, and 
 deposited them three hundred yards in front of the square, to- 
 gether with a little bag of parched corn-meal, an ounce 
 1778 of which would make a pint of broth.* It was only nec- 
 essary to mix it with water, and in five minutes it be- 
 came as thick as soup cooked by a fire. Two ounces would sus- 
 tain a man twenty-four hours. It was indispensable, for, during 
 a war expedition, the party could not kill game. 
 
 The three days of medicine having expired, the Chief de- 
 parted with his warriors to the rendezvous appointed by the 
 Grand Chief. Independently of this medicine, which was taken 
 by all, each subordinate Chief had his particular talisman, which 
 he carefully carried about his person. It consisted of a small 
 bag, in which were a few stones and some pieces of cloth which 
 had been taken from the garments of the Grand Chief, in the re- 
 turn from some former war. If the subordinate Chief forgot his 
 
 * Called by the modern Creek traders "coal flour. " 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 109 
 
 bag he was deprived of his rank, and remained a com- 
 mon soldier during the whole expedition. The Grand 1778 
 Chief presented himself at the rendezvous on the ap- 
 pointed day, and he was sure to find there the assembled war- 
 riors. He then placed himself at the head of the army, making 
 all necessary arrangements, without being obliged to rendezvous 
 on account of any one. Being certain that his discipline and or- 
 ders would be punctually enforced, he marched with confidence 
 against the enemy. When they were ready to mtiroh, each sub- 
 ordinate Chief was compelled to be provided with the liquor 
 which they called medicine of war; and the Creeks placed in it 
 such a degree of confidence that it was difficult for a War Chief 
 to collect his army if they were deprived of it. He would be ex- 
 posed to great danger if he should be forced to do battle without 
 having satisfied this necessity. If he should suffer defeat, which 
 would certainly be the case, because the warriors would have no 
 confidence in themselves, but be overcome by their own supersti- 
 tious fears, he would be responsible for all misfortunes. 
 
 There were two medicines, the great and the little, and it re- 
 mained for the Chief to designate which of these should be used. 
 The warrior, when he had partaken of the great medicine, be- 
 lieved himself invulnerable. The little medicine served, in his 
 eyes, to diminish danger. Full of confidence in the statements 
 of his Chief, the latter easily persuaded him that when he gave hitn 
 only the little medicine it was because the circumstances did not 
 require the other. These medicines being purgative in their na- 
 ture, the warrior found himself less endangered by the wounds 
 which he might receive. The Creeks had still another means of 
 diminishing the danger of their wounds, which consisted infight- 
 ing almost naked, for it is well known that particles of cloth re- 
 maining in wounds render them more difficult to heal. They 
 observed during war the most rigorous discipline, for 
 they neither eat nor drank without an order from the 1778 
 Chief. They dispensed with drinking, even while passing 
 
no HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 along the bank of a river, because circumstances had obliged their 
 Chief to forbid it, under pain of depriving them of their medicine 
 of war, or, rather, of the influence of their talisman. When an 
 enemy compelled them to take up arms they never returned 
 home without giving him battle, and at least taking a few scalps. 
 These may be compared to the colors among civilized troops, 
 for when a warrior had killed an enemy he took his scalp, which 
 was an honorable trophy for him to return with to his nation. They 
 removed them from the head of an enemy with great skill and dex- 
 terity. They were not all of the same value, but were classed, 
 and it was for the Chiefs, who were the judges of all achievements, 
 to decide the value of each. It was in proportion to the num- 
 ber and value of these scalps that a Creek advanced in civil as 
 well as military rank. It was necessary, in order to occupy a 
 station of any importance, to have taken at least seven of them. 
 If a young Creek, having been at war, returned without a single 
 scalp, he continued to bear the name of his mother, and could not 
 marry, but if he returned with a scalp, the principle men assem- 
 bled at the grand cabin, to give him a name, that he might aban- 
 don that of his mother. They judged of the value of the scalp 
 by the dangers experienced in capturing it, and the greater these 
 dangers, the more considerable were the title and advancement 
 derived from it, by its owner. 
 
 In time of battle, the Great Chief commonly placed himself 
 in the centre of the army, and sent reinforcements wherever dan- 
 ger appeared most pressing. • When he perceived that his forces 
 were repulsed and feared that they would yield entirely to the 
 efforts of the enemy, he advanced in person, and com- 
 1778 bated hand to hand. A cry, repeated on all sides, in- 
 formed the warriors of the danger to which a Chief was 
 exposed. Immediately the corps de reserve came together, and 
 advanced to the spot where the Grand Chief was, in order to force 
 the enemy to abandon him. Should he be dead, they would all 
 die rather than abandon his body to the enemy, without first se- 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GBOKGIA, MISSISSIPPI. Ill 
 
 curing his scalp. They attached such value to this relic, and so 
 much disgrace to the loss of it, that when the danger was very 
 great, and they were not able to prevent his body from falling 
 into the hands of the enemy, the warrior who was nearest to the 
 dead Chief, took his scalp and fled, at the same time raising a cry, 
 known only among the savages. He then went to the spot which 
 the deceased Chief had indicated, as the place of rendezvous, 
 should his army be beaten. All the subordinate Chiefs, being 
 made aware of his death by this cry, made dispositions to retreat ; 
 and, this being effected, they proceeded to the election of his suc- 
 cessor, before taking any other measures. The Creeks were 
 very warlike, and were not rebuffed by defeat. On the morrow, 
 after an unfortunate battle, they advanced with renewed intre- 
 pidity, to encounter their enemy anew. 
 
 When they advanced towards an enemy, they marched one 
 after another, the Chief of the party being at the head. They 
 arranged themselves in such a manner as to place the foot of 
 every one in the track made by the first. The last one concealed 
 ■even that track with grass. By this means they kept 
 from the enemy any knowledge of their number. When 1778 
 they made a halt, for the purpose of encamping, they 
 formed in a circle, leaving a passage only large enough to admit 
 a single man. They sat cross-legged, and each one had his gun 
 by his side. The Chief faced the entrance of the circle, and no 
 warrior could go out without his permission. At the time of 
 sleeping he gave a signal, and after that no person could stir. 
 Rising was performed at the same signal. It was ordinarily the 
 •Grand Chief who marked out positions, and placed sentinels to 
 watch for the security of the army. He always had a great num- 
 ber of runners, both before and behind, so that an army was 
 rarely surprised. They, on the contrary, conducted wars against 
 the Europeans entirely by suddeU attacks, and they were very 
 •dangerous to those who were not aware of them.* 
 
 * Sejourdans la nation Creek, par Le Clero Mllfort.pp. 240, 252,218, 219. 
 
112 HISTORY OF ALABAMA.. 
 
 When the Creeks returned from war with captives, they 
 marched into their town with shouts and the firing of guns. 
 They stripped them naked and put on their feet bear-skin moc- 
 casins, with the hair exposed. The punishment was always left 
 to the women, who examined their bodies for their war-marks. 
 Sometimes the young warriors, who had none of these honorable 
 inscriptions, were released and used as slaves. But the warrior 
 of middle age, even those of advanced years, suffered death by 
 fire. The victim's arms were pinioned, and one end of a strong 
 grape vine tied around his neck, while the other was fastened to 
 the top of a war-pole, so as to allow him to track around a circle 
 of fifteen yards. To secure his scalp against fire, tough clay was 
 placed upon his head. The immense throng of spectators were 
 now filled with delight, and eager to witness the inhuman spec- 
 tacle. The suffering warrior was not dismayed, but, with a 
 manly and insulting voice, sang the war-song. The women then 
 made a furious onset with flaming torches, dripping with hot, 
 black pitch, and applied them to his back and all parts of his 
 -body. Suffering excruciating pain, he rushed from the pole with 
 the fury of a wild beast, kicking, biting and trampling his cruel 
 assailants under foot. But fresh numbers came on, and after a 
 long time, and when he was nearly burned to his vitals, they 
 ceased and poured water upon him to relieve him — only to pro- 
 long their sport. They renewed their tortures, when, with 
 champing teeth and sparkling eye-balls, he once more broke 
 through the demon throng to the extent of his rope, and acted 
 every part that the deepest desperation could prompt. Then he 
 died. His head was scalped, his body quartered, and the limbs 
 carried over the town in triumph.* 
 
 An enumeration of the towns found in the Creek 
 1798 nation by Col. Hawkins, in 1798, will conclude the no- 
 tice of the manners and customs of these remarkable 
 
 * Adair, pp. 390-391. 
 
MODBEN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 113 
 
 people, though, hereafter, they will often be mentioned, in refer- 
 ence to their commerce and wars with the Americans. 
 
 TOWNS AMONG THE UPPEE CEEEKS. 
 
 Tal-e-se, derived from Tal-o-fau, a town, and e-se, taken — sit- 
 uated in the fork of the Eufaube, upon the left bank of the Tal- 
 lapooosa. 
 
 Took-a-batcha, opposite Tallese. 
 
 Auttose, on the left side of Tallapoosa, a few miles below the 
 latter. 
 
 Ho-ith-le-waule — from h-ith-le, war, and waule, divide — right 
 bank of the Tallapoosa, five miles below Auttose, 
 
 Foosce-hat-che — fooso-wau, a bird, and hat-che, tail — two 
 miles below the latter, on the right bank. 
 
 Coo-loo-me was below and adjoining the latter. 
 
 E-cun-hut-ke — e-cun-nau, earth, and hut-ke, white — below 
 Coo-16o-me, on the same side of the Tallapoosa. 
 
 Sou- van-no-gee, left bank of the river. 
 
 Mook-lau-sau, a mile below the latter, same side. 
 
 Coo-sau-dee, three miles below the confluence of the Coosa 
 and' Tallapoosa, on the west bank of the Alabama. 
 
 E-cun-chate — e-cun-na, earth, chate, red — (now a 1798 
 part of the city of Montgomery). 
 
 Too-was-sau, three miles below, same side of the Alabama. 
 
 Pau-woe-te, two miles below the latter, on the same side. 
 
 Au-tau-gee, right side of the Alabama, near the mouth of the 
 creek of the same name. 
 
 Tus-ke-gee — in the fork of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, on the 
 east bank of the former — the old site of forts Toulouse and 
 Jackson. 
 
 Hoochoice and Hookchoie-ooche, towns just above the latter. 
 
 0-che-a-po-fau — o-che-ub, hickory tree, and po-fau, in or 
 among — east bank of the Coosa, on the plain just below the city 
 of Wetumpka. 
 
 — 8 
 
114 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 We-wo-cau — we-wau, water, wo-cau, harking or roaring — on 
 a creek of that name, fifteen miles above the latter. 
 
 Puc-cun-tal-lau-has-see — epuc-cun-nau, may-apple, tal-lau- 
 has-see, old town — in the forli of a creek of that name. 
 
 Coo-sau, on the left bank of that river, between the mouths 
 of Eufaule and Nauche (creeks now called Talladega and Kia- 
 mulgee). 
 
 Au-be-cho-che, on Nauche creek, five miles from the Coosa. 
 
 Nau-che, on same creek, five miles above the latter. 
 
 Eu-fau-lau-hat-che, fifteen miles still higher up on the same 
 creek. 
 
 Woc-co-coie— woc-co, blow horn, coie, a nest — on Tote-pauf- 
 cau creek. 
 
 Hill-au-bee, on col-lu£fa-creek, which joins Hillaubee creek 
 on the right side, one mile below the town. 
 
 Thla-noo-che-au-bau-lau — thlen-ne, mountain, ooche, little, 
 au-bau-lau, over — on a branch of the Hillaubee. 
 1798 Au-net-te-chap-c6 — au-net-te, swamp, chap-co, ^ow^— 
 
 on a branch of the Hillaubee. 
 
 E-ohuse-is-li-gau, where a young thing was found (a child 
 was found here) — left side of Hillaubee creek. 
 
 Oak-tau-hau-zau-see— oak-tau-hau, sand, zau-see, great dea — 
 on a creek of that name, a branch of the Hillaubee. 
 ] 778 Oo-f us-kee — oc, in, fus-kee, a point, right bank of 
 
 the Tallapoosa. 
 
 New-yau-cau, named after New York, when Gen. McGillivray 
 returned from there in 1790, twenty miles above the latter, on 
 the left side of the Tallapoosa. 
 
 Took-au-batche-tal-lau-has-se, four miles above the latter, 
 right side of the river. 
 
 Im-mook-fau, a gorget made of a conch, on the creek of that 
 name. 
 
 Too-to-cau-gee — too-to, corn-house, cau-gee, standing — twenty 
 miles above New-yau-cau, right bank of the Tallapoosa. 
 
MODERN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GB0B6IA, MISSISSIPPI. 115 
 
 Au-che-nau-ul-gau — auche-nau, cedar, ul-gau, all — forty 
 miles above New-yau-cau, on a creek. It is the farthest north of 
 all the Creek settlements. 
 
 E-pe-sau-gee, on a large creek of that name. 
 
 Sooc:he-ah^— sooc-cau, hog, he-ah, Aere^-right bank 1798 
 of the Tallapoosa, twelve. miles above Oc-fus-kee. 
 
 Eu-fau-lau, five miles above Oc-fus-kee, right bank of the 
 river. 
 
 Ki-a-li-jee, on the creek of that name, which joins the Talla- 
 poosa on the right side. 
 
 Au-che-nau-hat-che — au-che, cedar, hat-che, creek. 
 
 Hat-ehe-chub-bau — hat-che, creek, chub-bau, middle or half 
 way. ' 
 
 Sou-go-bat-che — sou-go, cymbal (musical instrument), hat- 
 che, cretk — joins the Tallapoosa on the left side. 
 
 Thlot-lo-gul-gau — thlot-lo, fish, gul-gau, all — called by trad- 
 ers '■'■Fish Ponds,^'' on a creek, a branch of the Ul-hau-hat-che. 
 
 0-pil-thluc-co — o-pil-lo-wau, swamp, thlucco, big — twenty 
 miles from the Coosa, a creek of that name; 
 
 Pin-e-hoo-te — pin-e-wau, turkey, choo-te, house — a branch of 
 the E-pee-sau-gee. 
 
 Po-chuse-hat-che — po-chu-so-wau, AaicAei, hat-che, creek — (in 
 Coosa county). 
 
 Ocrfus-coo-che, little ocfuskee, fouv miles above New-yau-cau. 
 
 TOWNS AMON& THE LOWEE CREEKS. 
 
 Chat-to-ho-che — chat-to, a stone, ho-che, marked ox flowered. 
 Such rocks are found in the bed of that river above Ho-ith-le-te- 
 gau. This is the origin and meaning of the name of that beauti- 
 ful river. 
 
 Cow-e-tough, on the right bank of the Cha,t-to-ho-che, three 
 miles below the falls. 
 
 ■ 0-cow-ocuh-hat-che,/a?^sc?'eeA, on the right side of the river 
 at the termination of the falls. 
 
16 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Hatche-oanane, crooked creek. 
 
 Woc-coo-che, calf creek. 
 
 O-sun-nup-pau, moss creek. 
 
 Hat-che-thlucco, big creek. 
 1798 Cow-e-tuh Tal-hau-has-se — Cowetuh Tal-lo-fau, a 
 
 town, basse, old — three miles below Cowetuh, on the 
 right bank of the Chattahopchie. 
 
 We-tum-cau — we-wau, water, tum-cau, rumbling — a main 
 branch of the TJchee creek. 
 
 Cus-se-tuh, live miles below Cow-e-tuh, on the left bank of 
 the Chattahoochie. 
 
 Au-put-tau-e, a village of Cussetuh, on Hat-ehe-thluc-co, 
 twenty miles from the river. 
 
 TJ-chee, on the right bank of the Chat-to-ho-che, ten miles 
 below Cowetuh Tallauhassee, and just below the mouth of the 
 Uchee creek. 
 
 In-tuch-cul-gau — in-tuch-ke, dam across water — ul-gau, all; 
 a TJchee village, on Opil-thlacco, twenty-eight miles from its junc- 
 tion with the Flint river. 
 
 Pad-gee-li-gau — pad-jee, a pigeon — li-gau, sit, pigeon roost — 
 on the right bank of Flint river (a Uchee village). 
 
 Toc-co-qul-egau, tadpole, on Kit-cho-foone creek (a Uchee 
 village). 
 
 Oose-oo-chee, two miles below Uchee, on the right bank of 
 the Chattahoochie. 
 
 Che-au-hau, below and adjoining the latter. 
 
 Au-muc-cul-le,/>OMr upon me, on a creek of that name, which 
 joins on the right side of the Flint. 
 
 0-tel-who-yaa-nau, hurricane town, on the right bank of the 
 Flint. 
 
 Hit-che-tee, on the left bank of the Chattahoochie, one mile 
 below Che-au-hau. 
 
 Che-au-hoo-chee, Little Cheauhaw, one mile and a half west 
 from Hit-che-tee. 
 
MODBKN INDIANS OF ALABAMA, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI. 117 
 
 Hit-che-too-che, Little Sitchetee, on both sides of the Flint. 
 
 Tut-tal-lo-see, foiol, on a creek of that name. 
 
 Pala-chooc-le, on the right bank of the Chatta- 
 hoochie. 1798 
 
 0-co-nee, six miles below the latter, on the left bank 
 of the Chattahoochie. 
 
 Sou-wdo-ge-lo, six miles below Oconee, on the right toank. 
 
 Sou-woog-e-loo-che, four miles below Oconee, on the left bank 
 of the Chattahoochie. 
 
 Eu-fau-la, fifteen miles below the latter, on the left bank of 
 the same river. 
 
 From this town settlements extended occasionally to the 
 mouth of the Flint.* 
 
 • Hawkins' " Sketch of the Creek Country in 1798-99," pp. 26-66. In addition to the 
 puhlished copy of this interesting pamphlet, sent to me hy I. K. Teilit, Esq., of Savan^ 
 nah, the Hon. F. W. Pickens, of South Carolina, loaned me a manuscript copy of the 
 same work, written by Col. Hawkins for his grandfather, Gen. Andrew Pickens, who 
 was an intimate friend of Hawkins, and was associated with him in several important 
 Indian treaties, and whose name will often he mentioned hereafter. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MoBiLiANS, Chatots, Thomez and Tensas. 
 
 In 1718, the French West India Company »sent, from Ro- 
 chelle, eight hundred colonists to Louisiana. Among them was 
 a Frenchnian of intelligence and high standing, named Le Page 
 Du Pratz, who was appointed superintendent of the public 
 plantations. After a residence of sixteen years in this country, 
 he returned to France, and published an interesting work upon 
 Louisiana. Du Pratz was often at Mobile, and about the , 
 period of 1721 found living, in that vicinity, a few small 1721 
 tribes of Indians, whom we will now describe. 
 
 The Chatots were a very small tribe, who composed a town 
 of about forty huts, adjoining the bay and river of Mobile. They 
 appear to have resided at or near the present city of Mobile. The 
 Chatots were great friends of the French settlers, and most of 
 them embraced the Catholic religion. North from Mobile, and 
 upon the first bluffs on the same side of the river of that name, 
 lived the Thomez, who were not more numerous than the 
 Chatots, and who, also, had been taught to worship the true God. 
 Opposite to them, upon the Tensa river, lived a tribe of Tensas, 
 whose settlement consisted of one hundred huts. They were a 
 branch of the Natchez, and, like them, kept a perpetual fire 
 burning in their temple. 
 
 Further north, and near the confluence of the Tombigby and 
 Alabama, and above there, the Mobilians still existed. It was 
 from these people, a remnant of whom survived the invasion of 
 De Soto, that the city, river and bay derive their names.* They, 
 also, kept a fire in their temple, which was never suffered for a 
 
 * Du Pratz's Louisiana, pp. 308-309. 
 
 / 118 
 
MOBILIANS, CHATOTS, THOMEZ AND TENSAS. 119 
 
 moment to expire. Indeed, they had some pre-eminence in this 
 particular — for, formerly, the natives obtained this holy light 
 from their temples.* These small tribes were all living 
 in j)eace with each other, upon the discovery of their 1721 
 country by the French, and continued so. Gradually, 
 however, they became merged in the larger nations of the Choc- 
 taws and Chickasaws. They were all, sometimes, called the Mo- 
 bile Indians, by the early French settlers. 
 
 The Natchez once inhabited the southwestern portion of the 
 Mexican empire, but on account of the wars with which they 
 were continually harassed by neighboring Indians, they began 
 to wander northeast. Finally they settled upon the banks of the 
 Mississippi, chiefly on the bluff where now stands the beautiful 
 city which bears their name.f. They retained, until they were 
 broken up by the French, many of the religious rites 
 and customs of the Mexicans. Their form of govern- 1721 
 ment was distinguished from that of other tribes in Ala- 
 bama and Mississippi, by its ultra despotism, and by the grandeur 
 and haughtiness of its Chiefs." The Grand Chief of the Natchez 
 bore the name of the Sun. Every morning, as soon as that 
 bright luminary appeared, he stood at the door his cabin, turned 
 his face toward the east, and bowed three time's, at the same time 
 prostrating himself to the ground. A pipe, which was never used 
 but upon this occasion, was then handed him, from which he 
 puffed smoke, first toward the Sun, and then toward the other 
 three quarters of the world. He pretended that he, derived his 
 origin from the Sun, acknowledged no other master, and held* 
 absolute power over the lives and goods of his subjects. When 
 he or his nearest female relation died, his body-guard was 
 obliged to follow to the land of spirits. The death of a Chief 
 sometimes resulted in that of an hundred persons, who consid- 
 ered it a great honor to be sacrificed upon his death. Indeed 
 few Natchez of note died without being attended to the other 
 
 • Cliarlevoix's " Voyage to North America," toI. 2, p. 273. t Du Pratz's Louisiana. 
 
120 HISTOKT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 world by some of their relatives, friends or servants. So eager 
 were persons to sacrifice themselves in this way, that 
 
 1721 sometimes it was ten years before their turn came, and 
 those who obtained the favor, spun the cord with which 
 they were to be strangled.* 
 
 The cabins of the Natchez were in the shape of pavilions, 
 low, without windows, and covered with corn-stalks, leaves and 
 cane matting. That of the Great Chief, which stood upon an 
 artificial mound, and fronted a large square, was handsomely 
 rough-cast with clay, both inside and out. The temple was at 
 the side of his cabin, facing the east, and at the extremity of the 
 square. It was in an oblong form, forty feet in length and 
 twenty in breadth. Within it were the bones of the deceased 
 Chiefs, contained in boxes and baskets, Three logs of wood, 
 joined, at the ends and placed in a triangle, occupied the middle 
 part of the floor, and burned slowly away, night and day. Keep- 
 ers attended and constantly removed them.f The Great Sun in- 
 formed Da Pratz, who had, in 1820, taken up his abode among 
 them, that their nation was once very formidable, extending over 
 vast regions and governed by numerous Suns and nobility; that 
 one of the keepers of the temple once left it on some business, and 
 while he was absent his associate keepers fell asleep; that the fire 
 went out, and that, in the terror and dismay into which 
 
 1721 they were thrown, they substituted profane fire, with the 
 hope that their shameful neglect would escape unno- 
 ticed. But a dreadful calamity was the consequence of this 
 negligence. A horrible malady raged for years, during which 
 many of the Suns, and an infinite number of people, died.J This 
 fli-e was kept constantly burning in honor of the Sun, which they' 
 seemed to worship and adore above everything else. In the spring 
 of 1700 Ibenville, in company with a few of his colonial people, 
 visited the Natchez. While there, one of the temples was con- 
 
 * Charlevoix's " Voyage to North America," pp. 260-261. 
 
 t Charlevoix's Voyage to North Amerlfca, p. 256. t Du Pratz' Louisiana, p. 
 
122 
 
 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 sumed by lightning. The Priests implored the women to cast 
 
 their children into the flames to appease the anger of 
 
 1700 their divinity. Before the French, by prayers and 
 
 entreaties, could arrest this horrible proceeding, some of 
 
 the innocent babes were already roasting in the flames.* At this 
 
 time the Natchez, reduced by war and the death of the nobility, 
 
 upon whose decease the existence of many others terminated, did 
 
 not exceed a population of twelve hundred. 
 
 Fort Rosalie, erected by the French in 1716, upon the bluff 
 which sustains the city of Natchez, had a garrison of 
 1729 soldiers and numerous citizens. On the morning of the 
 Nov. 28 28th November, 1729, the Great Sun and his warriors 
 suddenly fell upon thejn, and before noon the whole male 
 population were in the sleep of death. The women, children and 
 slaves were reserved as prisoners of war. The consternation was 
 great throughout the colony when this horrible massacre became 
 known. The French and Choctaws united, and drove the 
 Natchez upon the lower Washita, just below the mouth of the 
 Little River. Here they erected mounds and embank- 
 1733 ments for defense, which covered an area of four hun- 
 Jan. dred acres. In the meantime, having obtained assist- 
 ance from France, the colonists marched against this 
 stronghold, and, in January, 1733, made a successful attack. They 
 captured the Great Sun, several of the War Chiefs and four hun- 
 dred and twenty-seven of the tribe, who were sent from New 
 Orleans to St. Domingo as slaves. The remainder of the tribe 
 made their escape. Some of them sought asylum among the 
 Chickasaws and Creeks, while others scattered in the far West.f 
 
 * Gayarre's History of Louisiana, vol. 1, p. 73. 
 t The Natcliez have been mentioned at length by a number of French authors, who 
 were eye witnesses of their bloody rites and ceremonies. See BoSsu's Travels in Louis- 
 iana, vol. 1, pp. 32-67. Dumont's Louisiana, vul. l,pp. 118-132. Charlevoix's Voyage to 
 North America, vol. 2, pp. 252-274. Du Pratz's Louisiana, pp. 79-95-291-316. Les S'atchez 
 par M. Le Vicompte de Chateaubriand— of this work 400 pages are taken up with the 
 Natchez. Jesuits in America— a recent publication. Many other works in my posses- 
 sion, upon Louisiana and Florida, allude briefly to that tribe. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Choctaws and Chickasaws. 
 
 The Choctaws and Chickasaws descended from a people 
 called the Chickemicaws, who were among the first Jnhabit ants 
 of_the_Mexican empire. At an ancient period they began to 
 wander towards the^ast, in companywithTEeChoc-^ 
 comaws. After a time they reached the Mississippi Period 
 river and crossed it, arriving in this_country with an unknown 
 aggregate force of ten thousand war riors. The Choc- 
 comaws established themselves upon the head-waters' of the Ya- 
 zoo, the Cl^^ickasaws upon the northwestern sources of the Tom- 
 bigbee, and the Choctaws upon the territory now embraced in 
 southern Mississippi and southwestern Alabama. They thus 
 gradually became three distinct tribes ; but the Chickasaws and 
 Choccomaws were generally known by the name of the former, 
 while the Choctaws spoke the same language, with the exception 
 of a difference produced by the intonation of the voice.* 
 
 Upon the first settlement of Mobile by the French, they 
 found that the Choctaws and the remnant of the Mgbi- 
 lians employed the same language. Indeed, we have 1700 
 seen that the Mobilian Chief, in 1540, had a name which 
 was derived from two well-known Choctaw words — Tusca, war- 
 rior, and lusa, black. The Indians who fought De Soto at 
 Cabusto, upon the Warrior, and who extended their lines 
 six miles up and down its western banks to oppose his 1540 
 srossing, were the Paf allay as. They are believed to 
 have been no other peopleTEan"the Choctaws. There is a word 
 
 * Adair's American Indians, pp. 6, 66, 352. 
 
 123 
 
124 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 in the language of the latter called fallaya, long.* It is scarcely 
 
 necessary to remind the feader that the Chickasaws 
 1641 were living in the upper part of Mississippi when De 
 
 Soto invaded it, and that they fought him with great 
 courage. Now, as the Chootaws, according to tradition, came 
 with them into this country, and were a portion of the same 
 family, it is reasonable to suppose that the Pafallayas, the brave 
 allies of Tuscaloosa, were the Choctaws — especially when taken 
 in connection- with the collateral evidence in our possession. The 
 tradition of the migration of the Chickasaws and 
 Period Choctaws from the Mexican empire has been pre- 
 unknown served by the former alone ; while the latter, with 
 few exceptions, have lost it. On the road leading 
 from St. Stephens, in Alabama, to the city of Jackson, Missis- 
 sippi, was, some years ago, a large mound, embracing at the base 
 about two acres, and rising about forty feet high in a conical 
 form, and enclosed by a ditch encompassing twenty acres. On 
 the top of it was a deep hole, ten feet in circumference, out of 
 which the ignorant portion of the Choctaws believed that their 
 ancestors once sprung as thick as bees, peopling the, whole of 
 that part of the country. They had great regard for this arti- 
 ficial elevation, and called it Nannawyah, the signification of 
 which is r\axma,'hill, and wyah, mother. When hunting near this 
 mound they were accustomed to throw into the hole the leg of a 
 deer, thus feeding their mother. One day, in 1810, Mr. Geo. S. 
 
 Gaines, the United States (Jhoctaw Factor, in going to 
 1810 the Agency, roae up on this mound, which lay near the 
 
 road. Presently a good many warriors passed by, and, 
 after he had satisfied his curiosity, he rode on and overtook 
 them. The Chief, who was no less a personage than the cele- 
 brated Pushmatahaw, with a smile full of meaning and mischief, 
 said : « Well, Mr. ' Gainis,' I suppose you have been to pay our 
 
 • Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society, vol. 2, p. 105. (A Daner read 
 before tlie society by Albert Gallatin.) ^ paijoi icau 
 
THE CHOCTAWS AND CHICKASAWS. 125 
 
 mother a visit; and what did she say ?" "Your mother," said the 
 Factor, "observed that her children were poor, had become too 
 numerous to inhabit the country they were then occupying, and 
 desired very much that they would sell their lands to the United 
 States, and move west of the Mississippi, to better and more ex- 
 tensive hunting grounds."* The old Chief laughed immoderately, 
 vociferating, " Holauba ! holauba! feenah. (It's a lie, it^s a lie, 
 it's a real lie.) Our good mother never could have 
 made such remarks." On the journey he conversed 1810 
 much with Mr. Gaines upon the Indian traditions, and 
 said that the true account- Was that his ancestors came from the 
 west.f 
 
 In 1771, the population of the Choctaw nation was consid- 
 erable. Two thousand three hundred warriors were upon the 
 superintendent's books at Mobile, while two thousand 
 more were scattered over the country, engaged in hunt- 1771 
 ing. At that period Capt. Roman passed through sev- 
 enty of their towns. t The eastern district of the nation was 
 known as Oy-pat-oo-coo-la, or the small nation. The western 
 was called Oo-coo-la, Falaya. Oo-coola, Hanete and Chickasaha. 
 
 These people were more slender in their forms than other 
 tribes. The men were raw-boned and astonishingly active. 
 None could excel them in the ball play, or run as fast 
 upon level ground. § Both sexes were well made, and 1745 
 the features of the females were lively and agreeable. 
 They had the habit of inscribing their faces and bodies with a 
 blue indelible ink, which appears to have been the practice of 
 all the tribes to which it has been our province to allude. The 
 Choctaws formed the heads of the infants into different shapes 
 by compression, but it was chiefly applied to the forehead, and 
 hence they were called by traders « flat heads." The infant was 
 
 * It ivas the policy of all tlie Indian Agents to encourage the emigration of the 
 Indians further west, and they never let an opportunity slip of alluding to it. 
 
 t Conversations with Mr. George S. Gaines See, also, Barnard Roman's Florida, 
 pp. 71-90. X Roman, pp. 70-90. § Adair. 
 
126 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 placed in a cradle, with his feet elevated twelve inches above a 
 horizontal position, while his head was bent back and rested in a 
 hole made for the purpose. A small bag of sand was fixed upon 
 the forehead, and as the little fellow could not move, the shape 
 required was soon attained, for at that age the skull is capable of 
 receiving any impression.* 
 1745 The dress of the male Choctaw was similar to that 
 
 of the Creeks, and was influenced in its style by his 
 wealth or poverty. But they all wore the buck-she-ah-ma, flap, 
 made of woolen cloth or buckskin. The female had usually only 
 a petticoat reaching from the waist to the knees, while some 
 of the richer classes wore a covering also upon the neck and 
 shoulder, and little bells fastened to a buckskin garter, which 
 clasped the leg just below the knee. They wore ornaments in 
 their ears, noses and around the fingers, like the Creeks. 
 1759 They were not cleanly in their persons like the Creeks, 
 who were eternally engaged in bathing ; but, strange to 
 relate of Indians, very few of the Choctaws could swim, a fact 
 recorded by all early travellers among them. As they seldom 
 bathed,, the smoke of their lightwood fires made their bodies as- 
 sume a soot color.f Peculiarly fond of the taste of horse flesh, 
 they preferred it to beef, even if the animal had died a 
 1780 natural death ; and it was not uncommon for them to de- 
 vour snakes when hard pressed for food.t^ Yet, notwith- 
 standing, they were, upon the whole, very agreeable Indians, being 
 invariably cheerful, witty and cunning. The men, too, unlike the 
 proud Chiefs of other nations, helped the women to work, and 
 did not consider it a degradation to hire themselves for that pur- 
 pose to their constant friends, the French, and afterwards to the 
 English. § No Indians, moreover, excelled them in hos- 
 1771 pitality, which they exhibited particularly in their 
 hunting camps, where all travelers and visitors were 
 
 • Adair, pp. 8-9. t Bossu's Travels, p. 298. 
 
 } Milfort, p. 290; Adair, p. 133. \ Roman, pp. 71-90. 
 
THE CHOCTAWS AND CHICKASAWS. 127 
 
 received and entertained with a hearty welcome. In regard to 
 their habits in the chase, it may here be observed, that they ex- 
 ■celled in killing bears, wild-cats and panthers, pursuing them 
 through the immense cane swamps with which their country 
 abounded ; but that the Creeks and Chickasaws were superior to 
 them in overcoming the fleet deer. While hunting, the liver of 
 the game was divided into as many pieces as there were camp- 
 flres, and was carried around by a boy, who threw a piece into 
 €ach fire, intended, it would seem, as a kind of. sacrifice. 
 
 The Choctaws were superior orators. They spoke with good 
 Aense, and used the most beautiful metaphors. They had the 
 power of changing the same words into different significations, 
 and even their common speech was full of these changes. 
 Their orations were concise, strong and full of fire.* 1745 
 Excessive debauchery, and a constant practice of beg- ' 
 ging, constituted their most glaring faults ; and it was amusing 
 to witness the many ingenious devices and shifts to which they 
 resorted to obtain presents. 
 
 Timid in war against an enemy abroad, they fought like des- 
 perate veterans when attacked at home. On account of their re- 
 pugnance to invading the country of an enemy, in which they 
 were unlike the Creeks and Chickasaws, they were often taunted 
 by these latter nations with cowardice. Frequently, ex- 
 asperated by these aspersions, they would boldly chal- 1745 
 lenge the calumniators to mortal combat upon an open 
 field. But the latter, feigning to believe that true Indian cour- 
 age consisted in slyness and stratagem, rarely accepted the ban- 
 ter. However, in 1765, an opportunity offered in the streets of 
 Mobile, when Hoopa, at the head of forty Choctaws, fell 
 •upon three hundred Creeks, and routed and drove them 1765 
 across the river, into the marsh. Hooma alone killed 
 fifteen of them, and was then despatched himself, by a retreating 
 Creek. They were pursued no further, because the Choctaws 
 •could not swim. 
 
 * Adair, p. 11. 
 
128 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 They did not torture a prisoner, in a protracted manner, like 
 other tribes. He was brought home, despatched with a bullet or 
 hatchet, and cut up, and the parts burned. The scalp was sus- 
 pended from the hot- house, around which the women danced until 
 they were tired. They were more to be relied upon as allies 
 than most other American Indians. The Creeks were 
 1765 their greatest enemies. In August, 1765, a war began 
 Aug. between them, and raged severely for six years.* Art- 
 ful in deceiving an enemy, they attached the paws or 
 trotters of panthers, bears and buffaloes to their own feet and 
 hands, and wound about the woods, imitating the circlings of 
 those animals. Sometimes a large bush was carried by the front 
 warrior, concealing himself and those behind him, while the one 
 in the extreme rear defaced all the tracKs with grass. Most excel- 
 lent trackers themselves, they well understood how to deceive 
 the enemy, which they, also, effected by astonishing powers in 
 imitating every fowl and quadruped. Their leader could never 
 directly assume the command, but had, rather, to conduct his 
 operations by persuasion.f 
 
 Gambling was a common vice, and even boys engaged in it 
 by shooting at marks for a wager. In addition to the great ball 
 play, which was conducted like that of the Creeks, already de- 
 scribed, they had an exciting game called Chunke, or, 
 1745 by some of the traders "running hard labor." Anal- 
 ley was made, two hundred feet long, with a hard clay 
 surface, which was kept swept clean. Two men entered upon it 
 to play. They stood six yards from the upper end, each with a 
 pole twelve feet long, smooth, and tapering at the end, and with 
 the. points flat. One of them took a stone in the shape of a 
 grind-stone, which was two spans round, and two inches thick on 
 the edges. He gave it a powerful hurl down the alley, when both 
 set off after it, and running a few yards, the one who did not roll, 
 cast his pole, which was annointed with bear's oil, with a true 
 
 * Roman, pp. 70-91. t Adair, p. 309— Bossn, p. 297. 
 
THE CHOCTAWS AND CHICKASAWS. 129 
 
 aim at the stone in its flight. The other player, to defeat his ob- 
 ject, immediately darted his pole, aiming to hit the pole of his an- 
 tagonist. If the first one hit the stone he counted one, and if the 
 other, by the dexterity of his cast, hit his pole and knocked it 
 from its proper direction, he also counted one. If both of the 
 players missed, the throw was renewed. Eleven was 
 the game, and the winner had the privilege of casting 1771 
 the stone. In this' manner the greater part of the day 1745 
 was passed, at half speed ; the players and bystanders 1759 
 staking their ornaments, wearing apparel, skins, pipes 
 and arms upon the result. Sometimes, after a fellow had lost all, 
 he went home, borrowed a gun, and shot himself. The women, 
 alsOj had a game with sticks and balls, something like the game 
 of battledoor.* 
 
 The funeral ceremonies of the Choctaws were singular, and, in- 
 deed, horrible, but like those of nearly all the aborigines at the time 
 of the invasion of De Soto. As soon as the breath departed from 
 the body of a Choctaw, a high scaffold was erected, thirty-six 
 feet from the dwelling where the deceased died. It consisted of 
 four forks set in the ground, across which poles were laid, and 
 then a floor made of boards or cypress bark. It was stockaded 
 with poles, to prevent the admission of beasts of prey. The 
 posts of the scaftold were painted with a mixture of vermilion and 
 bear's oil, if the deceased was an Indian of note. The body, 
 enveloped in a large bear skin, was hauled up on the scaft'old by 
 ropes or vines, and laid out at length. The relations assembled, 
 and wept and howled with mournful voices, 'asking 
 strange questions of the corpse, according to the sex to 1782 
 which it belonged. "Why did you leave us?" "Did 1771 
 your wife not serve you well?" "Were you not con- 1745 
 tented with your children ? " "Did you not have corn 1759 
 enough?" "Did not your land produce?" "Were 
 you afraid of your enemies?" To increase the solemnity and 
 
 * Koman,' pp. 70-91.— Adair, p. 402.— Bossn, p. 306. 
 
130 HISTORY or ALABAMA. 
 
 importance of the funeral of a noted Indian, persons were 
 hired to cry, the males having their heads hung with black moss, 
 and the females suffering their hair to flow loosely to the winds. 
 These women came at all hours, for several weeks, to mourn 
 around the scaffold ; and, on account of the horrid stench, fre- 
 quently fainted and had to be borne away. When the body had 
 thus lain for three or four months, the Bone-Pickeb made his 
 appearance. In 1772 there were five of these hideous undertak- 
 ers in the Choctaw nation, who traveled about in search of 
 scaffolds and the horrible work which will be described. The 
 Bone-Picker apprised the relatives of the deceased that the time 
 had arrive'd when dissection should take place. Upon the day 
 which he had appointed^ the relatives, friends, and others hired 
 to assist in mourning, surrounded the scaffold. The 
 1745 Bone- Picker mounted upon it, with horrid grimaces and 
 1771 groans, took off the sliin, and commenced his disgust- 
 1782 ing work. He had very long and hard nails growing on 
 1777 the thumb, fore and middle fingers of each hand. He 
 tore off the flesh with his nails, and tied it up in a bun- 
 ■dle. He cleaned the bones, and also tied up the scrapings. Leav- 
 ing the latter on the scaffold, he descended with the bones upon his 
 ihead. All this time the assembly moaned and howled most 
 :awfully. They then painted the head with vermilion, which, to- 
 gether with all the bones, was placed in a nice box with a loose 
 lid. If the bones were those of a Chief, the cof&n also was painted 
 red. Next, fire was applied to the scaffold, around which the 
 assembly danced and frightfully whooped until it was consumed 
 by the flames. Then a long procession was formed and the bones 
 were carried, amid weeping and moaning, to the bone-house, of 
 which every town of importance had several. These houses were 
 made by four pitchpine posts being placed in the ground, upon 
 the top of which was a scaffold floor. On this a steep 
 1745 roof was erected, like that of some modern houses, with 
 1771 the gables left open. There the box was deposited with 
 
THE CHOCTAWS AND CHICKA8AWS. 131 
 
 other boxes containing bones. In the meantime a great 1782 
 feast had been prepared, and sometimes three horses were 1777 
 cooked up, if the deceased was wealthy. But the infer- 
 nal Bone-Picker still was master of ceremonies, and having only 
 wiped his filthy, bloody hands with grass, served out the food to 
 the whole assembly.* 
 
 When the bone-house was full of chests, a general interment 
 took place. The people assembled, bore ofE the chests in proces- 
 sion to a plain, with weeping, howling and ejaculations of Allelu- 
 jah ! Allelujah ! The chests containing the bones were arranged 
 upon the ground in order, forming a pyramid. Then they covered 
 all with earth, which raised a conical mound. Then returning 
 home, the day was concluded with a feast.f 
 
 The Choctaws entertained a great veneration for their medi- 
 cine men or doctors, who practiced upon them constant 
 frauds. Their fees were exorbitant, and required to be 1745 
 satisfied in advance. When a doctor had attended a 
 patient a long time, and the latter had nothing more to give as 
 payment, he usually assembled the relations in private, 
 informed them that he had done ull in his power, and 1771 
 had exhausted his skill in endeavoring to restore their 
 friend ; that he would surely die, and it was best to terminate his 
 sufferings. Reposing the blindest confidence in this in- 
 human declaration, two of them then jumped upon the 1777 
 poor fellow and strangled him. In 1782, one of these doc- 1782 
 tors thus began to consult with the relations upon the 
 case of a poor fellow. While they were out of the house, he sus- 
 pected their intentions, and making an unnatural effort, crawled 
 to the woods which fortunately were near the house. It was night, 
 and he succeeded in getting beyond their reach. , The doctor 
 persuaded them that he was certainly dead, and they erected a 
 scaffold as though he were upon it and wept around it. Fortun- 
 
 * Adair, pp. 138-188. Roman, pp. 71-90. Milfort, pp. 293-298. 
 t Bartram, pp. 514-515. 
 
132 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 ately, laying his hands upon an opossum, the poor fellow eat of 
 it from time to time, and gained strength, now that he had 
 escaped the clutches of the doctor, who had nearly smoked and 
 bled him into the other world. At length, after much suffering, he 
 made his way to the Creek nation and threw himself upon the 
 compassion of Colonel McGillivray, who had him restored to 
 health by proper attention. Again going back to his nation, at 
 the expiration of three months, he arrived at the house from 
 which he had escaped, at the very time that the people were 
 celebrating his funeral by burning the scaffold and dancing 
 around it. His sudden appearance filled them with horror and 
 dismay. Some iied to the woods, others fell upon the ground. 
 Alarmed himself, he retreated to the house of a neighbor, who 
 instantly fell on his face, saying, " Why have you left the land 
 of spirits if you were happy there ? "Why do you return among 
 us ? Is it to assist in the last feast which your family and your 
 friends make for you ? Go, return to the land of the dead for 
 fear of renewing the sorrow which they have felt at your loss ! " 
 Shunned by all his people, the poor Choctaw went 
 1782 back to the Creek nation, married a Tuskegee woman, 
 and lived in that town the balance of his life. Befoie 
 his door lay the four French cannon of old Fort Toulouse. When 
 the Choctaws had become satisfied that he did not die, and was 
 really alive, they killed the doctor who had deceived them. 
 They often entreated the fellow to return home, but he preferred 
 to remain among a people who would not strangle him when he 
 was sick.* 
 
 The Choctaws had no other religion than that which at- 
 tached to their funeral rites. The French, to whom they were 
 warmly attached, sought in vain to convert them to Christianity. 
 At Chickasaha, they erected a chapel and gave the control of it 
 to a Jesuit missionary. When the English took possession of 
 this country, the Chocktaws of that place would, for the amuse- 
 
 * Milfort, pp 298-304. 
 
THE CHOCTAWS AND CHICKASAWS. 133 
 
 ment of their new friends, enter the old chapel, and go through 
 the Catholic ceremonies, mimicing the priest with surprising 
 powers. In 1771, Oapt. Roman saw the lightwood cross still 
 standing, but the chapel had been destroyed. 
 
 The Chickasaws, although at the period of 1771 a small 
 nation, were once ndmerous, and their language was 
 spoken by many tribes in the Western States. They 1771 
 were the fiercest, most insolent, haughty and cruel peo- 
 ple among the Southern Indians. They had proved their bravery 
 and intrepidity in constant wars. In 1541, they attacked the 
 camp of De Soto in a most furious midnight assault, 
 threw his army into dismay, killed some of his soldiers, 1541 
 destroyed all his baggage, and burnt up the town in 
 which he was quartered. In 1736, they whipped the French 
 under Bienville, who had invaded" their country, and forced them 
 to retreat to Mobile. In 1753, MM. Bevist and Regio encoun- 
 tered defeat at their hands. They continually attacked 
 the boats of the French voyagers upon the Mississippi 1753 
 and Tennessee. They were constantly at war with the 
 Kickapoos and other tribes upon the Ohio, but were defeated in 
 most of these engagements. But, with the English as their 
 allies, they were eminently successful against the Choctaws and 
 Creeks, with whom they were often at variance. 
 
 The Chickasaws were great robbers, and, like the Creeks, 
 often invaded a country, killing the inhabitants and carrying off 
 slaves and plunder. The men considered the cultivation of the 
 earth beneath them ; and, when not engaged in hunting or war- 
 fare, slept away their time or played upon flutes, while their 
 women were at work. They were athletic, well-formed and 
 graceful. The women were cleanly, industrious, and generally 
 good-looking. 
 
 In 1771, they lived in the centre of a large and 1771 
 gently rolling prairie, three miles square. They ob- 
 tained their water from holes, which dried up in summer. In 
 
134 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 this prairie was an assemblage of houses one mile and a half 
 long, very narrow, and irregular, which was divided into seven 
 towns, as follows : 
 
 Mellattau — hat and feather. 
 
 Chatelau — copper town. 
 
 Chuckafalaya^^ow^ town. 
 
 Hickihaw — stand still. 
 
 Ghucalissa — great town. 
 
 Tuckahaw — a certain weed. 
 
 Ash-wick-boo-ma — red grass. 
 
 The last was once well fortified with palisades, and thei'e 
 they defeated D'Artaguette. The nearest running water was 
 two miles distant ; the next was four miles off, to which point 
 canoes could ascend from the Tombigby in high tide. The ford, 
 which often proved diiHcult of crossing, was called Na- 
 1771 hoola Inalchubba— <Ae white marHs hard labor. Horses 
 and cattle increased rapidly in this country. The breed 
 of the former descended from importations from Arabia to Spain, 
 from Spain to Mexico, and from thence to the Chickasaw nation. 
 Here they ran wild in immense droves, galloping over the beau- 
 tiful prairies, the sun glittering upon their various colors. They 
 were owned by the Indians and traders. 
 
 The Chickasaws were very imperious in their carriage to- 
 wards females, and extremely jealous of their wives. Like the 
 Creeks, they punished adultery by beating with poles 
 1771 until the sufferer was senseless, and then concluded by 
 cropping the ears, and; for the second offence, the nose 
 or a piece of the upper lip. Notwithstanding they resided so far 
 from large streams, they were all excellent swimmers, and their 
 children were taught that art in clay holes and pools, which re- 
 mained filled with water unless the summer was remarkably dry 
 
 Of all. the Indians in America, they were the most expert in 
 tracking. They would follow their fiying enemy on a long gallop 
 over any kind of ground without mistaking, where perhaps only 
 
THE CHOCTAWS AND CHICKASAWS. 13& 
 
 a blade of grass bent down told the footprint. Again, 
 when they were leisurely hunting over the woods, and 1782 > 
 came upon an indistinct trail recently made by Indians, 1745 
 they knew at once of what nation they were by the 1759 
 footprints, the hatchet chops upon the trees, their camp- 
 fires, and other distinguishing marks. They were also esteemed 
 to be admirable hunters, and their extensive plains and unbroken 
 forests afforded them the widest field for the display of their 
 skill. In 1771 their grounds extended from Middle Mississippi 
 to the mouth of the Ohio, and some distance into the territory of 
 the present State of Tennessee. But this extreme northern 
 ground they visited with caution, and only in the win- 
 ter, when their northern enemies were .close at home. 1745 
 They were often surprised on the sources of the Yazoo, 1782 
 but below there, and as far east as the branches of the 1759 
 Tombigby to Oaktibbehaw they hunted undisturbed. 
 This last point they regarded as the boundary between them 
 and the Choctaws. With the latter they had no jealousies in re- 
 gard to the chase, and they sported, upon each others' grounds 
 when not at war. Although the country of the Chickasaws 
 abounded with that valuable animal, the beaver, they left 
 them for the traders to capture, saying, "Anybody can 1771 
 kill a beaver." They pursued the more noble and diffi- 
 cult sport of overcoming the fleet deer, and the equally swift and 
 more formidable elk. 
 
 The summer habitations of the Chickasaws were cabins of 
 an oblong shape, near which were corn-houses. In-theyard stood 
 also a winter house of a circular form. Having no chimneys, the 
 smoke found its way out of this " hot-house " wherever it could. 
 These they entered and slept all night, stifled with 
 smoke, and, no matter how cold the morning, they came 1745 
 forth naked and sweating as soon as the day dawned. 
 These houses were used by the sick also, who, remaining in them 
 
136 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 until perspiration ensued, jumped suddenly into holes of cold 
 watef. 
 
 They dried and pounded their corn before it came to matur- 
 ity, which they called Boota-capassa — coal flour. A small quan- 
 tity of this thrown into water swelled immediately, and made a 
 
 fine beverage. They used hickory nut and bear's oil, 
 1771 and the traders learned them to make the hams of the 
 
 bear into bacon. In 1771 the whole number of gunmen 
 in the Chickasaw nation only amounted to about two hundred and 
 fifty. It is astonishing what a handful of warriors had so long kept 
 neighboring nations of great strength from destroying them. 
 
 They buried their dead the moment vitality ceased, in the 
 
 very spot where the bed stood upon which the deceased 
 1771 lay, and the nearest relatives mourned over it with woe- 
 ful lamentations. This mourning continued for twelve 
 moons, the women practising it openly and vociferously, and the 
 men silently.* 
 
 The modern reader may form some idea of the Chickasaw 
 and Choctaw nations, as they once existed, by briefiy tracing the 
 route of Captain Roman through their country. He began his 
 
 tour at Mobile, encamped at Spring Hill, passed the head 
 
 1771 waters of Dog river, and again encamped at Bouge 
 
 Sept. 20 Hooma — red creek — the boundary between the English 
 
 and the Choctaws. Pursuing his journey, the camp 
 was pitched at Hoopa Ulla — noisy owl — where he saw the Creek 
 
 painting described upon page 95. Then passing Okee 
 Sept. 30 \J\\'d,^-noisy water — and the towns of Coosa, Haanka 
 
 Ulla — howling goase — he crossed a branch of the Sook- 
 hain-Hatcha river. He reached a deserted town called Etuok 
 
 Chukke — blue wood — passed through Abecka, an inhab- 
 Oct. 5 ited town, and there crossed another branch of the Sook- 
 
 han-Hatcha, and arrived at Ebeetap Oocoola, where the 
 Choctaws had erected a large stockade fort. A southwestern di- 
 
 '' Barnaid Roman's Florida, pp. 5y-}l. 
 
THE OHOCTAWS AND CHICKASAWS. 137 
 
 rection was now assumed, and Captain Roman passed through 
 
 the following towns : Chooka, Hoola, Oka Hoola!, Hoola 
 
 Taft'a, Ebeetap Ocoola Cho, Oka Attakkala, and cross- Oct. 23 
 
 ing Bouge Fooka and Bouge Chitto, which runs into 
 
 Bouge Aithe Tanne, arrived at the house of Benjamin James, at 
 
 Chickasaha. 
 
 He set out from this place for the CHickasaw nation, and 
 crossed only two streams of importance — Nashooba and 
 Oktibbehaw. Without accident he arrived at the Chick- ]!7ov. 10 
 asaw towns enumerated upon page 134, and lying within 
 a few miles of Pontitoc. He proceeded east-by-south five miles 
 and crossed Xahoola-Inal-chubba — town creek — and then 
 assumed a southeast direction, and.arrived at the Twenty- Dec. 8 
 mile creek, a large branch of the 'Pombigby. At the 
 mouth of Nahoola-Inalchubba, Captain Roman found a large 
 canoe, in which he and his companions embarked and proceeded 
 down the Tombigby. One mile below, on the west bank, they 
 passed a bluff on which the French formerly had a for- 
 tified trading post. Captain Roman next saw the 1771 
 mouth-of the Oktibbehaw, the dividing line between Dec. 26 
 the two nations, and passed the mouth of the Nasheba, 1772 
 on the east. Floating with rapidity down the river, Jan. 5-7 
 he next came to the Noxshubby, on the west side, and 
 then to the mouth a creek called Etomba-Igaby — box maker's 
 creek — where the French had a fort.* From this creek, the 
 name of which has been corrupted by the French to "Tom- 
 beckbe," and by the Americans to " Tombigby," the river takes 
 its name. Upon it lived an Indian who made chests to hold the 
 bones of the Choctaws. 
 
 Roman came to the confluence of the Tombigby and War- 
 rior, and, a little below, passed some steep chalky bluffs, 
 which the traders called the Chickasaw Gallery, be- Jan. 10 
 cause from this point they were accustomed to shoot at 
 
 * Now Jones' Bluff. 
 
138 , HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 the French boats. On the top of this bluff was a vast plain, 
 with some remains of huts standing upon it.* Three miles be- 
 low the mouth of the Soukan-Hatcha, Roman came upon the old 
 towns of the Coosawdas and Oahchois, commencing at Sacta- 
 loosa — black hluff — and extending from thence down the river for 
 some distance-t Next, passing a high bluflf called Nanna Fal- 
 laya, he reached Batcha Chooka, a bluff on the east side, where 
 
 he encountered a desperate band of thieves, belonging 
 
 1772 to the town of Okaloosa, of the Choctaws. He then 
 
 Jan. 13 came to some bluffs called Nanna Chahaws, where a 
 
 gray flat rock, called Teeakhaily Ekutapa, rises out of 
 the water. Here the people of Chickasaha once had a settlement. 
 Lower down, the party saw a, bluff upon the east side, called 
 
 Yagna Hoolah — beloved ground — and encamped at the 
 
 1772 mouth of Sintabouge — snake creek- — three miles below 
 
 Jan. 20 which was the English line separating them from the 
 
 the Choctaws. Having entered the British settlements, 
 Captain Roman continued his voyage until he reached Mobile.t 
 
 * Now tlie site of Demopolis. 
 
 . t Some of the Alabamas living at the town of that name below the confluence of the 
 Coosa and Tallapoosa, and some Creeks of the town of Oakchoy, to he nearer the French, 
 who ivere their friends, moved upon the main Tombighy, and the deserted towns which 
 Roman mentions were those in which they had formerly lived. 
 t Roman's Florida. 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 The Chebokees. 
 
 It has been seen that De Soto passed over a portion of the 
 country of these Indians in the territory which embraces North- 
 ern Georgia. The name Cherokee is derived from Chera, fire ; 
 and the Prophets of this nation were called Cherataghge, 
 men of divine fire. 1 540 
 
 The first that we hear of the Cherokees, after the 
 Spanish invasion, is their connection with the early British set- 
 tlers of Virginia. A powerful and extensive nation, they even 
 had settlements upon the Appomattox, river, and were allied by 
 blood with the Powhattan tribe. The Virginians drove 
 them from that place, and they retreated to the head of 1623 
 the Holston river. Here, making temporary settle- 
 ments, the Northern Indians compelled them to retire to the 
 Little Tennessee river, where they established themselves per- 
 manently. About the same time, a large branch of the Chero- 
 kees came from the territory of South Carolina, near Charleston, 
 and formed towns upon the main Tennessee, extending as far as 
 the Muscle Shoals. They found all that region unoccupied, ex- 
 cept upon the Cumberland, where resided a roving band of 
 Shawnees. But the whole country bore evidence of once having 
 sustained a large Indian population. 
 
 Such is the origin of the first Cherokee settlements upon the 
 main Tennessee, but the great body of the nation appears to 
 have occupied Northern Georgia and Northwestern Carolina as 
 far back as the earliest discoveries can trace them. 
 
 But very little was known of these natives until the English 
 
140 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 formed colonies in the two Carolinas. They are first 
 1693 mentioned when some of their Chiefs complained that 
 
 the Savannas and Congerees attacked their extreme 
 eastern settlements, captured their people and sold them as 
 slaves in the town of Charleston. Two years afterwards, Gov- 
 ernor Archdale, of Carolina, arrested this practice, which 
 1712 induced the Cherokees to become friends of the English. 
 
 They joined the latter in a war against the Tuscaroras. 
 But three years afterwards they became allies of the Northern 
 Indians and once more fought their European friends. At length 
 
 Governor Nichalson concluded a peace with them, which 
 1730 was confirmed by Alexander Cummings, the British 
 
 General Superintendent of Indian Aft'airs. The Chero- 
 kees assisted the English in the capture of Fort Duquesne. 
 
 When returning home, however, they committed some 
 
 1758 depredations upon the settlers of Virginia, which were 
 
 Nov. 24 resented. This, together with the influence of French 
 
 emissaries, had the effect again to array them against 
 the people of Georgia and the Carolinas. Various expeditions 
 marched against them, and their country was finally invaded 
 
 with success, by Colonel Grant. Having sued for peace, 
 
 1761 articles of amity and alliance were signed at Long 
 
 Nov. 19 Island, upon the Holston. According to the traditions 
 
 preserved by Judge Haywood, who wrote the History of 
 Tennessee, the Cherokees originally came from the territory now 
 embraced by the Eastern States of the Union, in which ^hey 
 dift'er from the other tribes of whom it has been our province to 
 speak, all of whom came from the west. 
 
 When they began to be visited by the Carolina traders, their 
 nation was powerful and warlike, and was divided into two 
 parts. The Upper Cherokees lived upon the rivers Tellico, Great 
 and Little Tennessee, the Holston and French Broad. The Lower 
 Cherokees inhabited the country watered by the sources of the 
 Oconee, the Ockmulgee and the Savannah. The great Unaka or 
 
THE CHBKOKEES. 141 
 
 Smoky mountain lay between and divided the two sections.* 
 Their whole country was the most beautiful and romantic in the 
 known world. Their springs of delicious water gushed 
 out of every hill and mountain side. Their lovely rivers 1735 
 meandered, now smoothly and gently, through the most 
 fertile valleys, and then, with the precipitancy and fleetness of 
 the winds, rushed over cataracts and through mountain gaps. 
 The forests were full of game, the rivers abounded with fish, the 
 vales teemed with their various productions, and the mountains 
 with fruit, while the pure atmosphere consummated the 
 happiness of the blest Cherokees. 1700 
 
 About the period of 1700, the Cherokee nation con- 
 sisted of sixty-four towns. But the inhabitants of those situated 
 in the upper district, were continually engaged in wars with the 
 Northern Indians, while those below were harassed 
 by the Creeks. Then agam, the Cherokees had to en- 1738 
 counter, first, the French, and then the English. From 
 these causes, (added to which was the terrible scourge of the 
 small pox, introduced into Charleston by a slave ship, 
 and thence carried into their country,) the population 1740 
 had greatly decreased — so that, in 1740, the number of 
 warriors were estimated at only five thousand. That year fully 
 one thousand of these were destroyed by that disease.t 
 
 The Cherekees were so similar to the Creeks in their form, 
 color, general habits and pursuits, that the reader is requested to 
 refresh his recollection in relation to our description of the latter, 
 and will not be required, te(iiously, to retrace the same ground. 
 Their ball plays, green corn dances, constant habit of indulging 
 in the purifying black drink, their manner of conducting wars and 
 of punishing prisoners, their council-houses, their com- 
 mon apparel, and also their appearance during war, 1735 
 were all precisely like those of the Creeks. And, in 
 
 * Haywood's Aboriginal History of Tennessee, pp. 233-234. Transactions of the 
 American Antiquarian Society, Tol. 2, pp. 89-90. Adair's American Indians. 
 t Historical Collections of Georgia, vol. 2, p. 72. 
 
142 HISTOBT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 addition, they played Chunke, like the Choctaws. However, a 
 careful examination of several authorities, has unfolded a few pe- 
 culiarities, which will now be introduced. 
 
 Unlike other Indian nations, who once trod our soil, the 
 Cherokees had ntf laws against adultery. Both sexes were unre- 
 strained in this particular, and marriage was usually of short 
 duration. 
 
 On account of the pure air which they breathed, the exercise 
 of thechase, theabundance of natural productions which thecoun- 
 try afforded, and the delicious water which was always near, the 
 Cherokees lived to an age much more advanced than the other 
 tribes which have been noticed in this chapter.* 
 
 They observed some singular rules in relation to the burial 
 of the dead. When a person was past recovery, (to prevent pol- 
 lution,) they dug a grave, prepared a tomb, anointed the hair of 
 the patient and painted his face ; and when death ensued, inter- 
 ment was immediately performed. After the third day, the at- 
 tendants at the funeral appeared at the council-house and en- 
 gaged in their ordinary pursuits, but the relatives lived in retire- 
 ment and moaned for some time.f Such ceremonies, practiced 
 upon the poor fellow in his last moments, and whilein his senses, 
 was certainly a cooler and more cruel method than that of the 
 Choctaws, who, as we have seen, suddenly jumped down upon 
 the patient and strangled him to death, after the doctor had pro- 
 nounced his recovery impossible. 
 
 It was formerly the habit of the Cherokees to shoot all the 
 stock belonging to the deceased, and they continued to bury, with 
 the dead, their guns, bows and household utensils. If one died 
 upon a journey, hunt, or war expedition, his companions erected 
 a stage, upon which was a notched log pen, in which the body 
 was placed to secure it from wild beasts. When it was supposed 
 that sulHcient time had elapsed, so that nothing remained but the 
 bones, they returned to the spot, collected these, carried them 
 
 •Adair, pp. 226-228. t Adair, p. 126. 
 
THE CHEROKEE'S. 143 
 
 home and buried them with great ceremony. Sometimes heaps 
 of stones were raised as monuments to the dead, whose bones 
 they had not been able to " gather to their fathers," and every 
 one who passed by added a stone to the pile.* 
 
 Henry Timberlake, a lieutenant in the British service, was 
 despatched with a small command from Long Island, 
 upon the Holston, to the Cherokee towns upon the Tel- 1761 
 lico and the Little Tennessee rivers. His object was to Nov. 28 
 cultivate a good understanding with these people, who 
 had, indeed, invited him to their country. He descended the 
 Holston in canoes to the mouth of the Little Tennessee, and 
 thence passes* up that stream to their towns. Spending some 
 weeks here, he returned to Charleston with three Cher- 
 okee Chiefs, and sailed for England. Three years after- 1762 
 wards he published a book, from which we have been 
 enabled to gain some information respecting the Cherokees.t 
 
 The Cherokees were of middle stature, and of an olive coloi", 
 but were generally painted, while their skins were stained with 
 indelible ink, representing a variety of pretty figures. Accord- 
 ing to Bartrani, the males were larger and more robust than any 
 others of our natives, while the women were tall, slen- 
 der, erect, and of delicate frame, with features of perfect 1776 
 symmetry. With cheerful countenances, they moved 
 abdut with becoming grace and dignity. Their feet and hands 
 were small and exquisitely shaped. The hair of the male was 
 shaved, except a patch on the back part of the head, which was 
 ornamented with beads and feathers, or with a colored deer's tail. 
 Their ears were slit and stretched to an enormous size, catising 
 the persons who had the cutting performed to undergo incredible 
 pain. They slit but one ear at a time, because the patient had 
 to lay on one side forty days for it to heal. As soon as he could 
 bear the operation, wire was wound around them to expand them, 
 
 * Adair— Bartram. 
 
 t Memoirs of Jjieutenant Henry Timberlake, London : 1765. 
 
144 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 and when they were entirely well they were adorned with silver 
 pendants and rings. 
 
 Many of them had genius, and spoke well, which paved the 
 way to power in council. Their language was pleasant. 
 It was very aspirited, and the accents so many and va- 1761 
 rious that one would often imagine them singing in their 
 common discourse. 
 
 They had a particular method of relieving the poor, which 
 ought to be ranked among the most laudable of their religious 
 ceremonies. The head men issued orders for a war dance, at 
 which all the fighting men of the town assembled. But here, 
 contrary to all their other dances, only one danced at a time, who, 
 with a tomahawk in his hand, hopped and capered for a minute, 
 and then gave a whoop. The music then stopped till he related 
 the manner of his taking his first scalp. He concluded his nar- 
 ration, and cast a string of wampum, wire, plate, paint, lead, or 
 anything he could spare upon a large bear skin spread for the 
 purpose. Then the music again began, and he continued in the 
 same manner through all his warlike actions. Then another 
 succeeded him, and the ceremony lasted until all the warriors 
 had related their exploits and thrown presents upon the skin. 
 The stock thus raised, after paying the musicians, was divided 
 among the poor. The same ceremony was used to recompense 
 any extraordinary merit. 
 
 The Cherokees engaged oftener in dancing than any other 
 Indian population ; and when reposing in their towns, almcist 
 every night was spent jn this agreeable amusement. They were 
 likewise very dexterous at pantomimes. In one of these, two 
 men dressed themselves in bear-skins, and came among the 
 assembly, winding and pawing about with all the motions of that 
 animal. Two hunters next entered, who, in dumb show, acted 
 in all respects as if they had been in the woods. After many at- 
 tempts to shoot the bears, the hunters fired, and one of them was 
 killed and the other wounded. They attempted to cut the throat 
 
THE CHEEOKEES. 145 
 
 of the latter. A tremendous scuffle ensued between the wounded 
 
 bruin and the hunters, affording the whole company 
 
 a great deal of diversion. They also had other amus- 1761 
 
 ing pantomimic entertainments, among which was' 
 
 « taking the pigeons at roost." 
 
 They were extremely proud, despising the lower class of 
 Europeans. Yet they were gentle and amiable to those whom 
 they -thought their friends. Implacable in their enmity, their 
 revenge was only completed in the entire destruction of the 
 enemy. They were hardy, and endured heat, cold and hunger in 
 a surprising manner. But when in their power to indulge, no 
 people on earth, except the Choctaws, carried debauchery to 
 greater excess.* 
 
 William Bartram, who penetrated the Cherokee nation, men- 
 tions the following towns. "We use his orthography : 
 
 ON THE LITTLE TENNESSEE EITEK, EAST OF THE SMOKY 
 MOUNTAINS. 
 
 Echoe; Nucasse; Whataga; Cowe. 1776' 
 
 ON THE BRANCHES OF THAT EIVER. Spi'lug SCaSOO 
 
 Ticaloosa; Jore; Conisca; Nowe. 
 
 ON" THE LITTLE TENNESSEE, NORTH OP THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS. 
 
 Tomothle ; Noewe ; Tellico ; Clennuse ; Ocunnolufte ; Chewe ; 
 Quanuse ; Tellowe. 
 
 INLAND TOWNS ON THE BRANCHES OF THAT EIVER, AND OTHERS 
 NORTH OF THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS. 
 
 Tellico ; Chatuga ; Hiwassee ; Chewase ; Nuanha. 
 
 OVEEHILL TOWNS ON THE TENNESSEE OR CHEROKEE RIVERS. 
 
 Tallasse; Chelowe; Sette; Chote-great; loco; Tahasse; 
 Tamohle ; Tuskege ; Big Island ; Nilaque ; Niowc; 
 
 LOWER TOWNS, BAST OF THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 Sinica; Keowe; Kulsage ; Tugilo; Estotowe; Qualatche ; 
 Chote ; Estotowe, great ; Aliagae ; lore ; Nacooche.t 
 
 * Timberlake's Memoirs, pp. 49-80; Bartram, pp. 368-369. t Bartram, 371-372. 
 
 10 
 
146 HISTORY OF ALABAMA.. 
 
 Gov. Blount, of the TeiiDessee Territory, made a report to 
 the Indian Department of the Federal Government, in 
 1792 which he described the other towns of the Cherokee 
 Mar. 5 nation. It appears that a portion of the Cherokees 
 established themselves upon Chicamauga Creek, one 
 hundred miles below the mouth of the Holston, being averse to 
 any terms of friendship with the English. But believing these 
 new settlements to be infested with witches, they aban- 
 1782 doned them, moved forty miles lower down the Tennes- 
 see, and there laid out the foundation of the "five towns" 
 which they inhabited for many years afterwards, and until their 
 final removal to Arkansas. These towns were : 
 
 Running Water — on the south bank of the main Tennessee, 
 three miles above Nickajack, containing one hundred huts, the 
 inhabitants of which were a mixed population of Cherokees and 
 Shawnees. 
 
 Nickajack — on the south bank of the Tennessee, containing 
 forty houses. 
 
 Long Island Town — on the south side of the Tennessee, on 
 an island of that name, containing several houses. 
 
 Crow Town — on the north side of the Tennessee, half a mile 
 from the river, up Crow creek. This was the largest of the 
 towns. 
 
 Lookout Mountain Town — between two mountains, on 
 Lookout Mountain creek, fifteen miles from its confluence with 
 the Tennessee. 
 
 The first four of these towns were considerable Indian 
 
 thoroughfares for a long period, being the crossing .places of the 
 
 Southern and Northern Indians during their wars with 
 
 1792 the Cumberland American settlements. Of these five 
 
 towns, the sites of Nickajack and Long Island only are 
 
 in Alabama, situated in the northeast part of De Kalb county. 
 
 But still lower down, in the present State of Alabama, were 
 
 Will's Town and Turkey Town— important Cherokee establish- 
 
THE CHEEOKEBS. 147 
 
 ments. The former was named for a half breed called Bed- 
 headed Will. At these towns lived the British Superintendent, 
 (the celebrated Col. Campbell,) before and during the Eevolu- 
 tionary War.* 
 
 <• Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 264-289. 
 
(JHAPTER VII. 
 
 Ancient Mounds and Foetifications in Alabama. 
 
 In the Southern and Northwestern States mounds of various 
 dimensions and descriptions are yet to be seen, and continue to 
 elicit no little speculation in regard to the race of people who 
 formed them, and the objects which they had in view. 
 
 Mounds are most commonly heaps of earth, but in some in- 
 stances they are made of fragments of rock. In Florida, Geor- 
 gia, Alabama and Mississippi, they are of two classes. 
 1540 We will first treat of the large mounds, some of which 
 are round, some elliptical, and others square. Many of 
 them are flat on top, while others present conical forms. They 
 ascend to the height of from forty to ninety feet, and some are 
 eighteen hundred feet in circumference at the base. Especial con- 
 trivances appear to have been resorted to, to ascend these singular 
 and imposing elevations, by means of steps cut in the sides, in- 
 clining at an easy angle, and reaching from the ground be- 
 low to their tops.* During the invasion of De Soto, they 
 were used as elevated platforms, sustaining the houses of the 
 Chief, his family and attendants, while the common people lived 
 around the base. The writers upon that expedition describe the 
 manner in which the natives brought the earth to the spot and 
 formed these elevations. Garcellasso de la Vega states that the 
 erection of a mound was the first object in building a new town, 
 which was generally located upon some low alluvial ground. 
 When completed, the' Chief's houses, from ten to twenty in num- 
 ber, were placed upon its top, and a public square laid out at the 
 
 • See Chapter 2, pp. 65-66. 
 
ANCIENT MOUNDS AND FORTIFICATIONS IN ALABAMA. 149 
 
 base, around which were the houses of the prominent Indians, 
 while the humbler wigwams of the common. people stood around 
 the other side of the mound'. 
 
 Such, then, three hundred and ten years ago, was found to 
 be the use of these mounds. By the writers of De Soto, 
 they are repeatedly mentioned as being almost daily 1540 
 seen in all the territory through which that remarkable 
 adventurer passed. Yet, many very learned and wise antiquaries 
 have contended, in various works which they have published, 
 that these mounds must have been constructed at a very ancient 
 period, by a race far advanced in civilization — that the aborig- 
 ines who were first discovered by Europeans were incapable of 
 erecting such works on account of their ignorance of the arts and 
 their want of suflBcient population.. Our readers have seen what 
 a numerous population De Soto and other discoverers 
 found here, and that they possessed much ingenuity in 1564 
 the building of boats, fortifications, temples, houses, etc. 
 Of all people upon earth the American Indians had most time to 
 engage in such works, for they were never accustomed to regard 
 their time of the least importance- Indeed, the American citizen 
 of the present day, who has lived upon the Indian frontiers, 
 knows that they often assembled together in great numbers and 
 performed public works of all kinds. But much later 
 authority than that offered by the writers of De Soto 1730 
 will be presented. It will be recollected that when the 
 Trench drove the Natchez tribe from the spot now occupied by 
 the city of that name, that thje latter established them- 
 selves upon the Lower Washita, where they "erected 1731 
 mounds and embankments for defence, which covered 1732 
 an area of four hundred acres." These mounds are still 
 to be seen there, and some of them are verv large. These In- 
 dians were driven from Natchez in 1730. Two years afterwards 
 the French defeated them upon the Washita, where they were 
 protected by their embankments and mounds, which they had only 
 
150 HISTOET OP ALABAMA. 
 
 been a little over two years in constructing. Let it be borne in 
 mind that this was about one hundred and ninety-one years after 
 the invasion of De Soto; and the facts are attested by nume- 
 rous Frenchmen and other authors, some of whom were eye- 
 witnesses.* 
 
 Charlevoix and Tonti both mention that they found Indians 
 a little south of Lake Michigan, who well understood the con- 
 struction of mounds and fortifications. Even during the ad- 
 ministration of Jefferson, Lewis and Clarke, who had been de- 
 spatched upon an overland route to Oregon^ discovered the Sioux 
 and other Western Indians erecting earthen embankments around 
 their camps and towns. Were it deemed necessary, other author- 
 ities could be adduced to overthrow the speculations of those an- 
 tiquarians who endeavor to inculcate the belief that our country 
 was once inhabited by an almost civilized race. We heartily con- 
 cur in the opinion expressed by McCulloh, in his " Researches," 
 that the " mounds were sites for the dwellings of the Chiefs, for 
 council halls and for temples, which fancy and conceit have con- 
 structed into various shapes and variously situated, one to the 
 other." This author has reference, of course, to the larger 
 mounds. t 
 
 Bartram found, in East Florida, many peculiar mounds. He 
 saw groups of square mounds surrounded walls of earth, and 
 pyramidal mounds of great height. " From the river St. 
 1776 John, southwardly to the point of the peninsula of Flor- 
 ida, are to be seen high pyramidal mounds, with spa- 
 cious and extensive avenues leading from them out of the town 
 to an artificial lake or pond of water." In another place he 
 says : " At about fifty yards distance from the landing place 
 stands a magnificent Indian mount. But what greatly contrib- 
 uted to the beauty of the scene, was a noble Indian highway, 
 which led from the great mount, in a straight line three-quarters 
 
 • See Chapter 2, Part 3, pp. 132-133. 
 t KesearclieB, FhilosopMeal and Antiquarian, concerning the aboriginal history of 
 America, hy J. H. McCulloh, Jr., M.D. Baltimore, 1829 ; pp. 616. 
 
ANCIENT MOUNDS AND FORTIFICATIONS IN ALABAMA. 151 
 
 of a mile, through a forest of live-oaks, to the verge of an oblong 
 artificial lake, which was on the edge of an extensive level savan- 
 nah. This grand highway was about fifty yards wide, sunk a 
 little below the common level, and the earth thrown on each side, 
 making a bank' of about two feet high." 
 
 On the east side of the Ockmulgee, and a little below the city 
 of Macon, in Georgia, are some large and interesting mounds. In 
 the town of Florence, Lauderdale county, Alabama, is a very 
 large and peculiar mound. Near Carthage, in the same State, 
 there are many mounds of various sizes, some of which are large. 
 
 Dr. Charles A. Woodruff — a native of Savannah, but now a 
 resident of Alabama — a man of letters and research, who has 
 travelled over Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas 
 and Alabama, engaged in geological researches — has called our 
 attention to a very remarkable group of mounds on the lands of 
 Judge Messier, twenty-one miles in a southeastern direction from 
 Fort Gaines. A reference to the sketch which he has furnished 
 us, and his description of it, which follows, will make the reader 
 acquainted with these remarkable artificial elevations. (See 
 page 165). 
 
 "No. 1. The large sacrificial mound, seventy feet in height 
 and six hundred feet in circumference. This mound is covered 
 with large forest trees, from four to five hundred years 
 old. A shaft has been sunk in the center to the depth 1847 
 of sixty feet, and at its lower portion a bed of human 
 bones, five feet in thickness, and in a perfectly decomposed state, 
 was passed. 
 
 " No. 2, 2. Like the former, have hearthstones on the sum- 
 mit, with charred wood around them, which would show that 
 they, too, were used for sacrifices. They are thirty feet high. 
 
 "No. 3. A wall of earth enclosing thesemounds. 
 
 "No. 4, 4, 4, 4. Mounds outside of the enclosure, twenty 
 feet high, and probably used as watch towers. 
 
 " No. 5. Entrance to the enclosure. 
 
152 
 
 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 « In the rear of these mounds is a creek, No. 6, and from the 
 
 large mound there has been constructed an arched pas- 
 
 1847 sage, three hundred yards in length, leading to the creek, 
 
 and probably intended to procure water for religious 
 
 purposes." 
 
 The smaller mounds, to be found in almost every field upon 
 the rivers Tennessee, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Alabama, Cahaba, War- 
 rior and Tombigbee, will next be considered. 
 
 Many of these elevations, are cultivated in cotton and corn, 
 the plough ascending and descending from year to year, with 
 more ease as they, gradually wear away. They are usually from 
 five to ten feet high, from fifteen to sixty feet in circumference at 
 the base, and of conical forms, resembling haystacks. Where 
 they have been excavated they have, invariably, been found to 
 contain human bones, various stone ornaments, weapons, pieces 
 of pottery, and sometimes ornaments of copper and silver, but of 
 a, rude manufacture, clearly indicating Indian origin. Layers of 
 ashes and charcoal are also found in these mounds. 
 
 It will be recollected that the Spaniards, during the invasion 
 of De Soto, discovered temples in all the chief towns, in 
 
 1539 which the dead were deposited in baskets and wooden 
 
 1540 boxes. At a late day this custom was found to exist 
 
 1541 only auipng the Choctaws, Natchez, and a few other 
 tribes, ^'he Muscogees and Alabamas, who came into 
 
 the country after it had been overrun by De Sot4 had, as we have 
 seen, simple modes of burial, and hence knew==nothiug about the 
 construction of these mounds. The bone-houses of the Choctaws 
 were miniature temples of the Indians of 1540. We 
 1735 have seen in what manner the Choctaws placed their 
 1777 dead upon scaffolds, and afterwards picked ofl: all the 
 1759 flesh and fragments from the bones, and deposited the 
 1782 latter in .bone-houses. It is positively asserted by Bar- 
 tram that, every few years, when these houses became 
 full of bones, the latter were carried out upon a plain, buried in a 
 
ANCIENT MOUNDS ANP FORTIFIOATIONS IN ALABAMA. 153 
 
 common grave, and a mound raised oyer them* According to 
 Charlevoix, another conscientious author, the Six Nations and the 
 Wyandots every eight or ten years disinterred their dead, who 
 had. been deposited where they had died, and carried all the bones 
 to a certain place, where they dug a pit, thirty feet in diameter 
 and ten in depth, which was paved at the bottom with stones. 
 In this the various skeletons, with the property which the de- 
 ceased possessed, were thrown. Over the heap a mound was 
 raised, by throwing in the earth they had dug out, together 
 with rubbish of every kind. Much later authority will be ad- 
 duced. Lewis and Clarke, whom, as we have said, Jefferson 
 sent to explore Oregon, saw a mound twelve feet in diameter 
 at the base, and six feet high, which had just been erected over 
 the body of a Maha Chief. It appears to have always been the 
 custom to erect a mound over a Chief or person of distinction, 
 and no other bodies were interred with him. Indeed, no prac- 
 tice has been more universal than that of erecting a mound or 
 tumulus over the dead, not only in America, but over the world. 
 Adair asserts that it was the practice, of the Cherokees to collect 
 the skeletons of those who had died far from home, and erect 
 over them stone mounds, and every person who passed by was 
 required to add a stone to the heap.f This, then, accounts for 
 heaps of stone to be found in the norchern part of Georgia and 
 Northeastern Alabama, resembling mounds in form. In North 
 Alabama and Tennessee, skeletons have been found in caves. In 
 mountainous countries this may have been one of the modes of 
 disposing of the dead, or, which is more probable, persons died 
 there suddenly, and their bones, were not afterwards 
 gathered together, buried in a common grave, and a 1735 
 mound, erected over them, as was the general custom of 
 ancient times. 
 
 The small mounds in Alabama, which have been excavated, 
 
 • Hartram's Travels, p. 516. See also Bossu's Travels, vol. 1, p. 299. 
 t " Adair's American Indians." 
 
154 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 contained different strata. Beginning to dig at the top, the op- 
 erators first pass through a stratum of earth about two feet thick, 
 tben they come to a bed of ashes and charcoal, and then a bed of 
 human bones mixed with pieces of pottery, pipes, arrow-heads 
 and various Indian ornaments. Muscle shells are often mixed 
 with these. Continuing to dig downwards, the excavators pass 
 through a stratum of earth, which is succeeded by strata of bones, 
 charcoal, pottery, Indian ornaments and arrow-points. 
 1735 Now, from all that we have read and heard of the Choc- 
 1777 taws, we are satisfied that it was their custom to take 
 1759 from the bone-houses the skeletons, with which they 
 1782 repaired in funeral procession to the suburbs of the 
 town, where they placed them on the ground in one 
 heap, together with the property of the dead, such as pots, bows, 
 arrows, ornaments, curious shaped stones for dressing deer-skins, 
 and a variety of other things. Over this heap they first threw 
 charcoal and ashes, probably to preserve the bones, and the next 
 operation was to cover all with earth. This left a mound several 
 feet high. In the course of eight or ten years, when the bone- 
 house again became full of skeletons, the latter were carried in the 
 same manner to the mound, placed upon top of it, and covered 
 with ashes and earth. When the mound became high enough to 
 excite a kind of veneration for it, by depositing upon it heaps of 
 bones, from time to time, another was made not far from it, and 
 then another, as time rolled on. This accounts for the different 
 strata of bones to be found in the same mound, and for the erec- 
 tion of several mounds, often found near each other. 
 
 As for the ancient ditches at Cahaba, and in other portions 
 
 of Alabama, in which are now growing the largest trees 
 
 1775 of the forest, indicating the works to have been of very 
 
 1735 remote date, we have been unable, in our investiga- 
 
 1759 tions, to ascribe them to European origin, as they 
 
 .1782 are generally supposed to be. De Soto erected no 
 
 forts, in passing through this country, and had no 
 
ANCIENT MOUNDS AND FORTIFICATIONS IN ALABAMA. 155 
 
 -occasion to do so, for his army was competent to subdue 
 the natives without such means' of defense. It is true he 
 cut some temporary ditches upon the Warrior, near Erie, to 
 repel the savages, who were charging him constantly from the 
 other side of the river. These were soon abandoned, and his 
 journalists mention no other works of the kind which he made.* 
 The French and Spaniards, who afterwards occupied Alabama, 
 erected no forts, except those at Mobile, upon the Tensaw Eiver, 
 at St. Stephens, at Jones' BlufE upon the Tombigby, and four miles 
 above the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, upon the east 
 bank of the former. 
 
 The English, at an early period, constructed a fort at Ocfus- 
 kee upon the Tallapoosa. If any other forts or entrenchments 
 were made by the Europeans who first established themselves 
 upon our soil, we have not been so fortunate as to trace them. 
 The conclusion, then, seems to us to be apparent, that these an- 
 cient entrenchments or fortifications were the works of 
 the aborigines of the country. It will be recollected 1540 
 that De Soto, and the French authors who succeeded 1700 
 him, nearly two centuries afterwards, discovered towns 1792 
 which were well fortified with immense breastworks of 
 timber, around which were cut large ditches. It was easy, 
 within a short space of time, for a few hundred Indians to have 
 cut an immense ditch, or to have thrown up a great mound. The 
 same tools employed in the erection of the latter, certainly the 
 work of the ancient Indians, could well have been used in the 
 cutting of these old entrenchments or ditches. Hence, we con- 
 tend, that at the town of Cahaba there once existed a large In- 
 dian establishment, which was fortified with palisades, and that 
 the ditch, which has produced so much modern speculation 
 among the good people of that place, was cut around these pali- 
 
 * "Had Hernando De Soto erected one-tenth of the works which have been 
 ascribed to him, in the States bordering on the Gulf, in Tennessee, and even in Ken- 
 tucky, he must have found ample demands on his time and exertions."— "Ancient 
 Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," byF. G. Squier, A. M., p. 112. 
 
156 HISTORY or ALABAMA. 
 
 sades, or rather around the town, having the Alabama river open- 
 on one side. There is a ditch' near the Talladega Springs, which 
 formerly had trees growing in it, and which surrounds an eleva- 
 tion, embracing a few acres and taking in a beautiful spring, 
 which gushes out of the rocks at the side of a hill.* No doubt, 
 this, and all other works like it, now frequently seen over the 
 territories of Alabama and Mississippi, are the works of our an- 
 cient Indians, for they invariably erected their defences at those 
 places which admitted of the encompassment of running water; 
 while, on the other hand, the Europeans who came to this coun- 
 try at an early period, always dug wells within the fortifications 
 which they made. 
 
 In the month of October, 1850, we visited a remarkable 
 place at the Falls of Little Kiver, situated in the northeastern 
 corner of Cherokee county, Alabama, and very near the line of 
 DeKalb county, in the same State. (See page 364.) What 
 1850 is rather singular Little River has its source on the top of 
 Oct. Lookout Mountain,' and runs for many miles on the most 
 elevated parts of it. In the winter and spring it is 
 a stream of considerable size, affording a rapid and dan- 
 gerous current of water; but when it was seen upon the 
 present ocpasiou, a very protracted drought had nearly dried it 
 up. The river flows along the top of the mountain with very in- 
 considerable banks, until it reaches a precipice of solid rock, in 
 the form of a half circle, over which it falls seventy feet perpen- 
 dicularly, into a basin. After being received in this rock basin, 
 the river flows off without much interruption, and, in winding 
 about, forms a peninsula about two or three hundred yards be- 
 low the falls. The banks of the river bordering on this peninsula 
 are the same unbroken rock walls which form the falls, 
 1850 and are equally high and bold. Across the neck of the 
 Oct. peninsula are yet to be traced two ancient ditches, nearly 
 parallel with each other, and about thirty feet apart in 
 
 * Formerly the property of Henry G. Woodward. 
 
ANCIENT MOUNDS AND POETIFICATIONS IN ALABAMA. 157 
 
 the middle of the curve which they form, though they commence 
 within ten feet of each other upon the upper precipice, and when 
 they have reached the lower precipice are found to run into each 
 other. These ditches have heen almost filled up by the effects 
 of time.- On their inner sides are rocks piled up and mixed with 
 the dirt which was thrown up in making these entrenchments, 
 indicating them to be of the simplest and rudest Indian origin. 
 The author has seen many such entrenchments in his travels 
 over Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, and hesitates not to say 
 that they are the works of the aborigines of the country. 
 
 On one side of the bend of the peninsula, and about ten feet 
 below the top of the rock precipice, are four or five small caves, 
 large enough, if square, to form rooms twelve by fourteen feet. 
 They are separated from each other by strata of rock, two of 
 which resemble pillars, roughly hewn out. Three of 
 of them communicate with each other by means of holes 1850 
 which can be crawled through. These caves open im- Oct. 
 mediately upon the precipice, and from their floors it is 
 at least sevenl,y feet down to the surface of the river. Many per- 
 sons who have visited this singular place, call these "De Soto's 
 Rock Houses," and they have stretched their imagination to such 
 an extent as to assert that they have distinctly traced his pick- 
 axes in the face of the rocks. There can be no question, how- 
 ever, but that these caves have been improved, to a slight ex- 
 tent, in size and shape, by human labor. But it was the labor of 
 the Red people. Occasionally we could see where they smoothed 
 off a point, and leveled the floors by knocking off the uneven 
 places. It was, doubtless, a strong Indian fortification, and long 
 used as a safe retreat 'when the valleys below were overrun by a 
 victorious enemy. The wa,lls are black with smoke, and every- 
 thing about them bears evidence of constant occupation for 
 years. These caves or rock houses constituted a most admirable 
 defence, especially with the assistance of the walls at the 
 head of the peninsula. In order to get into the first cave, 
 
158 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 a person has to pass along a rock passage wide enough 
 for only one man. Below him, on his right, is the awful 
 precipice, and on his left, the rock wall reaching ten feet 
 above his head. A few persons in the first rock house with 
 swords or spears, could keep off an army of one thousand men ; 
 for, only one assailant being able to approach the cave at a time, 
 could be instantly despatched and hurled down the abyss be- 
 low. In regard to the inner walls of the ditches, the author saw 
 no cement among the rocks, although he had heard that that in- 
 gredient (never used by Indians) was to be found there. 
 
 Upon creeks and rivers in Alabama, where they meander 
 through mountainous regions, are occasionally seen cuttings 
 upon rocks, which have also been improperly attributed to Euro- 
 pean discoverers. In the county of Tallapoosa, not far , below 
 the mouth of the Sougohatchie, and a few miles east from the 
 
 Tallapoosa river, are cliffs of a singular kind of gray 
 1847 rock, rather soft, and having the appearance of con tain- 
 April ing silver ore. The face of these cliffs is literally cut in 
 
 pieces, by having round pieces taken out of them. The 
 ancient Indians used to resort to this place to obtain materials 
 for manufacturing pipes, of large and small sizes, and, more par- 
 ticularly, for bowls and other household vessels. They cut out 
 the pieces with flint rocks fixed in wooden handles. After work- 
 ing around as deep as they desired, the piece was prized out of 
 the rock. Then they formed it into whatever vessel, toy or im- 
 plement they pleased. Hence, bowls, small mortars, immense 
 pipes, and various pieces resembling wedges* in shape, are often 
 ploughed up in thie fields in Macon, Tallapoosa and Montgomery, 
 and other counties in Alabama, of precisely the same kind of 
 rock of which thesie cliffs are composed. The author is also sus- 
 tained in this position by unquestionable Indian testimony, which 
 has been secured by him. 
 
 * These wedges, in appearance, were used by the Indians in dressing their deer skins. 
 They were also used as clubs in war, having handles fixed to them. 
 
ANCIENT MOUNDS AND FORTIFICATIONS IN ALABAMA. 159 
 
 A few miles from Ely ton, in the county of Jefferson, the 
 author is informed that there stands a large quadrangular mound, 
 about fifty feet high, and flat on the top ; that, near its base, are 
 to be seen cuttings in the rock something like mortars, some of 
 which would hold over a gallon. These were done by the In- 
 dians, for the limestone rock could easily be worked into any 
 shape by means of flint picks. 
 
 The reader has observed that we have often mentioned the 
 published works of Bartram, the botanist, who was in our coun- 
 • try just before the Revolutionary War. We now quote from his 
 MS., never published entire, but occasionally introduced 
 by Squier in his "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi 1777 
 Valley." Squier embodies in his work the following 
 account, from Bartram's MS., of the " Chunk Yards " of the 
 Creeks or Muscogees : " They are rectangular areas, geherally 
 occupying the centre of the town. The public square and rotunda, 
 or great winter council house, stood at the two opposite corners 
 of them. They are generally very extensive, especially in the 
 large old towns. Some of them are from six hundred to nine 
 hundred feet in length, and of proportionate breadth. The area is 
 exactly level, and sunk two, and sometimes three, feet below the 
 banks of terraces surrounding it, which are occasionally two in 
 number, one behind and above the other, and composed of the 
 earth taken from the area at the time of its formation. These 
 banks or terraces serve the purposes of seats for spectators. In 
 the centre of this yard or area there is a low circular mound or 
 eminence, in the middle of which stands the Chunk Pole, which 
 is a high oVjelisk, or four-square pillar, declining upward to an 
 obtuse point. This is of wood, the heart of a sound pitch pine, 
 which is very durable. It is generally from thirty to forty feet 
 in height, and to the top is fastened some object which serves 
 as a mark to shoot at with arrows, or the rifle, at certain' ap- 
 pointed times." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The French in Alabama and Mississippi. 
 
 After the Spanish invasion of De Soto, to which allusion 
 has so often been made, our soil remained untrodden by European 
 feet for nearly a century and a half. At the end of thatlongand 
 dark period it became connected with the history of thfe distant 
 Erench possessions of Canada, which were contemporaneous with 
 the oldest English colonies in America. For more than fifty 
 years the French fur traders of Canada, associated with the en- 
 terprising Jesuit Fathers, had continued to advance southwest- 
 ward upon the great lakes, discovering new regions, different 
 races of Indians, more abundant game, and wider and brighter 
 waters. At length, from the tribes upon the southern shore of 
 Lake Superior, Father Allouez heard some vague reports of a 
 great western river. Subsequently, Father Marquette was des- 
 patched from Quebec with Joliet, a trader of that place, five other 
 Frenchmen, and a large number of Indian guides, to seek the 
 Mississippi, and thus add new regions to the dominion of France, 
 and new missions to the empire of the Jesuits. Ascending 
 Fox river to the head of navigation, and crossing the portage 
 to the banks of the Wisconsin, with birch bark canoes, the 
 adventurers again launched their tiny boats and floated down to 
 the Mississippi river. Descending it to the mouth of the Ar- 
 kansas, and encountering decided evidences of a southern 
 1673 climate, Marquette finally found himself among the 
 June 17 Chickasaws, whose reports that hostile tribes thronged 
 the banks from thence to the sea, served to arrest his 
 progress. Reluctantly commencing his return up the stiff and 
 
THE FRENCH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 161 
 
 turbid tide, he found the mouth of the Illinois river, ascended to 
 its head, crossed the portage to Chicago, launched his canoes upon 
 Lake Michigan, and paddled to Green Bay, where he resumed 
 his missionary labors. Joliet proceeded to Quebec with the 
 news of the discovery. 
 
 The young and gifted La Salle, a native of Rome, in France, 
 educated as a Jesuit, went to Canada to acquire fortune and fame 
 by finding an overland passage to China. Becoming fired at the 
 discovery which Marquette had made, he returned to France and 
 obtained a royal commission for perfecting the exploration of the 
 Mississippi, for which he was granted a monopoly in the trade of 
 the skins of the buffalo. Sailing back to Canada, with 
 men and stores, and accompanied by the Chevalier Tonti, 1678 
 an Italian soldier, who acted as his lieutenant. La Salle 
 proceeded, by way of the lakes, upon his important enterprise. 
 Consuming over two years in exploring those vast sheets of 
 water, in building forts and collecting furs, he at length rigged 
 a small barge, in which he descended the Mississippi to its mouth. 
 Here, upon a small marshy elevation, in full view of the sea, 
 he took formal and ceremonious possession in the name of 
 the King of France. The country received the name of Lou- 
 isiana, in honor of Louis XIV.,. who then occupied the French 
 throne ; but the attempt to give the river the name of Colbert, in 
 honor of his Minister of Finance, did not succeed, and it 
 retained that by which the aborigines had designated it. 1682 
 Leaving the Chevalier Tonti in command of Fort St. Apr. 9 
 Louis, which La Salle had established in the country 
 of Illinois; the latter returned to France, where the report of his 
 discoveries had already given rise to much excitement and joy; 
 The government immediately furnished him with a frigate and 
 three other ships, upon which embarked two hundred and eighty 
 persons, consisting of priests, gentlemen, soldiers, hired me- 
 chanics and agricultural emigrants, for the purpose of forming a 
 colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. But the fearless adven- 
 
 — 11 
 
162 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 turer, having crossed the Atlantic, and being unable to find, 
 from the Gulf, the entrance to that river, was forced to 
 1687 disembark upon the coast of Texas. Here, erecting Fort 
 Feb. St. Louis, and leaving the larger portion of the colonists, 
 he explored the surrounding country, with the hope of 
 finding the Mississippi, but returned unsuccessful. Death had 
 hovered over the colony, which was now reduced to thirty-six per- 
 sons ; and with sixteen of these. La Salle again departed, with the 
 determination to cut his way to Canada by land. After three 
 months' wanderings, he was murdered by two of his 
 1687 companions, in the prairies of Texas, near the western 
 -Mar. 19 branch of the Trinity river. In the meantime the Chev- 
 alier Tonti, with twenty Canadians and thirty Indians, 
 descended from the Illinois to meet his old commander; but, dis- 
 appointed in not finding the French fleet at the Balize, he returned 
 to the mouth of the Arkansas, where he established a little post. 
 The few colonists left upon the coast of Texas all perished ob- 
 scurely, except the brother of La Salle and six others, who made 
 their way to Canada. Such was the melancholy termination ot 
 the first attempt to colonize Louisiana.* 
 
 Louis XIV. of France, the most splendid sovereign whom 
 Europe had yet seen, had long been engaged In a war with Wil- 
 liam III. of England, which had- extended to their respective colo- 
 nies in North America. In consequence of these troubles, further 
 efforts, to colonize the Mississippi were not attempted until after 
 the peace of Ryswick. By the terms of the treaty each party 
 was to enjoy the territories in America which they possessed be- 
 fore the war. The attention of the French monarch was now once 
 more turned to the new country which La Salle had discovered. 
 A number of Canadians had been left upon the shores of France 
 
 * Hildreth's History of the United States New York : 1849 ; vol. 2, pp. 81-99. Hlstorie 
 de la Louislane, par Charles G.iyarre; vol. 1, pp. 23-61. Journal Historique du Dernier 
 Voyage que feu M . de la Sale, lit dans lo Krlfe de Mexique, pour trouver rembouchure, 
 et le cours de la Riviere de St. l.oui»,quitraver.<elaLouislana AParis: 1713— 386 paaes. 
 The History of Louisiana from the earliest period, by Francois Xavier Martin, vol. 1 pp. 
 59-121. New Orleans: 1827. Also many other authorities. 
 
THE TEENCH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 163 
 
 upon the conclusion of the war, and among them was .a distin- 
 guished naval officer named Iberville, who had acquired great 
 military renown by his exploits against the English on the shores 
 of Hudson Bay and Newfoundland, and by the capture of Pema- 
 quid. He was one of seven sons, all natives of Quebec, all men 
 of ability and merit, and all engaged in the king's service. 
 
 To Iberville was confided the project of peopling Louisiana. 
 He sailed from Rochelle with the Badine, of thirty guns, 
 of which he had the immediate command, and with the 1698 
 Marir, commanded by Count Sugeres, together with two Sept. 24 
 harbor boats, each of forty tons. On board these vessels 
 were his two young but gallant brothers, Bienville and SauvoUe, 
 and two hundred colonists, mostly Canadians, who had gone to 
 France to assist in her defence. Among them were some women 
 and children. Arriving at Cape Francoise, in the Island of St. 
 Domingo, he was joined by the Marquis Chateau Morant, with a 
 flfty-two gun ship. There he received on board a famous bucca- 
 neer named De Grace, who had pillaged Vera Cruz some 
 years before. Leaving St. Domingo, Iberville sailed for 1699 
 the coast of Florida, and after a prosperous voyage Jan. 20 
 stood before the Island of St. Rosa, from which point he 
 discovered two men-of-war at anchor in the harbor of Pensacola, 
 at whose mast-heads floated the colors of Spain. One month 
 previous to this Don Roalli, with three hundred Spaniards, from 
 Vera Cruz, had established a battery upon the site of the present 
 town of Pensacola. 
 
 A deputation sent by Iberville were received with much 
 politeness, but the Don declined to permit the French vessels 
 to enter the harbor, for fear of a treacherous surprise.* The 
 French then made sail to the west, and presently cast anchor off 
 an island, which, from the quantity of human bones discovered 
 upon it by Midshipman Bienville, was called the Isle of Massacre. 
 
 * The Spaniards, who still claimed the whole circuit o^.the Oulf, bad hastened t» 
 occupy the Pensacola harbor, the best upon it. The barrier thus formed, made the di- 
 viding line between Florida and Louisiana. 
 
164 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 The small vessels passed through the channel between two ele- 
 vations, to which they gave the name of Cat and Ship 
 1699 Islands. The fifty-two gun ship sailed for St. Domingo, 
 Jan. 31 while the frigates lay off a group of banks, which 
 received the names of the Chandeliers. Iberville 
 despatched two boats' to the main land, the crews of which 
 found seven recently abandoned canoes, and succeeded in 
 capturing two sick old Indians, whom they left with presents. 
 The next day, a woman being taken and likewise sent off with 
 presents, returned with two of her people, who belonged to the 
 Biloxi tribe, whose name was given by the French to the bay. 
 Four savages of this nation were then carried on board of Iber- 
 ville's ship, while his brother, Bienville, remained upon the 
 beach a hostage. On the same evening, twenty-four Bayagolas 
 arrived upon the shore, being on their way to fight the Mobilians, 
 who, they said, lived on the banks of a great river which flowed 
 into the sea, not far to the east.* 
 
 Wheii Iberville had caused some huts to be erected upon 
 Ship Island, he entered a boat with thirty men, accompanied by 
 his bi'other, Bienville, and Father Athanase, a Francis- 
 1699 can friar, the companion of the unfortunate La Salle in 
 Feb. 27 his descent of the Mississippi, and at the time when. he 
 was killed upon the plains of Texas. Upon the third 
 day, Iberville made the Balize, and was the first to enter the 
 great river from the sea. He ascended for the space of ten days, 
 until he arrived at a town of the Bayagola nation. There he 
 found, preserved by these Indians, a prayer book which belonged 
 to the first expedition of La Salle, some cloaks which the dis- 
 coverer had given them, a coat of mail which had belonged to the 
 troop of De Soto, and a letter written by the Chevalier Tonti to 
 La Salle, whom he had been disappointed in not meeting, as we 
 have already seen. All these things combined to dispel the 
 
 • Journal Historique de I'EtabUssement des Francais a la Louisiane, par Bernard de 
 la Harpe, pp. *i8. La, Harpewas one of the first. Frelioli settlers in Mobile, and he kept 
 a journal of all he witnessed in that place, at Dauphin, Biloxi, Ship Island, etc. 
 
mmw 
 
 ill Mfilii' 
 
 Xf:\"'-<''y 
 
166 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 doubts which Iberville had entertained, that this was really 
 
 the Mississippi, and re-assured the convictions of Father 
 1699 Athanase. Continuing the voyage to a point which he 
 
 named Portage de la Croix, Iberville turned his boat 
 down stream and touched at Bayou Manchac. Here Bienville, 
 who was placed in command of the main boat, presently de- 
 scended the river to the sea, while Iberville passed through the 
 bayou in birch-bark canoes, guided by a Bayagola Indian. En- 
 tering the river Amite, he soon fell into Lakes Maurepas and 
 Pontchartrain, which he named in honor of the two principal 
 Ministers of his King. Bienville joined him soon after he reached 
 his shipping. 
 
 At the eastern extremity of the Bay of Biloxi and within 
 the limits of the present State of Mississippi, a fort, with four 
 
 bastions and mounted "with twelve pieces of artillery, 
 
 1699 was now erected, the command of which was given to 
 
 May 1 SauvoUe, the elder of the two brothers of Iberville, while 
 
 Bienville, the youngest of the three, was made lieuten- 
 ant. After the colonists had, built huts and houses around it, 
 Iberville and the Count Sugeres sailed in the two frigates for 
 France. SauvoUe despatched a vessel to St. Domingo for pro- 
 visions, and Bienville, with a small command, to visit the neigh- 
 boring tribes, with whom he desired to cultivate friendly rela- 
 tions. Visiting the Callapissas upon the northern shore of Lake 
 Pontchartrain, and the Pascagoulas upon the river of that name, 
 among whom he distributed presents, and going by land from Mo- 
 bile Point to Pensacola, to observe the movements of the Spaniards, 
 he returned to Fort Biloxi ; but in a few days set o£f in a boat, again 
 
 to explore the Mississippi river. After having ascended it 
 
 1699 some distance, and while returning, he met, not far below 
 
 Aug. 16 the site of New Orleans, an English Captain named Bar, 
 
 in charge of a vessel of sixteen guns, who asserted that 
 there was another vessel of the same class belonging to him at 
 the mouth of the river, and that his intention was to establish an 
 
THE FRENCH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 167 
 
 English colony upon the banks of the Mississippi. The irigeni-^ 
 ous Bienville turned him toward the Gulf, by telling him that. 
 Pi'ance had already taken possession of the river in which he 
 then was, and above therie had occupied it with a fort and garri- 
 son, and, furthermore, that the Mississippi river lay consider- 
 ably to the west. 
 
 In the meantime, Sauvolle received two Canadian mis- 
 sionaries, who had some time before established them- 
 selves among the Yazoos. These holy men dropped 1699 
 down the Mississippi, entered the lakes by the Bayou ' 
 
 Manchac, and paid their brethren an unexpected but most pleas- 
 ing visit. Upon a bluff on the Mississippi, the site of old Fort 
 Adams, lived one of these men, Father Dayion, who erected a 
 cross in the open air^ and kept his holy relics in the hollow of a 
 large tree. Here he told the Indians who the true God was, and 
 baptized those who were converted with the waters of the an- 
 cient Mississippi. Could a life so entirely solitary, and attended 
 with so many dangers, have been influenced by any other mo- 
 tives than such as are prompted by the purest piety? 
 
 At length, the roar of distant cannon at sea announced the ar- 
 rival of two large ships of war, commanded by Iberville and the 
 Count Sugeres, direct from France, laden with provision^ for the 
 colony, and having on board thirty laborers and sixty Canadians, 
 intended as military pioneers, with their commanders, 
 St. Dennis and Malton, together with a person named ' Dec. 7 
 Le Sueur, who had acquired some celebrity in his voyage 
 to Canada. They brought the pleasing intelligence that SaUvolle 
 had been appointed Governor of Louisiana, and Bienville Lieu- 
 tenant Governor. Boisbriant, who also came with the ships,' was 
 commissioned to take the command of Fort Biloxi. 
 
 Dreading the advance of the British, and deter- > 
 
 mined to secure the banks of the Mississippi from their 1700 
 grasp, Iberville sailed, with fifty Canadians, to a point Jan. 15 
 eighteen leagues above the Balize, which had been se- 
 
168 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 lected by the indefatigable young Bienville, who had arrived for 
 that purpose a few days before, by way of Manchac, with some 
 Bayagolas, who were acquainted with the inundations of the 
 river. Here they immediately began the construction of a fort, 
 and, after a short time, were joined by the aged Tonti, who came 
 from Canada, down the Mississippi, with a few Frenchmen and 
 Indians. This veteran pioneer was joyfully received by those 
 who had so often heard of his intrepid and fearless adventures. 
 
 In the meantime SauvoUe wrote to the minister, regretting 
 that he was not allowed to accompany Iberville upon the Missis- 
 sippi, where he could have learned so much of the country, con- 
 demned the location at Biloxi as too low, sterile and sickly, and 
 gave it as his opiniop that the country offered no inducement to 
 enterprise, except in the solitary article of hides. He 
 1700 closed his letter by expressing the hope that some mines 
 of precious metals would be discovered. About this time 
 Governor Roalli, of Pensacola, advanced to Ship Island with a 
 man-of-war and some smaller vessels, for the purpose of expelling 
 the French ; but, deterred by Iberville's fleet, he hastened back, 
 leaving only a proclamation protesting against the settlement of 
 any portion of the coast, the whole breadth of which, he con- 
 tended, belonged to His Catholic Majesty's Mexican possessions. 
 Taking with them the Chevalier Tonti, Iberville and Bien- 
 ville left their new fort and ascended the Mississippi, 
 Mar. 11 visiting the different tribes upon its shores, and finally 
 resting at the site of the present city of Natchez, where 
 lived the Indians who bore that name, and whose manners and 
 customs have already been described. Delighted with this place, 
 and resolved to plant a settlement there, Iberville marked out a 
 town, and called it Rosalie — the name of the Countess Pontchar- 
 train. From this place the Chevalier Tonti went up the river, 
 and Bienville and St. Dennis, with twenty-two Canadians, started 
 to the west, by an overland route, to reconnoitre the Spanish set- 
 tlements, while Iberville floated down the river to rejoin his fleet. 
 
THE FRENCH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 169 
 
 Returning from the west to Biloxi, Bienville was sent to 
 take the command ot the new establishment upon the 
 Mississippi, and then Iberville once more spread the 1700 
 sails of his ships for beloved France. Meanwhile the May 28 
 colony languished ; the earth was not cultivated, and, 
 relying for supplies from St. Domingo, horrible famine and sick- 
 ness reduced the number of inhabitants to one hundred and fifty 
 souls ! Sauvolle himself died, leaving the cares of the 
 colony to the more redoubtable Bienville. The latter, 1701 
 deploring the condition of his people, and seeing the ne- Aug. 22 
 cessity of tilling the earth, in a despatch to the French 
 government, urged them to send him laborers, rather than the 
 vicious and the idle, who roamed the forests in search of mines 
 and Indian mistresses. 
 
 A delegation of Choctaws and Mobilians visited Fort Biloxi. 
 and requested assistance in their war with the Chickasaws, 
 These were succeeded by twenty other Mobilians, and the Chief 
 of the Alabamas, all of whom were dismissed with pres- 
 ents and exhortations to remain at peace with each other. Sept. 
 At this time, the Spaniards of Pensacolaand the French 
 colony were not only upon good terms, but of mutual assistance 
 to each other ; so much so that Bienville arrested eighteen Span- 
 ish deserters and sent them back to Don Martin, the Governor of 
 Pensacola. 
 
 Iberville and his brother, Serigny, arriving at Pensacola, 
 direct from France on board two men-of-war, despatched 
 supplies to the colonists in smaller vessels, which were 1701 
 joyfully received, as a meagre portion of corn had for a Dec. 18 
 long time barely kept them alive. Having received or- 
 ders to break up the colonial establishment at Biloxi, and to re- 
 move it upon the Mobile, Bienville left only twenty soldiers at the 
 fort, under Boisbriant, and sailed with his people to Dauphin Is- 
 land, to which, as we have seen, they first gave the name of IVIas- 
 sacre. Here he met his brother, Serigny, and a person 
 named La Salle. Thelatter had been sent out to perform 1702 
 
170 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 the duties of Marine Commissary. With forty sailors and 
 some ship carpenters, Bienville began the construction of a ware- 
 house on Dauphin Island. With a suflacient force of soldiers, arti- 
 sans and laborers he then sailed up the bay of Mobile, and at the 
 mouth of Dog river commenced the erection of a fort, a warehouse 
 and other public buildings. This place received the name of Mobile,, 
 from the spacious bay upon which it was situated, which 
 1 540 was called after the tribe of Indians who had so resolutely 
 Oct. 18 fought De Soto upon the field of Maubila. The fort 
 
 itself'was long designated as Fort St. Louis de la Mo- 
 bile.* Here was the seat of government for the space of nine 
 years, when, in 1711, as we shall see, the French moved up to the 
 mouth of Mobile river, where they founded the town of Mobile, 
 which has since become the beautiful commercial emporium of 
 the State of Alabama. A few days of activity and bustle had 
 scarcely been passed at the new place, at the mouth of Dog river, 
 before it was made sad by the meeting of Bienville and Iberville, 
 who wept for the loss of Sauvolle while affectionately locked in 
 each other's arms. 
 
 Iberville had passed with his ship-of-war, the Palmier, over 
 
 the bar of Mobile point, finding at least twenty feet of 
 
 1702 water. It was not long before La Salle and his family 
 
 Feb. 18 came up to Mobile, which now presented the appearance 
 
 of a settlement, with houses and shelters. Bienvillej 
 anxious to obtain the friendship of all the tribes upon the Mobile 
 river and its tributaries, and to institute friendly relations between 
 the different savage nations themselves, had sent Tonti with a 
 small command to the Choctaw and Chickasaw countries. They 
 
 now returned, with seven Chiefs of those tribes. The 
 Feb. 31 Governor gave them handsome presents, and exhorted 
 
 them to remain at peace with the French and with each 
 
 * In 1777 Bartram, being on a Toyage from Mobile to Pearl river, in a Frencb trading 
 boat, touched at the mouth of Dog river, and saw there the ruins of old Fort St. Louis 
 de la Mobile, where lay some iron cannon and some immense iron kettles, formerly used 
 by the French for boiling tar into pitch Bartram's Travels, pp, 416-417. 
 
THE FEENCH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 171 
 
 other. Then Iberville' and his. retinue dropped down the bay 
 of Mobile, went to Pensacola, and from thence sailed for France, 
 
 Mobile being now the seat of government, various delega- 
 tions of Chiefs, Spaniards from Vera Cruz, and Canadians 
 from the northern lakes and rivers, constantly repaired there 
 to see Governor Bienville upon business. Among others, a 
 delegation of eight Chiefs of the Alabamas arrived, whom 
 his Excellency treated with kindness, and dissuaded from mak- 
 ing war upon the Mobilians, Tomez and Chickasaws. Don Ro- 
 bles came with a letter from the Governor of Pensacola, 
 requesting the loan of provisions for his famishing gar- June 
 risons, with which the generous Frenchman readily 1702 
 complied. Midshipman Becaucourt, commanding the 
 colonial marine, made several trips to Vera Cruz and returned 
 with provisions, the King of Spain having granted the French 
 free access to his colonial ports. Father Davion, the missionary 
 upon the Mississippi, and Father Liomoge, a Jesuit, came hy way 
 of the Bayou Manchac, and reported that one of their 
 .companions and four other Frenchmen had been killed Summer 
 by the Indians above the Yazoo river. News also , 
 reached Bienville, that St. Dennis, at the head of the Canadian 
 scouts, had wantonly made war upon and ^killed some Indians 
 with whom they were at peace, for the purpose of obtaining 
 slaves. Bienville, grieved at his conduct, endeavored, unsuc- 
 cessfully, to have the slaves restored to their people. Governor 
 Martin, of Pensacola, came to Mobile, with the information that 
 France and Spain had gone to war with England, and his re- 
 quest to be furnished with arms and ammunition was granted by 
 Bienville. He was succeeded b-y two Spanish officers 
 from St. Augustine, with a letter from Serda, Gover- Autumn 
 nor of that place, requesting military supplies, as he 
 had been blockaded by the English and Indians. Bienville sent 
 to his assistance a liberal supply of powder and ball. 
 
 The English of Carolina began to disturb the French 1702 
 
172 IIISTOBY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 colonies, by sending^ emissaries among tiie Muscogees and 
 Alabamas. In a very short time two artful Alabamas came 
 down the river, to decoy the French into the country. 
 1703 Having assured the Governor that their homes abounded 
 in corn, which would be furnished at the most reasona- 
 ble price, the latter forthwith dispatched Labrie, with four Ca- 
 nadians in canoes, to procure some. They had not pro- 
 May 8 ceeded far, before they were all killed except one of the 
 Canadians, who returned to Mobile with his arm nearly 
 severed by a blow which he received from an axe. To avenge 
 this outrage, Bienville began the ascent of the Mobile in seven 
 canoes, in which were forty soldiers and Canadians. In four- 
 teen days he arrived in the vicinity of the Alabamas, 
 Dec. 23 upon the river of that name, where he discovered 
 ten canoes without occupants, but saw smoke floating 
 upon the air and rising over the forest trees and cane, upon the 
 bluff. St. Dennis and Tonti advised him not to make the attack 
 until night, to which he assented, contrary to his better judg- 
 ment. The night was very dark, and the path which led to the 
 Indian camp was full of weeds and briars. However, an engage- 
 ment ensued, in which three Frenchmen were slain, and 
 1704 the savages dispersed. Capturing the canoes, which 
 Jan. 11 were laden with provisions, Bienville returned to Mo- 
 bile. But he did not relax in his efforts to be revenged, 
 for he presently engaged parties of Chickasaws and Choctaws to 
 pursue the Alabamas, who brought some of their scalps to Mo- 
 bile, for which they received rewards.* 
 
 An official dispatch represented the following to be the con- 
 dition of the feeble colony of Louisiana at this period : 
 1704 " 180 men capable of bearing arms. 
 
 Apr. 30 2 French families, with three little girls and seVen 
 
 little boys. 
 
 * Journal Historique de rEtablissement des Francais a la Louisiane, par Bernard de 
 la Harpe, pp. 35-83. 
 
THE FEENCH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 173 
 
 6 young Indian boys, slaves, from fifteen to twenty years 
 of age. 
 
 A little of the territory around Fort Louis (Mobile) has been 
 cultivated. 
 
 80 wooden houses, of one story high, covered with palm 
 leaves and straw. 
 
 9 oxen, five of which belonged to the King. 
 
 14 cows. 
 
 4 bulls, one of which belonged to the King. 
 
 6 calves. 
 
 100 hogs. 
 
 3 kids. 
 - 400 hens." 
 1 This account did not, of course, include the officers. 
 
 The colonists, suffering from severe famine, were temporar- 
 ily relieved by the Governor of Pensacola, but again became des- 
 titute of provisions; and, while forced to disperse themselves 
 along the coast; procuring subsistence upon fish and oysters, a 
 vessel of war from France, commanded by Chateaugne, another 
 brother of Bienville, happily re-established abundance among 
 them. This vessel was succeeded by the Pelican, another man- 
 of-war, laden with provisions, and having on board 
 seventy-five soldiers intended for the various posts. La July 24 
 Vente, of the foreign mission, sent as rector by the 
 Bishop of Quebec, four Priests, and four Sisters of Charity, to- 
 gether with four families of laborers. But what created 
 more novelty and excitement than all the rest of the ar- 1704 
 rivals, were twenty-three girls, whom Bienville was in- July 24 
 formed, by the Minister's despatch, were all of spot- 
 less chastity; pious and industrious, and that his Majesty had en- 
 joined upon the Bishop of Quebec to send no' females to Mobile 
 who did not bear characters as irreproachable as these. He was 
 instructed to have them married to Canadians and others,, who 
 were competent to support them. Only a few days 
 rolled round, before they all found husbands. These Aug. 
 
174 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 were the first marriages which were solemnize^' in old Mobile, 
 •or, indeed, upon any part of the soil of Alabama, by Chris- 
 tian marital rites.* 
 
 Bat sickness and disasters soon dispelled the joy which these 
 iirrivals had occasioned. Half the crew of the Pelican died. 
 
 Tonti and Levassuer, invaluable officers — Father Dange, 
 Sept. a Jesuit— and thirty of the soldiers lately arrived, soon 
 
 followed them to the grave. The fort. and outhouses at 
 Pensacola were wrapped in flames. Lambert, with his Canadians, 
 driven from the post of Washita by the Indians, had fled to Mo- 
 bile, where the Chicasaws and Choctaws had began a war with 
 «ach other, which was exceedingly embarrassing to Bienville. 
 More than seventy of the former, of both sexes, being in Mobile, 
 And imploring Bienville to have them safely conducted to their 
 
 nation, the route to which lay over the country of thejr 
 
 1704 enemies, he despatched twenty Canadians, under Bois- 
 Dec. briant, with them. Arriving at one of the vChoctaw 
 
 towns, the inhabitants assembled in great numbers to 
 put them to death, but Boisbriant interposing, they fell upon a 
 stratagem to accomplish their purposes. Pretending that they 
 only desired to rebuke the Chickasaws for their conduct, while 
 .the Chief was accordingly making his speech to them, he let a 
 
 feather fall, which was the signal for attack. The Chick- 
 
 1705 asaw warriors were all instantly put to death, and the 
 Feb. women and children reserved for slaves. Boisbriant was 
 
 accidentally wounded by a ball, which was exceedingly 
 regretted by the Choctaws, three hundred of whom carried him 
 -on a litter to Mobile, in mournful procession. Bienville was 
 shocked and mortified at the ruthless massacre, and saw at a 
 iglance, that the Chickasaws would suspect him of decoying these 
 unhappy people there to meet the fate which they received. 
 
 • " The first child born in the colony, and, consequently, the first ' Creole,' was named 
 <!laude Jousset, and was the son of a Canadian who carried on a small trading business 
 M Mobile."— Louisiana, its Colonial History and Romance, by Charles Gayarre. New 
 Tork, 1861. pp. 464-465. 
 
THE FRENCH IN ALABAMA. AND MISSISSIPPI. 175 
 
 When Boisbriant recovered from his wound, he was des- 
 patched up the Alabama river, with sixty Canadians, to fight the 
 Alabamas and Muscogees. After a long absence he re- 
 turned with only two scalps and an Indian slave. In 1706 
 the meanwhile the Chickasaws and Choctaws continued Feb. 
 their war, which raged with the most savage ferocity. 
 The French unavoidably became implicated in these feuds. Be- 
 ing considered the exclusive friends of the Choctaws, on account 
 of their proximity, they were often suddenly slain by skulking 
 -Chickasaws. Iberville wrote to the Minister that famine again 
 prevailed in the unhappy colony of Louisiana ; that the Spaniards 
 ■could afford them but little corn, which the men only had be- 
 «ome accustomed to eat, the Parisian women eschewing 
 it, and blaming the Bishop for not telling them what 1706 
 they had to encounter in the "promised land"; that 
 ■fifty men had come to make a settlement at Mobile from the 
 Upper Mississippi ; and that the colonists would not unite td re- 
 sist the savages and combat famine, but quarrelled among them- 
 •selves. At this period, Commissary General La Salle had com- 
 menced a series of vindictive and unprincipled assaults 
 upon the character of Bienville, in his despatches to the Sept. 7 
 •Court. In one of these he said that "Iberville, Bienville 
 and Chateaugne, the three brothers, are guilty of all kinds of 
 malpractices, and are extortioners and knaves, who waste the 
 property of his Majesty." Father La Vente, the rector of Mo- 
 iDile, a man of bad temper and sordid feelings, and unpopular 
 "with the priests over whom he was placed, became a willing co- 
 •adjutor of La Salle in his indiscriminate abuse of the 
 -Governor. He, too, wrote letters to the Court, the bur- Oct. 
 •den of which was the corruption of Bienville's colonial 
 government. He essayed to persuade the inhabitants that their 
 sufferings were owing alone to the conduct of their Governor, 
 Tvho too tardily ordered supplies from France. He attempted to 
 lauy up the sick soldiers whom he visited by giving them (as his 
 
176 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 own) money which had been placed in his bands for charitable 
 purposes. The Lady Superior also vented her spleen against 
 Bienville, by writing to the Minister that Boisbriant had inten- 
 ded to have married her, but had been prevented by the Gov- 
 ernor. Hence, she adds, " Bienville does not possess the qualities 
 necessary for a Governor." 
 
 The colonists continued to lead unpleasant lives ; the Mus- 
 cogees and Alabamas threatened their existence; their 
 1706 hearts were troubled with the Chickasaw and Choctaw 
 Dec. war ; while the quarrels among the authorities contin- 
 ued to increase. Father Gravier, a Jesuit, took up the 
 cudgels for Bienville, and defended him in a letter which he ad- 
 dressed to the Minister. But Bienville, disdaining these 
 1707 cabals, continued to discharge his duty faithfully to the 
 Feb. 27 government, as far as it could be done with his means 
 and ability, and in his despatches refrained from allud- 
 ing to the animosities of the commissary and rector, except 
 casually to mention that he had encountered much opposition 
 from the former. Iberville, the indefatigable founder of Louisi- 
 ana and the devoted friend of the colonists, died of yellow fever 
 at Havana, where he had touched with his fleet while on his way 
 to attack Charleston and Jamaica. This was a severe blow 
 added to the general suffering of the colony, and seri- 
 Jan. 1 ously retarded its advance. About the same time, Ber- 
 guier, Grand Vicar of the Lord of Quebec, came from 
 the Illinois country to Mobile, and reported that St. Come, a 
 missionary among the Natchez, with three other Frenchmen, bad 
 been murdered, while descending the Mississippi, by the Chau- 
 machas. This induced Bienville to send presents to all the na- 
 tions of the Lower Mississippi, which would cause them to make 
 war upon those savages. The English from Carolina, aided by 
 troops from Great Britain, had continuea to advance 
 1706 upon the Spanish settlements of the Floridas, assisted 
 by large bands of Muscogee Indians, and had overrun 
 
THE FEHUCH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 177 
 
 the greater portion of Middle and East Florida, laying waste .the 
 Spanish settlements, and forcing the inhabitants and friendly In- 
 dians almost to abandon the country. News reached , Bienville 
 that they had besieged the fort of Pensacola, which had 
 recently been rebuilt, he advanced from Mobile with 1707 
 one hundred and twenty Canadians ; but, on reaching Nov. 24 
 that place, he found that the thirteen Englishmen and 
 three hundred and fifty Muscogees, who for two days had lain 
 around the fort to attack it, becoming destitute of provisions, had 
 already retired. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Bienville, in a despatch to the Minister, 
 urged the necessity of sending out more colonial supplies, as the 
 inhabitants had not yet made plantations ample enough from 
 which to derive a support. He stated that the lands were fertile 
 up the Mobile Kiver, but too unhealthy during the period'of cul- 
 tivating the crops. The want of negroes, horses and oxen also 
 contributed its share in embarrassing the feeble efforts of the 
 Louisiana planter, and failures were often made. He informed the 
 Minister, further, that he had intended establishing a fort upon the 
 " Tombecbe," in the vicinity of the Chickasaws, in order to secure 
 the friendship of those Indians, who were the most warlike of all, 
 and who were daily tampered with by the English of Carolina, but 
 that the distance to that point, and the general distress of the col- 
 ony, had prevented it; that all the Indians were treacherous, and 
 often assassinated the French, for whose strength they had begun 
 to entertain a most contemptible opinion ; that three-fourths of the 
 soldiers were too young to prosecute a war, and con- 
 stantly deserted, while the Canadians, whom he had de- 1707 
 clined to discharge, contrary to the orders of Begar, In- 
 tendant of Rochefort; were the sole pillars of the colony. In con- 
 sequence of these things, he had been compelled to abandon the 
 establishment upon the Mississippi. In addition, he stated that 
 La Salle had refused to pay the colonists their just dues, and had 
 
 12 
 
178 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 withheld payment from those who had been sent to a distance 
 upon important duties. 
 
 The continued reports of the malpractices of Bienville, which 
 had reached the ears of the Minister, induced the French govern- 
 ment to order his arrest. DeMuys was appointed Gov- 
 July 23 ernor of Louisiana, " to prove the facts charged against 
 this person, to arrest him if they were true, and to send 
 him a prisoner to France." Thus the unjust and singular position 
 was assumed, of leaving to Bienville's successor to decide whether 
 he was guilty or innocent ! In the meantime, Bienville, hearing 
 of his disgrace at Court, demanded to be dismissed from his post, 
 to enable him to return to France. This startled the inhabitants 
 of Mobile, who were warmly attached to him, and who imme- 
 diately petitioned the government that, if Bienville's request 
 should be allowed, that he should immediately be sent back to 
 them as their Governor. But DeMuys, his successor and his 
 judge, died at Havana on his passage out. Diron D'Artaguette 
 was appointed Commissary General in the place of the growling 
 La Salle, whom the government had also removed. D'Artaguette, 
 more fortunate than his companion, had reached Mobile in safety, 
 and was directed to investigate the charges against Bienville, 
 without letting him know what they were. However, fortunate- 
 ly for the cause of justice, and perhaps the future wel- 
 ' 1708 fare of the colony, D'Artaguette, in the report of his in- 
 Feb. 26 vestigations to the Minister, was enabled to close by 
 saying, that "all the accusations brought against Bien- 
 ville were most miserable calumnies." Subjoined to this state- 
 ment was the attestation of Boisbriant, now Major of the fort at 
 Mobile. But the disappointed and vindictive La Salle renewed 
 his accusations, in which he assured the Minister that an under- 
 standing existed between Bienville and the new Commissary, and 
 that the report of the latter was not to be believed. At the same 
 time he denounced Barrot, the surgeon of the colony, as "an 
 
THE PKENCH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 179 
 
 ignorant man — a drunkard and a rogue, who sold, for his own 
 profit, the medicines belonging to the kirTg." 
 
 The following is a statement of the condition of ttfe 1708 
 colony of Louisiana at this period : Aug. 
 
 GAEEISOSr. 
 
 14 superior officers, comprising a midshipman attending on 
 the commandant. 
 
 76 soldiers, comprising four military officers. 
 13 sailors, comprising four naval officers. 
 
 2 Canadians, serving as clerks in the warehouses, by order 
 of Bienville. 
 
 1 superintendent of the warehouses. 
 
 3 priests, comprising one rector. 
 6 workmen. 
 
 ' 1 Canadian, serving as interpreter. 
 6 cabin boys, learning the Indian language, and intended to 
 serve by land and sea as workmen. 
 
 INHABITANTS. 
 
 24 inhabitants who have no grants of land, which prevents 
 
 the majority from working plantations. 
 2« women. 1708 
 
 25 children. Aug. 
 80 slaves, men and women, of various Indian na- 
 tions. 
 
 157 
 
 TOTAL. 
 
 279, of whom six are sick. 
 
 In addition to these there are more than. 60 Canadians who 
 live in the Indian villages on the Mississippi, without the per- 
 mission of the Governor, and who destroy, by their evil and lib- 
 
180 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 ertine life with the Indian women, all that the missionaries and 
 others have instructed them in the mysteries of i-eligion. 
 
 ANIMALS. 
 
 50 cows. 
 40 calves. 
 4 bulls.. 
 
 8 oxen, four of which belong to the King. 
 1400 hogs and sows. 
 2000 hens, or thereabouts. 
 In consequence of the death of the recently appointed Gov- 
 ernor of Louisiana, and the complete overthrow of the charges 
 brought against the old one, the French government permitted 
 the latter to continue at his responsible and thankless post. 
 Knowing that the colony could not prosper unless the earth was 
 cultivated, Governor Bienville endeavored in vain to make the 
 whites under him labor in the fields. . On the other hand, the 
 savages, whom the French had endeavored to enslave, 
 1708 would escape to their native woods, at the slightest ap- 
 Oct. 12 pearance of coercion. In a despatch to the Minister, 
 Bienville recommended that the colonists be allowed to 
 send Indians to the West India Islands, and there to exchange 
 them for negroes, asserting that these Islanders would give two 
 Africans for three savages. His proposition was laid before M. 
 Robert, one of the heads of the Bureau of the Minister 
 Nov. 28 of Marine, who pronounced against it, upon the ground 
 that the inhabitants of the West Indies would not part 
 with their good negroes, and that the only way to obtain such was 
 by purchasing from Guinea. Another idea of Bienville's seemed 
 still more unreasonable. He had given orders to- watch several 
 inhabitants of Mobile, to prevent them from leaving the country. 
 As they had " amassed considerable property in the colony, by 
 keeping public-house, it was but just," said he to the Minister, 
 " to compel them to remain." 
 
THK FEBNCH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 181 
 
 Although discharged from ofiBce, La Salle, far from remain- 
 ing quiet, continued to complain of the administration of 
 the colony. He urged the Minister to send thirty, 1709 
 females to Mobile, to prevent, by marriage, the debauch- May 12 
 ery which was committed with Indian, women. He said 
 that such an importation would serve to keep at home a number of 
 Canadians who roamed the country in search of female slaves. He 
 agreed in opinion with Bienville that negroes were indispensable 
 to the prosperity of the colony ; and in this be was right, for ex- 
 perience has proved that neither S,outh Carolina, Louisiana, nor 
 any other Southern State, with such low, rich lands,, and with a 
 humid atmosphere so destructive to the constitutions of the 
 whites, could ever have been successfully brought into cultiva- 
 tion without African labor. 
 
 Commissary D'Artaguette, visiting the country lying be- 
 tween Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi river, now a por- 
 tion Of New Orleans, found there seven Frenchmen, who 
 had each planted an acre of Indian corn, brought from 1709 
 the Illinois, and which grew most luxuriantly. He wrote 
 to the Minister, as Iberville and Bienville had often done before, 
 urging the establishment of colonies upon thiit river, and for 
 their protection against the floods, the, erection of embankments 
 along the margin. ' 
 
 Although LaSalle had died at Mobile early in the year 1710, 
 a short time after the death of his second wife, who, like 
 the first, had been reared in the hospitals, yet Bienville 1710 
 failed not to find those who were equally willing to com- 
 ment, in the most illiberal manner, upon his administration. Ma- 
 rigny, an oflQcer of the garrison, in a despatch to the Minister, 
 accused him with disregarding the interests of the colony. La 
 Vente, the curate, who appeared oflQciously desirous to attend to 
 the temporal as well as the spiritual affairs of Louisiana, also 
 abused him without measure, attributing to him every misfor- 
 tune which attended the inhabitants of Mobile. He assured the 
 
182 HISTOBT or ALABAMA. 
 
 Minister, that if the permission of the government could be ob- 
 tained, they had determined to form a colony upon Dau- 
 1710 phin Island, where there were twenty fortified houses, 
 for the purpose of catching fish, and being more con- 
 venient to the supplies which might be sent to them from Pen- 
 sacola and France. Under these repeated assaults, Bienville lost 
 the dignity and patience which had formerly characterized his 
 conduct, and now retorted upon his adversaries with considera- 
 ble acrimony. In one of his despatches, he said, that " the 
 curate. La Vente, endeavored to excite everybody against him ;" 
 that the curate was " not ashamed to keep an open shop and sell 
 like an avaricious Jew." Verily, this father must have been a 
 man who possessed too much malignity, avarice and bad tem- 
 per, to have been a successful missionary in the holy cause in 
 
 which he was ostensibly engaged. 
 December Thus the year 1710 closed with such controver- 
 
 sies, while Bienville had been obliged to distribute 
 his men among the Indian towns to procure something to eat.* 
 How unfortunate that the colonists, like mere children, should 
 have depended upon the mother country for everything which 
 went into their mouths, when moderate industry, bestowed 
 higher up the Tombigby and Alabama rivers, upon the more ele- 
 vated and less sickly lands, would have ensured them an abun- 
 dance. 
 
 • Histoire de la Louisiane, par diaries Gayarre, vol. 1, pp. 78-91. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Colony op Louisiana Geanted to Crozat. 
 
 The high floods having inundated the settlements around 
 Fort St. Louis de la Mobile, Bienville determined to place his 
 people upon more elevated ground. All the inhabitants, except 
 the garrison of the fort, removed upon the Mobile river, where, 
 upon the site of the' present beautiful and wealthy com- 
 mercial emporium of Alabama, they established them- 1711 
 selves. Here Bienville built a new wooden fort, which, March 
 in a few years, was destroyed to give place to an exten- 
 sive fortress of brick, called, in French times, Fort Conde, and in 
 English and Spanish times, Fort Charlotte. The seat of govern- 
 ment was permanently fixed here, and the leading characters of 
 the colony made Mobile their headquarters. Only a^ small garri- 
 son was left at the old settlement at the mouth of the Dog river, 
 which, however, continued to guard that point for several years 
 after this period. 
 
 The Chickasaws having again engaged in a war with the 
 Choctaws, at the instance of the English, and thirty of the former 
 tribe being at Mobile at the time, they implored Bienville to have 
 them safely conducted home, through the country of their ene- 
 mies. Desiring to acquire the confidence of the Chickasaws by 
 acts of kindness that would induce them to break up their alli- 
 ance with the Carolinians, Bienville readily granted their request, 
 and despatched his brother, Chateaugne, with thirty soldiers, to 
 escort them. He was successful in his mission, and returned to 
 Mobile without having met any serious adventures. 
 
 The colony of Louisiana still remained in a precarious situ- 
 
184 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 ation. It is true, the inhabitants had to some extent begun the 
 
 cultivation of tobacco, the first samples of which were 
 
 1711 supposed to be superior to the quality raised in Vir- 
 
 Oct. 27 giuia. Wheat came up most luxuriantly, but the damp 
 
 atmosphere destroyed it when it commenced maturing. 
 Notwithstanding the long war which had existed between France 
 and England, no attacks of the enemy had been directed, against 
 any part of the Louisiana colony, until about this time, when a 
 pirate ship from Jamaica disembarked on Dauphin Island, and 
 plundered the inhabitants of nearly all which they possessed. 
 Not long afterwards, this first and last act of hostility during the 
 present war, was succeeded by the arrival of a ship which came 
 
 upon a more agreeable missien. She brought large sup- 
 1711 plies for the colony, and when she hoisted her sails to 
 
 return to France, D'Artaguette, the commissary general, 
 an accomplished man, who well understood his business, became 
 a passenger on board of her, to the regret of all the inhabitants, 
 who ardently desired him to remain longer with them. 
 
 The following is a statement of the colonial disbursements 
 of the year 1741 : 
 
 PAYMENTS. 
 
 To 12 workmen on the fortification 4,4,80 livres. 
 
 " 23 naval officers, soldiers.and cabin boys. 4,572 
 
 " superior officers , 19,988 
 
 " medicine chest. , 506 
 
 " wax candles, in . the chapel . 270 
 
 " presents to the Indians 4,000 
 
 maintenance of military companies 27,688 
 
 61,504 liwes, 
 
 D'Artaguette, the colonial commissary,, had a prosperous 
 
 voyage to France, and arrived there "at the time," to use the 
 
 eloquent language of Gayarre, "when the star of Louis XiV., 
 
THE COLONY OP LOUISIANA GRANTED TO CEOZAT. 185 
 
 which had shed such brilliant glory around for half a century, 
 was almost extinguished, and the doors of the old cathedral of 
 St. Dennis had already opened in expectation of receiving the 
 great monarch, whom age and misfortune urged rapidly to the 
 tomb." The country, too, over which he had so long reigned, 
 was then groaning under the effects of the long, bloody and ex- 
 pensive wars which he had waged. The report which D'Arta- 
 guette now made of the unhappy condition of the colony of 
 Louisiana, induced the French Government to number that fruit- 
 less and extravagant bantling among its other misfortunes. It 
 determined to hand the colony over to the care of a company, or 
 to some rich merchant, with a grant of its exclusive commerce 
 and other important privileges. Accordingly, an opulent mer- 
 chant, named AntOine Crozat, entered into a contract with the 
 King of France. The King granted to him for the term 
 of fifteen years, the exclusive commerce of all the ooun- 1712 
 try known as the colony of Louisiana, embracing the Sept. 14 
 country upon the Alabama and Tombigby, with their va- 
 rious tributary streams ; of all the islands at or near their entrance 
 to the sea ; of all the lakes, rivers and islands connected with the 
 lakes Pontchartrain. Mauripas, Borne, etc.; of all- the country 
 upon the Mississippi and its numerous tributaries, from the sea 
 as high up as the Illinois river, together with that of Texas. 
 He also ceded to him "forever" nil the lands which he could 
 establish himself upon, all the manufactures which he could put 
 into operation, and all the structures which he should erect. 
 The King also, granted to him the proceeds of all the mines 
 which he might find and work, and agreed to appropriate fifty 
 thousand livres annually toward the payment of his ofiicers and 
 troops in Louisiana. 
 
 For all these privileges, Crozat obligated, on his part, to 
 appropriate one-fourth of the proceeds of the mines of precious 
 metals to the King's use ; to forfeit the lands which were grante(| 
 to him "forever," if the improvements or manufactures which he 
 
186 HISTOKT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 place'd upon them should be abandoned by him or should cease 
 to exist; to send a vessel annually to Guinea for slaves for the 
 colony, and to send every year two ships from France, 
 Sept. 14 with a certain number of emigrants to Louisiana ; and, 
 at the expiration of nine years, to pay the salaries of the 
 King's officers in the colony during the remainder of his time, 
 with the privilege of nominating those officers for his majesty's 
 appointment. 
 
 All this country was to be a dependency upon the govern- 
 ment of New France. The ordinances and usages of the Provost 
 and Viscount of Paris were to rule the colony, in connection with 
 a council similar to that which then existed in St. Domingo. 
 
 About the time that France thus abandoned our soil and the 
 few white inhabitants upon it, to the wealthy Parisian merchant, 
 the King, by the treaty of Utrecht, ceded to England the country 
 of Nova Scotia, with its ancient boundaries. 
 
 The population of Louisiana, now turned over to Crozat, con- 
 sisted of twenty-eight families, twenty negroes, seventy- 
 1712 five Canadians, and two companies of infantry of fifty 
 Sept. 14 men each, the whole numbering three hundred and 
 twenty-four souls. They were scattered over the colony, 
 and separated by large rivers and expansive lakes, protected by 
 only six forts of miserable construction, built of stakes, trees and 
 earth, and portions of them covered with palm leaves. These 
 forts were situated as follows : one upon the Mississippi, one upon 
 Ship Island, one upon Dauphin Island, one at Biloxi, one at the 
 old and the other at the new settlement of Mobile. 
 
 At length a vessel of fifty guns disembarked at Dauphin Is- 
 land the officers intended for the government of Louis- 
 1713 iana under Crozat's charter. Among them were Lamotte 
 May 1 7 Cadillac, the new Governor ; Duclos, the Commissary 
 General ; Lebas, the Comptroller ; and Dirigoin and La- 
 loire de Ursins, directors of the affairs of Crozat in the colony. 
 Governor Cadillac had served with distinction in the wars of 
 
THE COLONY OF LOUISIANA GRANTED TO CEOZAT. 187 
 
 Hanada, and brought with him to the colony of Louisiana his 
 daughter, whom he attempted, as we shall see, to marry to Bien- 
 ville. He was a man of poor judgment, of weak feelings, and 
 much selfishness. To interest him in the deepest manner, in ac- 
 complishing his various schemes of colonial aggrandizement, Cro- 
 zat had promised him a portion of his profits. But Cadillac, in 
 his first despatch to the Minister, began to complain of 
 everybody and everything appertaining to the colony; and 1713 
 all his other documents to that high functionary were, May 17 
 likewise, filled with carping epithets, which would only 
 emanate from a selfish and childish mind like his. Dauphin Is- 
 land, which,,he said, had been represented to him as a terrestrial 
 paradise, he assured the Minister, was a poor and miserable spot, 
 supporting but a few improvements, with a few fig trees and sap- 
 less vines of the grape and lemon. Wheat did not grow upon the 
 whole continent, having been abandoned upon the borders of 
 Lake Pontchartrain and at Natchez, where one Larigne 
 had endeavored to raise it. Other colonial officers, also, July 15 
 hastened to complain. Duclos wrote to the Minister 
 that twelve girls had lately arrived from France, who were too 
 ugly and badly formed to secure the affections of the men, and 
 that but two of them had yet found husbands. He was afraid 
 that the other ten would remain on hand a long time. He thought 
 proper to suggest that those who sent girls to the colony in future 
 should attach more importance to beauty than to virtue, as the 
 Canadians were not scrupulous as to the lives which their spouses 
 may have formerly led. But if they were only to be offered girls 
 as ugly as these they would rather attach themselves to Indian 
 females, particularly in the Illinois country, where the Jesuit 
 priests sanctioned such alliances by the marital ceremony. 
 
 Duclos again wrote to the Minister, accusing Cadillac with 
 having appropriated the presents intended for the In- 
 dians, to his own use, and recommended that the Gov- 1712 
 ernor should, in future, be required to confer with Bien- Oct. 25 
 
188 ■ HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 ville in relation to the distribution of these presents ; the 
 latter, he remarked, having for so many years, by justice, 
 honor and good advice, so happily conciliated the different tribes. 
 
 On the same day Cadillac wrote to the Minister, the 
 Oct. 25 Count Pontchartrain, that the inhabitants knew nothing 
 
 of the culture of silk, tobacco and indigo, but confined 
 their attention to the production of Indian corn and vegetables. 
 That the commerce of the colony consisted merely in skins of 
 deer, bear, and other animals and lumber. Tbat the coureurs de 
 bois hunted for peltry and slaves, which they brought to Mobile 
 and sold, and that the peltry was then re-sold, together with 
 vegetables and poultry, to the Spaniards at Pensacola,.or to ships 
 which touched upon the coast, while the Indian slaves were em- 
 ployed to saw out lumber and till the earth. But the very next 
 day Cadillac made another despatch, in which he pronounced the 
 country to be good for nothings and the inhabitants « a mass of 
 rapscallions from Canada, a out-throat set, without subordination, 
 with no respect for religion, and abandoned in vice with Indian 
 women, whom they prefer to French girls." He complained that 
 upon arriving at Mobile he found the garrison dispersed in the 
 woods and Indian villages, where they went in search of bread ; 
 that Bienville, his brother Chateaugne, and their cousin Bois- 
 briant, the Major of Mobile, came to the colony too young to 
 know how to drill soldiers, and had not since learned any thing 
 of proper discipline; and that the soldiers all had Indian wives 
 who cooked for them and waited upon them — all of which he 
 pronounced to be intolerable. He believed that the colony pre- 
 sented but two objects of commerce — trade with the Spaniards 
 
 of Mexico and the working of precious mines, if the lat- 
 1713 feer could be discovered ; but that, unfortunately, Diri- 
 
 gion, one of Crozat's directors, was a man of no capaci- 
 ty, while Lebas, the comptroller, was extremely dissipated. He 
 desired more tradespeople, sailors, Canadians and artizans to be 
 sent out, and a church to be erected at Mobile. But the latter 
 
THE COLONY OP LOtJISIANA GBANTED TO CEOZAT. ' 189 
 
 the inhabitants would be delighted not to have. Indeed, a ma- 
 jority ol: the gentlemen, priests and missionaries, had not taken 
 sacrament for eight years, the soldiers had not kept Palm Sun- 
 day, but followed the example of Bienville and his adherents ; 
 that the sea captain who brought out the twelve girls had se- 
 duced more than half of them upon the passage, which was the 
 cause of their not having married respectable persons in the 
 colony, and he contended that it was best, under the circum- 
 stances, that the soZA'ers should be allowed to marry them, for 
 fear that their poverty would drive them to prostitution. In re- 
 lation to the council which was to co-operate in the government 
 of the colony, Cadillac said that it had not convened for the 
 want of suitable members. To this string of complaints were 
 added many others in a subsequent despatch, among which 
 were the following: , That Bienville had governed the colony for 
 years without having discovered any mines, which he 
 (Cadillac) could havq done in a short time ; that Duclos 1714 
 was guilty of great impudence and presumption in Feb. 20 
 censuring his official acts ; that the P>ench government 
 was entirely too lenient with its colonial officers and soldiers, who 
 threatened to revolt and burn up Crozat's establishment; and 
 libertinism was carried to such an extent, that even the boys had 
 Indian mistresses ! In again allpding to the council, he stated 
 that Duclos had nominated- for Attorney-General a storekeeper ; 
 for Councillor, the chief surgeon ; for' Secretary, Doorkeeper and 
 Notary^ one Roquet, . a low soldier ; and that the Assembly, 
 which for the present was to meet at his house, wanted nothing 
 but the bonnet and robe to makeit perfect ! He said that if the 
 Minister did not crush the cabals formed against him by Bien- 
 ville and his clan, w'ho kept up an intercourse with the inhabit- 
 ants of Pensacola, to' whom they sold and from whom they 
 bought; that Crozat would be compelled to abandon his colonial 
 project. He denied that he had withheld grants of land to the 
 inhatiitarits, but admitted that his requirement that such grants 
 
190 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 as he had given should be subject to the ratification of the King, 
 gave great dissatisfaction. He concluded this remarkable 
 despatch with the assertion that none of the lands were worth 
 granting ! 
 
 In the meantime, a ship had arrived from the mother coun- 
 try with a large supply of provisions and considerable merchan- 
 dize. She was followed by the Louisiana, owned by Crozat, also 
 laden with provisions for the colony. Delegations of Chiefs of 
 different tribes visited Mobile and smoked the pipe with Cadillac 
 and Bienville, who received them with friendship, 
 1714 gratified them with presents, and dismissed them under 
 pledges that they would abandon the interests of the 
 English of Carolina and "Virginia. But even after this, twelve Eng- 
 lishmen came among the Choctaws with a large number of 
 Creeks or Muscogees, and were graciously received by the inhab- 
 itants of all save two towns, who fortified themselves, and while 
 besieged by the Creeks, one night made their escape to Cadillac 
 at Mobile.* 
 
 During the reign of Charles I. of England, the re- 
 1630 gion south of the Chesapeake Bay was granted by that 
 1663 monarch to Sir' Robert Heath, but the projected colony 
 was neglected, and the grant was forfeited. Charles II. 
 decreed that this territory should assume the name of Carolina, 
 and embrace the region from Albemarle Sound southward to the 
 River St. Johns and westward to the Pacific, forming a province 
 vast in extent, which was conveyed to eight joint proprietors. In 
 the meantime some adventurers from New England had planted 
 a little colony at the mouth of the Cape Fear river. From that 
 time emigrants gradually settled upon the coast now 
 1670 known as that of North Carolina, and extended their en- 
 terprises to South Carolina, where they formed a settle- 
 ment several miles above the mouths of the Ashley and Cooper 
 
 * Historle de la Louisiane, par Charles Gayarre, vol. 1, pp. 91-112. Journal Historique 
 de rEtablissement deS Fraucais a la LouiBiane, par Bernard de la Harpe, TS-115. 
 
THE COLONY OF LOUISIANA GRANTED TO CEOZAT. 191 
 
 rivers, and at length established themselves upon the site of the 
 present city of Charleston.* 
 
 From the time that South Carolina was thus colo- 
 nized, down to the period of 1714, to which we have 1680 
 brought the history of the French colony of Louisiana, 
 forty-four years had passed. During much of that time, Caro- 
 lina and Virginia traders had penetrated portions of the great 
 Muscogee nation, which extended from the Savannah nearly to 
 the Warrior, in Alabama. They also carried their merchandise 
 further west into the heart of the Chicliasaw nation, among whom 
 they established trading shops, in defiance of the French settle- 
 ments upon the Mobile. Notwithstanding that the 
 French were the first, since the invasion of De Soto, to 1700 
 discover and occupy the country where the Tombigby to 1714 
 and Alabama lose themselves in the sea — and although 
 the indefatigable Bienville had explored those rivers to their 
 highest navigable points, at a very early period, freely inter- 
 changing friendly assurances with the Chickasaws living upon 
 the one, and the Muscogees and Alabamas upon the other — yet 
 the grasping English government attempted, through its enter- , 
 prising traders and special emissaries, to occupy this region, and 
 to induce the inhabitants to expel the French, not only from the 
 head waters of those streams, but from their very mouths. 
 These fearless British traders conveyed, upon the backs of 
 pack-horses, such goods as suited these Indians, from distant 
 Charleston to the remote Chickasaw nation, over creeks with- 
 out bridges, rivers without ferries, and woods pathless and preg- 
 nant with many dangers. They did not, however, establish any 
 permanent trading shops upon the Coosa, Tallapoosa or Ala- 
 bama, at the period under review, but occasionally traded with 
 the Indians upon those streams, dwelling in their towns no 
 
 • Hildreth's History of the United states, vol. 2, pp. 25-36. Coxe's Carolana, 2; Lon- 
 don, 1741. Steven's History of Georgia, vol. 1, pp. 140, 141, 68, 69. Simms' History of 
 ^^outh Carolina, pp. 56-67. Carroll's Historical Collections of South Carolina, vol. 1, pp. 
 42-52. Kainsay's History of South Carolina, vol. 1, pp. 2-3. Hewett's History of South 
 Carolina. 
 
192 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 longer than sufficed to dispose of their goods, and receive, in re- 
 turn, valuable peltries, which they conveyed back to Charleston. 
 But their intercourse with these tribes was vastly pernicious to 
 the French below, and to the Spaniards inhabiting the provinces 
 of Florida. The Creeks, in conjunction with their British allies, 
 invaded the latter provinces, as we have already seen. 
 1702 Bienville had repeatedly suggested to the French 
 
 to 1714 government the necessity of establishing a fort and trad- 
 ing post.upon the Alabama river, in the immediate strong- 
 hold of the powerful Creeks, to counteract the influence of the 
 Carolinians ; but a war ensued between him and the Creeks, with 
 whom he had, an engagement, as we have seen, and against whom 
 he fqund it imperative, for the preservation of his colony, to 
 incite the Choctaws and other tribes. About. the commencement 
 of the year 1714, and when Crozat's charter bad been in 
 operation for near a twelve-month, Bienville, who was still 
 retained high in authority as royal lieutenant, only second to 
 the Governor, was most fortunate^ in making peace with the 
 Creeks. Having obtained from them their consent for the erec- 
 tion of a fort high up in their country, he was authorized by the 
 colonial council at Mobile to immediaitely establish it. Crozat's 
 directors deemed the location a most suitable one for the advance- 
 ment of his commerce, besides the barrier it would interpose to 
 the enemies of that commerce. 
 
 Accordingly Bienville embarked at Mobile, with eight iron 
 cannon, many flre arms, a large supply'of ammunition, merchan- 
 dise suitable for the Indians, and a liberal supply of provisions, 
 on board two small sailing vessels. "With these vessels also went 
 a number of canoes of various descriptions. The expedition was 
 composed of soldiers, Canadians, and Mobile and Choctaw Indians. 
 Bienville sailed up the Mobile river to the confluence of 
 1714 the Tombigby and Alabama. Here, passing with his 
 Apr. 4 singular fleet into the latter streain, he slowly ascended 
 it. After a long and tedious voyage, he arrived at one 
 
THE COLONY OF LOUISIANA GRANTED TO CEOZAT. 193 
 
 of the Alabama villages, not far -above tbe site of the modern 
 town of Selma. Continuing the voyage up the river, he succes- 
 sively passed the towns of Autauga,* Powacte and Ecuncharte ;t 
 and at length moored his boats at the beautiful Indian 
 town of CoOsawda. These towns were inhabited by the June 21 
 Alabamas, who, as we have seen, were members of the 
 great Creek nation, which was composed of several different 
 tribes, whom they had conquered and incorporated into their con- 
 federacy. Many of these people joined the fleet on its passage 
 up the. Alabama, and joyfully greeted Bienville, who was popular 
 with all the savages, and who, with wonderful facility, acquired a 
 perfect knowledge of their different dialects. He was met at 
 Coosawda by some of the most prominent Chiefs ; and here,leav- 
 ing his fleet, he embarked in a canoe, and explored the Coosa and 
 Tallapoosa rivers for several miles up. He then resolved to erect 
 his fort at the town of Tuskegee, which was then situated on the 
 east bank of the Coosa, four miles above the junction of that 
 stream with the Tallapoosa. Bienville displayed much judgment 
 in the selection of this place. It was at the head of a peninsula 
 formed by the windings of these rivers, which here approached 
 within six hundred yards of each other ; after which they 
 diverged considerably before they flnally came together. 1714 
 It was in the neighborhorhood of some of the most pop- June 22 
 ulous towns, the inhabitants of which could easily bring 
 down to the fort their articles of commerce by either river. Re- 
 turning to Coosawda, Bienville now advanced his fleet from thence 
 to the junction, where, entering the Coosa, he arrived at Tuske- 
 gee, where the voyage terminated. The crew left the boats, as- 
 cended the bluff, formed themselves in religious order, and sur- 
 rounded a cross which had been hastily constructed. Two priests, 
 who accompanied the expedition, chanted praises to the Most 
 High, and went through other solemn ceremonies, in presence of 
 a number of the natives, who contemplated the scene with 
 
 • Now the site of Washington, t Now the site ot Montgomery. 
 
 18 
 
194 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 calmness and respect, and who preserved the most profound 
 silence. With the assistance of the natives, Bienville began 
 the erection of a wooden fort with four bastions, in each one 
 of which he mounted two of the cannon. As the history of these 
 cannon is rather singular, and may interest some of our readers, 
 we must be allowed to digress a little from the main narrative, 
 by a brief reference to it. These cannon remained upon the en- 
 trenchments of Fort Toulouse from 1714 to 1763. Then the 
 French commandant spiked them, broke off the trunions, evacu- 
 ated the fort, and left the cannon there in that situation. The 
 English, who, in 1763, succeeded to the possession of this coun- 
 try, threw a garrison into Fort Toulouse, but in a very short time 
 also evacuated it and it fell into rapid decay ; but still the French 
 cannon remained there. A few years after (tol. Hawkins had 
 been stationed among the Creeks, as their agent, he induced the 
 government, as a means of encouraging agriculture, to send some 
 blacksmiths to the nation. One of these men succeeded in filing 
 away the spikes from two of the cannon. These the Indians used 
 to flre with powder for amusement. Afterwards, the army of 
 Jackson occupied the site of the old fort. In due time they 
 marched away, and still these French pieces remained there. 
 
 Finally, the town of Montgomery, now our capital, began to 
 be settled, and the inhabitants went up to old Fort Toulouse, then 
 Fort Jackson, and brought down two of these cannon, which they 
 fired at 4th of July festivals, and upon other extraordinary occa- 
 sions. When it was known that John Quincy Adams had been 
 elected President of the United States, his warm friends in Mont- 
 gomery determined to make the forests resound with the noise of 
 powder. One of the cannon was over-charged, and when touched 
 off by Ebenezer Pond, burst into pieces and mangled that gen- 
 tleman in such a horrid manner, that he was a long time recover- 
 ing. The breech of the other cannon was, some years afterwards, 
 burst off by heavy charges, and the portion which remains now 
 stands at Pollard's corner in Montgomery, being there planted in 
 
THE COLONY OF LOUISIANA GRANTED TO CEOZAT. 195 
 
 the ground, the muzzle up, for the purpose of protecting the corner 
 of the sidewalk. About the year 1820, another of these cannon was 
 carried to the t6wn of Wa;shington, then county seat of Autauga, 
 where the inhabitants iised to fire it upon the celebration of the 
 4th July, and whenever a steamboat arrived, but at length it was 
 also burst, by a party rejoicing one night at the result of a county 
 ■election. Another of these old French pieces was carried toWe- 
 tumpka when that town was first established, and was fired upon 
 like occasions. It is now at Rookford, in Coosa county, in the 
 possession of the same Ebenezev Pond who was so badly wounded 
 at Montgomery by the explosion of one of its mates. "What be- 
 -came of the other four cannon we do not know, but have under- 
 stood that they, together with a fine brass piece, are in the river 
 ■opposite Fort Jackson. 
 
 But to return to Bienville and his romantic expedi- 
 tion. Around the stockading ihe governor cut en- 1714 
 trenchmeuts, and one hundred years afterwards, Jack- Aug. 
 son placed an American fort upon the ruins, which 
 a,ssumed his name. Bienville occupied the summer and fall in 
 completing the fort and out-houses, and in explor- 
 ing the surrounding country. He visited Tookabat- Nov. 
 ■cha, upon the Tallapoosa, and extended his jourr 
 ney among the Lower Musoogees, upon the Chattahoochee — 
 even crossing that river, and conferring with the Chiefs in the 
 towns of Coweta and Cusseta, within the present limits of 
 ■Georgia. Upon all these dangerous excursions he was accompa- 
 nied by only a few faithful Canadians, and always performed his 
 journeys on foot. Was not this whole expedition most interest- 
 ing — nay, romantic? Here was the former Governor of Louisi- 
 ana, and now the Lieutenant Governor, in the centre of Alabama, 
 in the deepest depths of her forests, among people with whom he 
 had been at war, and who were yet tampered with by the Eng- 
 lish, visiting their towns, distributing presents, and exhorting 
 them to form* alliances with the French colony of Louisiana, and 
 
196 HI8T0:pT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 to expel the English who should attempt to form posts among 
 them. Yes ! citizens of the counties of Montgomery, Coosa, Tal- 
 lapoosa, Macon and Russell, reflect that one hundred and thirty- 
 seven years ago* the French Governor of Louisiana — ^the great 
 and good Bienville — walked oyev y oar soil, and instituted 
 1714 ftiendly relations with its rude inhabitants — among 
 whom not a solitary white man had a permanent abode 
 — and established a small colony upon the east bank of the Coosa ! 
 Giving the fort the name of « Toulouse," in honor of a dis- 
 tinguished French Count of that name, who had much to do with 
 the government of France and her colonies, and leaving 
 Dec. 27 in command Marigny de Mandaville with thirty soldiers, 
 and one of the priests, Bienville turned his boats down 
 the river, and, after a prosperous voyage, arrived at Mobile with 
 the Indians and Canadians who had accompanied him.f 
 
 Thus, we see, that although the French had been residing 
 upon the Mobile river since 1702, and the Canadians had severwl , 
 times explored Central Alabama, yet no attempt was made to 
 form permBnent settlements in this region, until twelve years 
 afterwards, when it was so successfully accomplished by Bien- 
 ville. 
 
 Governor Cadillac, in a despatch to the Minister, attempted 
 to acquire all the credit for the peace which had been made with 
 the Creek nation, and boasted, generally, of. the important serv- 
 ices which, he contended, he had rendered the colony. But he 
 was the same inefiScient, selfish and fault-finding officer. A large 
 majority of the inhabitants relied solely upon Bienville, whose 
 most prominent friends were Duclos, Boisbriant, Chateaugne, 
 Richebourg, and du Tisne, and the larger number of the priest- 
 hood. The friends of Cadillac were Marigny de Mandaville 
 Bagot, Bloundel, Latour, Villiers and Terrine. Thus this hand- 
 ful of men were at daggers' points with each other, instead of 
 uniting for their own preservation and prosperity, and that of the 
 
 * This being now 1851. t MS. letters obtained from Paris. 
 
THE COLONY OP LOUISIANA GRANTED TO CROZAT. 197 
 
 feeble settlements over which they had charge. A tyran- 
 nical ordinance was issued in France, upon the petition 1714 
 of Crozat, which further embarrassed affairs. All persons Dec. 27 
 were forbidden to bring any merchandise into Lou- 
 isiana, or to carry any oUt of it, under penalty of confiscation 
 to the profit of Crozat. No person in the colony was allowed 
 to have a vessel fit to go to sea, and all subjects of the King were 
 prohibited from sending vessels to the colony to carry on com- 
 merce. Croza", was determined to avail himself of the monopoly 
 which had been granted him, and this ordinance was based upon 
 the representations of Cadillac, who had, more than once, com- 
 plained to the Minister, that the inhabitants of the colony were 
 making <i little for themselves, in a commerce with the Spaniards, 
 which was deemed a very unw^arrantable thing by that 
 illiberal man. Cadillac hated Bienville for several rea- 1714 
 sons, the most prominent of which were, that he was 
 too popular with the Canadians and Indians, too much respected 
 and obeyed by the inhabitants generally, and had absolutely re- 
 fused to become his son-in-law. Cadillac's daughter, who had 
 been educated in France, and who, like her father, thought much 
 of the blood and honor of the family, fell in love with Bienville, 
 soon after her arrival in Mobile. .The proud governor could not, 
 at first, brook the idea of an alliance with a Canadian, but he 
 saw, as he supposed, the strong attachment of his daughter, who 
 now began, like many other hypocritical girls, to pine away and 
 sicken in consequence of his refusal. Believing that Bienville's 
 great influence with the inhabitants, as well as with the various 
 Indian tribes, would materially strengthen his administration 
 and advance the commerce of Crozat, the profits of which he was 
 to share, if he could but once secure his friendship and obedience, 
 he resolved to sacrifice his family dignity by gratifying the 
 wishes of his daughter. One day he accosted Bienville, with 
 much respect and suavity of manner, and invited him into his 
 closet. He then disclosed to him his entire willingness to sane- 
 
198 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 tion the contemiplated match between him and his daughter, 
 charged him to treat her with affection, and concluded his con- 
 versation with a very patronizing air. Bienville, much surprised 
 at the whole affair, as he had never alluded to marriage in the 
 few visits which he had paid the daughter, gravely assured Ca- 
 dillac that he had "determined never to marry." This was too 
 bad; and, from that moment, Bienville found, in the persons of 
 the Governor and his daughter, two most cordial haters. 
 
 The redoubtable Curate de la Vente continued to declaim, 
 not only against the colonial government, but against 
 1714 everybody except his friend Cadillac. In his despatches 
 Dec. to the Minister, he said that the (Janadians particultirly, 
 " did not wish to connect themselves with any women 
 by marriage, much preferring to carry on scandalous concubin- 
 age with the young Indian squaws, who were hurried by their 
 nature into all kinds of irregularities.'.' That they scarcely ever 
 saw a church, never performed mass, and never partook of the 
 sacraments ; that, while a few of the inhabitants did celebrate 
 Sundays and festival days, the large majority resorted to tav- 
 erns and to public game — "whence it is easy to comprehend, 
 that they are almost all drunkards, gamesters, blasphemers of 
 the holy name of God, and declared enemies of all good, mak- 
 ing a matter of ridicule of our holy religion and of the persons 
 who perform its exercises." They corrupted the soldiers by 
 such horrid examples; and even offtcers, who wore the sword 
 and plume, had children by Indian females. The missiona- 
 ries found themselves useless to a people who were led away by 
 such vices, and to the Indians, who were, corrupted by the sins 
 of the latter, and consequently they would be forced to leave a 
 land so accursed. La Vente. suggested to the Minister two 
 plans " to rectify the affairs of the past and those of the futuie," 
 either to solely colonize Louisiana with Christian families, or perr 
 mit the French to - marry the Indian women by religious rites; 
 
THE COLONY OF LOUISIANA GEANTBD TO CROZAT. 199 
 
 Or, if these plans could not be carried into effect, that 
 
 a large number of girls, "better chosen than the last, 1714 
 
 and especially some who will be sufficiently pleasing Dec. 
 
 and well-formed to suit the officers of the garrisons and 
 
 the principal inhabitants," should be sent over from France as a 
 
 partial remedy. Verily, the worthy curate's head appeared to 
 
 run much upon women of various grades ! 
 
 According to the orders which he had received, De la Loire 
 des Ursins made a settlement at Natchez, to promote the com- 
 merce of Crozat. Cadillac set off on an expedition to discover 
 mines of gold and silver in the Illinois country, and did not re- 
 turn from his chimerical excursion until October, when he wrote 
 to the Minister that he had everywhere set the Indians 
 upon the English ; but, in truth, he had aroused the 1715 
 anger of the savages against himself wherever he had 
 appeared among them ; and, in descending the Mississippi, upon 
 , his way to Mobile, he had refused to smoke with the powerful 
 and war-like Natchez Chiefs, which was highly resented on their 
 part, and afterwards led to a war with the French. 
 
 An English officer from Carolina, named Hutchey, who had 
 passed through the Creek and Chickasaw nations, came into the 
 territory of the Natchez. From thence he began the descent of 
 the Mississippi, to form alliances with the tribes below. But Des 
 Ursins, who had gained intelligence of his movements, pursued 
 him in a boat, captured him near Manchac, and carried him to 
 Mobile. From thence Bienville sent him to Pensacola; 
 but having determined to reach Carolina by land, he was 1715 
 killed upon the route by a Thomez Indian. A large July 
 canoe, containing seven Alabamas, an Englishman and 
 a Canadian named Boutin, arrived at Mobile. They reported that 
 the Indians, bordering upon Carolina, had risen in war against 
 the inhabitants of that province, had killed those upon the 
 frontiers, and that even Port Royal and several other towns had 
 been destroyed. The war extended to the distant Chickasaw na- 
 
200 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 tion. There, lifteen English traders, who had taken shelter in 
 
 one cabin, were instantly slain in the presence of De St. Helene, 
 
 a Frenchman, who was then among the tribe, and who, a few 
 
 minutes after the massacre, was killed himself, through 
 
 1715 mistake, by two young Chickasaws, engaged in the 
 
 bloody scene, they supposing him to be one of the 
 
 enemy. His death was regretted by all the Chickasaws who 
 
 were present. 
 
 To profit by this intelligence, so agreeable to the French col- 
 ony, Bienville immediately despatched emissaries among the 
 Alabamas and Muscogees, to renew the alliances which he had 
 formed with them, and to engage them to turn their whole com- 
 merce into French channels. He sent messengers to the Choc- 
 taws, demanding the head of Outactachito, who had introduced 
 the English into their nation, and who had driven off the inhabit- 
 ants of the two Choctaw towns that were faithful to the French 
 and who still lay around Mobile, anxious to return home. The , 
 messengers returned to Mobile with the head of this warrior, 
 which had been reluctantly stricken off by the Chiefs, who were 
 afraid to disobey Bienville. They bore an invitation to those 
 Choctaws whom they had forced to leave their homes, to return 
 in peace. 
 
 The storeship Dauphin came to anchor in Mobile 
 1715 bay, where she landed two companies of infantry, 
 Aug. commanded by Mandaville and Bagot, which increased 
 the expenditures of the colony to the amount of thirty- 
 two thousand livres a year. One of the passengers, named Kogeon, 
 came to fill the place of Dirigoin, one of the directors of Crozat, 
 who had been removed from office. At the same time a frigate 
 from Eochelle, and a brigantme from Martinique, arriving in the 
 bay, requested permission to dispose of their cargoes to the in- 
 habitants ; but the authorities, anxious to perfect the monopoly 
 of Crozat, refused them the privilege. 
 
 In the meantime, Cadillac had not forgotten how to fill the 
 
THE COLONY OF LOUISIANA GRANTED TO CEOZAT. 201 
 
 sheets, which he sent to Count Pontchartrain, with gloomy pic- 
 tures of the colony, and the licentiousness of its inhabitants. In 
 one of these despatches he denominated Louisiana " a monster 
 which had neither head nor tail." He complained of the manner 
 in which the council unscrupulously altered the decrees of the 
 French government. He said that the whole country was the 
 poorest and most miserable upon the globe, the people of which 
 would sooner believe a lie than the truth. He recommended that 
 a stone fort be erected at Mobile, but immediately interposed an 
 obstacle to the project by saying that the topographical engineer 
 was a man without firmness and judgment, and was always 
 drunk. He was violently opposed to the establishment 
 of a colony upon the Mississippi, on the ground which 1715 
 sustains New Orleans, a measure now contemplated by 
 Crozat, through the recommendation of Bienville. He asserted 
 that the Mississippi river was too crooked, too rapid in high tides, 
 arid too low in the dry season, for the navigation of canoes ! 
 
 At length Cadillac went to reside on Dauphin Island, where 
 he had formerly spent much of his time. It was forti- 
 fied with four barracks of palisades, covered with 1715 
 rushes, and a guard-house, with a prison of the same July 20 
 style — the whole surrounded with palisades very irreg- 
 ularly arranged. From this island he immediately issued the 
 following singular ordinance : 
 
 ORDINANCE OF M. DE LEMOTTE CADILLAC. 
 
 " As we have obtained certain knowledge of several cabals 
 and conspiracies which tend to revolt and sedition, and on ac- 
 count of some disturbances from which evil consequences may 
 ensue, in order to abolish and obviate the misconduct caused by 
 drunkenness, and also disturbances fomented by women of irregu- 
 lar life, or by the instigation of other persons who excite to venge- 
 ance those who are so unfortunate as to expose themselves by evil 
 discourse, and as every one takes it upon himself to carry a 
 
202 HISTOKT or ALABAMA. 
 
 sword and other weapons without having any right to do so, 
 we most positively prohibit to all persons of low birth, to all 
 clerks of M. Crozat, sailors and strangers lately arrived from 
 France, if they are not provided with his majesty's commission, 
 from carrying a sword or any other weapons, either by day or 
 night, on Dauphin Island, or at any other settlements where 
 there is an actual garrison, under the penalty of three hundred 
 livres fine, to be applied to the erection of a church on Dauphin 
 Island ; and in default of payment, the offender shall be confined 
 in prison for the space of one month, and the penalty shall be 
 greater for each repetition of the offence. We grant to all gen- 
 tlemen the privilege of wearing a sword after having proved their 
 nobility, and presented their titles to the secretary of the coun- 
 cil for exammation, and not otherwise, under the same penalties. 
 We grant, also, to all civil and military officers, actually serving 
 in the country, permission to wear a sword, &c." 
 
 Thus, while this ridiculous governor was establishing him- 
 self in a court of heraldry, in a miserable cabin of palm logs on 
 Dauphin Island, and pronouncing upon titles of nobility, Bien- 
 ville was in the interior of the immense wilds of Louisiana; 
 establishing trading posts and advancing the interests of the 
 colony. Cadillac, whom the excellent commissary, Duclos, pro- 
 nounced to be " an avaricious, cunning and obstinate man, who 
 kept for himself everything which the court sent to the savages," 
 was fast losing ground with the authorities in France. Crozat, 
 in one of his last communications to him, used this language : 
 "It is my opinion that all the disorders of which M. Cadillac 
 complains in the colony proceed from the mal-administration of 
 M., Cadillac himself." The Minister added this postscript: 
 « Messrs. Cadillac and Duclos, whose characters are utterly in- 
 compatible with each other, and who, at the same time, lack the 
 
 intelligence necessary to the performance of their duties, 
 1716 are recalled, and their places are filled by others." It 
 
 was unjust that Duclos should have been made to lose 
 
THE COLONY OF LOUISIANA GKANTED TO CBOZAT. 203 
 
 his station because his views of colonial policy clashed with those 
 of the Grovernor. 
 
 The King of France had ordered Bienville to form several 
 establishments upon the Mississippi, and to commence with that 
 among the Natchez, with eighty soldiers. As soon as possible he 
 began the construction of large canoes to be used as transports. 
 Cadillac refused to place at his disposal the number of soldiers 
 designated by his majesty, and Bienville, when all things were 
 ready, departed with only thirty-four soldiers under the com- 
 mand of Richebourg. To these were added fifteen sail- 
 ors. Bienville advanced to a town of the Tonicas, Apr. 23 
 eighteen leagues below Natchez, and there learning from 
 Father Da v ion, still a missionary among those people, that they 
 were not to be trusted, and would probably become allies to the 
 Natchez, he established himself temporarily upon an island in 
 the Mississippi, where he erected three barracks, which he en- 
 closed with piles. His object was to obtain possession of 
 the persons of those Chiefs and prominent warriors of the 
 Natchez, who had recently murdered some Frenchmen, in con- 
 sequence of the refusal of Cadillac to smoke with them, 
 which they viewed as a declaration of war. He intended, 
 after he had made an example of a few Chiefs, and had 
 intimidated the common people, to proceed to their towns 
 and there construct a fortification in obedience to the orders 
 of his King. Fattier Davion further informed Bienville that 
 the Natchez Chiefs did not suspect that the murders which 
 they had committed were known to the French authorities, and 
 were anxious to keep them concealed. Bienville then despatched 
 messengers up the river, who were instructed to pass by the 
 Natchez during the night, and proceed toward the Wabash settle- 
 ments, and inform all Frenchmen, whom they met descending, 
 to be upon. their guard, for that he was stationed at the Tonicas, 
 and that he was preparing to be revenged upon the murderers of 
 the Frenchmen, which would possibly produce a serious war with 
 that tribe. 
 
204 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 Three Natchez, who were sent by their Chiefs to Bienville, 
 arrived with the pipe of peace, but the latter declined to receive 
 it, and stated that the messengers might smoke with his soldiers, 
 
 but that he would only smoke with the Great Sun Chiefs, 
 
 1716 for he was the Great Chief of the French. He affected 
 
 Apr. 27 indifference about establishing a trading post among 
 
 them, and intimated an intention to give the Tonicasthe 
 benefit of his merchandise, as the Natchez Chiefs had exhibited 
 such a want of respect and friendship, in not coming themselves 
 to greet him. 
 
 The three savages speedily returned home with this start- 
 ling message, an4 with a French interpreter, who could further 
 
 explain the reply of Bienville. One morning, Bienville 
 May 8 saw four magnificent canoes descending the river, and 
 
 bearing toward the island. Eight warriors stood erect 
 and sung the pipe-song, while three Chiefs, in each canoe, sat 
 under immense umbrellas. They were the Natchez Chiefs, allured 
 thither by the snare which the royal lieutenant had laid for them. 
 Concealing one-half of his soldiers, and advancing, with apparent 
 friendship, he conducted them within his rude military works, 
 which they entered singing the song of peace, and holding the 
 pipe over his head. Afterwards, they passed their hands over 
 his stomach without rubbing, and then over themselves. Bien- 
 ville refused the pipe with contempt, and desired, first, to know 
 the nature of their visit. Much disconcerted, the Chiefs went 
 Out and presented their pipes to the Sun. The High Priest, with 
 his arms extended and his eyes fixed upon the bright luminary 
 
 which he daily worshipped, invoked it to soften the tem- 
 1716 per and change the resolution of the stern Bienville. 
 
 Again entering the works, he presented the pipe to 
 Bienville, who scornfully refused it. At that moment the Chiefs 
 were seized, ironed, and placed in the prison. At night, Bien- 
 ville informed the Grand Sun, and his brothers, the Angry Ser- 
 pent and the Little Sun, whom he had caused to be separated 
 
THE COLONY or LOUISIANA GRANTED TO CEOZAT. 205 
 
 from the others and brought into his presence, that nothing 
 would satisfy him but to be placed in possession of the heads 
 of the Chiefs who advised the murder of the five Frenchmen, and 
 of those who executed the horrid deed ; that he knew that they 
 were hot concerned in the transaction themselves, and, 
 consequently, he did not desire to take their lives, un- May 9 
 less they, failed to comply with his demands. He 
 gave them until morning to determine upon his requisition, 
 and by daylight the three brothers appeared before him, and 
 implored him to remember that no one now remained in their, 
 town of sufficient authority to chop off the heads of the men 
 whom he demanded, and requested that the Angry Serpent 
 might be permitted to return home to accomplish the dangerous 
 mission. Bienville refused, but sent the Little Sun in his place, 
 with an officer and twelve soldiers, who conveyed him in a canoe 
 within six miles of Natchez, where he was placed on shore. The 
 Little Sun returned to Bienville, with three heads, two 
 6f which the French commander recognized as those 1716 
 which he had demanded. The other head was that of May 14 
 an innocent person, the brother of one of the murderers, 
 who had fled to the forests. Bienville expressed his deep regret 
 to the Chiefs, that they had thus caused an innocent person to 
 suffer, and assured them that nothing would compromise his re- 
 sentment but the p6ssession of the head of the Chief, White 
 Earth. Notwithstanding the Little Sun had acted with so much 
 promptness, and had brought with him a Frenchman and two 
 Illinois Indians, whom he found tied to stakes in one of the 
 Natchez towns, ready to be burned to death, yet Bienville caused 
 him to be ironed and remanded to prison with the others. 
 The next day he despatched to the Natchez the High May 15 
 Priest of the Temple and two Chiefs of War for the head 
 of White Earth. They were conducted by a detachment almost 
 to their village. In the meantime, by a confession of the impris- 
 oned Chiefs, Bienville ascertained that the English had been 
 
206 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 encouraged and the Frenchmen had been killed at the instance 
 of White Earth, Grigars, and two Chiefs and two warriors then 
 in his custody. The Indians whom he had sent to the Natchez 
 having returned without the head of White Earth, who had made 
 his escape, and the inundation of the Mississippi having caused 
 much sickness on the island, Bienville determined to end the 
 affair by a treaty with the Chiefs, who willingly acceded to his 
 terms, and were grateful that he had spared their lives. They 
 bound themselves to kill White Earth whenever he could be cap- 
 tured, to restore all the goods which they had seized, to cut two 
 thousand five hundred piles of acacia wood, thirty feet long and 
 ten inches in diameter, and to deposit them at the spot, at Natchez, 
 where it was contemplated to erect a fort ; and to furnish the 
 bark of three thousand cypress trees, for covering the houses, by 
 the end of July.* 
 
 Adjutant Pailloux departed, with two soldiers, to the town 
 
 of the Natchez, with the Chiefs and other warriors; 
 
 1716 Bienville, however, retained the Angry Serpent and his 
 
 June 3 brother, the Little Sun, as hostages, and also kept the 
 
 four murderers, who now rent the prison with their dole- 
 ful death-songs and loud speeches of defiance. Pailloux, upon 
 arriving among the Natchez, found them assembled in council, 
 and learned, with pleasure, that they were satisfied with the 
 compact which their Chiefs had made with Bienville. He selected 
 an eminence, near the Mississippi, advantageously situated, for 
 tbat purpose, for the site of a fort. In the meantime, Bienville had 
 
 been visited at the island by nine old Natchez men, who 
 
 17J6 came with much show of solemnity, and invited him to 
 
 June 8 smoke the pipe of peace with them, which he now no longer 
 
 refused to do. He sent them home with the Little Sun 
 
 June and four soldiers, who conveyed, in a large canoe, axes, 
 
 9-11 spades, pickaxes, nails and other irons, to construct the 
 
 fort. The next day, the soldiers, at the island, struck 
 
 * Histoire de la Lonlsiane, par Charles Gayarre, vol. 1, pp. 114-144. Journal Historique 
 de I'EtaUissement dee Francais a la Louisiane, par Bernard de la Harpe, pp. 115-128. 
 
THE COLONY OP LOUISIANA GEANTBD TO CKOZAT. 207 
 
 off the heads of the two warriors. Afterwards Captain 
 Richebourg was obliged to depart for Mobile, on account of sick- 
 ness. A number of Canadian voyageurs, whom Bienville de- 
 tained at the island, while on their way from the Illinois country, 
 with peltries and supplies for the people of the lower part of 
 Louisiana, now that the difficulty with the Natchez 
 bad ended, were permitted to proceed down the Missis- June 13 
 sippi; the loyal lieutenant caused them to take with 
 them the two Chiefs, whose heads he ordered to be struck off 
 twelve leagues below, which was faithfully executed. 
 
 The Natchez, directed by the French officer and assist 3d by 
 a few soldiers, labored upon the fort and ditches with great as- 
 siduity, and soon brought the works to a state of com- 
 pletion. Bienville ha"d arrived a few days before, in Aug. 
 company with the Angry Serpent, whom he had re- 2-25 
 tained about his person until every seeming obstacle 
 ■was overcome. iJefore the gate of the fort, six hundred Natchez 
 warriors appeared, unarmed, and joined three hundred women in 
 a dance in honor of Bienville ; afterwards the Chiefs crossed the 
 threshold and smoked the pipe of peace with him. Such was the 
 end of the first Natchez war. 
 
 Leaving Pailloux in command of the post at Natchez, Bien- 
 ville descended the Mississippi, and sailed to Mobile for 
 the purpose of reporting to Governor Cadillac. Here he Oct. 4 
 received a packet from the Marine Council, in which he 
 ■was ordered by the King of France to govern as chief of the col- 
 ony, until L'Epinay, the successor of Cadillac, should arrive. He 
 was thus saved the disagreeable necessity of reporting to his old 
 enemy, who had, in advance, denounced his conduct to the Min- 
 ister, as fraught with cruelty and the deepest treachery towards 
 the Natchez Chiefs. We are not prepared to defend Bienville 
 from these charges, although his course was approved by the 
 government and by all the colonial authorities, with the excep- 
 tion of Cadillac and his junto. 
 
208 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 The King of France, acceding to the request of Crozat, al- 
 lowed one hundred salt-makers to be sent annually to Louisiana, 
 who, after laboring there for three years, were to receive land. 
 He also consented to send thither eight companies of soldiers^ 
 with permission to two, out of each company, to settle in the 
 country, together with a hundred hospital girls, annually, to in- 
 crease the colonial population. The King refused to adopt the 
 suggestion of the Curate La Vente, of permitting Frenchmen to 
 marry Indian women. 
 
 For the payment of colonial expenses, for the year 1716, now 
 nearly brought to a close, Duclos, the commissary-general, re- 
 quired of the French government an appropriation of the follow- 
 ing amounts : 
 
 A governor 6000 livres. 
 
 A commissary 6000 '• 
 
 A .royal lieutenant 2000 « 
 
 An adjutant 900 " 
 
 Four captains of companies 4800 " 
 
 Four lieutenants 3600 " 
 
 Ensigns 2400 « 
 
 A secretary 1000 " 
 
 A store-keeper 800 " 
 
 A surgeon 800 " 
 
 A chaplain 800 « 
 
 Incidental expenses 80992 " 
 
 110,092 livres* 
 
 * Historle de la Louisiane, par Charles Gayarre, vol. 1, pp. 148-152. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The India oe Mississippi Company. 
 
 L'Epinat, the new governor, and the fourth which had been 
 placed over the colony of Louisiana, Hubert, the new commissary- 
 general, three companies of infantry and fifty colonists, 
 arrived from France, on board three vessels, which be- 1717 
 longed to Crozat. Among the colonists were Roi Du- Mar. 9 
 breuil, Guennot, Trefontaine and Massy, men of worth 
 and intelligence, who had formed themselves into an association 
 to settle some portion of the almost boundless country of Louis* 
 iana. 
 
 To prevent the struggle for power which had never failed 
 to display itself between the former governor, commissaries, 
 and officers of the colony, the King of France, by written in- 
 structions, defined the duties of each. He declared that all mili- 
 tary regulations, and the " dignity of command," should per- 
 tain to the governor alone ; but in the building of public houses 
 and fortifications, the marching of expeditions, and the means 
 of raising funds, he was to confer with the commissary, whose 
 joint views were to be presented for the ratification of his 
 majesty. The administration of the funds, provisions, mer- 
 chandise and everything which related to the warehouses was 
 confided to the commissary, who, however, could make no bar- 
 gain or sale without the consent of the governor. The ad- 
 ministration of the hospitals was also confided to the commis- 
 sary, with the supervision of the governor. The administration 
 of justice was committed to the commissary in his function of 
 first councillor and chief judge. The affairs of the police, and 
 
 209 14 
 
210 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 the power of conferring grants of land were given jointly to 
 these officers. Letters patent established a Supreme Council' of 
 Louisiana, the meetings of which his majesty authorized to be 
 held either at Fort St. Louis, of Mobile, or upon Dauphin Island. 
 The King granted to Bienville, for his numerous services, the 
 Island of Come, not as a fief, but in villanage, and instructed 
 L'Epinay to present him with the cross of St. Louis. These 
 marks of favor did not reconcile Bienville, who considered him^ 
 self, beyond all others, entitled to the government of Louisiana. 
 Consequently jealousies and disputes soon created a disagreeable 
 and unhappy state of things, arraying the friends of Bienville on 
 one side, and those of the governor and commissarv on the 
 other. . As Crozat attempted to bribe Cadillac, in order to attain 
 his most vigorous and successful exertions in advancing his com- 
 merce, so, for the same end, he entered into a contract with 
 L'Epinay, engaging to give him two thousand livres a year, and 
 divers other advantages. The great monopolist had designed to 
 establish a large contraband trade with the Spanish possessions 
 if he could not carry on a legitimate one. But he succeeded in 
 neither, and next, turning his attention to a commerce with the 
 various Indian tribes upon the Mississippi, Alabama, Tombigby, 
 
 and their tributaries, he found that so far from being 
 1717 remunerated, he had to encounter the heaviest losses. 
 Aug. At length, aware that he had assumed a burthen beyond 
 
 his strength, he humbly offered to return to the King 
 that charter, the extensive privileges of which he had once im- 
 agined would make him the richest man in the world.! The 
 proposition was accepted, and the Council of State transmitted 
 
 orders to L'Epinay to transfer the colonial government 
 Oct. 27 to Bienville, and to return to France. The gubernatorial 
 
 career of the former gentleman was of short duration, 
 and remarkable for nothing, except a proclamation, in which he 
 forbade the sale of brandy to the Indians — at that period a very 
 unpopular measure. 
 
THE INDIA OE MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. 211 
 
 During the five years of the existence of the colony, under 
 the charter of Crozat, commerce and agriculture had not pros- 
 pered, yet the population had slowly increased, and now num- 
 bered about seven hundred souls., The colonists, also, possessed 
 some four hundred horned cattle. The inhabitants had devoted 
 themselves to a trade in provisions and Indian slaves, and to a 
 commerce with the Spaniards, who, despite of the watchfulness 
 of Crozat's agents, had managed to carry off, annually, about 
 twelve thousand piastres. 
 
 The Marine Cabinet of France, composed of De Bourbon 
 and D'Estrees, came to the conclusion that as the enterprise 
 which Crozat had assumed had proved itself of too gigantic a 
 character for any one man, and as it would not be proper for 
 the King to take charge of Louisiana, and embarrass himself by 
 entering into its thousand cares and commercial details, it would 
 better comport with the welfare of Prance and her colony, to 
 turn the latter over to the management of an association of men. 
 Accordingly, the Western or India Company, with a capital of one 
 hundred thousand livres, was allowed to take the unhappy people 
 of Louisiana under their charge, and to expose them, once more, 
 to an arbitrary and grinding monopoly. The members of this 
 company were not required to be solely subjects of the King of 
 France, but might be foreigners. The charter, which 
 was legistered in the Parliament, at Paris, gave this 1717 
 company the exclusive privilege of carrying on all com- Sept. 6 
 merce in Louisiana, for the long period of twenty-flve 
 years. It also gave them the exclusive privilege, extending from 
 the 1st January, 1718, to the 31st December, 1742, of purchasing 
 beaver skins from Canada — the King reserving the right of reg- 
 ulating their price, and of determining the quantity to be sold. 
 The company possessed the power of conferring grants, making 
 war or peace with the Indians, establishing forts, levying troops, 
 appointing governors, or other officers, tor the colony, upon the 
 recommendation of the directors of the company; building ves- 
 
212 HISTORY OF ALABAMA.. 
 
 sels of war, casting pieces of artillery, and of nominating the in- 
 ferior judges, and all the other officers of justice, the King re- 
 serving to himself only the right of appointing the members of 
 the Supreme Council. 
 
 It was further provided by the charter that the military 
 officers could enter into the service of the company without los- 
 ing their rank in the army or navy, but they were not allowed 
 to seize, either in the hands of the directors, or in those of its 
 cashier or its agents, the effects, shares or profits of the stock- 
 holders, except in case of failure or open bankruptcy or death of 
 said stockholders. The merchandise of the company was to be 
 free from all charges either of entry or departure, and to those 
 portions of the territory where they made permanent improve- 
 ments, the company was to have durable rights, which were to 
 extend also to the mines, which they might discover and work. 
 The only thing which savored of liberality toward the 
 1717 inhabitants, was their exemption from taxation during 
 Sept. 6 the existence of the charter. The ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
 tion was still to form a part of the diocese of Quebec, 
 while the com pany was to build churches and pay the clergy. 
 It was to transport to the colony, during the term of its charter, 
 six thousand whites and three thousand negroes ; but It was pro- 
 hibited from sending negroes or whites to the other French col- 
 onies, without the permission of the Governor of Louisiana. The 
 directors were to be appointed by the King, for the first two 
 years, and afterwards they were to be elected every three years, 
 by the stockholders, each of whom had a vote for every fifty 
 shares. In short, the India Company was granted all manner of 
 powers and privileges. 
 
 A celebrated Scotchman, named Law, who was now director 
 of the Bank of France; D'Artaguette, receiver-general of the 
 finances of Auch ; Duche, receiver of those of Rochelle ; Moreau, 
 commercial deputy of the city of St. Malo; Piou, deputy of 
 the city of Nantes; and Costaignes and Mauchard, merchants 
 
04 
 
 
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214 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 of Rochelle, were nominated by the King of France as the first 
 directors for the colony of Louisiana, under the new charter. 
 The company then sent over three companies of infantry, and 
 sixty-nine colonists. The three vessels which bore them 
 1718 arrived at Dauphin Island, and the inhabitants were re- 
 Feb. 9 vived with pleasing anticipations of better times, espec- 
 ially as the great and good Bienville, whom they almost 
 idolized, was made Governor with a salary of six thousand livres. 
 He, who had been twenty years in this wild and inhospitable 
 country, and who, amidst the deepest gloom and the greatest suf- 
 fering of the colonists, had never once left them, but had sus- 
 tained them with his fearless spirit, mighty arm and benevolent 
 heart, was eminently deserving the high post to which he was 
 now elevated. The first thing he did was to seek a suitable place 
 for the location of the principal settlement of the colony. He se- 
 lected the site of Xew Orleans, which had long been a favorite 
 point with him, as we have seen. He proceeded there with fifty 
 persons, carpenters and galley slaves, whom he set to 
 March work to clear away the woods and erect houses. He 
 next sent a detachment of fifty soldiers,under Chateaugne, 
 to build a fort upon the bay of St. Joseph, situated between Pen- 
 sacola and St. Marks, which, being completed, De Gousy was left 
 in command. From him Captain Roka, a Spaniard, induced 
 twenty-five soldiers to desert and flee to St. Augustine. The post 
 of St. Joseph was soon abandoned by the French, who had no 
 right to settle any part of Florida, and it was immediately occu- 
 pied by the Spaniards. 
 
 In the vessels which arrived on tlie 9th of February came 
 
 Major Boisbriant, who had paid a visit to France, and who was 
 
 now commissioned a royal lieutenant, with a salary of three 
 
 thousand livres. D'Hubert was retained as Commissary 
 
 1718 General, with a salary of five thousand livres. These 
 
 Apr. 28 vessels were succeeded by another, having on board sixty 
 
 passengers for the grant belonging to Paris Duvernet, 
 
THE INDIA OB MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. 215 
 
 which embraced the old Indian village of Pascagoula, where they 
 were presently located. Three more ships arrived at 
 Dauphin Island, which brought out Richebourg, now Aug. 35. 
 Chevalier of the Order of St. Louis ; Grandval, intended 
 to act as major, of Mobile ; Lieutenants Noyan and Meleque, and 
 Daniel, major of New Orleans. At the same time there arrived 
 forty commissioners, with Le Gac sub-director ; seventy persons 
 for the grant of Houssays, and sixty for that of La Harpe. 
 
 It was wisely determined to encourage agriculture, as the 
 best means of increasing the wealth and importance of Louisiana ; 
 and for that purpose extensive grants of land were made to the 
 richest and most powerful persons of the kingdom of France. 
 Four leagues square were ceded to the Scotch financier, Law, 
 on the Arkansas river, where he was to settle fifteen hundred 
 Germans, whom he was to protect by a small body of cavalry 
 and infantry. The other persons to whom grants were made, 
 likewise bound themselves to furnish a certain number of 
 emigrants. But the experiment did not succeed. These great 
 proprietors did send to Louisiana a few colonists, but a 
 majority of them fell victims to the climate, and those who 
 survived did not devote themselves to any useful occupation. 
 Among the grants were several upon the Yazoo river, near Nat- 
 chez, upon Red river, at Baton Rouge, and at other points upon 
 the Mississippi river. Failing in "the scheme to make the colony 
 an agricultural country, by the importation of colonists who were 
 to have settled upon these grants, the company next turned its 
 attention to slaveky, as a means of effecting that which was so 
 much desired.* 
 
 The following regulation of the company fixed the price the 
 colonists were to pay for the negroes, which they imported from 
 Africa: "The company considers every negro of seventeen 
 
 * Histoire de la Loulsiane, par Charles Gayarre, vol. 1, pp. 148-166. Journal His 
 torique de rEtablissement des Francais a la Louisiane, par Jiemard de la Harpe, pp. 
 131-144. 
 
216 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 years of age, and over, without bodily defect, also every negress 
 f i;om fifteen to thirty years of age, as worth ' piece d'lnde.* 
 
 Three little negroes, from eight to ten years old, are valued 
 at two of the same coins. 
 
 Two negro children, over ten years of age, are valued at one 
 'piece d'lnde.' 
 
 One year's credit will be given to the old inhabitants for 
 half the price. The other half must be paid immediately. 
 
 Those colonists who have been settled here two years are 
 called old inhabitants. 
 
 1718 The new settlers shall be entitled to one and two 
 Sept. 25 years credit." 
 
 In a despatch to the Minister, Bienville coniplained 
 that the colonists recently sent to Louisiana, were not the kind 
 desirable; that among them were to be found scarcely any car- 
 penters or laborers, "notwithstanding laboring people employed 
 in the country are paid ten or fifteen livres per day, which de- 
 lays improvement and causes great expense to the company." 
 
 Two vessels arrived from the mother country, and 
 
 1719 brought the startling intelligence that Spain and France 
 Apr. 19 had gone to war with each other. A council, composed 
 
 of Bienville, D'Hubert, Larchebault and Le Gac, deter- 
 mined upon the necessity of immediately possessing the im- 
 portant post of Pensacola. None of the military officers were 
 consulted in this movement, as they should have been, especially 
 
 upon the plan of attack. Bienville assembled, at Mobile, 
 May 13 some Canadians and four hundred Indians. His brother, 
 
 Serigny, sailed from Dauphin Island, with three men-of- 
 war, on boai d of which he had embarked one hundred and fifty sol- 
 diers. Bienville embarked in a sloop, with twenty men, made the 
 mouth of the Perdido, and went up the river to meet the Canadians 
 and Indians, whom he had instructed to march across the country 
 
 * Piece d'lnde was 660 livres. 
 
THE INDIA OE MTSSISSIPPI COMPANY. 217 
 
 from Mobile, and whom he found already at the place of 
 rendezvous. Placing himself at their head, he marched May 14 
 to Pensacola. In the meantime, the fleet stood before 
 that place, and at four o'clock, in the evening. Governor Mata- 
 mora surrendered to the French, when he found that he was 
 invested both by sea and land. According to the terms of 
 the capitulation, Bienville embarked the Spanish garrison on 
 board two of the men-of-war, with directions to convey them 
 safely to Havana. Arriving at that place, the governor of 
 Cuba ordered all the French forces to be landed and impris- 
 oned, seized the two men-of-war, manned them with sailors 
 and soldiers, and sent them back to attack Pensacola. This was 
 a most shameful disregard of the term.s of capitulation. The 
 Spanish fleet, comprising the two French vessels and a Spanish 
 man-of-war, with nine brigantines and eighteen hundred men, in- 
 vested Pensacola, and the next day made their attack. Bien- 
 ville had returned to Mobile, and had left his brother, Chateaugne, 
 in command. Seeing the superior force of the enemy, fifty sol- 
 diers deserted from the fort and joined the Spaniards, which 
 forced Chateaugne to capitulate. He was allowed to march out of 
 the fort, with the honors of war and to be carried to old Spain, 
 The store ship Dauphin was accidentally destroyed by fire, and 
 St. Louis was captured by the Spaniards. The commander of 
 the Spanish squadron next turned his eyes to Dauphin Island, and 
 presently sent thither two well manned brigantines. To the 
 captain of the French ship, Phillippe, which lay at anchor at 
 Dauphin Island, he sent a summons to surrender, but the 
 captain referred the messenger to Serigny, who commanded 
 the fort ; the latter declined to surrender the island. During 
 the night two brigantines entered the bay of Mobile, and 
 half way between Dauphin Island and the town of Mobile, 
 landed thirty-flve men to burn and plunder the inhabitants. 
 While they were here destroying the improvements of a settler, 
 they were suddenly attacked by a detachment of Canadians and 
 
218 HISTOKT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Indians, whom Bienville bad hastened to send from Mobile, to 
 support his brother, Serigny. Five Spaniards were slain, whose 
 scalps the Indians immediately secured ; six were drowned in 
 the enaeavor to reach the brigantines, while eighteen were made 
 prisoners ; among the latter were some of the French soldiers, 
 who had deserted from Cheteaugne, and who were now promptly 
 
 beheaded for their treason* Two days afterwards the 
 
 1719 remainder of the Spanish squadron stood before Dauphin 
 
 Aug. 19 Island, and continued for four days to cannonade the 
 
 Philippe and the town. Serigny, with one hundred and 
 sixty soldiers and two hundred Indians, aided by the gallant officers 
 and men of the Philippe, which was anchored within pistol shot 
 
 of the fort, succeeded in repulsing the Spaniards, who 
 Aug. 26 sustained considerable loss. The ships of the enemy 
 
 then set sail for Pensacola. 
 Three ships of the French line, under the command of 
 
 Champmeslin, convoying two of the company's ships, 
 Sept. 2 arrived off Dauphin Island, direct from France. The 
 
 two Spanish brigantihes, which were cruising in the bay, 
 between this island and Mobile, escaped to sea and sailed to Pen- 
 sacola, as soon as the French fleet was discovered. Bienville and 
 Serigny repaired on board of the ship Champmeslin, where was 
 presently convened a council, composed of all the sea captains 
 in port, who decided to capture the Spanish squadron and to 
 take the fort of Pensacola. Time was allowed the vessels to dis- 
 charge their freight and to take in wood and water, and Bienville 
 to assemble the savages and prepare them for the expedition. 
 When all things were ready, the Philippe and the Union, vessels 
 belonging to the company, were joined to the squadron, together 
 with two hundred and fifty of the new troops, lately arrived, 
 while Bienville, with the soldiers and volunteers, sailed in sloops 
 
 * La Harpe states (page 155), that eighteen French deserters, who were made prison- 
 ers, were bound hy the Indians and carried to Bienville, at Mobile, who caused seven- 
 teen of them to be decapitated, and that the remaining one was hung on Bauphin 
 Island. 
 
THE INDIA OE MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. 219 
 
 to the river Perdido, where he was joined hy five hundred In- 
 dians under the command of Langueville, who had marched with 
 them from Mobile. Prom this point Bienville sent a detachment 
 of French and Indians to invest the piincipal fort at Pensacola, 
 to prevent all egress from it and to harass the enemy as much as 
 possible. In the meantime, Champmeslin entered the harbor of 
 Pensacola, and, after a conflict of two hours' duration, 
 captured four ships and six brigantines, which were 1719 
 anchored before St. Rosa, and reduced the small fort Sept. 17 
 situated at the point of that Island. Bienville, having 
 marched across the country from the Perdido, had advanced in 
 the rear of the town with his whole force. He made a resolute 
 attack upon the fort, which was surrendered two hours after the 
 victory at St. Rosa's Island. The Indians fought with great 
 courage, often attempting to- pull up the palisades of the fort. 
 The plunder was divided among them, but they were prohibited 
 by Bienville from taking any scalps. The pillage being ended, 
 Champmeslin returned the sword which Don Alphonzo, com- 
 mander of the Spanish fleet, had presented to him as his con- 
 queror, assuring him that he was worthy of wearing, it. But 
 Matamora, the Governor of Pensacola, who had acted with so 
 much pertidy towards the French victors, who conveyed him to 
 Havana, was suffered to be disarmed by a common sailor, and was 
 severely reproached for his conduct' The loss of the French in 
 these engagements was only six men ; that of the Spaniards was 
 much greater. Champmeslin despatched the St. Louis, one of the 
 Spanish vessels, to Havana, with thi-ee hundred and sixty of the 
 prisoners. The commander was instructed to demand 
 an exchange of the French prisoners, at the head of 1719 
 whom was Chateaugne,who had not been carried to Spain, Sept. 18 
 according to the capitulation, but had been closely con- 
 fined in Moro Castle. 
 
 A Spanish brigantine from Havana, laden with corn flour 
 and brandy for the garrison, entered the bay of Pensacola, sup- 
 
220 HISTOEY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 posing the fleet to belong to Spain, into whose hands it was now 
 believed the whole of Louisiana had fallen, and was immediately 
 captured by the French squadron. On the same day forty-seven 
 French deserters were tried, twelve of whom were hung at the 
 yard-arms of the Count de Toulouse, and the remainder con- 
 demned to serve the company as galley slaves. Thus ended the 
 expedition againfet Pensaoola, the command of which was given 
 
 to DeLisle, a lieutenant of the navy. 
 1719 Since the commencement, of this year, vessels from 
 
 France had constantly brought over to Louisiana liberal 
 supplies of provisions, merchandise, and not unfrequently distin- 
 guished persons and emigrants, thus adding to the number and giv- 
 ing character to her population, and causing her slowly to emerge 
 from the supineness and insignificance of former times. For this 
 reason, and also on account of the war with Spain, it became nec- 
 essary to re-organize the colonial government in several respects. 
 A royal ordinance decreed that a Supreme Council should be com- 
 posed of those directors who were residents in the colony, the 
 governor, the two royal lieutenants, four councillors, an attorney- 
 general, and a secretary. Three members for civil affairs, and 
 five for criminal cases, could constitute a quorum. Its jurisdic- 
 tion was to be the highest in the colony, and its sessions were to 
 be monthly. The former council had -been the only tribunal in 
 the colony, but now it was decided to establish inferior courts, 
 of which the directors of the company, or their agents, weie to 
 be judges, in places where they resided. These, with two respect- 
 able citizens of the neighborhood, were to have cognizance of 
 civil business. They were required, in criminal cases, to add four 
 more citizens to their number. An appeal from their decisions 
 could be had to the Supreme Council — the members of which 
 were not allowed to charge for their final opinions. 
 
 Bienville, the governor ; D'Hubert, commissary-general and 
 first councillor ; Boisbriant and Chateaugne, royal lieutenants ; 
 L'Archambault, Villardo and Legas, other councillors ; Cartier di 
 
THE INDIA OE MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. 221 
 
 Baune, the attorney-general ; and Couture, secretary, composed 
 the first Supreme Council, which met under the auspices of the 
 Western or India Company. Although the governor occupied 
 the place of honor in this body, D'Hubert, the first councillor, 
 was the real president, who took the vote, pronounced judgment, 
 aflfixed the public seals, and filled the station of chief judge. 
 
 Bienville was opposed in his long cherished desire of remov- 
 ing the government to the site of New Orleans, by D'Hubert and 
 the directors, who dreaded the inundations of the Mis- 
 sissipi, and who contended that the colony was not in 1719 
 a situation to oppose levees to the floods at that point. 
 D'Hubert suggested the location of Natchez ; but as he owned 
 large grants there, his motives were suspected. It was decided 
 to adopt the views of L'Archambault, Villardo and Legas, who 
 inclined more towards commerce than agriculture, and who rec- 
 ommended that a new establishment should be formed east of the 
 bay of Biloxi, which should be called New Biloxi. A detachment 
 was sent there to build barracks and houses. 
 
 The cultivation of rice, indigo and tobacco had already occu- 
 pied the attention of the colonists to some extent, who found the 
 lands extremely productive for those profitable plants. But the 
 climate was too warm and unhealthy for European labor, and 
 hence one thousand of the Children of the Sun, from Africa, had 
 been introduced into the colony, and from that moment Louisiana 
 began to prosper. -But many things yet impeded its ad- 
 vancement. Among other impediments, the company, Nov. 26 
 to secure the exclusive commerce of Louisiana, issued 
 an edict forbidding any vessel to enter the colony under penalty 
 of confiscation. This was followed up by a proclama- 
 tion, regulating the price of merchandise, which the col- 1720 
 onists were compelled to buy at the company's ware- Jan. 
 houses, and nowhere else. It also arbitrarily fixed the price 
 which the colonists were to receive for their product, skins, and 
 
222 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 for everything which they had for sale* Gayarre says : " At 
 the present day, we can hardly discover how the whites, whom 
 the company transported from Europe, differed from the blacks, 
 who were bought from Africa, at least as to tbeir relation to the 
 company ; for these two classes of men belonged both to one mas- 
 ter — the all-powerful company!" 
 
 The Royal Squadron, intended to protect the commerce of 
 
 Louisiana, arrived with two hundred and thirty passen- 
 
 1720 gers, among whom were several girls, and a considerable 
 
 Feb. 28 quantity of provisions and merchandise. Several months 
 
 June 8 elapsed, when two vessels of the Royal Navy bore the 
 
 intelligence that a treaty of peace had been concluded 
 
 with Spain. These were succeeded by three other vessels of war, 
 
 which anchored at Dauphin Island, and which brought with 
 
 them a contagious malady, contracted at St. Domingo, 
 
 July 1 which killed many of the crew, and filled tbeir bodies, 
 
 as it was ascertained by post mortem examination, with 
 
 horrible worms ! At the same time, the ship Hercules came with 
 
 one hundred and twenty negroes from Guinea, and a brigantine 
 
 from Havana arrived at Mobile with Chateaugne and others, who 
 
 had been made prisoners at Pensacola, and who were now released 
 
 in pursuance of the treaty of peace. 
 
 So long as the French colony of Louisiana remained in a 
 feeble and thriftless condition, the English of Carolina were con- 
 tent only to annoy it occasionally ; but now that it gave signs of 
 durable vitality, under the auspices of a powerful company, they 
 began to oppose it with the fiercest hostility. . Rivalry in trade, 
 together with the national jealousy, fomented quarrels, and 
 caused blood to flow betwen the Coureun de bois and the Eng- 
 lish. The French traders also met the latter in all parts of the 
 Indian nations, within the limits of the present States of Alabama 
 
 * Goods were to be obtained in the company's stores at Mobile, Dauphin Island, and 
 Pensacola. To these prices, an advance of five per cent, was to be added on goods de- 
 livered at New Orleans, ten at Natchez, thirteen at tlie Yazoos, twenty at Natchitoches, 
 and fifty at the Illinois and on the Missouri. The produce of the country was to be re- 
 ceived in the company's warehouses in New Orleans, Biloxi, Ship Island and Mobile. 
 Martin's Louisiana, vol. 1, pp. 218-219. 
 
THE INDIA OE MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. 223 
 
 and Mississippi. Each contended for the patronage of the sav- 
 ages, and each endeavored to expel the other from those situa- 
 tions where they had established themselves. The 'Carolina 
 traders, many of whom had quartered themselves in the Chicka- 
 saw towns, arrayed that tribe in war against the French, and they 
 committed the first act of hostility, by the murder of 
 Serigny, a French officer, whom Bienville had posted 1720 
 among them to cultivate their friendship. This war July 
 greatly embarrassed Bienville, who, with difficulty, 
 brought to his assistance the larger body of the Choctaws. At 
 this time, the forces of the colony had been augmented to twenty 
 companies, of fifty men each, who were required to defend the 
 pr&vince of Louisiana, the inhabitants of which were scattered 
 from Fort Toulouse, upon the Coosa, to La Harpe's station, upon 
 Ked river. The Alabamas could barely be kept neutral, for they 
 complained that their peltries brought lower prices at the French 
 ports, than at those of the English, and that the goods which 
 they received for them, were also held at a dearer rate. 
 
 Vessels with emigrants and provisions, continued to cast 
 their anchors upon the sands of Mobile Bay. A store 
 ship brought out two hundred and sixty persons for the 1720 
 grant of St. Catharine, in the vicinity of Natchez. An- 
 other arrived at Ship Island with two hundred and forty emi- 
 grants, for the grant of Louvre, and was succeeded by 
 still another, on board of which was deL'Orme, now di- August 
 rector general, with a salary of five thousand livres, to- 
 gether with other vessels laden with provisions, labor- Sept. 
 ers and merchandise. 
 
 In the meantime, the public houses had been completed at 
 New Biloxi, and thither the government of Louisiana 
 was, unwisely, transferred. It had remained at old and Deo. 20 
 new Mobile since January, 1702, but during this trying 
 period, of eighteen' years, the governors occasionally resided at 
 Dauphin Island. 
 
224 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 A vessel, belonging to the company, furled her sails in the 
 
 splendid bay of Mobile, and disembarked three hundred 
 
 1721 colonists for the grant of Madame Chaumont, at Pasca- 
 
 Jan. 3 goula, whom the colonial government soon placed there, 
 
 but whom they forbade to enter into any branch of 
 Jan. 9 trade, such as that which would result from the culture 
 
 of hemp, flax, and the vine, or which would compete 
 Jan. 5 with the commerce of the company. A ship arrived with 
 
 twenty-five girls, taken from a house of correction, in 
 Paris, called the Saltpetriere. They had been sent over in conse- 
 quence of the great complaints made to the Minister, by various 
 officers of the colony, on account of the want of wives, and they 
 had been confided, by the directors in Prance, to sister Gertrude, 
 and, under her, to sisters Louise and Bergere, who were author- 
 ized to conduct to Louisiana, " such girls as were willing to go 
 thither and remain under the care of Sister Gertrude, until they 
 shall marry, which they must not do without her consent." The 
 directors or the Minister in sending these prostitutes to Mobile, 
 where they soon took up their abode, did not act consistently 
 with a previous ordinance, which they had passed, that "here- 
 after, no more vagabonds shall be sent to Louisiana, but that any 
 French and foreign families and laborers might go." Much con- 
 tention now arose between the stockholders and the directors. 
 The latter were reproached for their enormous outlays, and for 
 the appointment of persons to govern the colonies, who appeared 
 to have their exclusive interest to subserve ; and Bienville was 
 written to, and informed that the Regent complained that his 
 services were not effectual. But to arouse all his exertions, the 
 
 same letter promised the governor the rank of Brigadier, 
 
 1721 with the ribbon of St. Louis, if his future conduct should 
 
 Mar. 17 merit them. The Africaine, a ship of war, arrived at 
 
 Mobile, with one hundred and twenty negroes, out of 
 the number of two hundred and twenty-four, who had em- 
 barked at Guinea. She was succeeded by the Maire, with 
 
THE INDIA OE MISSISSIPPI COMPANT. 225 
 
 three hundred and thirty-eight more, who were, for 
 the present, all quartered at Mobile, and where they Mar. 23 
 remained in a state bordering upon starvation, from the 
 famine which now universally prevailed in the colony. The 
 Neride also came with two hundred and thirty-eight Africans, 
 the remainder of, three hundred and fifty who sailed from 
 Angola. She had put to sea, with the frigate Charles, laden 
 with negroes, which took flre and was consumed, more than 
 sixty leagues from land, a large majority of her crew perishing in 
 the flames. The whites escaped in the boats, with a few of the 
 Africans, but tossed for many days at the mercy of the waves, 
 and suffering for subsistence, the unhappy negroes were killed, 
 one after another, for food ! The present population of France 
 are abolitionists, and denounce the Southern States for their mild 
 and beneficial system of domestic slavery, and yet their ancestors, 
 in the manner we have described, put these slaves into our pos- 
 session. So did England, with her men-of-war, at the same 
 period, plant her American colonies with slaves, also captured in 
 Africa. The Puritan fathers of New England received them, paid 
 for them, put them to hard labor, sold and re-sold tjiem for many 
 years, and yet their descendants profess to be shocked at the 
 sight of a Southern slaveholder, and denounce Southern slavery 
 as a " damning sin before God ! " 
 
 With two hundred German emigrants, who were sent over 
 to occupy the grant of Law upon the Arkansas river, 
 came also a woman, whose adventures in Europe and 1721 
 America are related in the histories of that period. She March 
 was believed to be the wife of the Czarowitz Alexis Pe- 
 trowitz, son of Peter the Great, Emperor of all the Russians. Her 
 resemblance to that Princess was so striking as to deceive those 
 who knew the latter intimately. The story ran, that to escape 
 the brutal treatment of the Prince, her husband, she pretended to 
 die, and was actually entombed, but when taken from the tomb 
 in a few hours afterwards pqt herself beyond the reach of perse- 
 
 — 15 
 
226 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 cution by flying to a foreign land. The Chevalier D'Aubont, one 
 of the officers of the Mobile garrison, who had been at St. Peters- 
 burg, had seen the Princess, and had heard of her strange escape, 
 now believed that this woman who was then in Mobile was the 
 beautiful and accomplished lady herseli. He was sure he recog- 
 nized her beneath the incognito which she had assumed, and 
 which she appeared desirous to retain. 
 
 The Chevalier married her, and after a long residence in 
 Louisiana, most of which was passed in Mobile, she followed him 
 to France, and thence to the Island of Bourbon, whither he was 
 sent with the rank of Major. In 1765 she became a widow, and 
 went to Paris with a daughter born in Mobile. In 1771 her 
 mysteiious and romantic life was terminated in the midst of the 
 most abject poverty.* 
 
 An ordinance decreed that the council should meet daily at 
 New Biloxi ; that merchandise should be sold at that place, Mo- 
 bile, and New Orleans, at fifty per cent, profit on the manufac- 
 ture of France, seventy per cent, among the Natchez and Yazoos, 
 one hundred per cent, among the Arkansas, and fifty per cent, 
 among the Alabamas and Muscogees, on account of the 
 1721 proximity of Fort Toulouse to the English influence, 
 Sept. 5 with which the French company were anxious success- 
 fully to compete. Another ordinance declared that ne- 
 groes should be sold to the inhabitants at the price of the « piece 
 de Inde," or six hundred and sixty .livres,t in three annual in- 
 stallments, to be paid in tobacco or rice. If, after the second 
 year, the debtor failed to pay, the company could take 
 Sept. 27 the negro if not paid for during the third year. If the 
 ett'ects of the debtor failed to discharge the whole debt, 
 
 * Judge Martin, in his History of Louisiana, voL 1, pp. 231-232, states that this woman 
 was an impostor, and that'she imposed on the credulity of the Chevalier d' Aubont and 
 many others; that she had once been attached to the wardrobe of the Princess whom 
 she assumed to represent, and that a few years before the declaration of American Inde- 
 pendence a similar imposition was practiced upon the people of the Southern British 
 frovinces by a female, driven by her misconduct from the post of maid of honor to Prin- 
 cess Matilda, sister of George III. She was convicted at Old Bailey and transported to 
 Alaryland. Before the expiration of her time she effected her escape, traveled through 
 the provinces of Virginia and the Oarolinas, personating' the Princess, and levying con- 
 tributions upon the credulity of the inhabitants. She was atlength arrested in Charles- 
 ton, prosecuted and publicly whipped, t Equal to one hundred and seventy-six dollars. 
 
THE INDIA OE MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. 227 
 
 the company could then take his body. It also declared that leaf 
 tobacco delivered at the warehouses of New Biloxi, New Orleans 
 and Mobile should command the price of twenty livres per quin- 
 tal ; rice, twelve livres per quintal ; wine, one hundred and 
 twenty livres a hogshead; and a quarter of brandy, the sarre 
 price. It also declared that Louisiana should, hereafter, be formed 
 into nine divisions — New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, Alabama, Ya- 
 zoo, Natchitoches, Arkansas, and Ilhnois ; that in the chief town 
 of each there should be a commandant and a judge, from whose 
 decisions an appeal could be had to the Supreme Council of New 
 Biloxi. 
 
 STATE OF THE COLONY AT THE CLOSE OP 1721. 
 
 " In the vessels which the India Company has sent thither 
 from the 25th October, 1717, to May, 1721, there have 
 emigrated, on the forty-three belonging to it, and in the 
 squadron of M. de Saunjor 7020 
 
 These, with the 400 who were already there 400 
 
 7420 
 Of this number those who have died, deserted, or returned 
 
 to France 2000 
 
 5420 
 To them the number of colonists is added, to which may be 
 set down about 600 negroes." 
 
 From this statement it appears that the colony ©f Louisiana 
 had really begun to prosper, but many impediments still retarded 
 its more rapid advance, among which may be enumerated its ex- 
 penses, which, for the year 1721, amounted to four hun- 
 dred and seventy-four thousand two hundred and sev- 1722 
 enty-four livres. The company, too, issued an ordinance Mar. 12 
 prohibiting the inhabitants from selling their negroes to 
 the Spaniards, or to other foreigners, or taking them out of the 
 colony, under a severe penalty, besides their confiscation. 
 
228 HISTOKT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Bienville, writing ; from Mobile, acquainted the Minister 
 with the difficulty of discharging the cargoes of vessels upon the 
 low shores of New Biloxi, and again brought to his consideration 
 
 the superior advantages of New Orleans, for the capi- 
 Apr. 20 tal of the colony. One more councillor was added to 
 
 the supreme council, which now consisted of Brusle, 
 Fazende, Perry, Guilhet and Masclary. Two hundred and fifty 
 
 Germans, commanded by the Chevalier D'Arensbourg, a 
 1722 Swedish officer, arrived at Mobile, with whom came 
 
 Marigny de Mandaville, who had obtained, in France, 
 the Cross of St. Louis and the command of FortConde, in Mobile. 
 This was by far the best fort in the colony, and was now rapidly 
 drawing to a state of completion ; it was built of brick, with four 
 bastions, and a great many casements for soldiers.* The vessel 
 which brought over these Germans bore the distressing news 
 that the great royal bank, which Law, the Scotch financier, under 
 the auspices of the Duke of Orleans, had established in France, 
 had utterly failed ; that Law had left the country in disgrace, and 
 that the people whom he had induced to take stock, found it 
 worthless and themselves ruined. All Paris was in a ferment, 
 and no one could anticipate an end to the long train of commer- 
 cial evils which the scheming ability of this Scotchman had en- 
 gendered. The company which had charge of Louisiana, and in- 
 deed the chief inhabitants of the province, were soon made to feel 
 the explosion of this once powerful and popular institution. 
 Louisiana, herself, was deeply involved in the failure, and her in- 
 habitants now feared. that the government of France would aban- 
 don them. But some supplies continued to arrive, in spite of the 
 panic which pervaded the mother country^ Duvergier, who had 
 been appointed director-general and commander of the ma- 
 
 » M r. E. T. Wood, of Mobile, who wrote ahlstory of that place, embncHed in a directory, 
 which he published, says that when Fort Conde (wliioh was also called Fort Charlotte 
 by the British after they took possesfion of it,) was puUeJ down by the Americans some 
 years after the place fell into tlieir hands, that the corner-stone was found with the date 
 of 1717, distinctly.eugraved upon it. 
 
THB INDIA OE MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. 229 
 
 line, disembarked at Pensacola, bearing the Cross 1722 
 of St. Louis for Boisbriant, St. Dennis and Chateaugne. July 25 
 
 The failure of the Royal Bank of France, and the 
 distress which it produced in all parts of that kingdom, caused 
 Louisiana, for a time, to be so neglected, that the inhabitants be- 
 came destitute of provisions. The oflScers were obliged to dis- 
 miss the garrisons of Mobile and Biloxi, and send them to the 
 Choctaw nation to precure subsistence among the Indians, while 
 many of the colonists abandoned their homes and betook them- 
 selves to the sea-side to procure a scanty living upon fish and 
 oysters. It was even worse at some of the more distant posts, 
 particularly at Fort Toulouse, upon the Coosa, now in Ala- 
 bama. There, the soldiers were tortured by famine, and cor- 
 rupted by some British traders, who induced them to desert and 
 fly to Charleston. The command consisted of a captain, 
 a lieutenant, an ensign, a corporal and twenty-six sol- Aug. 
 diers. When the latter had perfected their mutiny, the 
 planning of which had occupied several days, they rose upon 
 the ofiBcers, one morning, about breakfast. Capt. Marchand was 
 instantly slaip. Lieutenant Villemont and Ensign Paque made 
 their escape through a port-hole of one of the bastions, and fled 
 to the Hickory Ground, a town of Creek Indians, three miles 
 above, on the east bank of the Coosa, and embracing the lower 
 suburbs of the modern city of Wetumpka. Here Villemont 
 made irresistible appeals to the warriors to march against the 
 mutineers. He, at the same time, despatched Paque across thie 
 river to the town of Coosawda, where then lived the great Chief, 
 Big Mortar, whom the ensign succeeded in enlisting in the cause of 
 the King. In the meantime, the mutineers, having killed the 
 captain, intimidated the corporal, who now joined them in a gen- 
 eral pillage of the fort. They appropriated to themselves the 
 money and clothing of the officers, leaving only the sacred ward- 
 robe of the priest, a Jesuit father, whom they did not molest. 
 The magazine, constructed of brick, was forced open, and arms 
 
230 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 and ammunition taken from it.* The store-room was plundered 
 of its contents, consisting of a very limited supply of flour and 
 meat. The mutineers, after partaking of a hearty repast, marched 
 off to the Red Warrior's Bluff, f where they crossed the Talla- 
 poosa and took up the line of march for Charleston. Villemont, 
 with the Indian force which he had speedily raised, marched 
 against them. A battle ensued at the ford of Line Creek, which 
 now divides the modern counties of Montgomery and 
 1722 Macon. Sixteen of the deserters were slain. They all 
 Aug. fought with the desperation of tigers.t The others, ex- 
 cept two who escaped, were taken prisoners, and Ville- 
 mont, who was wounded in the action, marched with them back 
 to Fort Toulouse. Here the fort was found to be in a very soli- 
 tary condition, being inhabited only by the Jesuit father, who 
 had resolved to remain until he could get a favorable opportunity 
 of going to Mobile, not believing that the brave and indefatigable 
 Villemont could subdue the deserters ; the body of the unfortun- 
 ate Captain Marchand had been already interred by -him and 
 some Indians. Villemont, the next day, obtained some canoes 
 and placed the deserters in them, in charge of' an Indian guard, 
 at the head of which was Ensign Paque, who conveyed 
 Sept. them to Mobile, where they were shortly afterwards 
 executed. Villemont and the priest were solitary in- 
 mates of Fort Toulouse for several months, until another garri- 
 son was sent up the river. The lieutenant had, however, many 
 Indian warriors lying around the fort, who were ready to aid 
 him if he had been attacked by the English, who were anxious 
 to occupy this post.§ 
 
 * Some of the brick of this magazine are yet to be seen lying about the ruins of old 
 Fort Toulouse, now called old Fort Jackson, and I have several of them in my house, 
 taken from that place. 
 t The Red Warrior's Bluff of that day is the present Grey's Ferry. 
 } The bones of these sixteen Frenchmen lay, for many years, very near the house 
 which Walter B. Lucas afterwards erected, and where he for a long time kept enter- 
 tainment. 
 
 § The revolt of the garrison of Fort Toulouse, upon the Coosa, is mentioned by 
 Gayarre, in his History of Louisiana, vol. 1, p. 190 ; hy La Harpe, p. '261 ; by Judge Mar- 
 In, vol. 2, p. 2391; but I have derived the chief facts from Indian traditions handed down 
 y General Alexander McGillivray, a very great Indian Chief of mixed blood, who was 
 he grandson of the unfortunate Captain Marchand, who was killed upon this occasion. 
 
THE INDIA OR MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. 231 
 
 Fortunately, a vessel arrived with provisions for the King's 
 troops. She brought the news that the Regent had entrusted the 
 affairs of the colony to the management of three commissioners : 
 Ferrand, Faget and Machinet. A detailed account of a 
 great hurricane which swept along the coast of Lou- 172'2 
 isiana, of the desertion of soldiers, sailors and workmen, 
 and a recommendation to allow free passage to all who might 
 choose to return to France, as a remedy for desertions gen- 
 erally, formed the subjects of a communication ad- 
 dressed by De I'Orme to the Minister. While the dis- Oct. 30 
 tressing situation of the colony rendered theofBces of the 
 three commissioners by no means sinecures, embarrassments were 
 further produced by a war which the Natches had begun, tmd the 
 worthlessness of the paper money hitherto used in the colony, to 
 remedy which cards were substituted after the notes w^re sup- 
 pressed. One Michel, of Mobile, was the person appointed to en- 
 grave these cards. 
 
 The new commissioners who had succeeded to the director- 
 ship of the company, readily acceded to the long cher- 
 ished wish of Bienville, to remove the seat of govern- 1 723 
 ment to New Orleans, and it was accordingly estab- 
 lished at that place.* The population of New Orleans, at that 
 period numbered only two hundred souls, who occupied a hun- 
 dred huts and cabins ! 
 
 The commissioners of the company, in a new code of regula- 
 tions, declared that negroes should hereafter be sold at l^ix hun- 
 dred and seventy-six livres,t payable in one, two or three years, 
 either in rice or tobacco. The province was divided into nine dis- 
 tricts, civil and military, as follows : Alabama, Mobile, Biloxi, 
 New Orleans, Natchez, Yazoo, Illinois, Wabash, Arkansas and 
 Natchitoches. There was a commandant and a judgd appointed 
 
 • Histoire de Louieiane, par Charles (iayarre, vol. 1, pp. 166-193. Journal Historiqne 
 de I'BlstablisBement des Francaisa la LouiBiane, par Bernard de laHarpe, pp. 144-289. — 
 Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. 1, pp. 218-244. 
 
 t Equal to one hundred and sixty-nine dollars. 
 
232 HISTORY or Alabama. 
 
 for each of these districts. Three great ecclesiastical districts 
 were also formed. The first was entrusted to the Capuchins, and 
 extended from the mouth of Mississippi river to Illinois. The bare- 
 footed Carmelites were stationed at Fort Toulouse, upon the 
 Coosa river, at Mobile and at Biloxi, while the Jesuits labored 
 upon the Wabash and Illinois. Churches and chapels were or- 
 dered to be constructed, for many of the colonists had been 
 forced to worship in the open air, around crosses, the bottom 
 parts of which were buried in the pfround ! 
 
 Bienville restored Pensacola to the Spaniards in pursuance of 
 orders from his government ; for Spain and France had 
 1723 concluded a peace. In a despatch to the Minister, he 
 stated that his allies, — the Choctaws, — had destroyed 
 three towns of the Chickasaws, and had brought to him one hun- 
 dred prisoners and four hundred scalps! Bienville communi- 
 cated this intelligence with much apparent gusto, accompanied 
 with the remarli that " this important result was obtained with- 
 out risking the life of a single Frenchman." 
 
 Although the colonists often existed in a state of penury and 
 want, they did not abandon their passion for gambling, which 
 was carried to such an extent that the government issued an 
 ordinance against all games of chance. An ordinance was also 
 promulgated against the trade which many of the colonists were 
 illicitly conducting with the Natchez Indians. The month of 
 September terminated with a dreadful tornado, which prostrated 
 the church, the hospital, and thirty houses in New Orleans ; de- 
 stroyed the crops upon the Mobile and Pearl rivers ; dismantled 
 the shipping in the different ports, and left the whole colony in 
 a condition of wretchedness and famine. Added to all this, a 
 whole company of Swiss infantry, which had embarked at Biloxi 
 for New Orleans, rose upon the captain of the vessel and com- 
 pelled him to carry them to Charleston. Yet, in the 
 1723 midst of all these calamities, the indefatigable Bienville 
 Oct. departed from New Orleans with seven hundred men to 
 
THE INDIA OB MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. 233 
 
 punish the Natchez, who had recently killed several French- 
 men. He returned after having terminated the second war 
 with them, by procuring the heads of the principal offend- 
 ers. Notwithstanding the important services which this great 
 man was continuing to render the colony, his relentless enemies 
 sought every opportunity to make him odious to the ruling pow- 
 ers of France. Aspersed in dispatches, which were speedily 
 borne across the ocean, he was at the same moment insulted at 
 home by libellous placards in the streets. At length he 
 received orders to sail for France, to answer the charges 1724 
 against him, leaving the command to Boisbriant until Feb. 16 
 his return. 
 
 But before Bienville embarked upon the broad Atlantic, he 
 issued the celebrated " Black Code," in the name of 
 the King. It declared that all Jews should leave the 1724 
 colony ; that all slaves should be instructed in the Ro- March 
 man Catholic religion; that no other religion should 
 be tolerated in the colony ; that if the owners of negroes were not 
 true Catholics, their slaves should be confiscated ; and that the 
 white inhabitants should not enter into marital relations with 
 negroes, nor live with them in a state of concubinage. 
 
 The « Black Code" contained many other articles in relation 
 to the government of slaves — some of which were precisely like 
 those now in force in the Southwestern States of the present con- 
 federacy. The year 1724 was remarkable for arbitrary edicts ; 
 but there was one which was beneficial. The inhabitants had 
 become so accustomed to rely upon France for all the necessaries 
 of subsistence, that valuable cattle, sent to Louisiana for pur- 
 poses of propagation, were always killed and devoured. An 
 ordinance was issued by the King, at the request of the Superior 
 Council, punishing with death every person who should inten- 
 tionally kill or severely wound any horse or horned animal which 
 did not belong to him. 
 
234 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 De la Chaise, nephew of the famous father of that name, who 
 was the confessor of Louis XIV., presided over the coun- 
 1725 oil, which was now held monthly in the town of New 
 Orleans. 
 But to return to Bienville. That brave man appeared at 
 Paris, after a prosperous voyage, and submitted an eloquent 
 memoir to the King in Justification of his official conduct. It 
 also contained a history of the services to which he had, from the 
 commencement of the colonial establishment, devoted a period of 
 twenty-five years. But, in despite of his true exposition of his 
 arduous labors spent in the insalubrious forests of America, 
 among savages and reptiles, and in spite of the exertions made by 
 his friends, both in France and Louisiana, to re-establish him i.n 
 the confidence of the King, he was removed from office, 
 1726 and Perrier nominated Governor of Louisiana. The 
 Aug. 9 government did not stop here. Chateaugne, the brother 
 of Bienville, lost the post of Royal Lieutenant, while two 
 nephews of Bienville, named Noyan, one a Captain and the other 
 an Ensign, were cashiered without any just cause. Thus the in- 
 fluence of Bienville was overthrown in Louisiana. In the mean- 
 time the new Governor arrived in New Orleans. 
 
 Governor Perrier, in a despatch to the Minister, employed 
 this language in reference to the encroachments of the English of 
 South Carolina : " The English continue to urge their commerce 
 into the very heart of the province. Sixty or seventy horses, 
 laden with merchandise, have passed into the country of the 
 Chickasaws, to which nation I have given orders to plunder the 
 English of their goods, promising to recompense them by a 
 present. As yet I have heard nothing from that quarter. It 
 appears that a league was formed among all the Indian nations 
 of their neighborhood to attack the Spanish settlements. Where- 
 upon the Governor of Pensacola requested assistance 
 1 727 from me. Having no news from Europe, I thought it 
 was for our interest not to have the English so near us. 
 
THE INDIA OE MISSISSIPPI COMPANT. 235 
 
 and, in consequence, informed the Tallapooaas,* who were before 
 Pensacola, that if they did not immediately retire I should attack 
 them with those nations who were friendly to us. I also gave 
 notice to the Alabamas, that if they attacked the Spaniards, who 
 were our friends, I should be compelled to assist the latter. But 
 I should have taken, care not to have interfered with the natives 
 who were friendly to us, in order that I might not commit myself 
 with regard to the English. This had a good effect. The Gov- 
 ernor thanked me, informing me that war was declared in 
 Europe. Notwithstanding, I shall indirectly assist the Spanish 
 Until I receive other orders from your highness, at the same time 
 taking the liberty to represent , that our sole effort should be to 
 prevent the English from approaching us. 
 
 " I have caused all the nations, from the Arkansas to the 
 mouth of the river, to make peace with each other. There re- 
 main at variance only the Choctaws and Chickasaws, 
 who have a discussion concerning a Chief of the latter 1727 
 nation who was killed by the former. I shall go to Mo- 
 bile to settle their affairs, and shall take measures with them to 
 prevent the English from entering our territory during the ensu- 
 ing year, and by degrees to abolish the custom Which they have 
 formed, of trading for all the deer skins obtained by the Indians, 
 in order that the latter may not be obliged to trade with the 
 English to get rid of them." 
 
 A vessel belonging to the company arrived with quite a num- 
 ber of young girls, who, unlike many others who had been sent 
 to Louisiana, had not been taken from the house of correction. 
 They were each provided with a little chest, containing articles 
 of apparel, and from this circumstance they were called girls de 
 la cassette — girls of the chest. They were placed under the sur- 
 veillance of the Ursuline nuns until they could be disposed of by 
 marriage.f 
 
 * Meaning the Creeks, who lived upon the TaUapoosa river. 
 
 t Hlstoire de la Louisiane, par Charles Gayarre, vol. 1, pp. 193-235. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Tberible Massacre at Natchez. 
 
 The colony- of Louisiana was now in a flourishing condition ; 
 
 its fields were cultivated by more than two thousand negroes ; 
 
 cotton, indigo, tobacco and grain were produced ; skins 
 
 1728 and furs, of all descriptions were obtained in a traffic 
 with the Indians; and lumber was extensively exported 
 
 to the West India islands. The province was protected by eight 
 hundred troops of the Une ; but the bloody massacre of 
 
 1729 the French population of Fort Rosalie, at the Natchez, 
 arrested these rapid strides of prosperity, and shrouded 
 
 all things in sadness and gloom. Our library contains many ac- 
 counts of this horrible aft'air, which harmonize very well with 
 each other ; but in reference to the causes which led to it, more 
 particularly, we propose to introduce the statement of Le Page 
 Du Pratz, who was residing in Louisiana at the time. We give 
 his account, in his own faithful style : 
 
 " Chopart had been commandant of the post of the Natchez, 
 from which he was removed on account of some act of injustice. 
 Governor Perrier, but lately arrived, suffered himself to be pre- 
 possessed in his favor, on his telling him that he had commanded 
 that post with applause, and thus he obtained the command from 
 Perrier, who was unacquainted with his character. This new 
 commandant, on taking possession of his post, projected the form- 
 ing of one of the most eminent settlements of the whole colony. 
 For this purpose he examined all the grounds unoccupied by the 
 French, but could not find anything that came up to the grandeur 
 of his views. Nothing but the village of the White Apple, a 
 square league, at least, in extent, could give him satisfaction, and 
 
TEEEIBLB MASSACRE AT NATCHEZ. 237 
 
 there he resolved immediately to settle. This ground was dis- 
 tant from the fort about two leagues.* Conceited with the beauty 
 of his project, the commandant sent for the Sun of that villagei 
 to come to the fort; upon his arrival, he told him, without cere- 
 mony, that he must look out for another ground to build his vil- 
 lage on, as he, himself, resolved, as soon as possible, to build on 
 the village of the Apple, and that he must directly close the huts 
 and retire somewhere else. The better to cover his design, he 
 gave out that it was necessary for the French to settle on the 
 banks of the rivulet, where stood the great village and the abode 
 of the Grand Sun. The commandant, doubtless, supposed that 
 he was speaking to a slave, whom we may command in a tone of 
 absolute authority. But he knew not that the natives of Louisi- 
 ana are such enemies to a state of slavery that they prefer death 
 itself ; above all, the Suns, accustomed to govern despotically, 
 have still a greater aversion to it. 
 
 "The Sun of the Apple made answer, that his ancestors had 
 lived in that village for as many years as there were hairs in his 
 double cue, and, therefore, it was good they should continue there. 
 Scarce had the interpreter explained this answer to the 
 commandant, when the latter fell into a passion, and, Spring 
 threateningly, told the Sun, that if he did not quit his vil- of 
 lage, in a few days, he might repent it. The Sun replied : 1729 
 'When the French came to ask us for land, to settle on, they 
 told us there was land enough still unoccupied for them, and that 
 the same sun would enlighten them all, and all would walk in the 
 same path.' He wanted to proceed further, in justification of 
 what he alleged, but the commandant, in a passion, said he was 
 resolved to be obeyed. The Sun, without discovering any emo- 
 
 • "The site o( tlie White Apple village was about twelve miles south of the present 
 city of N.itchez, near the mouth of second creek, and three miles east of the Missis- 
 sippi. The site was occupied by the plantation of Colonel Anthony Hutchens, an early 
 emigrant to Florida. All vestiges of Indian industry have disappeared except some 
 mounds in the vicinity."— Monette's History of the Valley of the Mississippi, vol. 1, 
 p 258. 
 
238 HISTOBT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 tion or passion, then withdrew, only observing thaf he was going 
 to assemble the old men of his village to hold a council upon the 
 affair. 
 
 " In this council it was resolved to represent to the com- 
 mandant, that the corn of all the people of their village was 
 already shot a little out of the earth, and that all their hens 
 were laying their eggs. That if they quitted their village 
 now, the chickens and corn would be lost both to the French and 
 to themselves. * * * * The commandant turned a deaf ear 
 to these views, and threatened to chastise the Chiefs if they did 
 not comply with his orders, in a very short time, which he named. 
 The Sun reported this answer to his council, who debated the 
 question. But the pohcy of the old men was, that they should 
 be allowed to stay in their village until harvest, and until they 
 
 had time to dry their corn and shake out the grain. 
 Summer In consideration of this privilege, they each proposed 
 of 1729 to pay the commandant, in so many moons, a basket of 
 
 corn and a fowl. * * * * The cupidity of the 
 commandant made him accept the proposition with joy, and 
 blinded him with regard to the consequences of his tyranny. He, 
 however, pretended that he agreed to the offer out of favor, to 
 do a pleasure to a nation so beloved, and who had ever been good 
 friends of the French. The Sun appeared highly satisfied to have 
 obtained a delay sufficient for taking the precautions necessary 
 to the security of the nation, for he was by no means the dupe 
 of the feigned benevolence of the commander. 
 
 « The Sun, upon his return, again caused the council to be 
 assembled. * * * » He stated to them that it was neces- 
 sary to avail themselves of this time, in order to withdraw them- 
 selves from this proposed payment and tyrannic domination of 
 the French, who grew dangerous in proportion as they multi- 
 plied. That the Natchez ought to remember the war made upon 
 them, in violation of the peace concluded between them. That 
 
TERRIBLE MASSACRE AT NATCHEZ. 239 
 
 this war, having been made upon their village, alone, they ought 
 to consider of the surest means to take a just and bloody ven- 
 geance. That this enterprise being of the utmost importance, it 
 called for much secrecy, for solid measures, and for much policy. 
 That it was proper to cajole the French chief more than ever, and 
 that the affair required reflection before it was proposed to the 
 Grand Sun. 
 
 " In the meantime, the old men had come to the determina- 
 tion, not only to revenge themselves, but to engage in the entire 
 destruction of all the French in the province. When, therefore, 
 the council again met, the most venerable man rose and delivered 
 the following speech : 
 
 " 'We have a long time been sensible that the neighborhood 
 of the French is a greater prejudice than benefit to us. We, who 
 are old, see this — the young see it not. The wares of 
 the French yield pleasure to the youth, but to what Summer 
 purpose is it, except to debauch the young women, and of 1729 
 taint the blood of the nation, and make them vain and 
 idle? The young men are in the same condition — they must 
 work themselves to death to maintain their families and please 
 their children. Before the French came among us, we were 
 2m:bn, content with what we had, and walked with boldness every 
 path. Now we go groping about, afraid of meeting briars. 
 We walk like slaves, which we shall soon be, since the French 
 already treat us as if we were such. When they are sufficiently 
 strong, they will no longer dissemble. For the least fault of 
 our young people they will then tie them to a post and whip 
 them. Have they not already done so to one of oiar young 
 men, and is not death preferable to slavery? What wait we 
 for?. Shall we suft'er the French to multiply till we are no 
 longer in a condition to oppose them ? What will the other na- 
 tions say of the Natchez, who are admitted to be the greatest of 
 •all the Red men ? Let us set ourselves at liberty. * * * 
 J'rom this very day let our women get provisions ready, without 
 
240 HISTORY or ALABAMA. 
 
 telling them the reason. Go and carry the pipe of peace to all 
 the nations of this country. Tell them that the French, being 
 stronger here than elsewhere, enslave us the more ; but when 
 they spread out they will treat all nations in like manner. That 
 it is their interest to join us to prevent so great a misfortune. 
 That they have only to join us to cut off the French to a man in 
 one day and in one hour ! " 
 
 Here the speaker continued his address and exhorted them 
 to be prepared to fall upon the French at nine o'clock, on the 
 morning of the day when they were to deliver to the command- 
 ant the corn and chickens, and that the warriors were to carry 
 with them their arms, as if going to hunt. They unanimously 
 approved of his views, and pledged themselves to carry them out. 
 Du Pratz continues : " Notwithstanding the profound secrecy ob- 
 served by the Natchez, the council held by the Suns and aged 
 nobles gave the people great uneasiness, unable, as they were, to 
 
 penetrate into the matter. The female Suns had alone. 
 
 Fall of in this nation, the right to demand why they were kept 
 
 1729 in the dark in this affair. The young grand female 
 
 Sun was a princess scarce eighteen. None but the Stung 
 Arm, a woman of great wit, and no less sensible of it, could be 
 offended that nothing was disclosed to her. In effiect, she made 
 known to her son her displeasure at this reserve with respect to 
 herself. He replied that the several deputations were made in 
 order to renew their good intelligence with the other nations, to 
 whom they had not, in a long time, sent an embassy, and who 
 might imagine themselves slighted by such neglect. This 
 feigned excuse seemed to appease the princess, but not quite to 
 rid her of all her uneasiness, which, on the contrary, was height- 
 ened upon the return of the embassies, when she saw the Suns 
 assemble in secret council together. She was filled with rage, 
 which would have broken out, if her prudence had not set bounds 
 to it. Happy it is for the French that she.imagined herself neg- 
 lected. I am persuaded that the colony owes its preservation to 
 
TERRIBLE MASSACRE AT NATCHEZ. 241 
 
 the vexation of this woman, rather than to any affection which 
 she entertained for the French, as she was now far advanced in 
 years, and her French gallant long since dead. In order to get 
 to the bottom of the secret, she prevailed on her son to accom- 
 pany her on a visit to a relation that lay sick at the village of the 
 Meal, and leading him the most distant and retired route, took 
 occasion to reproach him with the secrecy he and the other Suns 
 observed with regard to her. She insisted on her right, as a 
 mother, and her privilege as a princess, adding, that although 
 the world and herself, too, had told him he was the son of a 
 Frenchman, yet her own blood was much dearer to her than that 
 of strangers ; that shp need not apprehend she would ever betray 
 him to the French, against whom, she said, you are plotting. 
 
 "The son, stung with these reproaches, told her it was 
 unusual to reveal what the old men of the council had 
 once resolved upon, and as he was Grand Sun, he ought Fall of 
 to set a good example in this respect; but seeing you 1729 
 have guessed the whole affair, I need not inform you 
 further. You know as much as 1 do myself, only hold your 
 tongue." 
 
 « She replied that she was in no pain to know against whom 
 he had taken his precaution, but as it was against the French this 
 was the very thing that made her apprehensive he had not taken 
 his measures aright, in order to surprise them, as they were a 
 people of great penetration, although their commandant had none. 
 Her son told her that she had nothing to apprehend as to the 
 measures taken ; that all the nations had heard and approved 
 their project, and promised to fall upon the French in their neigh- 
 borhood on the same day with the Natchez ; that the Choctaws 
 had resolved to destroy all the French lower down and along the 
 Mississippi, up as far as the Tonicas, to which last people, he 
 said, we did not send, as they and the Oumas are too much 
 wedded to the French. He at last told her that the bundle of 
 
 16 
 
242 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 rods* lay in the temple, on the flat timber. The Stung Arm, 
 being informed of the whole design, pretended to approve it, and 
 leaving her son at ease, henceforward was only solicitous how 
 she might defeat this barbarous design. The time was pressing, 
 and the term fixed for the execution was almost expired. Un- 
 willing to see the French cut off to a man in one day, she resolved 
 to apprise them of the conspiracy through some young woman who 
 loved them, enjoining them never to tell from whom they had their 
 information. t She desired a soldier whom she met to tell the com- 
 mandant that the Natchez had lost their senses, and to desire him 
 to be upon his guard. The soldier faithfully performed his com- 
 ,mission, but the commandant treated him as a coward 
 Fall of and a visionary, — caused him to be placed in irons, and 
 1727 declared he would never take any steps towards repair- 
 ing the fort, as the Natchez would then irnagine he Was 
 a man of no resolution. The Stung Arm fearing a discovery, 
 notwithstanding her precaution and the secrecy she enjoined, re- 
 paired to the temple and pulled some rods out of the fatal bundle. 
 Her design was to hasten the time fixed, to the end that such 
 Frenchmen as escaped the massacre might apprise their country- 
 men, many of whom had informed the commandant, who placed 
 seven of them in irons. The female Sun, seeing the time ap- 
 proaching, and many of those punished whom she had charged w 
 
 * By all ancient and modern Indians rods or sticks were used to assemble tbe nation 
 together. A Chief was accustomed to send forth a warrior with a bundle of sticks, and 
 as he journeyed towards the towns to which he was despatched he would throw away 
 one of these sticks at the close of each day. When he gave them to the party to whom 
 he was bearing them, the latter also continued, at the close of every day, to throw away 
 a stick. The Chiefs who sent these sticks also kept a duplicate number, and each day 
 threw away one, so that those at a distance and those at the council house would meet 
 together on the same day, when the last stick bad been thrown away. In modern times 
 sending sticks was called " sending out the broken days." 
 
 t " The Sieur de Mace, ensign of the garrison of the fort at Natchez, received a'dvice 
 by a young Indian girl who loved him. She told him, crying, that her nation was to 
 massacre all the French. IVl. I^e Mace, amazed at this discourse, questioned his mistress. 
 Her simple answers and her tender tears left him no room to doubt of the plot. He went 
 immediately to give < hopart intelligence of it, who put him under arrestiorgivingfidse 
 alarm."— Bossn's'l'ravels through Louisiana, letter 3, addressed to the Marquis de L'Jfis- 
 trade, vol. 1, p. 62. London, 1771. 
 
 Kossu also states that Chopart. becoming enraged at Dumont, the second in com- 
 mand, for remonstrating with him against his tyranny towards the Natchez in the 
 commencement of the spring, placed that excellent ofhcer and faithful historian in 
 irons.— Vol. l,p. 48 
 
TEKRIBLE MASSACRE AT NATCHEZ. 243 
 
 acquaint the governor, resolved to speak to the under-lieutenant, 
 but to no better purpose. Notwithstanding all these warnings, the 
 commandant went out the night before on a party of pleasure, 
 with some other Frenchmen, to the grand village of the Natchez, 
 without returning to the fort till the break of day, where he had 
 no sooner arrived than he was admonished to be upon his guard. 
 Still stimulated with his last night's debauch, he added impru- 
 dence to neglect, and despatched his interpreter to demand of the 
 (rrand Sun whether he intended to kill the French. The Grand 
 Sun, though but a young man, knew how to dissemble, and spoke 
 in such a manner to the interpreter as to allay his suspicions and 
 fears.* 
 
 We propose now to introduce the statement of Father Le 
 Petit, who at the time of its occurrence was residing in New Or- 
 leans, respecting the massacre itself. He was a learned and pious 
 Jesuit priest. The following is his letter to Father D'Avaugour, 
 procurator of the missions in North America : 
 
 "At New Orleans, 12th July, 1730. 
 *' My Heverend leather — the Peace of our Lord he with you : 
 
 • # » * 11 After having given you an imperfect idea of the 
 character and customs of the Natchez Indians, I proceed, my rev- 
 erend father, as I have promised you, to enter upon a detailed ac- 
 count of their perfidy and treason. It was on the second of De- 
 cember of the year 1729, that we learned they had surprised the 
 French, and had massacred almost all of them. This sad news 
 was first brought to us by one of the planter's, who had escaped 
 their fury. It was confirmed to us on the following day by other 
 French fugitives, and finally, some French women, whom they 
 had made slaves, and were forced afterwards to restore; brought 
 us all the particulars. 
 
 « At the first rumor of an event so sad, the alarm and con- 
 sternation was general in New Orleans. Although the massacre 
 
 * DuPratz' Louisiana, pp. 79-90. In copying this author's statement, I have occasloii- 
 ally omitted some redundancies and uninteresting detaiL 
 
244 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 had taken place more than a hundred leagues from here, you 
 would have supposed that it had happened under our own eyes. 
 Each one was mourning the loss of a relative — a friend — or some 
 
 property ; all were alarmed for their own lives, for there 
 
 1 729 was reason for fear that the conspiracy of the Indians 
 
 Oct. 28 had been general. This unlooked for massacre began on 
 
 Monday, the 28th of October, about nine o'clock in 
 the morning. Some cause of dissatisfaction which the Natchez 
 thought they had with the commander, and the arrival of 
 a number of richly laden boats for the garrison and the colo- 
 nists, determined them to hasten their enterprise, and to strike 
 their blow sooner than they had agreed with the other confeder- 
 ate tribes.* First they divided themselves, and sent into the 
 fort, into the village, and into the two grants, as many Indians as 
 there were French in each of these places. Then they feigned that 
 they were going out for a grand hunt, and undertook to trade 
 with the French for guns, powder and ball, offering to pay them 
 as much, and even more, than was customary ; and, in truth, as 
 there was no reason to suspect their fidelity, they made at the 
 time, an exchange of their poultry and corn for some arms and 
 ammunition, which they used advantageously against us. It is 
 true that some expressed their distrust, but this was thought to 
 have so little foundation that they were treated as cowards, who 
 were frightened at their own shadows. They had been on their 
 guard against the Choctaws ; but as for the Natchez, they had 
 never distrusted them, and they were so persuaded of their good 
 faith that it increased their hardihood. Having thus , 'posted 
 themselves in different houses, provided with the arms obtained 
 from us, they attacked,. at the same time, each his man ; and in 
 less than two hours they massacred more than two hundred of 
 the French. The best known are M. De Chopart, commander of 
 the post; M. Du Codere, commander among the Yazoos ; M. Des 
 
 * Father Le Petit is mistaken as to the causes whicli hastened the masi^acre. It will 
 be recollected that DuPratz told ns that Stung Arm pulled out several sticks from the 
 bundle, and it was this which brought on the time sooner. 
 
TBRKIBLE MASSACRE AT NATCHEZ. 245 
 
 Ursins ; Messieurs De Kolly, father and son ; Messieurs De Lon- 
 grays, Des Noyers, Bailly, etc. 
 
 " The Father Du Poisson had just performed the funeral 
 rites of his associate, the brother Crucy, who had died very sud- 
 denly of a sunstroke ; he was on his way to consult Governor 
 Perrier, and to adopt with him proper measures to enable the 
 Arkansas Jbo descend the hanks of the Mississippi, for the accom- 
 modation of the voyagers. He arrived among the Natchez on 
 the 26th of November, that is, two days before the massacre. 
 The next day, which was the first Sunday "of Advent, he said 
 mass in the parish, and preached in the absence of the cure. He 
 was to have returned in the afternoon to his mission 
 among the Arkansas, but he was detained by some sick 1729 
 persons, to whom it was necessary to administer the Oct. 28 
 sacraments. On Monday he was about to say mass, and 
 to carry the holy sacrament to one of those sick persons whom 
 he had confessed, the evening before, when the massacre began. 
 A gigantic Chief, six feet in height, seized him, and having 
 thrown him to the ground, cut oflE his head with blows of a 
 hatchet. The father, in falling, only uttered these words : 'Ah, 
 my God! ah, my God ! ' M. Du Codere drew his sword to de- 
 fend him, when he was himself killed by a musket ball from 
 another Indian, whom he did not perceive. 
 
 "The barbarians spared but two of the French, a tailor 
 and a carpenter, who were able to serve their wants. They 
 did not treat badly, either the negro slaves or the Indians who 
 were willing to give themselves up ; but they ripped up the ab- 
 domen of every pregnant woman, and killed almost all those who 
 were nursing their children, because they were disturbed by 
 their cries and tears. They did not kill the other women, but 
 made them their slaves, and treated them with every indignity 
 during the two or three months that they were their masters. 
 The least miserable were those who knew how to sew, because 
 they kept them busy in making shirts, dresses, etc. The others 
 
246 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 were employed in cutting and carrying wood for cooking, and in 
 pounding the corn of which they made their sagamite. But two 
 things, above all, aggravated the grief and hardness of their 
 slavery ; it was, in the first place, to have for masters, those same 
 persons whom they had seen dipping their cruel hands in the 
 
 blood of their husbands ; and, in the second place, 'o 
 
 1729 hear them continually saying that the French had been 
 
 Oct. 28 treated in the same manner at all the other posts, and 
 
 that the country was now entirely freed from them. 
 « During the mdssacre, the Sun, or the Great Chief of the 
 Natchez, was seated quietly under the tobacco shed of the com- 
 pany. His warriors brought to his feet the head of the com- 
 mander, about which they ranged those of the principal French 
 of the post, leaving their bodies a prey to the dpgs, the buzzards, 
 and other carnivorous birds.* When they were assured that no 
 other Frenchmen remained at the post, they applied themselves to 
 plunder the houses, the magazines of the Indian company, and 
 all the boats which were still loaded by the banks of the river. 
 They employed the negroes to transport the merchandise, which 
 they divided among themselves, with the exception of the muni- 
 tions of war, which they placed, for security, in a separate 
 cabin. While the brandy lasted, of which they found a good 
 supply, they passed their days and nights in drinking, sing- 
 ing, dancing, and insulting, in the most barbarous manner, the 
 dead bodies and the memory of the French. The Choctaws 
 and the other Indians being engaged in the plot with them, 
 they felt at their ease, and did not at all fear that they would 
 
 * Dnmont, in Ms " Memoires Historlques sur la Louisiane," tome 2, pp. 145-146, thus 
 speaks of Obopart : 
 
 " In the miost of the general massacre of the French. Chopart revived, as If Provi- 
 dence had wished to reserve him as a witness of the destruction of so many Inhabitants 
 who would not have perished but for his folly. He recognized it, at last, but too late, " 
 
 J garrison, But they were no more. He could see all around him, by t _ 
 
 palisades, which enclosed his garden, the earth strewn with their carcasses. At the 
 same time he was surrounded by the savages, who breathed nothing more than his 
 death, while none of them wished to lay hands upon him. They considered him as a 
 a " dog," unworthy of being killed by a brave man, and they made the chief stinking- 
 man come, who killed him wiiA the stroke of a club." 
 
TEEEIBLB MASSACRE AT NATCHEZ. 247 
 
 draw on themselves the vengeance vrhich was merited by 
 their cruelty and perfidy. One night, when they were plunged 
 in drunkenness and sleep, Madame Des Noyers wished to make 
 use of the negroes to revenge the death of her husband and 
 the French, but she was betrayed by the person to whom 
 she confided her design, and came very near being burned alive. 
 " Some of the French escaped the fury of the Indians by 
 taking refuge in the woods, where they suffired extremely from 
 hunger and the effects of the weather.* One of them, on arriving 
 here, relieved us of a little disquietude we felt in regard to the 
 post we occupy among the Yazoos, which is not more than forty 
 or fifty leagues above the Natchez by water and only from fifteen 
 to twenty by land. Not being able to endure the extreme cold 
 from which he suffered, he left the woods under cover of the 
 night, to go and warm himself in the house of a Frenchman. 
 When he was near it he heard the voices of Indians, and delib- 
 erated whether he should enter. He determined, however, to do 
 so, preferring rather to perish by the hands of these barbarians 
 than to die of famine and cold. He was agreeably surprised when 
 he found these savages ready to render him a service, to heap 
 kindness upon him, to commiserate him, to console him, to fur- 
 nish him with provisions, clothes and a boat to make his escape 
 to New Orleans. These were the Yazoos, who were returning 
 from chanting the calumet, at Oumas. The Chief charged 
 him to say to M. Perrier that he had nothing to fear on the part 
 of the Yazoos, that < they would not lose their spirit,' — that is, 
 that they would always, remain attached to the French, and that 
 he would be constantly on the watch with his tribe, to warn the 
 
 * In a despatch made by Guyernor Perrier to the Minister in France, dated the 18th 
 March, 1730, he says ;— * * "Ageneral assassination of the French ensued, which oc- 
 cupied hut little time; one single attack terminated it with the exception of the house 
 of M. la Loire des XJrsins, in which there were eight men, six of whom were killed, and 
 the remaining two escaped during the night— the Indians having been unable to seize 
 them during the day. M. la Loire des Ursins was mounted on a horse when the attack 
 commenced, and being unable to regain his house, he defended himself until he fell, 
 baring killed four Incuans. Thus it has cost the Xatchez only twelve men to destroy 
 two hundred and fifty of our people."— Gayarre's Histoire de la Louisiana, vol. 1, pp. 
 
ii48 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 French boats that were descending the river, to be on their guard 
 against the Natchez. 
 
 " We believed, for a long time, that the promises of this Chief 
 were very sincere, and feared no more Indian perfidy for our 
 post among the Yazoos. But learn, my reverend father, the dis- 
 position of these Indians, and how little one is able to trust their 
 words, even when accompanied by the greatest demonstrations 
 of friendship. Scarcely had they returned to their own village, 
 when loaded with presents they received from the Natchez, they 
 followed their example and imitated their treachery. Uniting 
 with the Corroys, they agreed together to - exterminate the 
 French. They began with Father Souel, the missionary of both 
 tribes, who was then living in the midst of them, in their own vil- 
 lage. On the 11th of December, Father Souel was re- 
 1730 turning in the evening from visiting the Chief, and 
 Dec. 1 1 while in a ravine, received many musket ballSj and fell 
 dead on the spot. The Indians immediately rushed to 
 his cabin to plunder it. His negro, who composed all his family 
 and all his defense, armed himself with a wood -cutter's knife to 
 prevent the pillage, and even wounded one of the savages. This 
 zealous action cost him his life, but happily less than a month 
 before he had received baptism, and was living in a most Chris- 
 tian manner. 
 
 " These Indians, who even to that time seemed sensible of 
 the affection which their missionary bore them, reproached them- 
 selves for his death, as soon as tney were capable of reflection ; 
 but returning again to their natural ferocity, they adopted the 
 resolution of putting a finishing stroke to their crime, by the de- 
 struction of the whole French post. ' Since the Black Chief is 
 dead,' said they, 'it is the same as if all the French were dead; 
 let us not spare any.' The next day they executed their barbar- 
 ous plan. ' They repaired, early in the morning, to the fort, which 
 was not more than a league distant, and whose occupants sup- 
 posed, on their arrival, that the Indians wished to chant the cal- 
 
TERRIBLE MASSACRE AT NATCHEZ. 249 
 
 umet to the Chevalier des Roches, who commanded that post, in 
 the absence of M. de Codere. He had but seventeen men with 
 him, who had no suspicion of any evil design on the part of the 
 savages, and were, therefore, all massacred, not one escaping their 
 fury. They, however, spared the lives of four women and five 
 children, whom they found there, and whom they made slaves. 
 One of the Yazoos having stripped the missionary, clothed him- 
 self in his garments, and shortly after announced to the Natchez ' 
 that his nation had redeemed their pledge, and that the French, 
 settled among them, were all massacred. In this city, there was 
 no longer any doubt on that point, as soon as they learned what 
 came near being the fate of Fa,ther Doutreleau. This missionary 
 had availed himself of the time when the Indians were en- 
 gaged in their winter occupations, to come and see us, for the 
 purpose of regulating some matters relating to his mission. He 
 set out on the first of this year, 1730, and not expecting to arrive 
 at the residence of Father Souel, of whose fate he was- ignorant, 
 in time to say mass, he determined to say it at the mouth of the 
 Little Yazoo river, where his party had cabined. 
 
 " As he was preparing for the sacred ofiBce, he saw a boat 
 full of Indians landing ; they demanded from them of what na- 
 tion they were. ' Yazoos, comrades of the French,' they replied, 
 making a thousand friendly demonstrations to the voy- 
 agers, who accompanied the missionary, and presenting 1730 
 them with provisions. While the father was preparing Jan. 1 
 bis altar, a flock of bustards passed, and the voyagers 
 fired at them the only two guns they had, without thinking of 
 reloading, as mass had already commenced. The Indians noted 
 this, and placed themselves behind the voyagers, as if it was 
 their intention to hear mass, although they were not Christians. 
 At the time the father was saying the Kgrie EUison, the Indians 
 made their discharge ; -the^ missionary, seeing himself wounded 
 in his right arm, and seeing one of the voyagers killed 
 , at his feet, and the four others fled, threw himself on his 
 
250 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 knees to receive the last fatal blow, which he regarded 
 as inevitable. In this posture he received two or three 
 discharges, but although the Indians fired while almost 
 touching him, y«t they did not inflict on him any new wounds. 
 Finding himself then, as it were, miraculously escaped from so 
 many mortal blows, he took to flight, having on still his priestly 
 garments, and without any other defence than entire confldence 
 in God, whose particular protection was given him, as the events 
 proved. He threw himself into the water, and after advancing 
 some steps gained the boat, in which two of the voyagers were 
 
 making their escape. They had supposed him to be killed 
 1730 by some of the many balls which they had heard fired on 
 Jan. him. In climbing up into the boat, and turning his 
 
 head to see whether any one of his pursuers was follow- 
 ing him too closely, he received in the mouth a discharge of small 
 shot, the greater part of which were flattened against his teeth, 
 though some of them entered his gums and remained there for a 
 long time. I have myself seen two of them. Father Doutreleau, 
 all wounded as he was, undertook the duty of steering the boat, 
 while his two companions placed themselves at the oars ; unfoi"- 
 tunately one of them at setting out had his thigh broken by a 
 musket ball, from the effects of which he has since remained a 
 cripple. * * * As soon as they found themselves freed from 
 their enemies, they dressed their wounds as well as they could, 
 and for the purpose of aiding their flight from that fatal shore 
 they threw into the river everything they had in their boat, pre- 
 serving only some pieces of raw bacon for their nourishment. It 
 had been their intention to stop iu passing at the Natchez, but 
 having seen that the houses of the French were either demolished 
 or burned, they did not think it advisable to listen to the compli- 
 ments of the Indians who, from the bank of the river, invited 
 them to land. They placed a wide distance between them as soon 
 as possible, and thus shunned the balls which were ineflfectually 
 flred at them. It was then that they began to distrust all the 
 
TERBIBLE MASSACRE AT NATCHEZ. 251 
 
 Indian nations, and, therefore, resolved not to go near the land 
 until they reached New Orleans ; and supposing that the savages 
 might have rendered themselves masters of it, to descend even to 
 the BaUze, where they hoped to find some French vessel provided 
 to receive the wreck of the colony. * * * I cannot 
 express to you, my reverend father, the great satisfac- 1730 
 tion I felt at seeing Father Doutreleau, his arm in a Jan. 8 
 scarf, arrive (in New/ Orleans) after a voyage of more 
 than four hundred leagues, all the clothes he had on having been 
 borrowed, except his cassock. I placed him immediately in the 
 hands of brother Parisel, who examined his wounds and who 
 dressed them with great care and speedy success. The mission- 
 ary was not yet entirely cured of his wounds when he departed 
 to act as chaplain to the French army, as he had promised the 
 officers, in accordance with their request. 
 
 ■JF ^Jr tt tt tt V TV 
 
 " Knowing as you do, my reverend father, the vigilance 
 and the oversight of our Governor, you can well imagine that 
 he did not sleep in this sad crisis in which we now fotmd 
 ourselves. We may say, without flattery, that he surpassed 
 himself by the rapid movements he made, and by the wise meas- 
 ures he adopted to revenge the French blood which had been 
 shed, and to prevent the evils with which almost all the posts of 
 the .colony were threatened. , As soon as he was apprised of this 
 unexpected attack, by the Natchez Indians, he caused the news 
 to be carried to all the posts, and even as far as the Illinois, not 
 by the ordinary route of the river, which was closed, but on one 
 side by the Natchitoches and the Arkansas, and the other by 
 Mobile and the Chickasaw. He invited the neighbors, who were 
 our allies, and particularly the Choctaws, to avenge this outrage. 
 He furnished arms and ammunition to all the houses of the city 
 and to- the plantations. He caused two ships, that is, the Due 
 de Bourbon and the Alexandre, to ascend the river as far as the 
 Tonicas. These ships were like two good fortresses against the 
 
252 HISTOKT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 insults of the Indians, and in case of attack, two certain asylums 
 for the women and children. He caused a ditch to be dug en- 
 tirely around the city, and placed guard houses at the four ex- 
 tremities. He organized for its defence many companies of city 
 militia, who mounted guard during the whole night. As there 
 was more to fear in the grants and in the plantations than in the 
 city, he fortified them with the most care. He had good forts 
 erected at Chapitoulas, Cannes, Brules, Altemands, Bayagoulas, 
 and Pointe Coupee. 
 
 "At first, our governor, listening only to the dictates of his 
 own courage, adopted the design of placing himself at the head 
 of the troops, but it was represented to him that he ought not to 
 quit New Orleans, where his presence was absolutely necessary ; 
 that there was danger of the Choctaws determining to fall upon 
 the city, if it should be deprived of its troops ; and the negroes, 
 to free themselves from slavery, might join them, as some had 
 
 done with the Natchez. Moreover, he could feel per- 
 1730 fectly easy 'with regard to the conduct of the troops, as 
 Jah. the Chevalier De Loubois, with whose experience and 
 
 bravery he was well acquainted, had been appointed to 
 command them. Whilst our little army was repairing to the 
 Tonicas, seven hundred Choctaws, mustered and conducted by 
 M. Le Suer, marched towards the Natchez. We were informed, 
 by a party of these people, that the Natchez were not at all on 
 their guard, but passed all their nights in dancing. The Choc- 
 taws took them, therefore, by surprise, and made a descent on 
 them, the 27th of January, at the break of day. In less than 
 three hours they had delivered fifty-nine persons, both women 
 and children, with the tailor and carpenter, and one hundred and 
 six negroes or negro women, with their children. They made 
 
 eighteen of the Natchez prisoners, and took sixty scalps. 
 
 1730 They would have taken more, if they had not been in- 
 
 Jan. 27 tent on freeing the slaves, as they had been directed. 
 
 They had but two men killed and seven or eight 
 
TERRIBLE MASSACRE AT NATCHEZ. 253 
 
 wounded. They encamped, with their prizes, at the grant of St. 
 Catherine, in a mere park enclosed with stakes. The victory 
 would have been complete, if they had waited the arrival of the 
 French army, as had been agreed upon by their deputies.* 
 
 " The Natchez, seeing themselves attacked by the formidable 
 Choctaws, regarded their defeat as certain, and shutting them- 
 selves up in two forts, passed the following nights in dancing 
 their death dance. In their speeches, we heard them reproach- 
 ing the Choctaws for their, perfidy in declaring in favor of the 
 French, contrary to the pledge they had given, to unite with them 
 for our destruction." Three days before this action, the Sieur Mes- 
 plex landed at the Natchez with five other Frenchmen; they had 
 volunteered to M. De Loubois, to carry to the Indians negotiar 
 tions for peace, that they might be able, under this pretext, to 
 gain information with regard to their force and their present sit- 
 uation. But, in descending from their boat, they encountered a 
 party who, without giving them time to speak, killed three of 
 their men and made the other three prisoners. The next day 
 they sent one of these prisoners with a letter, in which they de- 
 manded, as hostages, the Sieur Broutin, who had formerly been 
 commander among them, and the Chief of the Tonicas. Besides, 
 they demanded, as the ransom for the women, children and 
 slaves, two hundred guns, two hundred barrels of powder, two 
 thousand gun flints, two hundred knives, two hundred hatchets, 
 two hundred pickaxes, five hogsheads of brandy, twenty casks of 
 wine, twenty barrels of vermilion, two hundred shirts, twenty 
 pieces of limbourg, twenty pieces of cloth, twenty coats with lace 
 on the seams, twenty hats bordered with plumes, and a hundred 
 coats of a plainer kind. Their design was to massacre the 
 French, who should bring these goods. On the very same day, 
 
 * Monette, Martin, and other modern authors, state that Le Seur advanced from the 
 Tortbigby, with six hundred warriors, and near Pearl river increased his force to twelve 
 hundred . Arcivine near Natchez, and learning the unf^uarded condition of the Indians 
 of that place, the Choctaws fell upon them, in spite of the entreaties of Le Seur, who 
 urged them to await the arrival of the French army. 
 
254 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 with every refinement in cruelty, they burned the Sieur Mesplex 
 and his companion. 
 
 » On the 8th February, the French, with the Tonicas and 
 some other small tribes from the lower end of the Mississippi, ar- 
 rived at the Natchez, and seized their temple, dedicated to the 
 Sun. The impatience and impracticability of the Choctaws, who, 
 like all these Indians, are capable of striking only one blow and 
 then disperse — the small number of French soldiers, who found 
 themselves worn down by fatigues — the want of provi- 
 1 730 sions, which the Indians stole from the French — the f ail- 
 Feb. ure of ammunition, with which they were not able to 
 satisfy the Choctaws, who wasted one part of it, and 
 placed the other in reserve to be used in hunting — the resistance 
 of the Natchez, who were well fortified, and who fought in des- 
 peration — all these things decided us to listen to the propositions 
 which the besieged made, after the trenches had been opened for 
 seven days. They threatened, if we persisted in the siege, to 
 burn those of the French who remained ; while, on the other 
 hand, they offered to restore them, if we would withdraw our 
 seven pieces of cannon. These, in reality, for want of a good gun- 
 ner, and under present circumstances, were scarcely in a fit state 
 to give them any fear. 
 
 "These propositions were accepted, and fulfilled on both 
 sides. On the 25th of February, the besieged faithfully re- 
 stored all that they had promised, while the besiegers retired with 
 their cannon to a small fort which they had hastily built on the 
 Escore, near the river, for the purpose of always keeping the 
 Natchez in check, and ensuring a passage to the voyagers. Gov- 
 ernor Perrier gave the command of it to M. D'Artaguette, as an 
 acknowledgement of the intrepidity with which, during the siege, 
 he had exposed himself to the greatest dangers, and everywhere 
 braved death. 
 
 " Before the Choctaws had determined to fall upon the 
 Natchez, they had been to them to convey the calumet, and were 
 
TERRIBLE MASSACRE AT NATCHEZ. 255 
 
 received in a very novel manner. They found them and their 
 horses adorned with chasubles and drapery of the altars ; many 
 wore patterns about their necks, and drank, and gave to 
 drink, of brandy in the chalices and pyx. And the 1730 
 Choctaws themselves, when they had gained these arti- Feb. 
 cles by pillaging our enemies, renewed this profane sac- 
 rilege, by making the same use of our ornaments and sacred ves- 
 sels in their dances and sports. We were never able to recover 
 more than a small portion of them."* 
 
 Here Father Le Petit discontinues his detail of the Natchez 
 war, and ends his letter with some remarks upon the character of 
 the Illinois and several other tribes of Indians. He appears to 
 have deemed it a very great outrage that the ISJatohez thus pros- 
 tituted their holy vessels and priestly robes, yet he announces 
 that the French army " arrived at the Natchez and seized their 
 temple, dedicated to the Sun," which they, no doubt, also de- 
 stroyed. The religion of tde Natchez was as sacred to the 
 Natchez, as the religion of the Roman Catholics was to the good 
 Father Le Petit. 
 
 The Natchez Chiefs proposed to surrender more than two 
 hundred prisoners, if the French commander would remove his 
 artillery and withdraw his forces, or else all the prisoners would 
 be consumed by flre. Loubois, to save the lives of these misera- 
 ble captives, consented, yet with the secret intention of wreaking 
 his vengeance upon the Indians as soon as the prisoners were 
 in his possession. But he was sadly disappointed, for 
 the Indians, suspecting treachery on his part, took ad- 1730 
 vantage of the suspension of hostilities, and one night Feb. 25 
 evacuated the fort, and succeeded in gaining the oppo- 
 site shore of the Mississippi with all their women and children. 
 The prisoners were found in the fort, agreeably to the treaty. 
 
 * "Tbe Early Jeauit Missions in Nortb America," compiled and translated from the 
 letters of tbe French Jesuits, with notes by the Rev. Ingraham Kip, AI. A., Correspond- 
 ing Member of the New York Historical Society. New York: 1846. See Fart 2, pp. 
 267-300. 
 
256 HISTOBY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Loubois was astonished at the dexterous manceuvre, but he saw 
 the folly of pursuing the foe^who had now secreted themselves in 
 the vast swamps. He began the erection of a terraced fort upon 
 the verge of the bluff, and leaving there a garrison of one hun- 
 dred and twenty men, returned with his troops and the rescued 
 prisoners to New Orleans. 
 
 The largest portion of the Natchez, conducted by the Great 
 Sun, established themselves "upon the lower Washita, on the 
 point between the Little River and the Washita, just below the 
 mouth of Little River, where the Washita assumes the name 
 of Black river."* Here the Natchez placed about four hundred 
 acres of land in a state of defence by the erection of large and 
 small mounds and extensive embankments. Other portions of 
 this tribe sought an asylum among the Chickasaws, while others 
 wandered still further east, and took up their abode upon a por- 
 tion of the territory now embraced in Talladega county, Alabama. 
 The English traders of Carolina, it is said, rejoiced in the destruc- 
 tion of the French, and many of them, then residing among the 
 Chickasaws, urged those people and the refugee Natchez to en- 
 gage in a vigorous warfare, and not only to defend their soil but 
 to exterminate the French. In the meantime Governor Perrier 
 made preparations to follow up the Natchez upon the Washita, 
 but his exertions were to some extent defeated by a serious negro 
 insurrection, which occurred upon the plantations in the vicinity 
 
 of New Orleans. 
 1731 However, upon the 10th of August one of the com- 
 
 Aug. 10 pany's ships arrived at the Balize with some troops 
 
 and supplies. Although mortified that the reinforce- 
 ment was so small, Perrier added them to the colonial troops, 
 
 and, procuring a Choctaw force at Mobile, left New Or- 
 Nov. 15 leans with an army of six hundred and fifty, which was 
 
 increased on the way to one thousand by Indian allies. 
 Reaching the mouth of Black river, they at length came in sight 
 
 • Monette's History of the Valley of the Mississippi, vol. 1, p. 267. 
 
TEEEIBLE MASSACRE IN NATCHEZ. 257 
 
 of the enemy's stronghold. The troops were disem- 
 barked, the fprt invested, and for three days the besieged 1732 
 made a spirited resistance, when they made propositions Jan. 20 
 whicli Perrier rejected. At length the Indians consented 
 to surrender the Great Sun and one War Chief, which the Gov- 
 ernor refused. They then consented to surrender sixty-flve men 
 and about two hundred women and children, upon conditions that 
 their lives should be spared. Perrier once more opened his artil- 
 lery upon them, biit a heavy rain, which continued until night, 
 silenced his batteries. When night set in the Natchez began to 
 escape from their defences, and make their way up the river^ 
 in the midst of a tempest of wind and rain. The Indian allies' 
 went in pursuit, and returned with one hundred prisoners. The 
 next day Perrier demolished the outworks of the fort and 
 began his voyage to New Orleans, where he arrived in 1732 
 due time with four hundred and twenty-seven captives Feb. 5 
 of the Natchez tribe. At the h^ad of them were the 
 Great Sun and several principal Chiefs. Soon afterwards they 
 were all shipped to St. Domingo and sold as slaves.* Those of 
 the Natchez who escaped during the stormy night rallied again 
 and collected in one body near the French settlements on Red 
 river. They then marched and attacked the post in a haost 
 furious manner, but St. Denys, the commandant, an intrepid offi- 
 cer, repelled them with the loss of ninety-two braves, includih^' 
 all their Chiefs. The remnant escaped by flight. This was the 
 closing scene in the Natchez drama, and ended the existence of 
 these brave Indians as a distinct tribe.* 
 
 » "The French army re-embarked and carried the Katchez as slaves to New Orleans, 
 where they were put in prispn; hut afterwards, to avoid the infection, the women and, 
 the children were disposed of on the King's plantation and elsewhere. Among these 
 women was the Female Sun, called the Stung Arm, who then told me all she had done, 
 in order to save the French. Some time after, these slaves were embarked to St. 
 Domingo, in order to root out that nation m the colony ;■ * * * and thus that nation,, 
 the most conspicuous in the colony and the inost useful to the French, was destroyed." 
 — Du Pratz, p. 96. , 
 
 *ln relation to the massacre at Natchez, and the final defeat of those Indians, 1 have 
 carefully consulted the following authorities: Du Pratz's Louisiana; London, 1774, 
 Bossu's Travels in Louisiana, vol. 1 ; London, 1771. Memoire Historique et Politique snr 
 laLouisiane, parM. de Ver^ennes, Ministre.de Louis XVI.; a Paris-, 1802. Voyage a.la: 
 Louisiane, par B»** D ; Paris, 1802. Memoires Historique sur la Loiiisiane, par ft. l)u- 
 mont : a Paris, 1753. JECip's Early Jesuit Missions ; New York, 1846. Gayarre^s flistoire 
 de la Louisiane. Martin's History of Louisiana; New Orleans, 1827. Stoddart's Sketches, 
 Historical and Descriptive, of Louisiana ; Piladelphia, 1812. Monette's History of the 
 Valley of the Mississippi; New Vork, 1846. 
 
 — 17 
 
CHAPTER Xir. 
 The English in Georgia. 
 
 We have shown that South Carolina had been established as 
 a colony for some years, that its seat of government was at 
 Charleston, and that its inhabitants, in endeavoring to extend 
 the English trade to all the Western Indian nations as far as the 
 Mississippi river, had many conilicts and difficulties with the 
 French, who occupied the territory of Alabama. They were 
 also constantly opposed by the Spaniards of the Floridas. In 
 order to interpose a barrier to these foes, as well as to protect 
 the citizens from the attacks of the Creek Indians, the King of 
 England and the British Parliament listened to a proposition of 
 a great philanthropist, to plant a colony upon the western bank 
 of the Savannah river. His motives, purely noble and disin- 
 terested, originated in a desire to ameliorate the condition of 
 many unfortunate people in England. To carry out his plans of 
 humanity, he was willing that the King should blend with them 
 politic measures for the advancement of this, his most Southern 
 province, and it was determined that "silk, wine and oil should 
 be cultivated most abundantly." 
 
 James Oglethorpe, a descendant of one of the oldest and 
 most influential families of England, was born on the 22d of De- 
 cember, 1688, and after graduating at Oxford University, was 
 commissioned an ensign in the British army. In 1713, he ac- 
 companied the Earl of Petersburg, then Ambassador to the Ital- 
 ian States, in the capacity of aide-de-camp. Returning to England, 
 a year afterwards, he was promoted to a captaincy in the first 
 troop of Queen Anne's Guard, and was soon an adjutant-general 
 
 268 
 
THE ENGLISH IN GEORGIA. 259 
 
 of the Queen's forces. He was next transferred to the post of 
 aide-de-camp to Prince Eugene, the first general of the age, and 
 was with him amid all the sanguinary battles fought between 
 the Austrians and the Turks, upon the frontiers of Hungary. 
 When these war^ were over, Oglethorpe returned to England, 
 and in 1722 was elected a member of the British Parliament, 
 where be soon became useful and influential. 
 
 Oglethorpe caused an investigation to be made into the state 
 of the English prisons, and it was ascertained that they groaned 
 with thousands of poor wretches who had been imprisoned many 
 years for debt. That the kingdom of England also contained 
 thousands, " descended of good families," who were in destitute 
 circumstances, and that hundreds of German exiles, driven from 
 their native country by religious persecution, were starving 
 among them. He brought this unhappy state of things 
 before the King and Parliament, and, by his zeal and 1732 
 ability, succeeded in procuring a charter for the coloni- June 
 zation of Georgia, the inhabitants of which were to con- 
 sist of these distressed people. He resolved, himself, to embark 
 with the first emigrants. They consisted of thirty families, num- 
 bering, collectively, one hundred and twenty-five souls. Enter- 
 ing the sea from the Thames, the vessel, after a long 
 voyage across the Atlantic, furled its sails in the har- 1733 
 bor of Charleston. Oglethorpelanded, and was received Jan. 
 "with attention by the Governor and Council of South 
 Carolina. The King's pilot carried the .ship into Port Royal, 
 while small vessels were furnished to convey the emigrants to 
 the Savannah river. Leaving his people at Beaufort, 
 and accompanied by Colonel Biall of South Carolina, Jan. 20 
 Oglethorpe ascended the Savannah, and launched his 
 boat at the splendid bluft", which now forms the site of the com- 
 mercial emporium of Georgia. At the northern end of this bluff, 
 the great philanthropist came upon an Indian town, called 
 Yamacraw, the chief of which was named Tomochichi, and where 
 
THE ENGLISH IN GEORGIA. 261 
 
 Masgrove, a Carolina trader, married to a half-breed named 
 Mary, had established himself.* 
 
 This Indian, Mary, was born in the year 1700, at the town 
 of Coweta, upon the Chattahoochie, in Alabama. Her Indian 
 name was Consaponaheeso, and by maternal descent she was 
 one of the Queens of the Muscogee nation, and the Indians 
 conceded to her the title of princess. When ten years of 
 age, her father took her to Ponpon, in South Carolina, where 
 she was baptized, educated and instructed in Christianity. 
 Afterwards, she fled back to her forest home, laid aside the 
 civilization of the British, and assumed the ease and freedom 
 of the happy Muscogee. In 1716, Colonel John Musgrove 
 was despatched to the Chattahoochie, by the government of 
 Carolina, to form a treaty of alliance with the Creeks, with 
 whom that colony had been at war. It was there stipulated that 
 the Creeks were to remain the free occupants of all the lands 
 east, as far as the Savannah river. The son of the British nego- 
 tiator, John Musgrove, had accompanied his father to Coweta, 
 and falling in love with the Princess Mary, made her his wife. 
 After remaining in the nation several years, and after 
 the birth of their only child, they removed to South Car- 1723 
 olina. There residing seven years in much happiness, 
 they afterwards established themselves upon Yamacraw Bluff, at 
 the head of an extensive trading house, and where Ogle- 
 thorpe found them, as we have just, observed. By his 1732 
 alliance with this remarkable woman, who was well June 
 versed in the Indian and English languages, Musgrove 
 obtained considerable influence over the natives, and became ex- 
 ceedingly wealthy. Mary was, afterwards, the warm friend of 
 Oglethorpe, and several times saved the early colonists of Georgia 
 from savage butchery. 
 
 Oglethorpe returned to Beaufort, and, collecting' his colo- 
 
 * Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. 1, pp. 58-76-89. Georgia Historical Collections, vol. 
 l,pp. 9-11-12-167-174. McCalPs History of Georgia, vol. 1, pp. 9-32. 
 
262 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 nists, sailed up the Savannah, and landing at the bluff, where now 
 stands the beautiful city, immediately disembarked and pitched 
 four large tents. Here the emigrants spent their first 
 ]733 night in Georgia. The Indians received them with hos- 
 Feb. 12 pitality, and gave pledges of future friendship. Ogle- 
 thorpe marked out the streets and squares ; all was 
 bustle and activity, and it was not long before Savannah assumed 
 something of the appearance of a town. A small fort was estab- 
 lished at the edge of the bluff, as a place of refuge, and 
 1733 some artillery was mounted upon it. Fort Argyle was 
 Feb. 9 built at the narrow passage of the Ogeechee, above the 
 mouth of Canouchee, to defend the inhabitants against 
 inland invasion from the Spaniards of St. Augustine. 
 
 Soon after his arrival, Oglethorpe despatched runners to the 
 Lower Creek nation, and having assembled eighteen Chiefs and 
 their attendants, at Savannah, he formed a treaty with them, in 
 which they relinquished to the British government the 
 May 21 lands between the Savannah and the Altamaha. It was 
 also stipulated, among other things, that English traders 
 should be allowed to establish themselves in any part of the Creek 
 nation. Their goods were to be sold at fixed rates — thus, a 
 white blanket was set down at five buckskins, a gun at ten, a 
 hatchet at three doeskins, a knife at one, and so on. Returning 
 to Charleston, after this important treaty, a dinner was given to 
 the philanthropist by the legislative bodies, which he returned 
 by a ball and supper to the ladies. 
 
 A company of forty Jews, acting under the broad principles 
 of the charter, which gave freedom to all religions, save that of 
 the Romish Church, landed at Savannah. Much dissatisfaction, 
 both in England and America, arose in consequence of the ap- 
 pearance of these Israelites, and Oglethorpe was . solicited to 
 send them immediately from the colony. He, however, gen- 
 erously permitted them to remain, • which was one of 
 1734 the wisest acts of his ■ life, for they and their de- 
 
THE ENGLISH IN GEORGIA. 263 
 
 scendants were highly instramental in developing the com- 
 mercial resources of this wild land. There also came, in the 
 months of September and October, three hundred and forty -one 
 Salzburgers, driven from Germany for their religious opinions, 
 and Oglethorpe settled them above Savannah, on the river of that 
 name, where they formed a town and named it Ebenezer. These 
 people were succeeded by many Highlanders, from Scot- 
 land, who, being brave and hardy, were located upon the 1736 
 banks of the Altamaha, the most exposed part of the Jan. 
 colony, where they founded the town of Darien. 
 
 In the meantime Oglethorpe had made a voyage to England, 
 taking with him Tomochichi, the Chief of Yamacraw. Senanky, 
 his wife, Tooanhouie, their nephew, Hillipili, the War Captain, 
 and live Chiefs of the Cherokees. He was most graciously re- 
 ceived by the ruling powers of England and her citizens ; and his 
 noble and disinterested exertions were universally approved. In 
 due time he returned to Georgia, with his Indian friends. 
 
 The lands, between Ebenezer and Briar Creek, belonged to 
 the Uchees, who refused to dispose of them. But to secure this 
 part of the country, two forts were built on the South Carolina 
 side of the river, which answered the purpose. Establishments 
 were also made at Silver Bluff, and at the falls of the Savannah, 
 where the town of Augusta was laid out, warehouses erected, and 
 a garrison thrown into a small fort. Augusta immediately be- 
 came a general resort for Indian traders, where they purchased 
 annually about two thousand pack-horse loads of peltry. Six. 
 hundred white persons were engaged in this trade, including 
 townsmen, pack-horse men and servants. Boats, each capable of 
 carrying down the river a large quantity of peltry, were built, 
 and four or five voyages were annually made with them to 
 Charleston. A trading highway was opened to Savannah on 
 which few of the creeks were bridged, or marshes and swamps 
 causewayed. 
 
 He who became the wealthiest and most conspicuous of all . 
 
264 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 these Indian traders, was George Galphin, a native of Ireliind, 
 Wtien quite a young man, he established himself upon the site pi 
 Da Soto's ancient Cutifachiqui, where that remarkable adventurer 
 first discovered the Savannah river, in 1540. Upon the site of 
 
 this old Indian town, on the east bluff of the Savannah, 
 1737 in Barnwell District, South Carolina, now called Silver 
 
 Bluff, and at present the property of Gov. Hammond, 
 young Galphin first begun to trade with the Creek Indians. Al- 
 though he made Silver Bluff his headquarters, he had trading 
 houses in Savannah and Augusta. He was a man of fine address, 
 great sense, commanding person, untiring energy and unsurpassed 
 bravery. His power was felt and his infiuence extended even to 
 the banks of the Mississippi. Among the Upper and Lower 
 Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws and Choctaws, he sent forth nu- 
 merous papk-horse men, with various merchandise, who brought 
 back to Georgia almost countless skins and furs, kegs of bears' oil, 
 
 hickory-nut oil, snake root and medicinal barks, which 
 
 1740 he shipped to England. He often went himself into 
 
 to these nations, fearlessly trading in the immediate 
 
 1775 vicinity of the French Fort Toulouse, upon the Coosa. 
 
 Commercial policy and an amorous disposition led him 
 to form connections with several females, who were called his 
 wivesj and from whom descended many intelligent and infiu- 
 ential persons, now inhabiting Georgia, Alabama and the Ar- 
 kansas Territory. 
 
 Among the passengers who came out with Oglethorpe, upon 
 his return to America, were the celebrated Methodists, John and 
 Charles ■ Wesley, who eat at the table of the philanthropist, and 
 who received from him , much kindness and courtesy, during a 
 stormy and dangerous voyage. Their object was to make reli- 
 gious impressions upon the minds of the Indians. Among the 
 colonists, with whom they resided many years, they became not 
 only unpopular, but very obnoxious. They finally returned to 
 England much mortified and much disappointed. ' Stevens thus 
 
THE ENGLISH IN GKOEGIA. 265 
 
 speaks of these talented and pious men : " The proceedings of 
 the Wesleys in G-eorgia have, indeed, been violently assailed ; 
 and even writers, who can offer no excuse for their ignorance, 
 accuse them of immorality apd blame. But it was not so. They 
 were men delicately brought up, of fine sensibilities, of cultivated 
 minds, of deep learning and of ardent devotion. * * Accom- 
 plished, though reserved , in their manners — associating from 
 childhood with refined and learned society — they could not con- 
 form at once to the tastes and habits of communities like those 
 of Savannah and Frederica, but were rather repelled by the gross 
 immoralities and offensive manners of the early colonists. Their 
 error was, especially in John, of holding too high ideas of eccle- 
 siastical authority, and the being too rigid and repulsive in their 
 pastoral duties. They stood firmly on little things, as well as on 
 great, and held the reins of church discipline with a tightness 
 unsuitable to an infant colony. But no other blame can attach 
 to them."* 
 
 The colony of Georgia had prospered under the wige guidance 
 of Oglethorpe. Five principal towns had been surveyed and set- 
 tled — Augusta, Ebenezer, Savannah, New Inverness and Fred- 
 erica-T^besides forts and villages. More than one thousand 
 persons had been sent to Georgia, on the account of the trustees 
 alone, while hundreds of other emigrants came at their own 
 expense. The colonists being from different nations, were 
 various in their characters and religious creeds. Vaudois, Swiss, 
 Piedmontese, Germans, Moravians, Jews from Portugal, High- 
 landers, English and Italians were thrown together in this fine 
 climate, new world and new home. With all these people, in 
 their various costumes, were often intermingled different tribes 
 of Indians. What a field for a painter the colony presented! 
 What materials for a scribbling tourist ! 
 
 Having thus colonized the northern, southern and eastern 
 borders, Oglethorpe returned to England, and presented to 
 
 * Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. 1, pp. 339-349. 
 
266 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 his majesty and the Parliament an account of the affairs of 
 Georgia. He asked, at their hands, a suflBcient supply of 
 military stores and men to defend the province from an invasion 
 contemplated by the Spaniards of the Floridas. The colonization 
 of Georgia had given great offence to Spain . That power claimed 
 the whole of Georgia, but made no serious opposition so long as 
 the English settlements were confined to Savannah river, but 
 when Oglethorpe planted his Highlanders upon the Altamaha, 
 the Spaniards resolved upon their expulsion. A long succession 
 of border wars and difficulties ensued, which, having but little 
 connection with the history of Alabama, are omitted. It should 
 be observed, however, that Oglethorpe succeeded in his applica- 
 tions to the Court, and was appointed General of the forces in 
 South Carolina and Georgia. In September he was made Colonel 
 
 of a regiment to be employed in defence of the colony, 
 
 1738 which he had so successfully established. He returned 
 
 Sept. 1 9 to Georgia with his army, and disembarked his artillery 
 
 at St. Simond's Island. 
 No sooner had Gen. Oglethorpe placed his feet upon Georgia 
 soil than he saw the necessity of renewing his treaty with the 
 Creeks, and of cultivating their alliance, for fear that they might 
 form a dangerous connection with the Spaniards. He went im- 
 mediately to Savannah, where he had an interview with the 
 Chiefs of four towns, and succeeded in strengthening their fidelity 
 to the English. But in order to accomplish a complete alliance 
 with the brave Creeks he resolved to attend the great council of 
 that nation, which was to assemble at Coweta in July and Au- 
 gust following. It was a long and perilous journey. Coweta lay 
 upon the west bank of the Chattahoochie river, three miles below 
 the falls, at which the city of Columbus is now situated, and 
 within the limits of the present Russell county, Alabama. The 
 distance from Savannah to that point was not only considerable, 
 but lay, over extensive pine forests, dismal swamps and rapid and 
 dangerous rivers, while the solitary trail was not infrequently 
 
THE ENGLISH IN GEOEGIA. 267 
 
 beset by Indian banditti. However, when the time arrived he, 
 who had so courageously fought under Prince Eugene upon the 
 frontiers of Hungary, was not to be dismayed by obstacles like 
 these. With only a few attendants, and some pack-horses laden 
 with goods, designed as presents for the Indians, Oglethorpe set 
 off on his journey. He crossed the Ogechee, Oconee, Ockmulgee 
 and the Flint, carrying over his effects in canoes, and sometimes 
 upon rafts. Finally he halted upon the banks of the Chattahoo- 
 chie. He had camped out every night in the woods, exposed by 
 day to the heat of the sun, and often to pelting showers of rain. 
 Crossing the Chattahoochie, and ascending its western bank, the 
 great and good Oglethorpe soon arrived in the town of 
 Coweta, upon Alabama soil. Forty miles in advance the 1739 
 Indians had met him, and at various points upon the Aug. 1 
 route had deposited provisions for his subsistence. They 
 now received him in their capital with every demonstration of joy. 
 Making Coweta his headquarters, Oglethorpe occasionally 
 rode to some of the towns in the vicinity, the most prominent 
 of which were Uchee, Cusseta and Ositche, conversing with 
 these people through his interpreters, and engaging their 
 affections -by his liberality and irresistible address. He drank 
 with them the black drink — smoked with them the pipe of peace 
 — and lounged with them upon the cool cane sofas with which 
 their ample public houses were furnished. In the meantime, the 
 Chiefs and warriors from the towns of Coweta, Cusseta, Ufaula, 
 Hitchitee, Ositche, Chehaw, Oconee, and Swagles, assembled in 
 the great square. After many ceremonious prelimina- 
 ries, they made a treaty of Alliance with Oglethorpe. It 1739 
 was declared that all the lands between the Savannah Aug. 21 
 and the St. John's, and from the latter to the Apalaehe 
 bay, and thence to the niountains, by ancient right, did belong to 
 the Creek nation. That neither the Spaniards nor any other 
 people, excepting the trustees of the colony of Georgia, should 
 settle them. That the grant on the Savannah river, as far as the 
 
268 HISTORY OE ALABAMA. 
 
 river Ogeechee, and those along the seacoast, as far as the St. 
 John's river, and as high as the tide flowed, with the islands pre- 
 viously granted to the English at Savannah, should now be con- 
 firmed. The flhiefs again reserved all the lands from Pipe 
 Maker's Bluflf to the Savannah, with the Islands of St. Catherine, 
 Osabow and Sapelo. 
 
 After signing the treaty, Oglethorpe left with the Chiefs, for 
 their protection against English encroachments, the following 
 singular paper : 
 
 -By Jamei Oglethorpe, Esquire, General and Commander-in- Chief 
 of all His Majesty's forces in South Carolina and Georgia, 
 etc.: To all His Majesty's subjects to whom these presents 
 shall come, greeting — 
 
 Know tb, That you are not to take up or settle any land be- 
 yond the above limit, settled by me with the Creek nation, at 
 their estates held on Saturday, the eleventh day of August, Anno 
 Domini, 1739, as you shall, through me, at your peril, answer. 
 
 Given under my hand and seal, at the Coweta town, this, the 
 21st day of August, Anno Domini, 1739. 
 
 James Oglethorpe. 
 
 We desire it to be borne in mind, by the reader, tha,t none of 
 the Upper Creek Indians, who lived upon the Alabama, Coosa, 
 and Tallapoosa rivers, were present at this treaty. They never 
 recognized any of the treaties made in the Lower Creek nation 
 with the Georgians. At this time, they were under the 
 1735 influence of the French ; afterwards, they placed them- 
 selves under the wing of the Spaniards. Although the 
 English built a fort and occupied it for many years, with a gar- 
 rison, in the town of Ocfuske, on the east side of the Tallapoosa, 
 river, within forty miles of the French fortress, Toulouse, and 
 partially succeeded in alienating some of the Upper Creeks from 
 the French, yet the great body of these people forever remained 
 the implacable enemies of the Georgians. 
 
THE ENGLISH IN 6E0KGIA. 269 
 
 Oglethorpe departed from Coweta, and after a dis- 
 agreeable journey, reached Savannah. He there as- 1739 
 sisted in the funeral ceremonies of his friend, Tomochi- Sept. 22 
 chi, who died at Yamacraw Bluff. The body, brought 
 down the river in a canoe, was received by Oglethorpe, Oct. 5 
 and was interred in Percival Square, amid the sound 
 of minute guns from the battery.* 
 
 * Stevens' History of Georgia, toI. 1, pp. 89-158. MoCall's History of Georgia, vol. 1, pp. 
 32-142. Georgia Historical Collections, vol. 1, pp. 18-22-262-182. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Jesuit Pjbiests oe Missionaeibs. 
 
 Since the revolt of the French garrison at Fort Toulouse, 
 upon the Coosa, things at that place had remained in rather an 
 undisturbed condition. It is true that the English had given 
 them much uneasiness, and had occasionally cut off some of the 
 couriers de bois. In order to cultivate a better understanding 
 with the Lower Creeks, a Jesuit priest. Father de Guyenne, went 
 to Coweta, upon the Chattahoochie, and succeeded in building 
 two cabins, one at that place, and the other at Cusseta. His ob- 
 ject was to learn the language of the Indians, and to in- 
 1735 struct them in the Christian religion; but the English 
 of the province of Georgia prevailed upon the Indians to 
 burn up these houses. The zealous father was therefore forced 
 to retreat to Fort Toulouse. Father Moran had been stationed, 
 some years, at Fort Toulouse, and used to live occasionally at 
 Coosawda. 
 
 " The impossibility, however, of exercising his ministry 
 there, for the benefit of either the Indians or the French, has in- 
 duced the superior to recall him, that he might be entrusted with 
 the direction of the nuns, and of the royal hospital, which is now 
 under our charge. The English trade, as well as the French, 
 among the Alabama Indians. You can easily imagine what an 
 obstacle this presents to the progress of religion, for the English 
 are always ready to excite controversy."* Among the Choctaws 
 there were several missionaries, besides those stationed at Mo- 
 bile. "The reverend Father Baudouin, the actual superior- 
 
 * Letter of Father Vivier, of the company of Jesus, to a father of the same company. 
 
 270 
 
JESUIT PEIESTS OE MISSION AKIBS. 271 
 
 general of the mission, resided eighteen years among the Choc- 
 taws. When he was on the point of reaping some fruits from 
 his labors, the troubles which the English excited in that nation, 
 and the peril to which he was evidently exposed, obliged Father 
 Vitri, then superior-general, in concert with the governor, to re- 
 call him to New Orleans."* 
 
 While the English of Carolina and Georgia engaged in various 
 schemes to rid the territory of the present States of Alabama and 
 Mississippi of its French population, by unscrupulous intrigues 
 with the natives, the French were but little behind them in 
 similar enterprises. The Jesuits were adventurous and brave, 
 and men of captivating address, and obtained much influence 
 over the leading Chiefs, wherever they appeared. An account of 
 the artful intrigues of a Oerman Jesuit, named Christian Priber, 
 as related, in his singular style, by James Adair, an old British 
 trader, who lived forty years among the Cherokees and Chicka- 
 saws, will now be introduced. 
 
 "In the year 1736, the French sent into South Carolina one 
 Priber, a gentleman of a curious and speculative temper. He 
 was to transmit them a full account of that country, and proceed 
 to the Cherokee nation, in order to seduce them from the British 
 to the French interest. He went, and although he was adorned 
 with every qualification that constitutes the gentleman, 
 soon after he arrived at the upper towns of this moun- 1736 
 tainous country, he changed his clothes and everything 
 he brought with him, and by that means made friends with the 
 head warriors of the Big Tellico River. More effectually to an- 
 swer the design of his commission, he ate, drank, slept, danced, 
 dressed and painted himself with the Indians, so that it was not 
 easy to distinguish him from the natives ; he married, also, with 
 them. Being endowed with a strong understanding and reten- 
 tive memory, he soon learned their dialect, and by gradual ad- 
 vances, impressed them with a very ill opinion of the English, 
 
 * Letter of Father Vivier, of the company of Jesus, to a father of the same company. 
 
in 
 
 HISTORY OF ALABJ^MA. 
 
 representing them as a traudulent, avaricious and encroaching 
 people; He, at the same time, inflated the artless savages witb a 
 prodigious high opinion of their own importance in the American 
 scale of power, on account of the situation of their country, their 
 martial disposition and the great number of their warriors, which 
 would baffle all the efforts of the ambitious and ill-designing 
 British colonists. 
 
 " Having thus infected them by his smooth, deluding art, he 
 easily formed them into a nominal republican government. He 
 crowned their old Archi-Magus, emperor, after a pleasing new 
 savage form, and invented a variety of high sounding titles for all 
 the members of his imperial majesty's red court and the 
 1739 great officers of state. He himself received the honora- 
 ble title of his imperial majesty's principal secretary of 
 state, and as such he subscribed himself, in all the letters he 
 wrote to our government, and lived in open defiance of them. 
 This seemed to be of so dangerous a tendency, as to induce South 
 Carolina to seild up a commissioner. Colonel Fox, to demand him 
 as an enemy to public repose. He took him into custody in the 
 great square of their state house. When he had almost Concluded 
 his oration on the occasion, one of the warriors roSe ujp and bade 
 him forbear, as the man he intended to enslave was made a great 
 beloved man, and had become one of their people. Though it was 
 reckoned our Agent's strength was far greater in his arms than in 
 his head, he readily desisted, for, as it is too hard to struggle 
 with the Pope in Rome, a stranger could not miss to find it 
 equally difficult to enter abruptly into a newemperor^s court and 
 there seize his prime minister by a foreign authority, especially 
 when he could not support any charge of guilt against him. The 
 warriot told him that the red people well knew the honesty of 
 the secretary's heart would never allow him to tell a lie, and the 
 secretary urged that he was a foreigner, without owing any 
 allegiance to Great Britain. That he only travelled through 
 some places of their country, in a peaceable manner, paying 
 
JESUIT PKIESTS OE MISSIONARIES. 273 
 
 for everything he had of them. That in compliance with 
 the request of the kind French, as well as from his own 
 tender teelings for the poverty and insecure state of the 
 Cherokees, he came a great way, and lived with them as a 
 brother, only to preserve their liberties, by opening a water com- 
 munication between them and, New Orleans. That the distance 
 of the two places from each other proved his motive to be the 
 love of doing.good, especially as he was to go there and bring up 
 a suiBcient number of Frenchmen, of proper skill, to instruct 
 them in the art of making gunpowder, the materials of which, he 
 aflBrmed, their lands abounded with. He concluded his artful 
 speech by urging that the tyrannical design of the English com- 
 missioner towards him appeared plainly to be levelled against 
 them, because, as he was not accused of having done any ill to 
 the English, before he came to the Cherokees, his crime must 
 consist in loving the Cherokees. * * * An old war-leader 
 repeated to the commissioner the essential part of the speech, 
 and added more of his own similar thereto. * * * The Eng- 
 lish beloved man had the honor of receiving his leave of absence 
 and a sufficient passport of safe conduct, from the imperial red 
 court, by a verbal order of the secretary of state, who. was so 
 polite as to wish him well home, and ordered a convoy 
 of his own life-guards, who conducted him a consider- 1741 
 able way, and he got home in safety. 
 
 "From the above, it is evident that the monopolizing spirit 
 of the French had planned their dangerous line of circumvalla- 
 tion, respecting our envied colonies, as early as the before men- 
 tioned period. The choice of the man, also, bespoke their judg- 
 ment. Though the philosophic secretary was an utter stranger 
 to the wild and mountainous Cherokee nation, yet his sagacity 
 readily directed him to choose a proper place, an old favorite 
 riBligious man, for the new red empire, which he formed Ijy slow 
 and sure degree, to the great danger of our Southern colonies. 
 But the empire received a very great shock, in an acci- 
 
 18 
 
274 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 1731 dent that befell the secretary, when it was on the point 
 of rising into a far, greater state of puissance by the 
 acquisition of the Muscogee, Choctaw and the Western Missis- 
 sippi Indians. 
 
 "In the fifth year of that red imperial era, Priber set off for 
 Mobile, accompanied by a few Cherokees. He proceeded by land 
 as far as the navigable part of the Tallapoosa river, and arriving 
 at Tookabatcha, lodged there all night. The traders of the 
 neighboring towns soon went there, convinced the inhabitants 
 of the dangerous tendency of his unwearied labors among the 
 Cherokees, and of his present journey. They then took him 
 into custody, with a large bundle of manuscripts, and sent him 
 down to Frederica, in Georgia. The governor committed him 
 to a place of confinement, though not with common 
 
 1744 felons, as he was a foreigner, and was said to have 
 Mar. 22 held a place of considerable rank in the army. Soon 
 after, the magazine took fire, which was not far from 
 where he was confined, and though the sentinels bade him make 
 off to a place of safety, as all the people were running to avoid 
 danger from explosion of the powder and shells, yet he squatted 
 on his belly upon the floor, and continued in that position 
 without the least hurt. Several blamed his rashness, but he 
 told them that experience had convinced him it was the most 
 probable means of avoiding danger. This incident displayed 
 the philosopher and soldier. After bearing his misfortunes a 
 considerable time with great constancy, happily for us, he died in 
 confinement, though he deserved a much better fate. In the fifth 
 year of his secretaryship I maintained a correspondence with him. 
 But the Indians, becoming very inquisitive to know the contents 
 of our papers, * * * he told them that in the very same 
 manner as he was their great secretary I was the devil's clerk, or 
 an accursed one, who marked on paper the bad speech of the evil 
 ones of darkness. Accordingly, they forbade him to write any 
 more to such an accursed one. As he was learned, and possessed 
 
JESUIT PRIESTS OE MISSION ABIES. 275 
 
 of a very sagacious, penetrating judgment, and had every 
 qualification that was requisite for his bold and difficult 1745 
 enterprise, it is not to be doubted that, as he wrote a 
 Cherokee dictionary, designed to be published at Paris, he. like- 
 wise set down a great deal that would have been very accessible 
 to the curious, and serviceable to the representatives of South 
 Carolina and Georgia, which may be readily found in Frederica, if 
 the manuscripts have had the good fortune to escape the despoil- 
 ing hands of military power."* 
 
 William Bacon Stevens, formerly professor of belles lettres 
 and history in the University of Georgia, and now an Episcopa- 
 lian minister in Philadelphia, has published one volume of the 
 History of Georgia, in which we find the following interesting 
 account of Priber, which we copy at length in his own style. In 
 alluding to the arrival of Oglethorpe at Frederica, Dr. Stevens 
 says: "On the return of the general from Florida-, he ordered, 
 his strange prisoner to be examined, and was not a little surprised 
 to find, under his coarse dress of deer-skins and Indian mocca- 
 sins, a man of polished address, great abilities and extensive learn- 
 ing. He was versed not only in the Indian language, of which he 
 had composed a dictionary, but also spoke the Latin, French and 
 Spanish fluently, and English perfectly. Upon being interro- 
 gated aS to his design, he acknowledged that it was ' to bring 
 about a confederation of all the Southern Indians, to inspire them 
 with industry, to instruct them in the arts necessary to the com- 
 modities of life, and, in short, to engage them to throw off the 
 yoke of their European allies of all nations.' He proposed to 
 make a settlement in that part of Georgia which is within the limits 
 of the Cherokee lands, at Cusseta,t and to settle a town there of 
 
 * Adair's American Indians: London, 1776; pp. 240-243. 
 
 t If Doctor Stevens means the "Cusseta," on the east side of the Chattahoochie, and 
 opposite old Fort Mitchell, it was within the limits of the Creek lands, and never be- 
 longed to the Cherokees. lam not aware of any town named "Cusseta" in any part of 
 what formerly was the Cheroken nation, although there may have been, for by reference 
 to page 162 of the History of Alahama it will he found that the Cherokees had towns 
 named ■' Tallaae" and "Tuskegee," and such towns were also in the Creek nation. 
 
276 HISTOEY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 fugitive English, French and Germans, and they were to 
 1745 take under their particular care the runaway negroes of 
 
 the English. All criminals were to be sheltered, as he 
 proposed to make his place an asylum for all fugitives, and 
 the cattle and effects they might bring with them. He 
 expected a great resort of debtors, transported felons, ser- 
 vants, and negro slaves from the two Carolinas, Georgia and Vir- 
 ginia, offering, as his scheme did, toleration to all crimes and 
 licentiousness, except murder and idleness. Upon his person 
 was found his private journal, revealing, in part, his designs, 
 with various memoranda relating to his project. In it he speaks 
 not only of individual Indians and negroes, whose assistance had 
 been promised, and of a private treasurer in Charleston, for keep- 
 ing the funds collected ; but also, that he expected many things 
 from the French, and from another nation, whose name he left 
 blank. There were also found upon him letters for the Florida 
 and Spanish governors, demanding their protection of bim and 
 countenance of his scheme. Among his papers was one' contain- 
 ing articles of government for his new town, regularly and elab- 
 orately drawn out and digested. In this volume he enumerates 
 many rights and privileges, as he calls them, to which the citi- 
 zens of this colony are to be entitled, particularly dissolving mar- 
 riages, allowing a community of women, and all kinds of licen- 
 tiousness. It was drawn up with much art, method and learning, 
 and was designed to be privately printed and circulated. When 
 it was hinted to him that such a plan was attended with many 
 dangers and diflSculties, and must require many years to establish 
 his government, he replied, ' Proceeding properly, many of these 
 evils may be avoided ; and as to length of time, we have a suc- 
 cession of agents to take up the work as fast as others leave it. 
 
 We never lose sight of a favorite point, nor are we 
 1745 bound by the strict rules of morality in the means, when 
 
 the end we pursue is laudable. If we err, our general 
 is to blame ; and we have a merciful God to pardon us. But be- 
 
JBSUIT PEIBSTS OR MISSIONARIES. 277 
 
 lieve me,' he continued, ' before the century is passed, the Euro- 
 peans will have a very small footing on this continent.' 
 
 « Indeed, he often hinted that there were others of his breth- 
 ren laboring among the Indians for the same purpose. Being 
 confined in the barracks at Frederica, he exhibited a stoical in- 
 difference to his fate ; conversed with freedom, conducted with 
 politeness, and attracted the notice and favorable attention of 
 many of the gentlemen there. His death, in prison, put an end 
 to all further proceedings, and his plans died with him- Such 
 was the strange being whose Jesuitical intrigues well nigh event- 
 uated in the destruction of Georgia. A thorough Jesuit, an ac- 
 complished linguist, a deep tactician, far-sighted in his plans, and 
 far-reaching in his expedients, he possessed every qualification 
 for his design, and only failed of bringing down great evil upon 
 the English, because he was apprehended before his scheme had 
 been matured."* 
 
 There were many curious characters roving over the terri- 
 tory of Alabama and Mississippi at this period. Traders from 
 South Carolina and Georgia, were found in almost every Indian 
 village ; while the French from Mobile and New Orleans and the 
 Spaniards from the Floridas continued to swell the number of 
 these singular merchants. They encountered all kinds of dan- 
 gers and suffered all kinds of privations to become successful in 
 their exciting traffic. Adair, one of these British traders, thus 
 describes the mode by which difficult streams were passed : 
 
 " When we expect high rivers, each company of traders carry 
 a canoe, made of the tanned leather, the sides overlapped about 
 three fingers' breadth, and well sewed with three seams. Around 
 the gunnels, which are made of saplings, are strong loopholes, 
 for large deerskin strings to hang down both the sides. With 
 two of these is securely tied to the stem and stern, a well shaped 
 sapling for a keel, and in like manner the ribs. Thus they usu- 
 ally rig out a canoe, fit to carry over ten horse-loads at once, in 
 
 * Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. 1, pp. 165-167. 
 
278 
 
 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 the space of half an hour. The apparatus is afterwards hidden 
 with great care on the opposite shore. Few take the trouble to 
 paddle the canoe, for, as they are comiaonly hardy, and also of an 
 amphibious nature, they usually jump into the river with their 
 leathern barge ahead of them, and thrust it through the deep 
 part of the water to the opposite shore. When we ride with only 
 a few luggage horses, we make a frame of dry pines, which we 
 tie together with strong vines well twisted. When we have 
 raised it to be sufficiently buoyant, we load and paddle it across, 
 and afterwards swim our horses, keeping at a little distance be- 
 low them." * 
 
 * Adair's American Indians, p. 272. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Feench Battles Upon the Tombigby. 
 
 When we suspended our review of the operations of the 
 French upon the territory" of Alabama and Mississippi, for the 
 purpose of bringing to the notice of the reader the early coloniza- 
 tion of Georgia by Oglethorpe, it will be borne in mind that the 
 horrible massacre at Natchez had occurred. The tribe 
 of that name had crossed the Mississippi, and fortified 1732 
 on Black river, near the Washita. Governor Perrier, Jan. 
 attacking them at that point, had captured many of the 
 men, women and children, whom he conveyed to New Orleans, 
 and from thence shipped to the Island of St. Domingo, 
 where they were sold tq work upon the plantations. March 
 Some of those who escaped the hands of the French at 
 Black river, retreated to the vicinity of the fort at Natchitoches, 
 upon which they presently made a furious assault. The brave 
 St. Denys, the commandant, successfully repulsed them. A rem- 
 nant of this warlike but unfortunate tribe had fled to the Chick- 
 asaw nation, while another small band sought a home among the 
 Creeks, upon the Coosa. 
 
 Governor Perrier was guilty of excessive cruelty to many 
 of these poor fugitives who fell into his hands. In the streets of 
 New Orleans he publicly, and without any hesitation, caused four 
 of the men and two of the women to be burned to death. He 
 also cheerfully permitted the Tonicas, who brought down a 
 Natchez woman whom they had discovered in the woods, to put 
 an end to her existence in the same manner. A platform was 
 erected near the levee. The unfortunate woman was led forth, 
 
280 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 placed upon it, and, surrounded by the whole population of New 
 Orleans, was slowly consumed by the flames ! What a stigma 
 upon the character of the early inhabitants of the Crescent City ! 
 Gayarre says : — " The victim supported, with the most stoical 
 fortitude, all the tortures which were inflicted upon her, and did 
 not shed a tear. On the contrary, she upbraided her torturers 
 with their want of skill, flinging at them every opprobrious 
 epithet she could think of."* 
 
 As a nation, the Natchez were thus entirely destroyed 
 Great sympathy was felt for them by all the tribes in Mississippi 
 and Alabama ; even the Choctaws, who were so wedded to the 
 French, being sad on account of their fate, and annoyed at the 
 unparalleled cruelties they experienced at the hands of their vin- 
 dictive conquerors. The noble Creeks, upon the Coosa, received 
 some of the refugees with open arms, while the still nobler 
 Chickasaws not only welcomed others to their doors, but swore 
 to shed the blood of their pursuers, in a protracted war. These 
 things made the condition of the French colony a very critical 
 one. The English of Carolina did not fail to fan the fire which, 
 they imagined, would soon consume their ancient colonial ene- 
 mies. An expedition was fitted out in Charleston, 
 1734 composed of many traders and adventurers, with sev- 
 enty pack-horses laden chiefly with munitions of war. 
 Whether it was at the instance of the British government, or 
 not, is unknown. They took the well-beaten path for the Chick- 
 asaw nation, and passing by the town of Coosa, then situated in 
 the territory of the present county of Talladega, they prevailed 
 upon some of the refugee Natchez to accompany them, and to assist 
 in repelling the French invasion, which, it was known, was then 
 contemplated. Arriving in the Chickasaw nation, they dispersed 
 over the country, and not a few of them found their way to the 
 towns of the Choctaws. Soon the whole Indian sky was crim- 
 
 * Louisiana, its Colonial History and Romance, by Charles Gayarre. New York : 18S1. 
 pp. 114' 11 5. 
 
THE FRENCH BATTLES UPON THE TOMBIGBY. 281 
 
 soned with flashing meteors, and then made dark with angry 
 clouds. 
 
 France, apprised of the precarious situation of her distant 
 children, once more resolved to send the veteran Bienville to take 
 care of them. The King began to see tha.t his services 
 could not be dispensed with, and after he had passed 1733 
 eight years in Paris, he sailed for the colony. His ar- Mar. 
 rival at Mobile was hailed with joy and acclamations by 
 the inhabitants. Diron D'Artaguette, a man of nerve and 
 much ability, who had been longer absent from the colony 
 than Bienville, accompanied him. He was presently stationed 
 at Mobile as the King's commissary. Bienville, at first, oc- 
 cupied much of his time in visiting Mobile and New Or- 
 leans, for the purpose of giving quiet to the inhabitants and 
 preparing them for a war of mvasion. On one occasion, while 
 he was in New Orleans, Diron D'Artaguette aroused all the 
 French settlers towards the east by despatches which he sent 
 among them in relation to the arrival of the English expedition, 
 to which allusion has just been made, and of the determination of 
 the Choctaws to act in future against the French. He warned 
 everybody to be upon their guard, for it was probable they might 
 be butchered at any hour. The people of Mobile 
 were in a state of extreme terror; they never went to 1735 
 mass without carrying their guns in their hands. In- 
 deed, they at one time resolved to retire to New Orleans, but 
 Bienville arriving commanded them to remain and fear nothing. 
 He highly disapproved of the excitement which Diron D'Arta- 
 guette had produced, and thought there was. no occasion for such 
 officious watchfulness on the part of the commissary. This pro- 
 duced unpleasant feelings between them, and they indulged in 
 recriminations of each other in official reports to the government. 
 Bienville was mortified at the conduct of D'Artaguette in rebuk- 
 ing the Choctaw Chiefs, who had recently paid him a visit, for 
 permitting the English to come among them. Further, he dis- 
 
282 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 missed them without presents, upon which they returned home 
 highly offended. These things were represented to the 
 1735 government by Bienville, while D'Artaguette, on the 
 Apr. 29 other hand, stated in one of his despatches that Bien- 
 ville's opposition to him arose from the fact that he had 
 reported the « misconduct of his proteges or favorites, Lesueur, 
 and the Jesuit, Father Beaudoin, who, to the great scandal of the 
 Choctaws, seduce their women."* 
 
 It is pleasant to us to be able to state that only a few of the 
 missionaries, of the order of Jesuits, thus abused the holy oflBces 
 with which they were entrusted. The great body of them led 
 the most pious lives and suffered the greatest privations in their 
 efforts to redeem the savages from heathenism. 
 
 In the meantime small parties of Natchez, with their gener- 
 ous allies, the Chickasaws, sought all occasions to annoy 
 1735 their enemy. From Jambuscades on the hill tops and 
 banks of the rivers, along the Indian paths in the inte- 
 rior, and from dark valleys in the mountains, they sprang 
 upon the French trappers, hunters and traders with the impetu- 
 osity of lions and the agility of tigers, and drank their hot blood 
 with the voraciousness of wolves. 
 
 But Bienville was straining every nerve to complete his pre- 
 parations for the invasion of the Chickasaw nation. He 
 1785 visited Mobile once more, and having assembled at that 
 point a large delegation of Choctaw Chiefs, he in a great 
 measure accomplished his object in gaining them over to his side. 
 It was important that he should do so, for Red Shoes, a potent 
 Chief of that tribe, had already declared in favor of the 
 English. Bienville freely distributed merchandise, and prom- 
 ised a much larger amount if they would assist him in the 
 war, to which they finally consented. Indeed, ever since his 
 arrival from France, he saw the necessity of inspiring the Indian 
 nations with awe and respect, by a bold and successful strike at 
 
 * Louisiana, its Colonial History and Romance, by Gayarre, p. 469. 
 
THE FRENCH BATTLES UPON THE TOMBIGBT. 283 
 
 the Chickasaws. Nor had he failed to demand the necessary 
 men and military supplies from the mother country. 
 
 In the midst of these precarious times, a most unfortunate 
 affair occurred in the bay of Mobile. A smuggling vessel, from 
 Jamaica, cast her anchor twelve miles from the town. Diron 
 D'Artaguette ordered her commander to leave the French coast; 
 he refused. The commissary then placed Lieutenant DeVelles 
 in a boat, armed with thirty men, and ordered him to capture 
 the smuggler. When he approached near her, the latter opened 
 an effective fire ; seventeen Frenchmen were immediately killed. 
 Before D'Artaguette could reinforce DeVelles, the smuggler had 
 made her escape to sea. This affair again enraged Bienville, and 
 the war of recrimination was fiercer than ever between 
 him and the commissary. What a pity it was, that men 1735 
 of such worth and character did not better appreciate July 16 
 each other. In olden times they had been great friends. 
 
 The commissary had a younger brother, who had behaved 
 with distinguished gallantry in expeditions against the Natchez. 
 He had recently been promoted to the command of the French 
 fort in the district of Illinois. With him Bienville corresponded, 
 respecting the invasion ; he was ordered to collect the disposable 
 French forces, and all the Indians in that country who would 
 join him, and with them to march in a southern direction to the 
 Chickasaw towns, while Bienville would march from the south, 
 and meet him in the country of the enemy, on the 31st 
 March, 1736. Afterwards the governor informed young 1735 
 D'Artaguette that he had been unable to make his 
 arrangements to join him at that time, but he would meet him 
 at another time, which was also appointed. 
 
 Bienville, nine months before this period, had despatched M. 
 De Lusser, with a company of soldiers and artisans, to a place 
 upon the Little Tombigby, which is now called Jones' Bluff, with 
 orders to erect there a fort and cabins to be used as a depot for 
 the army, and, afterwards, to serve as a permanent trading post. 
 
284 HISTOBT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 That fearless officer had reached these wilds in safety, and it was 
 not long before the forest resounded with the noise of axes and 
 the heavy falling of timber. He was assisted in his labors by 
 many of the Choctaws. 
 
 -h-^ At length the army left New Orleans, and passing 
 
 1736 through the lakes reached Mobile. The vessels contain- 
 
 Mar. 22 ing the supplies ha,ving entered the Gulf by way of the 
 
 Balize, were retarded by winds, and did not arrive until 
 six days afterwards ; and then it was discovered that a cargo of 
 
 rice was destroyed by the salt water. To replace this 
 Mar. 28 loss, Bienville set his bakers to work, who made a large 
 
 supply of biscuits for the army. He sent a despatch to 
 De Lusser at Fort " Tombecbe," ordering him to build ovens, and 
 
 to have made an abundant supply of biscuits by the time 
 
 1736 of his arrival at that place. When all things were ready, 
 
 April 1 Bienville embarked his troops at Mobile, and turned his 
 
 boats up the river of that name. Never before had 
 such a large and imposing fleet of the kind disturbed the deep 
 and smooth waters which now flow by our beautiful commercial 
 emporium. Every kind of up-country craft was employed, and 
 they bore men nearly of all kinds and colors. The crews were 
 composed of genteel merchants, gentlemen of leisure and fortune, 
 loafers and convicts, rough but bold mariners, veteran soldiers, 
 sturdv and invincible Canadians, monks and priests, Choctaws 
 and Mobilians, and a company of negroes commanded by Simon, 
 a free mulatto. The fleet comprised more than sixty of the 
 largest pirogues and bateaux. Entering the main Tombigby, 
 Bienville made his way up that stream to the confluence of the 
 Warrior, and there, passing into the Little Tombigby, he at. 
 length arrived at the fort.* Heavy rains and much high water 
 bad retarded bis passage. 
 
 The governor found that the fort was unfinished, and only 
 some cabins, surrounded by stockades and covered with leaves, 
 
 * Now Jones' Bluff. 
 
THE FEENCH BATTLES UPON THE TOMBIGBY. 286 
 
 could be occupied. The bakers had prepared but few biscuits, 
 for the fire cracked the prairie soil of which the ovens were 
 made. After various unsuccessful efforts to make suitable ovens, 
 they succeeded by mixing sand with the earth. Bienville was 
 surprised to see, at the fort, four persons in irons — one French- 
 man, two Swiss, and Montfort, a sergeant. They had formed 
 the design of assassinating the commandant of the fort, M. De 
 Lusser, and also the keeper of the store house, and of carrying 
 off Tisnet and Rosilie, who had recently been rescued from the 
 Chickasaws, among whom they had been held in slavery. They 
 intended to convey these unfortunate men back to their masters, 
 in order to gain favor with the tribe, who would therefore be in- 
 duced, after a time, to facilitate their escape to the British prov- 
 inces. But these assassins were defeated in their plans ; for 
 Lieutenant G-rondel, with the rapidity of action and the bravery 
 which had ever distinguished hira, arrested Montfort with his 
 own hands. The prisoners were tried by a court martial, and 
 being sentenced to be shot, were " presently passed by the arms 
 at the head of the troops.','* 
 
 When all the allied Choctaws had arrived, Bienville re- 
 viewed his troops upon the plain in the rear of the fort. He found 
 that his army was composed of five hundred and fifty 
 men, exclusive of officers, together with six hundred In- 1736 
 dians. He now assumed the line of march for the coun- May 4 
 try of the enemy. The larger number of the French 
 troops embarked in the boats. Some of the Indians proceeded to 
 their own canoes, while many hardy Canadians, called couriers 
 de bois, marched with other Indians, sometimes along the banks, 
 where the swamps did not intervene ; and then again a mile or 
 two from the river. It was truly- an imposing scene to be exhibited 
 in these interminable wilds. After encountering many difficul- 
 ties, the redoubtable Bienville at length reached the spot where 
 now stands the city of Columbus, in Mississippi ; and pur- 
 
 * Dumont's Memolrea Historiques sur la Louisiane,'p. 216. 
 
286 HISTOBT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 May 22 suing his tedious voyage, finally moored his boats at or 
 near the place now known as Cotton Gin Port. Here dis- 
 embarking, he immediately began to fell the trees in the forest, 
 
 and soon stockaded a place ample enough to secure his 
 May 23 baggage and provisions, together with the sick ; while 
 
 the side fronting the river was arranged with loopholes 
 for muskets, to protect his boats, which were all unladen and 
 drawn up close together. He was twenty-seven miles from the 
 towns of the enemy, which lay in a western direction. He left 
 twenty men here under Vanderek, besides the keeper of the mag- 
 azine, the patroons of the boats, and some of the soldiers who 
 were sick. With some difficulty he hired a sufficient number of 
 the Choctaws to transport the sacks of powder and balls, for the 
 negroes were already laden with other things. Taking provisions 
 with him to last twelve days, the governor began the march in 
 
 the evening, and that night encamped six miles from 
 May 24 the depot. The rains which mcommoded him in his 
 
 voyage up the river, did not forsake him on his march 
 upon the present occasion ; for, scarcely had he formed his camp, 
 when a violent storm arose. The next day he passed three deep 
 ravines — the soldiers wading up to their waists — and after gain- 
 ing the opposite banks, slipping and falling constantly upon the 
 slimy soil. Great difficulties were surmounted in transporting the 
 effects of the army over these angry torrents. The banks on 
 either side were covered with large canes, but Bienville took the 
 precaution always to send spies in advance, to prevent surprise 
 from ambuscades. Soon, however, the French were relieved by 
 the appearance of the most beautiful country in the world. The 
 prairies were stretched out wide before them, covered with green 
 grass, flowers and strawberries, while forests of magnificent trees 
 were to be seen in the distance. A breeze gently played over the 
 surface of the lovely plains, and a May day's sun warmed all na- 
 ture into life. The sleek cattle were everywhere grazing upon 
 these sweet meadows of nature. The nimble deer bounded along. 
 
THE FRENCH BATTLES UPON THE TOMBIGBY. 287 
 
 _and droves of wild horses, of every variety of color, with lofty 
 tails and spreading manes, made the earth resound with their 
 rapid tread. Alas ! alas ! to think that the inhabitants, whom 
 the Great Spirit had placed in a country so lovely and so enchant- 
 ing, were soon to be assailed by an army of foreigners, assisted 
 by their own neighbors. 
 
 Drawing nearer and nearer to the enemy, Bienville finally 
 encamjJed within six miles of their towns. His camp was formed 
 upon the border of a delightful prairie, the view across which was 
 not interrupted by trees, until it had reached far beyond the In- 
 dian houses. He had previously sent spies in all directions, to 
 look for D'Artaguette and his troops, who were to have joined 
 him there. The bands, chiefly composed of Indians, returned 
 without leaving heard anything of that unfortunate officer. The 
 governor was sorely disappointed, and could no longer hope for 
 aid from that source, and he resolved to rely upon 
 his own forces. His intention, at first, was to march 1736 
 in a circuitous direction, around the Chickasaw vil- May 24 
 lages, in order to attack the Natchez town which 
 lay behind them, and which had recently been erected. 
 But the Choctaws had become very impatient to assail 
 an advanced village of the Chickasaws, which, they in- 
 sisted, could be easily taken, and which, they stated, contained 
 a large amount of provisions. Their importunities were disre- 
 garded until strengthened by the entreaties of the Chevalier 
 Noyan, the nephew of the governor, and many other French 
 officers, whose impetuous disposition made them eager for an im- 
 mediate attack. The house of the enemy stood upon a hill, in 
 the prairie, and spread out in the shape of a triangle. After some 
 consideration, Bienville resolved to give the French an 
 opportunity of gratifying a long sought revenge, es- -1735 
 pecially when it was made known to him that his camp Mar. 2(5 
 was then pitched near the last water which his men 
 could procure for miles in a western direction. At two o'clock 
 
288 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 in the afterHoon, Chevalier Noyan was placed at the head of 
 a column consisting of a detachment of fifteen men drawn from 
 each of the eight French companies, a company of grenadiers, 
 forty-five volunteers and sixty-five Swiss. 
 
 The Chickasaws had fortified themselves with much skill, 
 aind were assisted by Englishmen, who had caused them to hoist 
 a flag of their country over one of their defenses. The French 
 troops, as they advanced, were not a little surprised to see the 
 British Lion, against which many of them had often fought in 
 Europe, now floating over the rude huts of American Indians, 
 and bidding them defiance. The Chickasaws had fortified their 
 houses in a most defensive manner, by driving large stakes into 
 the ground around them. .Many loop-holes were cut through 
 the latter, very near the ground. Within the palisades, entrench- 
 ments were cut, deep enough to protect the persons of the Indians 
 as high as their breasts. In these ditches they stood, and when 
 the battle began, shot through the loop-holes at the French. 
 The tops of these fortified houses were covered with timbers, 
 upon which was placed a thick coat of mud plaster, so that 
 neither ignited arrows nor bomb shells could set the houses on 
 fire. What added still more to the security of the Chickasaws, 
 was the position of some of their houses, which stood in nearly 
 opposite directions, so as to admit of destructive cross-firing. 
 Bienville having previously learned that there were several of the 
 British in the village, had, with much humanity, as it may at that 
 time have seemed, directed the Chevalier Noyan to give them 
 time to retire before he brought on the attack. The division 
 then marched briskly on. It was protected by movable breast- 
 worKs, called mantalets, which were now carried by the com- 
 pany of negroes. As their lives appear not to have been 
 
 esteemed of as much value as those of the French, these 
 
 1736 negroes were used in the same manner as shields are in 
 
 May 26 battle. When the troops advanced within carbine shot 
 
 of the village of Ackia, where waved the British flag' 
 
THE FRENCH BATTLES UPON THE TOMBIGBY. 289 
 
 one of the negroes was killed, and another wounded. They 
 all now threw down their mantalets arid precipitately fled. 
 The French, with their usual impetuosity, rapidly advanced. 
 They entered the village. The grenadiers led. And now, no 
 longer protected by the mantalets, they received a severe fire 
 from the Chickasaws, which killed and wounded many. Among 
 the former was the gallant and accomplished Chevalier de 
 Contre Coeur; and when he fell dead it produced an unplea- 
 sant feeling among those around him, by whom he was greatly 
 esteemed. Upon his right and left soldiers lay dead, 
 discoloring the green grass with their hot blood. But 1736 
 the troops carried three fortified cabins, and reached May 26 
 several smaller ones, which they presently wrapped iii 
 flames. The chief fort and other fortified houses lay some dis- 
 tance in the rear of those they had in possession. The'Ohevalier 
 iiToyan was eager to advance upon them,, but turning round to 
 take a rapid survey of his forces he was mortified to perceive that 
 only the officers, a dozen of the volunteers and some grenadiers 
 remained with him. Dismayed by the fall of Captain de Lusser,* 
 who was now killed^ and seeing a popular sergeant of grenadiers 
 and several soldiers also fall, the troops retreated to the cabins 
 which were first taken. In vain did the officers who belonged to the 
 rear endeavor to drive them on to the scene of action. A panic 
 had seized them, and no exhortation, threats, promises 
 of promotion or hopes of military glory could induce 1736 
 them to make the slightest advance from their cowardly May 26 
 position. But the officers resolved more than ever to do 
 their duty, and placing themselves at the head of a few brave sol- 
 diers essayed to storm the fort. But just at the moment of their 
 contemplated charge the brave Chevalier Noyan, Grondel, an in- 
 vfncible lieutenant of the Swiss, D'Hauterive, a captain of the 
 grenadiers, Montbrun, De Velles, and many other officers and 
 
 * It will Tae recollected that De Lusser, who was now killed, was the officer whom 
 Bienville sent to construct Fort " Tombecbe," upon the site of the present Jones' Bluff. 
 
 19 
 
290 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 soldiers received severe wounds. The balls of the Chickasaws 
 
 came thick and whizzed over the prairie. The bleeding De Noyan 
 
 stood his ground, and despatched his aid to assist in bringing up 
 
 the soldiers, who still screened themselves behind the 
 
 1736 cabins, but as he left to perform the order a Chickasaw 
 May 26 ball put an end to his existence. The death of this offi- 
 cer, whose name was De Juzan, increased the panic 
 which had so unfortunately seized upon the larger number of the 
 troops. A party of Indians at this moment rushed up to scalp 
 Gronael, the Swiss officer, who had fallen near the walls of the 
 fort. A brave sergeant with four fearless soldiers rushed to the 
 rescue. Driving off the savages, they were about to bear him off 
 in their arms when a lire from the fort killed every one of these 
 noble fellows ! But the bleeding Grondel still surviveri, although 
 those who. came to protect his head from the blows of the hatchet 
 lay dead by his side. Another act of heroism is worthy of 
 record. Regnisse now rushed out alone, and making his way to 
 the unfortunate Grondel, who still lay bleeding from five wounds, 
 dragged him out from among the bodies of those who had 
 
 1736 just fallen in his defence, placed him on his back and 
 
 May 26 returned to the French lines, without receiving a solitary 
 
 wound from the showers of Chickasaw balls. The almost 
 
 lifeless Grondel received, however, another severe wound as he 
 
 was borne off by the noble Regnisse.* 
 
 But where were the six hundred Choctaws, while the French 
 were thus expiring in agony upon the prairie ? Painted, plumed 
 and dressed in a manner the most fantastic and horrible, they 
 kept the plain, on either side of the French lines, at a distance 
 where the balls of the enemy could not reach them, sending 
 forth yells and shouts, and occasionally dancing and shooting 
 their guns in the air. The brave Chickasaws maintained their 
 
 * This Grondel was an officer of Indomitable courage. His life was full of romantic 
 events. He had fought several duels at Mobile. He recovered from the wounds which 
 he received in this battle, and was promoted to high military stations. 
 
THE FEBNCH BATTLES UPON THE TOMBIGBT. 291 
 
 positions in the fortified houses, and, from loop holes, riddled the 
 
 French with their unerring rifles. They, too, yelled 
 
 most awfully. The scene was one calculated to excite 1736 
 
 deep interest, for, added to all this, the looker-on might May 26 
 
 have viewed the flames rising up from the burning 
 
 cabins, and sending above them volumes of black smoke, which a 
 
 May breeze wafted to the far ofl: forests. ■ 
 
 The Chevalier' De Noyan now ordered a retreat to the ad- 
 vanced cabins, and when he had arrived there, he despatched an 
 ■ oflBcer to Bienville, bearing an account of their critical 
 condition. Noyan sent him word that, although severely 1736 
 wounded himself, he was determined to keep the posi- May 26 
 tion which he had just taken. He requested that a de- 
 tachment should be sent to his assistance, to bear off the dead 
 and wounded, and assist those who were alive to make a retreat, 
 as, now, no further hope remained of storming the fortifications 
 of the Chickasaws. Bienville was hastened in his determination 
 to send aid, by observing that a Chickasaw force on the flank, 
 which had not yet participated in the battle, was about to sally 
 from their houses and immolate the French ofiicers and the few 
 soldiers who had remained with them. He then immediately 
 despatched Beauchamp, with eighty men, to the scene of action. 
 Arriving there he found the French officers huddled together, 
 keeping their ground at the imminent peril of their lives. Beau- 
 champ, in advancing, had already lost several men. The Chick- 
 asaws now redoubled their exertions, and made the plains 
 resound with their exulting shouts. Beauchamp began the re- 
 treat, carrying off many of the wounded and the dead, but 
 unfortunately was forced to leave some behind, who fell into the 
 tiger clutches of the Chickasaws. When the French had retreated 
 some distance towards Bienville's headquarters, the Choctaws, 
 by way of bravado, rushed up to the Chickasaw fortifications, as 
 if they intended to carry them by storm, but receiving a general 
 volley from the enemy, they fled in great terror over the prairie. 
 
292 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 The battle of Ackia had lasted three hours, and resulted in 
 glory to the Chiokasaws, and disgrace to the French. When the 
 French troops arrived at the camp, proper attention was paid to 
 the wounded and the dying. It was not long before this bril- 
 liant and exciting scene was made to give place to one which 
 presented an aspect at once quiet, calm and beautiful. The sun, 
 in his retirement for the night, had just sunk to the tops of the 
 trees in the far off distance. A cool and delicious breeze was 
 made sweet with the odor of wild flowers. The Chickasaws 
 were as quiet as the boa-constrictor after he has gorged upon his' 
 prey. The cattle and horses, much disturbed during the fight, 
 now began to move up and feed upon their accustomed meadows. 
 "What a contrast had been produced by the lapse of only two 
 hours ! 
 
 During this quiet scene, a collection of French officers were 
 on one side of the camp, summing up the misfortunes of the day. 
 Among them stood Simon, the commander of the negroes who 
 fled from the field. Simon was a favorite with the officers, and 
 had resolutely maintained his ground during the en- 
 1736 gagement. Some of them rallied him upon the flight of 
 May 26 his company, which annoyed him excessively. At that 
 moment, a drove of horses came down to the stream to 
 slake their thirst, not far from the fortified houses of the Chicka- 
 saws. The desperate Simon, in reply to those who made sport 
 of his company, seized a rope and ran off towards the horses, 
 saying: "I will show you that a negro is as brave as any one." 
 He passed around the horses in full range of the Chickasaw 
 rifles, from which balls were showered upon him, and making 
 his way up to a beautiful white mare, threw a rope over her 
 head, and thus securing her, passed it around her nose, mounted 
 upon her back with the agility nf a Camanche Indian, and 
 pressed her with rapid speed into the French lines. He did not 
 receive a wound, and he was welcomed with shouts by the sol- 
 
THE FRENCH BATTLES UPON THE TOMBIGBT. 293 
 
 diers, and was no more jeered on account of the cowardice of his 
 company.* 
 
 Bienville, pleased with the gallantry which Regnisse had 
 displayed ia bearing off the wounded Grondel, immediately from 
 under the guns of the Chickasaws, had him brought to the mar- 
 quee, complimented him upon the generous and heroic act which 
 he had performed, and proposed to promote him to the rank of 
 an ofQcer. The brave Regnisse modestly replied that he had 
 done nothing more than what could have been accomplished by 
 any of his brother grenadiers, and stated that as he could not 
 write, he was unfitted for an officer ; therefore he declined the 
 intended honor. 
 
 Night now shrouded the scene with its sable mantle, and the 
 French troops reposed behind some trees which had been felled 
 for their protection. The Chickasaws remained quiet within 
 their intrenchments. At length day dawned, a-nd exhibited to 
 Bienville a painful sight. On the ramparts of the Chickasaws 
 w«re suspended the French soldiers and ofScers, whom Beau- 
 champ was forced to leave upon the field. Their limbs had been 
 separated from their bodies, and thus were they made to dangle 
 in the air, for the purpose of insulting the defeated invaders. 
 Many of the ofiflcers wished to rush again upon the villages, but 
 Bienville determined to retreat, as the Choctaws were of no as- 
 sistance to him, and he was without cannon to batter 
 down the fortifications. In the afternoon, at two o'clock, 1736 
 he began the retrograde march. The soldiers, worn May 27 
 down with fatigue produced by the battle and the 
 mortifications arising from its disgraceful termination, were 
 unable, in addition to their heavy loads of baggage, to carry 
 the wounded, who were placed in litters. Consequently night 
 set in by the time Bienville had marched only four miles; 
 here the camp was again made. The Choctaws were highly 
 exasperated on account of this slow movement, and Red Shoes, 
 
 * Dumont'B Memoires Histoiique sur la Loulsiane. 
 
294 HISTOBY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 who had long endeavored to wean his people from the French 
 interest, now vociferously threatened to take with him the 
 greater portion of the Choctaws, and thus leave the French 
 to the mercy of the Chickasaws in this wild and distant region. 
 Bienville was startled when he was informed of this determina- 
 tion. He sent for the main Chief of the Choctaws, and by his 
 eloquence and the force of that mysterious influence which he 
 possessed, he succeeded not only in getting the Choctaws to re- 
 main with the army, but made them consent to assist in the 
 transportation of the wounded. Red .Shoes rebuked the head 
 Chief, for consenting to such terms, in a manner so insulting, 
 that the latter drew his pistol from his belt, and was in the act 
 of shooting him, when Bienville seized his arm, saved the life of 
 Red Shoes, and, for a while put an end to an affair 
 1736 which threatened the most serious consequences. The 
 May 28 next morning Bienville put his troops upon the march, 
 and he arrived at the depot, upon the Tombigby, on 
 the 29th May, after he had buried two of his men, on the way, 
 who had died of their wounds. 
 
 Bienville was astonished to observe how much the river had 
 fallen, and he hurried his effects into the boats, for fear that the 
 delay of a day longer would leave him without a stream sufficient 
 to convey him to Mobile. When the troops had embarked, the 
 ropes which bound the boats to the banks were untied, and then 
 the discomfited French party passed down the stream. The 
 channel of the Little Tombigby was here so crooked and narrow, 
 that the boats had frequently to stop until logs and projecting 
 limbs were cut out of the way. If the Chickasaws had followed 
 up the French, they could easily have destroyed Bien- 
 173& ville's army at this time. At length the army reached 
 June 2 Fort « Tombecbe," now Jones' Bluff. Bienville, send- 
 ing on a portion of the troops, and the sick and 
 wounded to Mobile, disembarked at the fort. He remained there, 
 however, but one day, which he consumed in planning upon paper, 
 
THE FRENCH BATTLES UPON THE TOMBIGBT. 295 
 
 and tracing upon the ground additions which he directed to he 
 made to the defenses. Then, leaving Captain De Berthel in com- 
 mand of Fort " Tombecbe," with a garrison of thirty Frenchmen 
 and twenty Swiss, provisions to last for the remainder 
 of the year, and an abundance of merchandise intended June 3 
 to be used in commerce with the Indians, the governor 
 entered his boats, and contifaued the voyage until they were 
 moored at the town of Mobile. 
 
 But where was the brave and unfortunate D'Artaguette? 
 Why did not his army join Bienville at the Chickasaw towns? 
 The reader will presently see. That officer had assembled the 
 tribes of the Illinois at Fort Chatres, and had made them 
 acquainted with the plans of Governor Bienville. With these 
 Indians, and others which De Vincennes had collected upon the 
 Wabash, together with thirty soldiers and one hundred volun- 
 teers, D'Artaguette floated down the Mississippi river until he 
 reached the last of the Chickasaw Bluffs. He had expected to 
 have been joined by De Grandpre, who commanded at the Arkan- 
 sas, and that officer had sent twenty-eight warriors of that tribe 
 to ascertain whether D'Artaguette was at Ecores a Prudhomme. 
 These scouts were instructed to return with the necessary 
 information ; but upon arriving at that place, and finding that 
 D'Artaguette had set out upon his expedition, they hastened to 
 follow him into the enemy's country. Disembarking at the 
 Chickasaw Bluffs, D'Artaguette marched across the country, Mt 
 a slow pace, hoping to be overtaken by De Grandpre, and also by 
 Montcherval, who had been ordered to bring on his Cahokias and 
 MitchigamiaSi Pursuing the march in an eastward direction, 
 D'Artaguette advanced among the sources of the Yalo- 
 busha, and there encamped on the 9th May. He was 1736 
 but a few miles east of the site of the present town of May 
 Pontotoc, in Mississippi, near the place where he and 
 Bienville were to have met each other, and not more than thirty 
 miles from the spot where the latter, afterwards, moored his 
 
296 HISTOBT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 boats, — near the present Cotton Gin Port. D'Artaguette sought, 
 in vain, for intelligence of the commander-in-chief. He was 
 assisted by Lieutenant Vincennes, the youhg Voisin, and Senac, 
 a holy father of the order of Jesuits, in arranging and conducting 
 the spy companies, who roamed the forests in search of Bienville. 
 Bat nothing could be heard of him until a courier brought to 
 D'Artaguette a letter, in which he was informed that unexpected 
 delays would prevent Bienville from reaching the Chickasaw 
 towns before the last of April. The red allies had become impa- 
 
 tienc, for by this time, D'Artaguette had occupied his 
 May 20 camp for eleven days. He now resolved to advance upon 
 
 the Chickasaws, as his allies had threatened to abandon 
 him if he did not soon bring on the attack. They represented 
 to him that the advance town was inhabited by the refugee 
 Natchez, and by taking it they could return to their encampment 
 with an abundance of provisions, where they might remain 
 entrenched until Bienville's arrival. This plausible proposition 
 found advocates in the French officers. The allied forces con- 
 sisted of one hundred and thirty Frenchmen, and three hundred 
 and sixty Indians. The French advanced within a mile of the 
 village, on Palm Sunday. Frontigny was here left at the camp, 
 with thirty men, in charge of all the baggage. D'Artaguette 
 ad vanced rapidly to the attack, which he presently brought on 
 with his accustomed gallantry.. At that moment, thirty English- 
 men and five hundred Indians, who were concealed behind an 
 adjacent hill, rose up, and fell upon the invaders with such im- 
 petuosity that the Miamis and the Illinois fled from the battle 
 field. Indeed, all the Indians took to their heels, except a few 
 Iroquois and Arkansas, who behaved in. the bravest manner. 
 
 The guns of the enemy brought to the ground Lieu- 
 
 1736 tenant St. Ange, Ensigns De Coulanges, De La Graviere 
 
 May 20 and De Courtigny, with six of the militia officers. By 
 
 this time the French were almost surrounded, but 
 they still continued to keep their position. Presently, Captain 
 
THE FRENCH BATTLES UPON THE TOMBIGBT. 297 
 
 Des Essarts was seen to fall, and also Lieutenant Langlois 
 and Ensign Levleux. So great was the loss of the French, in 
 this short, but desperate conflict, that D'Artaguette determined 
 to retreat to the camp, for the double purpose of saving his 
 baggage, and of being reinforced by the men he had left 
 there ; but the retreat could not be conducted with the least order, 
 for the Chickasaws were close upon their heels, and at length 
 again surrounded them. D'Artaguette now fell covered with 
 wounds, and was taken prisoner, together with Father Senac, 
 Vincennes, Du Tisne, an officer of the regulars, a captain of the 
 militia, named Lalande, and some soldiers, making nineteen in all. 
 Not one man would have escaped the clutches of the 
 brave Chickasaws if a violent storm, which now arose, 1736 
 had not prevented further pursuit. It was a great vie- May 20 
 tory ; all the provisions and baggage of D'Artaguette 
 fell into the hands of the Chickasaws, besides eleven horses, four 
 hundred and fifty pounds of powder and twelve hundred bullets. 
 With this powder and these bullets they afterwards shot down 
 the troops of Bienville, as we have already seen. 
 
 Voisin, a youth of only sixteen years of age, conducted the 
 retreat for many miles, without food or water, while his men car- 
 ried such of the wounded as they were able to bear. This noble 
 youth, one of the bravest that ever lived, stood by the 
 side of D'Artaguette in all this bloody engagement. At May 
 length, on the second day of his painful retreat, he halted 
 his men at a place where Montoherval, who was following D'Ar- 
 taguette with one hundred and sixty Indians, had encamped. 
 The latter, collecting the fragments of the army, fell back to the 
 Mississippi river. 
 
 At first the unfortunate D'Artaguette and his equally unfor- 
 tunate companions in captivity were treated, with kindness and 
 attention by the Chickasaws, who dressed their wounds. Hopes 
 of a high ransom prompted this conduct, so unusual with Indians. 
 They expected not only to receive money from Bienville, who was 
 
298 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 known to be approaching, but imagined that by holding these 
 
 men as prisoners the governor would consent to leave 
 
 1736 their towns unattacked. But at length they received 
 
 May intelligence that Bienville had been defeated, and they 
 
 now resolved to sacriflce the prisoners. They led them 
 
 out to a neighboring field, and D'Artaguette, Father Senac, Vin- 
 
 cennes, and fifteen others were pinioned to stakes and burned to 
 
 death ! One of the soldiers was spared to carry the news of the 
 
 triumph of the Chickasaws and the death of these unhappy men 
 
 to the mortified Bienville.* 
 
 The Chickasaws have never been conquered. They could 
 not be defeated by De Soto with his Spanish army in 1541 ; by 
 Bienville, with his French army and Southern Indians, in 1736; 
 by D'Artaguette, with his French army and Northern Indians ; 
 by the Marquis De Vaudreuil, with his French troops and Choc- 
 taws, in ] 75*2 ; nor by the Creeks, Cherokees, Kickapoos, Shawnees 
 and Choctaws, who continually waged war against them. No! 
 they were " the bravest of the brave ; " and even when they had 
 emigrated to the territory of Arkansas, not many years ago, they 
 soon subdued some tribes who attacked them in that quarter. 
 
 Young Men of Northwestern Alabama and Northeastern 
 Mississippi ! Eemember, that the bravest race that ever lived, 
 once occupied the country which you now inhabit — once fished 
 in your streams, and chased the elk over your vast plains. Re- 
 member, that whenever that soil, which you now tread, was 
 pressed by the feet of foes, it was not only bravely defended, but 
 drenched with the blood of the invaders. Will you ever disgrace 
 that soil, and the memory of its first occupants, by submitting to 
 injustice and oppression, and finally to invasion ? We unhesitat- 
 ing give the answer for- you — " No — no — never ! " 
 
 * MS. letters obtained from Paris. I have also consulted Gayarre's Histoire de la 
 Louisiane, vol. 1, pp. 311-331, which contains the despatches of Bienville to the French 
 Court in relation to these battles. Also, Dumont's j\iemoires Historiques sur la Louis- 
 iane— Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. 3— The Southwest, by Alexander B. 
 Meek, of Mobile— Martin's Louisiana— Stodart's Louisiana— Monette's History of the 
 Mississippi Valley, vol. 1, pp. 283-288— Louisiana, its Colonial History and ilomance, by 
 Charles Gfayarre : New York, 1851 ; pp. 476-496. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Bienville Leaves the Colony — His Character. 
 
 In our investigations of the French Colonial History of Ala- 
 bama and Mississippi, for a period of sixteen years from the con- 
 clusion of the campaigns of Bienville and D'Artaguette, in the 
 Chickasaw nation, we find but little to interest the reader. The 
 same difficulties as heretofore continued to exist with the Indian 
 tribes, with the colonial authorities, and with the English of Car- 
 olina. Bienville began, soon after his defeat near Pontotoc, to 
 lose favor with the King and the West India Company. To 
 recover the ground which he had lost in their confidence, h« 
 exerted himself to organize another expedition against the 
 Chickasaws ; and having perfected it, he sailed up the Missis- 
 sippi to Fort St. Francis, and disembarking, brought 
 his army to a place near the mouth of the Margot or 1740 
 Wolf river. Here his troops remained a long time, March 
 until, reduced by death from various diseases, and by 
 famine, he was left with but few soldiers. Finally, with these 
 M. Celeron was ordered to march against the Chickasaw 
 towns. As he advanced, the Chickasaws, supposing that a large 
 French army had invaded their country, sued for peace. Celeron 
 took advantage of their mistake, and immediately came to terms 
 with them. The Chickasaws promised to expel the English trad- 
 ers from their country, and, from that time, to remain true to the 
 French interest. When the result of this expedition, which ter- 
 minated forever the military operations of Bienville, became 
 known in France, the governor began to receive despatches dic- 
 tated in a spirit of much harshness and censure. The pride of 
 
800 HISTORY OF ALABitMA. 
 
 Bienville was wounded — his spirit was humbled ; and, being too 
 
 sensible a man to retain a position the duties of which 
 
 1742 it was believed he had failed creditably to perform, he 
 
 Mar. 26 now requested to be recalled. He wrote to the Minister 
 
 as follows : 
 
 " If success had always corresponded with my application to 
 the affairs of the government and administration of the colony, 
 and with my zeal for the service of the King, I would have re- 
 joiced in devoting the rest of my days to such objects ; but, 
 through a sort of fatality, -which, for some time past, has ob- 
 stinately thwarted my best concerted plans, I have frequently 
 lost the fruit of my labors, and, perhaps some ground in your ex- 
 cellency's confidence, therefore have I come to the conclusion, 
 that it is no longer necessary for me to struggle against my ad- 
 verse fortune. I hope that better luck may attend my successor. 
 During the remainder of my stay here, I will give all my atten- 
 tion to smooth the difficulties attached to the office which I shall 
 deliver up to him ; and it is to me a subject of self-gratulation 
 that I shall transmit to him the government of the colony, when 
 its affairs are in a better condition than they have ever been.* 
 
 Bienville was, unquestionably, not only a great and good 
 man, but a modest one. We find in this letter none of that dis- 
 gusting cant indulged in by American politicians and American 
 officeholders, when they lose their places. In these days it is 
 common for such men to say that they have been treated with 
 ingratitude by the government, if they are removed from an 
 office — or by the people, if an opposing candidate is elected to 
 Congress, and to whine and complain about having "grown gray 
 in the service of their country," when, in truth, they have lived 
 at their ease and feasted upon the contents of the public treas- 
 ury, time out of mind. Some of these men have received over a 
 hundred thousand dollars for occupying seats in the Senate and 
 
 * Louisiana, its Colonial History and Romance, by Charles Gayarre, pp. 626-527. See 
 also Bienville's letter in French, contained in Histoire de la Lonisiane, par Charles 
 Gayarre. 
 
BIENVILLE LEAVES THE COLONY HIS CHAKACTBB. 301 
 
 the House of Representatives, and much larger sums for filling 
 the oflBce of President, and for foreign missions ; and yet, after all 
 these favors, from the government and the people, they complain 
 of being treated with ingratitude, if they lose their position. The 
 people ^ho permitted them so long to hold these trusts, often to 
 their own injury, should never be charged with the crime of m- 
 gratitude ; but the recipients of all these political favors should 
 ever feel grateful, and retire with dignity and grace, like the 
 good and wise Bienville.* 
 
 The successor of Bienville, the Marquis De Vaudreuil, arrived 
 at New Orleans, and shortly afterwards the former sailed for 
 France. Although sixty-five years of age when he left the col- 
 ony,' Bienville lived to the advanced age of ninety. What a con- 
 stitution for a man who had passed through such trials and 
 hardships ! In the whole of the twenty-five years that he passed 
 in Prance, he never, for one moment, forgot the colony in Ala- 
 bama, Mississippi and Louisiana. He nursed it in his remem- 
 brance, as does the aged grandfather who is far off from his 
 beloved descendants. He sympathized with its misfortunes, and 
 exulted in its triumphs and prosperity. Whenever a vessel, 
 frooa the colony, reached the shores of France, Bienville was the 
 firgt to go on board, and learn tidings of his beloved bantling. 
 And when the French King, towards the last of Bien- 
 ville's days, ceded the colony of Louisiana to Spain, the 1743 
 good old man implored him with tears in his eyes, not May 10 
 to place the French subjects of the colony under the 
 control of the tyrannical Spaniards. 
 
 Another distinguished person departed from our country 
 about the time that Bienville sailed for France — Diron 
 D'Artaguette, the royal commissary, who had lived so 1742 
 long at Mobile. As we have seen, he came to our coun- • 
 try in 1708, where he filled several high offices until 174"2, It 
 
 • If Alabama should, hereafter, change the names of any of her present counties, or 
 form new ones, we very respectfully suggest that one be named *'Djb Soto," and another 
 
302 HISTORY or ALABAMA. 
 
 was his younger brother whom the Chickasaws burned to death, 
 near Pontotoc, in the present State of Mississippi. It is not 
 known whether the royal commissary and Bienville ever again 
 became friends. They ought, really, never to have disagreed, as 
 they were both men of ability, honor and fidelity. 
 
 The colony, at length, became prosperous. Capitalists em- 
 barked in agriculture and commerce, after the restrictions upon 
 the latter had been set aside by the King. Cargoes of flour, 
 hides, pork, bason, leather, tallow, bear's oil and lumber found 
 their way to Europe. These articles came chiefly from the 
 Illinois and Wabash countries, and the inhabitants of that^ 
 region, in return, received from New Orleans and Mobile, rice, 
 indigo, tobacco, sugar and European fabrics. But a war broke 
 out between France and Great Britain, and the Chickasaws, 
 again becoming the allies of the English, the Marquis De 
 Vaudreuil determined, to invade their country. He organized 
 his army, and embarking in boats, at Mobile, made his way 
 up the Tombigby river. After resting a few days at Fort 
 "Tombecbe," he renewed his voyage until he reached the 
 place where Bienville, sixteen years before, had disembarked 
 his army. Marching from this point with his troops, com- 
 posed of French and Choctaws, he reached the Chicka- 
 1752 saw towns, and endeavoring to storm them, lost many 
 of his men ; and was finally beaten, and compelled to 
 retreat to his boats near Cotton Gin Port. All he accomplished 
 was to destroy the fields and burn some cabins of the enemy. 
 Arriving at Fort " Tombecbe," he caused it to be enlarged and 
 strengthened — leaving there a strong detachment to prevent the 
 incursions of the Chickasaws. Like Bienville, the Marquis re- 
 
 *' Btenville." The former was the first to discover our territory, and the latter was the 
 French governor of it for forty years ! We have a sufficient number of counties, rivers, 
 creeks and towns hearing Indian names to preserve a remembrance of the former resi- 
 dence of the Ked Men here. We have counties also named for politicians and warriors, 
 but unlike Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia, we have not one named for a person 
 whose name would lead us to thint of the history of our country. 
 
BIENVILLE LEAVES THE COLONY HIS CHAEACTEE. 303 
 
 turned to Mobile, not at all satisfied with the laurels which he 
 had won in his expedition against the Chickasaws.* 
 
 * It has been staj;ed to me, by several persons, that cannon have been found in the 
 Tombigby, at or near Cotton Gin Port, and it has been supposed that they were left there 
 by De Soto. De Soto brought from Cuba but one piece of artillery, and that he left be- 
 hind him in Florida. If any such cannon have been found in the Tombigby, they be- 
 longed to the Marquis De Vaudreuil. He carried with him a few pieces to operate 
 against the Chickasaws upon the occasion just referred to. After he had fought the 
 Chickasaws, and returned to his boats, he found that the Tombigby had fallen consid- 
 erably, and it is probable he threw these cannon into the riverto lighten his boats. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Horrible Death of Beaudeot and the Swiss Soldiers. 
 
 In 1757, Kerlerec <ras the governor of the colony. He had 
 succeeded the Marquis De Vaudreuil, who had been transferred 
 to the government of New France. Some of th3 officers, sta- 
 tioned at the different posts, were great tyrants. One of them, 
 named Duroux, was sent to command a detachment of 
 1757 troops of the Swiss regiment of Halwyl, who were sta- 
 tioned at Cat Island, which, we believe, is now within 
 the jurisdiction of the State of Alabama. He forced his sol- 
 diers to work his gardens, and to burn "coal and lime, which 
 he disposed of in trade for his own emolument. Some of 
 them, who refused to work for him, he caused to be arrested, 
 stripped and tied naked to trees, where, for hours, the mos- 
 quitoes tortured them with their poisonous stings. These sol- 
 diers, repairing to New Orleans, received no satisfaction from 
 Governor Kerlerec, who presently sent them back to Duroux. 
 That officer was now still more tyrannical, and in addition to 
 his other severe usage, gave them no meat to eat, and fed 
 them upon stale bread. One day he entered a boat, and was 
 rowed to an adjacent island, for the purpose of hunting deer. 
 Returning in the evening, a party of the soldiers prepared them- 
 selves to kill him, and, as soon as he put his foot upon shore, he 
 was instantly despatched, by the discharge of several guns. His 
 body, stripped of its apparel, was contemptuously thrown into 
 the sea. They then rifled the King's stores, and for once fared 
 sumptuously. Becoming masters of the "island, the soldiers set 
 at liberty an inhabitant, named Beaudrot, who had been 
 
 304 
 
HOEEIBLE DEATH OP BBAUDEOT AND SWISS SOLDIERS. 305 
 
 unjustly imprisoned by Duroux. He had been long in 1757 
 the colony, and was often employed upon dangerous 
 missions in the Creek nation. Indeed, he well understood the 
 language of these Indians, besides that of neighboring tribes. 
 Often had he made journeys to Fort Toulouse, upon the Coosa, 
 both in boats and upon foot. He was a great favorite of Bien- 
 ville. Beaudrot was a powerful man, as to strength, and almost 
 a giant in size, and these qualities, together with his bravery and 
 prowess, endeared him to the Indians. The soldiers, who now 
 released him from prison, compelled him to conduct them to- 
 wards Georgia. Advancing rapidly through the woods, after 
 they had touched the main land in their boats, the veteran 
 Beaudrot led them around Mobile, up to the Tombigby, and, cross- 
 ing that stream, and afterwards the Alabama, in canoes which 
 belonged to the Indians, Beaudrot conducted them from thence 
 to Coweta, upon the Chattahoochie. Here he was dismissed by 
 the fugitives, whom he compelled to give him a certificate, stat- 
 ing that he had been forced to act as their guide, and was not in 
 any way concerned in the killing of Duroux. 
 
 Some of these soldiers, who pursued their journey, made 
 safe their retreat to the English in Georgia ; but others loitered 
 in Coweta and Cusseta enjoying the hospitality of the Indians. 
 In the meantime, Montberaut, who then commanded at Fort 
 Toulouse, had been made acquainted with the murder of Duroux 
 and the flight of the soldiers. Hearing that some of them were 
 upon the Chattahoochie, a small detachment of soldiers 
 and some Indians, under Beaudin, were sent across the 1757 
 country, to arrest them. Beaudin returned with three 
 of the men, who, after being chained in the prison for a week, 
 were put in canoes, and conveyed down the Alabama river, to 
 Mobile, and there thrown into the dungeon, to await trial. 
 
 Beaudrot arrived in Mobile, and was quietly living in his 
 hut, when two of his sons, who had just arrived from New 
 Orleans, were the innocent cause of his arrest. Governor 
 
 20 
 
306 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Kerlerec sent by them a sealed package to l5e Ville, the com- 
 mandant at Mobile, authorizing his imprisonment. The poor 
 fellow knew nothing of the arrest of the soldiers, until his 
 eyes fell upon them in prison. Notwithstanding that he ex- 
 hibited, upon the trial, his certificate, which declared his in- 
 nocence of the murder, and which stated that he was com- 
 pelled to facilitate the escape of the authors of it, a court 
 martial condemned him to die. The soldiers, of course, were 
 also condemned to share the same fate. As soon as Governor 
 Kerlerec confirmed the judgment, the innocent and unfortunate 
 Beaudrot was led forth and broken upon a wheel ! The people 
 of Mobile were shocked at the spectacle, for some of their lives 
 had been saved by the sufferer. Not many years before that 
 Beaudrot, while trading in the town of Autauga among the Ala- 
 bamas, ransomed a French boy who had been captured near 
 Mobile by the Lower Creeks of the Chattahoochie, and who had 
 sold him to those Indians. Beaudrot paid away all his profits for 
 the boy, and immediately carried him to Mobile and restored him 
 to his uncle. On another occasion, a party of the Lower Creeks 
 had taken a Frenchlnan, who had gone up to his little 
 1757 plantation on the Tensaw river. They stripped the man, 
 and, having pinioned him well, took the trail for the 
 Chattahoochie. It so happened that Beaudrot was returning upon 
 that trail from Fort Toulouse, whither Bienville had some weeks 
 before despatched him with a letter to the French command- 
 ant. Night drew apace, and the wearied Beaudrot sought repose 
 upon the pine straw, behind a log, without a spark of fire. It was 
 his custom when alone to sleep in the dark, for fear of being dis- 
 covered by Indian enemies. He lay quietly, with his head resting 
 upon his knapsack. Presently three stout warriors made their 
 appearance, with the Frenchman to whom we have just alluded.. 
 They presently collected lightwood, which lay in profusion 
 around, and kindled a large fire. Ten of the party, after the cap- 
 ture of the Frenchman, went in another direction, to see if they 
 
HORRIBLE DEATH OF BEAUDBOT AND SWISS SOLDIERS. 307 
 
 could not do more mischief in the French settlements, and, en- 
 trusting the prisoner to the three warriors who now guarded him, 
 had not yet overtaken them. The fire threw a glare over the 
 woods, and Beaudrot would have been discovered had he not, 
 fortunately, been behind a log. The warriors eat their supper, 
 and, tying the Frenchman to a tree, where he would have been 
 compelled to stand all night upon his feet, they dropped off to 
 sleep. The heart of the generous Beaudrot beat quick : he longed 
 to rescue the man, whom he well knew, but endeavored to com- 
 pose himself. After a while, when the wearied warriors snored 
 in profound sleep, he cautiously approached. His first intention 
 was to unloose the prisoner and place a pistol in his hand, when 
 they would both instantly fall upon the Indians ; but a moment's 
 reflection warned him that if he approached the prisoner first the 
 latter would be startled and cry aloud, which would arouse the 
 savages. This reflection now altered his plans, and he' now crept 
 up to the camp, keepirfg a large pine tree between him and the 
 warriors. Two of them lay together. Beaudrot's carbine was 
 heavily charged, and raising himself suddenly he fired, and the 
 warriors were both killed. The third one rose up and rushed at 
 Beaudrot with his hatchet, having in his haste forgotten his gun. 
 Beaudrot had already a pistol in his hand, and now discharged 
 its contents into the stomach of the Creek, who whooped and fell 
 dead. Rushing to the tree he untied his friend, who immediately 
 sank in the arms of his generous deliverer. But they had no 
 time to tarry here. The rescued prisoner informed Beaudrot 
 that the other party were probably upon their trail. They im- 
 mediately left the spot, and reaching the Alabama river Beau- 
 drot constructed a raft, on which he now placed the prisoner 
 and they both floated down the river some distance, and landed 
 on the western side. He tore the raft to pieces, and set the frag- 
 ments adrift. Beaudrot took all this precaution to keep the In- 
 dians from tracking him. About this time it was daylight, and 
 he and the Frenchman were in a swamp, and quite secure. Beau- 
 
308 HISTOET OP ALABAMA. 
 
 drot now drew forth his bottle of brandy, and gave his compan- 
 ion a drink, which did much to revive him. They also shared 
 some bread and dried venison. After they had rested here some 
 hours, Beaudrot and his companion arose, and, after a tedious 
 march through the woods, subsisting upon what game Beaudrot 
 could kill, he arrived safe in Mobile, with the Frenchman. 
 
 Such a man was Beaudrot, whom the French authorities in 
 Mobile broke upon a wheel ! His life was worth a thousand such 
 lives as that of the tyrannical wretch whom he was accused of 
 having killed. On the same day that he was thus made to suffer 
 death, in the most barbarous and excruciating manner, one of the 
 fugitives, a French soldier, was also broken upon a wheel, while 
 two poor Swiss soldiers were subjected to a still more horrible 
 fate. The authorities placed each one of them in a long narrow 
 box, like a coflSn, nailed it up, and then cut the box in two with 
 a cross-cut saw.* 
 
 * French MS. letters in my possession, obtained from Paris. See also Bossu's Travels, 
 vol. 1, pp. 320-326. But Kossu irusorrectly states that tbese men suffered death in New 
 Orleans. Some years previously, Port Conde, a large brick fortress, had been built at 
 Mobile, and it was in front of the gate of that fort that these men met such a terrible 
 death. 
 
CHAPTER X\^II. 
 
 Bcssu's Visit to the French Foets Upon the Alabama and 
 ToMBiGBT Rivers. 
 
 Governor Kerlbrec having ordered Bossu, a Captain of the 
 French Marines, to depart from Few Orleans with a detachment, 
 destined for Fort Toulouse, among the Creek Indians, 
 that oflBcer reached Mobile, and was there received by 1758 
 D'Aubant, adjutant of that place. The latter, the same Dec. 20 
 officer who married the Russian Princess, and lived 
 with her in Mobile, as we have seen, had recently been appointed 
 to the command of Fort Toulouse, and was instructed to accom- 
 pany Bossu to that point ; but sickness, for a while, 
 detained him in Mobile. In the meantime, Bossu em- 1759 
 barked his soldiers and Choctaws in several boats. Af- March 
 ter a tedious voyage of fifty days, up the Alabama river, 
 he moored his boats at the French fort,upon the Coosa.' Here he had 
 the pleasure of meeting D'Aubant, who, having recovered from 
 his indisposition, had come from Mobile on horseback, across the 
 vast wilderness. Montberaut, who was still in command of the 
 fort, received D'Aubant with politeness, and, for three months 
 previous to his departure to Mobile, instructed him in regard to 
 the condition of the fort, and of the policy which it was 
 necessary for him to pursue with the tribes around. 1759 
 Montberaut was an officer of high reputation among the April 
 Creeks and Alabamas, and "was remarkable for the 
 spirited speeches which he delivered, in a manner analogous to 
 the,way of thinking of these nations."* He despised the Jesuits, 
 
 * BosBu's Travels, vol. 1, p. 228. 
 
 309 
 
310 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 and, as they were formally stationed at Port Toulouse, he always 
 lived upon bad terms with them. Father Le Roi, one of these 
 missionaries, wrote a letter to the Governor, in which he abused 
 Montberaut in unmeasured terms, and advised his removal. The 
 soldier to whom the letter was delivered, and who was to convey 
 it to Mobile, handed it to Montberaut, who noted its contents. 
 When the Jesuit met him the next morning, he showed him many 
 civilties, as Bossu says, " according to the political principles of 
 these good fathers." The commandant asked him if he had 
 written anything against him.. The Jesuit; not suspecting that 
 his letter was in the officer's hands, assured him, by all that was 
 sacred, that he had not. Montberaut then called Father Le Roi 
 an impositor and cheat, and fixed his letter at the gate of the 
 fort. Since that time no Jesuits have been among the Creeks 
 and Alabamas.* 
 
 When Bossu visited Fort Toulouse, upon the Coosa, he found 
 that the Creeks and Alabamas were happy people. They lived 
 with ease, had an abundance around them, and were at peace 
 with the surrounding savages. While at the fort, Bossu heard a 
 Chief deliver the following beautiful speech : 
 
 "Young men and warriors! Do not disregard the Master 
 OF Life. The sky is blue — the sun is without spots — the weather 
 is fair — the ground is white — everything is quiet on the face of 
 the earth, and the blood of men ought not to be spilt on it. We 
 must beg the Master of Life to preserve it pure and spotless 
 among the nations that surround us." 
 
 Not only were the Creeks and Alabamas at peace with other 
 
 nations, at this time, bu'; gave evidences of warm and 
 
 1759 generous hospitality. They thronged the banks of the 
 
 April river, which now rreanders along the borders of the 
 
 counties of Autauga, Montgomery, Dallas and Lowndes, 
 
 as Bossu slowly made his way up the beautiful stream — greeted 
 
 him with friendly salutations, and offered him provisions, such 
 
 • Bossu's Travels, vol. 1, p. i!29. 
 
BOSSTJ'S VISIT UP ALABAMA AND TOMBIGBT EIVEES. 311 
 
 as bread, roasted turkeys, broiled venison, pancakes baked with 
 nut oil, and deers' tongues, together with baskets full of eggs 
 of the fowl and turtle. The Great Spirit had blessed them 
 with a magnificent river, abounding in fish ; with delicious 
 and cool fountains, gushing out from the foot of the hills; 
 with rich lands, that produced without cultivation ; and with 
 vast forests, abounding in game of every description. But 
 now the whole scene is changed. The country is no longer 
 half so beautiful; the waters of Alabama begin to be dis- 
 colored ; the forests .have been cut down ; steamers have 
 destroyed the finny race ; deer bound not over the plain ; the 
 sluggish bear has ceased to wind through the swamps ; the 
 bloody panther does not spring upon his prey; wolves have 
 ceased to. howl upon the hills ; birds cannot be seen in the 
 branches of the trees ; graceful warriors guide no longer their 
 well-shaped canoes ; and beautiful squaws loiter not upon the 
 plain, nor pick the delicious berries. Now, vast fields of cotton, 
 noisy steamers, huge rafts of lumber, towns reared for business, 
 disagreeable corporation laws, harassing courts of justice, mills, 
 factories, and everything else that is calculated to destroy the 
 beauty of a country and to rob man of his quiet and native inde- 
 pendence, present themselves to our view. 
 
 The heart yearns to behold, once more, such a country as 
 Alabama was the first time we saw it, when a boy. But where 
 can we now go, that we shall not find the busy American, with 
 keen desire to destroy' every thing which nature has made lovely ? 
 
 Fort Toulouse, at various times, had many commandants, 
 who filled each others' places according to the will or whim of 
 the colonial governor and the different companies. At one time, 
 the Chevalier D'Ernville commanded here, when a young warrior 
 killed a French soldier, and fled to the forests. According to an 
 agreement formed between the French and the Indians, when the 
 -fort was first established, the killing of- a person was to be atoned 
 for by the immediate execution of him. who committed the deed. 
 
312 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 whether he was a Frenchman or an Indian. D'Emville demanded 
 the Indian of the Chiefs, who stated that they were unable to find 
 him. He next required that the mother of the guilty warrior 
 should be made to expiate the crime. They replied that the 
 mother had not killed the Frenchman ; but the officer only 
 reminded them of the agreement, and further, of the previous 
 customs of their country. Deeply embarrassed, in consequence 
 of the escape of the criminal, and unwilling that the old woman 
 should be put to death, the Chiefs, to compromise the case, 
 offered the French officer furs and horse-loads of booty. But 
 D'Ernville was unyielding, and' had the mother brought out 
 before Fort Toulouse, to suffer death. Her relatives followed 
 her with sad countenances, one of them exclaiming, in a loud 
 voice, " My mother-in-law dies courageously, as she has not 
 struck the blow." In a few minutes the son rushed through the 
 caiiebrake, boldly walked up to D'Ernville, gave himself up, saved 
 the life of his mother, and was then — killed ! 
 
 One day it was announced at Fort Toulouse that the Empe- 
 ror of Coweta, a town on the Chattahoochie, was advanc- 
 1759 ing to pay the French a visit. Bossu walked some dis- 
 May tance upon the pathway, towards the present Grey's 
 Ferry, which was, at that early day, a great crossing 
 place for the Jndians. He was accompanied by some soldiers, and 
 to surprise the Emperor, they fired their muskets as soon as Bossu 
 took him by the hand, which was also the signal for a general dis- 
 charge of the artillery from the fort. The woods presently re- 
 sounded with the noise of the cannon, and the Emperor- felt that 
 he was greatly honored. He was mounted on a Spanish horse, 
 with an English saddle, which was bordered with a beautiful spot- 
 ted skin. He alighted from his horse, and advanced to the fort 
 • with an air of great dignity and importance. His costume was so 
 singular as to excite the subdued risibilities of the Frenchmen 
 who marched behind him. He wore on his head a crest of black 
 plumes ; his coat was scarlet, with English cuffs, and beset with 
 
BOSStr's VISIT UP ALABAMA AND TOMBIGBY KIVERS. 313 
 
 tinsel lace ; he had neither waistcoat nor breeches ; under his 
 coat he wore a white linen shirt. His attendants were naked, 
 and painted in a variety of colors. Being only eighteen years of 
 age, the Emperor was accompanied by his Regent, a noble and 
 wise old man, who ruled the Lower Creeks during his minority. 
 When they reached the fort, the old man delivered a speech to 
 D'Aubant, which was reported by Laubene, the King's interpreter, 
 who had been long stationed at that place. 
 
 Being anxious to alienate the Lower Creeks, upon the Chat- 
 tahoochie, from the relations which they had formed with the 
 Georgians, D'Aubant paid the visitors unusual attention. 
 The next day, at ten o'clock, he received the Emperor, 1759 
 his War Chief, Regent, Doctor, and followers, in consid- May 
 erable state. They were marched before the oflBcers 
 and soldiers, who were all drawn up in full uniform. At noon 
 they were conducted to the dining table, where they and the of- 
 ficers took seats together. The Emperor was much puzzled in 
 what manner to employ the knife and fork, and was extremely 
 awkward and embarrassed. But the old Regent seized the back- 
 bone and breast of a turkey, and broke them in two with his 
 fingers, saying, " The Master op Life made fingers before knives 
 and forks were made." 
 
 Towards the end of the repast, a servant of the Emperor, 
 who stood behind his chair, perceived that the French ate mus- 
 tard with their boiled meat. He asked Beaudin what it was that 
 they relished so much? This officer^ the same who went to the 
 Chattahoocbie, and arrested the soldiers who fied from Cat 
 Island, and who had lived forty years in the Creek nation, re- 
 plied that the French were by no means covetous of what they 
 possessed. He handed the Indian a spoonful of the mustard, 
 who swallowed it. He thereupon made many ridiculous contor- 
 tions, giving several whoops, and aft'ording the whole company 
 much merriment. The Indian imagined himself to be poisoned, 
 
314. HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 and D'Aubant, tbe commandant, could only appease bim by a 
 glass of delightful brandy.* 
 
 About this time the celebrated Russian Princess, ' whom, as 
 we have seen, D'Aubant had long since married, at Mo- 
 1759 bile, becoming tired of his protracted absence, deter- 
 June mined to join him, which, indeed, had been planned when 
 the chevalier left her at Mobile. Going on board a boat 
 which was starting for Fort Toulouse, this remarkable and roman- 
 tic woman, after a long voyage, arrived at this place with her lit- 
 tle daughter and a female servant. She was affectionately re- 
 ceived by D'Aubant,'and had many lively adventures to relate of 
 her passage up the Alabama. Not having pleasant quarters in 
 the fort, a cabin was built for her in the field, not far from the 
 fort, to which was attached a brick chimney, the fragments of 
 which still remain there. Here this gay woman was accustomed 
 to converse with the Indians and prattle with their pick- 
 1759 aninnies. So then, citizens of Wetumpka, there was 
 June once living within three miles of your city a Russian 
 Princess, so represented to be, who had married the son 
 of Peter the Great ! t 
 
 While at Fort Toulouse Bossu received an order to repair to 
 Mobile, for the purpose of serving under the orders of De Ville, 
 the King's lieutenant, stationed at that place. He entered a boat, 
 and after a prosperous voyage reached Mobile. Some time after- 
 wards he was ordered to command a convoy to Fort " Tombecbe." 
 He left Mobile with three boats, in which were soldiers and Mo- 
 bile Indians. He entered the Tombigby river after a voyage of 
 seven days, which now can be performed in four hours. 
 1759 Mooring his boats near i^ome land a little elevated above 
 Aug. the water he pitched his camp, and prepared to pass the 
 night on shore, as was the custom of all voyagers of that 
 day. While wrapped in a corner of his tent cloth, and reposing 
 
 * Travels through that part of North America formerly called Louisiana, 'by M. Bossu, 
 Captain in the French Marines. Vol. 1, pp. 226-278. 
 t French MS. letters in my possession, obtained from Paris. 
 
BOSSU'S VISIT UP ALABAMA AND TOMBIGBY EIVEES. 315 
 
 upon his bear's skin, with a string of fine flsh, which he designed 
 for breakfast, lying at his feet, he was awakened from a profound 
 sleep by finding himself suddenly carried away by an extraordi- 
 nary force. Terribly alarmed he cried out for help. An enormous 
 alligator, intent upon seizing the string of flsh, had caught in his 
 teeth a portion of the tent cloth, and was hurrying Bossu, tent 
 cloth, bear skin, flsh and all, rapidly to his accustomed elements. 
 Fortunately, just before the alligator plunged into the river Bossu 
 saved himself and the bear skin, but the flsh and the tent cloth 
 disappeared with the monster. 
 
 The voyage up the river was remarliably tedious, for it being 
 at a low stage Bossu was often compelled to drag his boats over 
 the bars. He camped upon the banks every night, and to pro- 
 tect himself as much as possible from the mosquitoes he placed 
 canes in the ground, and making their tops meet by bending 
 them over formed an arch. Over this rude frame he 
 threw a linen sheet, and slept under it most comforta- 1759 
 bly, reposing on his bear skin. On one occasion provis- Aug. 
 ions got so scarce that Bossu sent out some of his men 
 to procure game in the forests. Discovering the nest of a large 
 eagle, built in the branches of a lofty tree, the Indians soon 
 prostrated the latter with their axes. They obtained from 
 this immense nest several fawns, "rabbits, wild turkeys, par- 
 tridges and wild pigeons, together with four eaglets.* The 
 old eagles fought desperately for their young, but the fam- 
 ished party bore off the nest and the abundance of game 
 which it contained, all of which had recently been taken for 
 the eaglets to devour. Bossu and his party lived sumptu- 
 ously during the remainder of their voyage, which was at length 
 terminated at Fort " Tombecbe," the site of which is now famil- 
 iarly known as Jones' Bluff. De Grandpre, a Canadian of much 
 
 * Bossu must be mistaken as to the number of eaglets. According to my reading of 
 natural history, I am under the impression that hot more than two eaglets are ever 
 found in the same nest. 
 
BOSSU'S VISIT UP ALABAMA. AND TOMBIGBY EIVEES. 317 
 
 bravery, and possessed of much experience in relation to the 
 habits and customs of the Indians, commanded the gar- 
 rison at this post. Bossu's journal, kept at this place, 1759 
 is wholly occupied with the manners and customs of Aug. 
 the Choctaws. As we haye already referred to him, 
 upon this subject, in our description of that tribe, we will omit 
 here what would be a mere repetition, only submitting to the 
 reader the following extract: 
 
 " I saw an Indian of the Choctaws who had lately been bap- 
 tized. As he had no luck in hunting, he imagined* himself be- 
 witched. He went immediately to Father Lefevre, the Jesuit 
 missionary, who was stationed at Fort ' Tombecbe,' and who had 
 lately converted him. He told him that his medicine was good 
 for nothingj for, since he had practiced it upon him, he could kill 
 no deer. He therefore desired the priest to take oft" his enchant- 
 ment. The Jesuit, in order to avoid the. resentment of this In- - 
 dian, acted as if he had annihilated the baptismal ceremony. 
 Some time after this, the Indian killed a deer, and, thus think- 
 ing himself forever free from the enchantment, was a most happy 
 fellow.''* 
 
 But the colony Louisiana, so vast in extent, and embracing 
 within its limits the territory of our own State, and that of Mis- 
 sissippi, was soon to be taken from the French. It has been seen 
 that the English and the French had long been competitors for 
 the commercial patronage of the Indians, in Lower Louisiana, 
 and also for the right to the soil. Far more bitter were their 
 jealousies, and far more bloody their feuds upon the borders of 
 OhiOj Virginia and Pennsylvania. For some time, a serious colo- 
 nial war had been raging between the North American provinces 
 of France and those of England. The French lost post after 
 post. The victorious Britons garrisoned them with troops, and 
 then captured others. In this manner, the King of France lost 
 all his Louisiana possessions, and, with them, the soil of 
 
 * Bossu's Travels, pp. 226-318. 
 
318 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 1763 Mississippi and Alabama. Spain, too, had allied her- 
 Feb. 1 8 self with France in the war. At length, the three bel- 
 ligerent powers concluded a peace, the conditions of 
 which are stated in the commencement of the next chapter. 
 
 Agreeably to the provisions of that treaty, Pierre Annibal 
 de Ville, lieutenant of the King, commandant at Mobile, 
 Oct. and Jean Gabriel Fazende, d'ordonnatuer, delivered that 
 town and -its dependences to Major Robert Farmer, com- 
 missary of His Britannic Majesty. 
 
 Pierre Chabert, captain of infantry and commandant of Fort 
 " Tombecbe," and Valentine Duboca, keeper of the mag- 
 Nov. 28 azine, delivered that post to Captain Thomas Ford, who 
 garrisoned it with English troops. 
 The Chevalier Lavnoue, commanding Fort Toulouse, upon 
 the Coosa, not being relieved by the appearance of any British 
 officer, spiked his cannon, broke off the trunnions or 
 1763 ears, and left them in the fort. The river being shal- 
 Nov. low, during a dry fall, and having his soldiers and all 
 the provisions and military effects to convey to Mobile, 
 in boats, he caused to be cast into the Coosa all which the mag- 
 azine contained, among which was a large quantity of powder.* 
 
 * Histoire de la Louisiane, par Cbarles G-ayarre, vol. 2, pp. 108-9. 
 
CHAPTER XVIir. 
 
 The Occupation of Alabama and Mississippi by the English. 
 
 We mentioned, at the conclusion of the preceding chapter, 
 that France had surrendered all of her North American pos- 
 sessions. Before finally doing so, however, she made 
 a secret treaty 'with Spain, her ally, in which she oeded 1762 
 to that power the territory on the western side of the Nov. B 
 Mississippi, extending from the mouth of that river to 
 its remotest sources, and including the Island of New Orleans, 
 which lay on the eastern side of the great river, and south of the 
 Bayou Iberville or Mancbac. 
 
 Afterwards, a general peace between the three powers was 
 concluded at Paris. France ceded to England all her 
 Canadian possessions, and all that portion of Louisiana 1763 
 which lies on the eastern side of the Mississippi river, Feb. 18 
 from its sources down to Bayou Iberville, which bayou, 
 with a portion of the Amite, and a line through Lakes Maurepas 
 and Pontchartrain, to the sea, was to form the southern boundary. 
 France also ceded to England the port and river of Mobile. 
 Spain ceded to Great Britain her province of Florida. 
 
 The King of England decreed that Florida should 
 be formed into two governments, called the provinces of . 1763 
 East and West Florida ; that the northern line of West Oct, 7 
 Florida should be the line of 31°, to run from the Chat- 
 tahoochie to the Mississippi. But afterwards, understanding 
 that this line did not embrace the valuable settlements 
 at Natchez and above there, he again decreed the boun- 1764 
 daries of West Florida to be as follows : a line, to begin Feb. 
 
320 HISTOBY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 at the mouth of the Yazoo, where that stream joins the Mis- 
 sissippi, and to run east to the (Jhattahoochie; thence down 
 the Chattahoochie, to the mouth of the Apalachicola ; thence 
 westward, along the coast of the Gulf, and through Lakes Borgne, 
 Pontchartrain and Maurepas, up to the river Amite ; then along 
 Bayou Iberville, to the Mississippi river, and up the middle of 
 that river, to the mouth of the Yazoo. 
 
 The territory within these lines, which was known for a 
 period, dating from 17P4 to 1781, as West B^lorida, embraced 
 a large portion of the present States of Alabama and Mississippi. 
 The northern line of the British province of West Florida, thus 
 constituted, was that of 32° 28'. While a large portion of Ala- 
 bama fell below this line, aiid was incorporated into British West 
 Florida, more than half of our State, in a northern direction 
 from the line of 32° 28', was embraced in the British province 
 of Illinois. 
 
 The province of Illinois was not only made to embrace more 
 than the half of our State, and more than half of Mississippi, but 
 also the western portions of Tennessee, Kentucky, and the coun- 
 try from thence to Lake Michigan. The province of West Flor- 
 ida, which was made to embrace the southern portion of Ala- 
 bama, extended from the line of 32° 28', southward, to the Gulf 
 of Mexico. We are thus particular in elucidating the 
 1764 British division of our State, because, hereafter, the 
 reader will be made acquainted with the contentions 
 which arose with the Spaniards, Georgians, and the Federal Gov- 
 I ernment, in relation to it. 
 
 To enable the reader still better to understand this matter, 
 the line of 32° 28', which divided the Illinois portions of Alabama 
 and Mississippi from the Florida portions of those States, was a 
 line which commenced at the mouth of the Yazoo, and thence 
 ran eastward, to the Tombigby, striking that river a little below 
 the present town of Demopolis, continuing east, touching the 
 Alabama river a short distance below the junction of the Coosa 
 
ENGLISH OCCUPATION OP ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 321 
 
 and Tallapoosa, and terminating on the west bank of the Chatta- 
 hooohie, between the present city of Columbus and old Fort 
 Mitchell. During the British occupation of our State, its Illinois 
 portion was uninhabited by Europeans, excepting a few traders, 
 who lived among the Upper Creeks, Cherokees and Chickasaws. 
 It is rather singular to reflect that, during this period, the site of 
 Montgomery was in British West Florida, while the site of We- 
 tumpka was in British Illinois. These, sister cities are within 
 fifteen miles of each other. 
 
 Between the Mississippi and the Wabash, a population of 
 five thousand French and five hundred negroes existed. But 
 when the French commandant at Fort Chartres^the capital of 
 the Illinois province, opposite St. Louis — surrendered the coun- 
 try, in the spring of 1765, to Captain Sterling, ot the British 
 army, who came by way of Detroit, at the command of his King, 
 to take charge of it, then the French, generally, retired across 
 the river, into Spanish territory. 
 
 Captain George Johnstone, of the royal navy, was the first 
 British governor of West Florida. He came to Pensa- 
 cola, the seat of government, and brought with him a 1764 
 British regiment, and many Highlanders, from Charles- Feb. 
 ton and New York. He issued his proclamation, defin- 
 ing the limits of his jurisdiction, and proclaiming the laws which 
 he was instructed to enforce. The civil government was organ- 
 ized under military commandants and magistrates. The superior 
 courts were formed under English judges. The governor imme- 
 diately proceeded to garrison Fort Conde, at . Mobile, which he 
 now named Fort Charlotte, in honor of the young Queen of Great 
 Britain. Soldiers were also thrown into the forts at Baton 
 Rouge, and Panmure, at Natchez. A detachment went up to 
 the Coosa, and occupied Fort Toulouse ; but it was, in a short 
 time, withdrawn, when the works, in a few years, went to ruins. 
 
 When Governor Johnstone arrived in West Florida, there 
 came with him a Major Loftus, who had been appointed to 
 
 21 
 
322 HISTOBY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 take charge of the IlUnois country. Early in 1764, that ofiB- 
 cer sailed from Pensacola to New Orleans, and from thence 
 to Manchac, where he joined his detachment, which had been 
 some time exploring that bayou. With four hundred men he 
 began theascent of the Mississippi in boats and canoes. Reach- 
 ing the'heights of La Roche a Davion, where Fort Adams was 
 afterwards built, he was suddenly attacked by armed Indians, 
 from ambuscades on both sides of the river. In this skirmish he 
 lost several men and had many wounded. He returned to Man- 
 chac, and despatched a captain with twenty men to Mobile, 
 through the lakes, who arrived safe at that place. Major Loftus, 
 
 with the residue of his command, dropped down to the 
 
 1764 Balize, and went from thence to Pensacola. Thus was 
 
 Apr. 5 thepccupationof the Illinois country for a time prevented 
 
 by the fierce and successful hostility of these Indians.* 
 The French population along the east side of the Mississippi 
 to the Walnut Hills was considerable, and when they ascertained 
 that British laws had been extended over them many retired 
 across the river south of Manchac. Others, assured that they 
 would not be disturbed, either in the enjoyment of the Catholic 
 faith or in their rights and property, remained in the country. 
 The English authorities encoutaged emigration, and many availed 
 
 themselves of their liberal offers. The first Anglo- 
 
 1764 American colony came from Roanoke, in the province of 
 
 to 1768 North Carolina, and established themselves between 
 
 Manchac and Baton Rouge. They were followed by 
 others, from North and South Carolina, who crossed the moun- 
 tains to the Tennessee, there constructing flat-boats, descended 
 that river into the Ohio, and thence passed down the Mississippi. 
 Others from Georgia even cut through the wilderness to find the 
 Natchez country, which had become so favorably known. Emi- 
 grants from Virginia came down the Ohio. They all received 
 
 * Frencli and Spanlsli MS., Martin's History of Louisiana, Gayarre's Histoire de la 
 Louisiane, Memoire Historique et Politique sur la Louisiane, par Ai.de Vergennes, Aiin- 
 ister de Loi\is XVI. 
 
ENGLISH OCCUPATION OF ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 323 
 
 upon their arrival liberal and extensive grants. After a while 
 emigrants came from Great Britain, Ireland and the British West 
 Indies. During the three succeeding years many flocked from 
 Georgia, the Carolinas and New Jersey, and established them- 
 selves upon the soil drained by the Bayou Sara, the Homochitto 
 and Bayou Pierre. All these settlements extended from the 
 Mississippi back for fifteen or twenty miles. A few years after- 
 wards the Scotch Highlanders from North Carolina arrived, and 
 formed a colony upon the upper branches of the Homochitto, 
 thirty miles eastward of Natchez, and their numbers were at a 
 late period increased by others from Scotland. This region 
 afterwards assumed the name of New Scotland. They still retain 
 much of their national character, and not a few of the old 
 ones speak the Gaelic. In 1770 emigrants came from 1768 
 New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia, by the way of the to 1773 
 Ohio, and three years afterward a much greater number 
 advanced by that route. 
 
 West Florida continued to be governed by the general 
 commandant at Pensacola. With the exception of some futile 
 attempts to form a colonial legislature, like those of the At- 
 lantic provinces, it remained the whole time a mere mili- 
 tary government. It was strengthened by garrisons at the 
 places mentioned, and also at Manchac, where Fort Bute was 
 erected, in 1 765, for the purpose of monopolizing the trade of the 
 Lower Mississippi. England constantly introduced, through the 
 lakes and by this fortified outlet, Africans obtained from their 
 native country. . These were purchased by the French, Spanish 
 and British settlers, in defiance of the laws of Spain. Through 
 Manchac, the English also supplied the Spanish subjects with 
 all kinds of merchandise. To arrest this illicit trade, Don IJlloa, 
 the governor of Louisiana, constructed a fort on the south side of 
 the Iberville,, or Manchac, four hundred yards from Fort Bute; 
 but with little effect. Negroes continued to be imported, and 
 sugar, indigo, cotton and tobacco were extensively cultivated.* 
 
 * Monette, vol. 1., pp. 406-7. 
 
324 HISTOEY OF 'ALABAMA. 
 
 Discord made her appearance in the councils of the province 
 of West Florida soon after its organization. The colonists be- 
 came very much dissatisfied with Governor Johnstone. He was 
 succeeded by the "Honorable Montforte Brown, in the capacity of 
 lieutenant-governor. Governor Elliot came in the place of Brown ; 
 but, when the latter died. Brown again came into power. He 
 was, however, a second time replaced, when the Honor- 
 1772 able Peter Chester assumed the government of the 
 province, and under whose auspices it flourished for a 
 long time. Governor Chester was universally esteemed.* 
 
 The year 1765 was fatal to the inhabitants of Mobile. The 
 ravages of death gave it a reputation for unheal thin ess, which, 
 for years, kept it from increasing in population. In that year, 
 the 21st British regiment brought from Jamaica a contagious dis- 
 ease. Upon their arrival in Mobile, the ofBcers and sol- 
 1765 diers rioted in intemperance, and drank the water of 
 stagnant pools. Death hovered over these imprudent 
 people, until none remained. Indeed, the English population, 
 generally, lived too fast, converting day into night, and sporting 
 their lives away in dissipation. 
 
 Far otherwise was it with the French inhabitants. Among 
 
 them were exhibited instances of greater longevity than could 
 
 be found in any other part of North America. In the family of 
 
 the Chevalier de Lucere this was particularly the case. 
 
 1771 Its members were all extremely aged, and the mother 
 
 of all died a few years previous to that period, from the 
 
 snapping of her legs— the effect of the last stages of the gout. M. 
 
 Francois, who then lived five miles above Fowl river, stated his 
 
 age to be above eighty-three, and that the old woman, who was 
 
 in the kitchen, cooking, and walking with activity and cheerfulness 
 
 from one house to another, was his mother. She was one of the 
 
 first females that came to Mobile from France. At the age of 
 
 sixty-five, Francois fell from a pine tree, which he was climbing. 
 
 * Roman's "Florida, p. 4. 
 
ENGLISH OCCUPATION OP ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 325 
 
 to disengage some game, which had lodged in the branches. If this 
 accident had not occurred, he would not have felt the hand of 
 time. Although now over eighty-three years of age, he was ac- 
 customed, almost daily, to walk five miles to the bay, angle there 
 for hours, and at night, walk home with a mule's load of fish 
 upon his back, some of which his affectionate mother would in- 
 stantly prepare for the supper of herself and her dutiful child ! 
 
 They lived comfortably, on a small farm, subsisting upon its 
 products, and those of a large herd of cattle. Many other cases 
 of protracted life were witnessed by travellers to this country 
 The French assimilated their constitutions to the climate 
 by a regular, abstemious life, refraining from spirituous 1771 
 liquors in the summer, and obtaining pure drinking 
 water from a rivulet, three miles back of the town. It was also 
 the custom of many to spend the fatal months upon their planta- 
 tions, up the Tensaw and Mobile rivers, where the air appears, 
 at that day, to have been far more salubrious than in Mobile.* 
 The plantation of the Chevalier de Lucere was on the first 
 island, below the confluence of the Tombigby and Alabama. 
 Many of the islands on the Tensaw and Mobile rivers 
 were well cultivated, by the French, and also by the 1772 
 English, who worked them in summer, and withdrew 
 their laborers, in winter, to their settlements, hard by among the 
 hills, where they engaged extensively in making tar and pitch 
 for exportation. 
 
 The first plantation, after that of the Chevalier de Lucere, 
 passed in descending the Mobile river, was that of Campbell. 
 Then followed those of Stewart, Audrey, McGillivray, Favre, 
 Chastang, Strother and Narbone. Five miles below the latter 
 was the site of an old French fort, which was once occupied a 
 short time. Six miles further down, was, at one time, a splendid 
 plantation, the property of the French Intendant of Mobile, but 
 which now belonged to M. Lizars.f 
 
 * Barnard Roman's Florida, pp. 4-13. f Ibid. 
 
326 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 The articles exported from Mobile and Pensacola, in 1772, 
 
 were — indigo, raw hides, corn, fine cattle, tallow, rice, 
 
 1772 pitch, bear's oil, tobacco, tar, squared timber, indigo 
 
 seed, myrtle wax, cedar posts and planks, salted wild 
 
 beef, pecan nuts, cypress and pine boards, plank of various woods, 
 
 shingles, dried salt fish, scantling, sassafras, canes, staves and 
 
 heading, hoops, oranges, and peltry. 
 
 Cotton was not enumerated among the articles of export, but 
 it is mentioned as having been, at that time, cultivated to some 
 extent, and machines, for separating the lint from the seed, were 
 in use. One of these is thus described by Captain Roman : 
 
 " It is a strong frame, of four studs, each about four feet 
 high, and joined, above and below, by strong transverse pieces. 
 Across this are placed two round well-polished iron spindles, 
 having a small groove through their whole length, and, by means 
 of treadles, are put in opposite motions. The workman sits be- 
 hind the frame, with a thin board before him, upon which is 
 placed the cotton, thinly spread, which the rollers receive. The 
 lint goes through the rollers, and the seed falls down in a sepa- 
 rate pile. The French population have much improved upon 
 this plan, by a large wheel, which turns two of these mills, with 
 so much velocity, that seventy pounds of clean cotton can be 
 made every day." 
 
 Mr. Crebs, upon the Pascagoula river, owned one of these im- 
 proved machines, and claimed the invention of it. He suspended 
 canvass bags between pine trees, and packed in his cotton by 
 treading, making them almost three hundred weight.* 
 
 Mobile, in common with the whole of West Florida, 
 
 1772 was visited with the most awful storms. Vessels, boats 
 
 Aug. 30 and logs were Iriven up into the heart of the town. 
 
 to The violence of the winds forced the salt water over the 
 
 Sept. 3 gardens, which destroyed the vegetables. The spray 
 
 rose in the air, and fell again, at the distance of a half 
 
 * Barnard Koman's Florida, pp. 211-12. 
 
ENGLISH OCCUPATION OF ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 32.7 
 
 mile, like rain. All the houses were filled with water, several 
 feet deep, and the one inhabited by a joiner was run entirely, 
 through by a schooner, which had broken from her moorings. 
 
 Upon the Pascagoula, the storm was equally furious. The 
 plantation of Mr. Crebs was almost.entirely destroyed. A large 
 crop of rice and corn was completely swept off. His dwellings 
 were unroofed, his outhouses blown down, and his smith's shop 
 washed away. For thirty miles, up that river, the cypress trees 
 were prostrated and the pines twisted into ropes. At Batereaux's 
 cow-pen, the herdsmen were six weeks collecting and bringing 
 home their cattle. A colony of Germans up the Pascagoula, 
 fearing that another Noah's flood was at hand, were about to set 
 out for the Choctaw nation; but the abatement of the waters 
 preceded their usually slow movements. The whole west coast 
 was ravaged. A schooner, v?ith a detachment of the 16th British 
 regiment on board, was driven to Cat Island, and, when under 
 the west point, parted her cables, and was carried entirely over 
 the island, and stranded upon another, which bore the name of 
 Freeniason. There the crew remained six weeks, and would have 
 perished, but for their discovery by a hunting smack. The 
 different directions of the currents of wind were passing strange. 
 That from the south-east drove the water, in immense 
 volumes, up all the bays, rivers and bayous to the west, 1772 
 being here counteracted by the winds from the north- 
 east. A body of water was violently forced into the Bay of 
 Spiritp Santo, behind the Chandelier, Grand Gazier and Breton 
 Isles, and, not finding sufficient vents up the rivulets, nor down 
 the outlets of the bay, forced a number of deep channels through 
 these islands, thus forming many new islands. The Chandelier, 
 bemg higher than the others, had all its surface washed off, and, 
 but for the roots of the black mangrove and myrtle, which held 
 much of the earth together, not a vestige of it would have been 
 left. All the shipping^ at Ibe B.alize was blown into the marshes. 
 A Spanish vessel there parted, and the whole crew were drowned. 
 
328 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 The most extraordinary effect of this hurricane was the produc- 
 tion of a second crop of leaves upon all the mulberry trees, 
 which had never happened before. This tree budded, foliated, 
 blossomed, and bore ripe fruit, within the brief space of four 
 weeks after the terrible gusts had passed away. Other trees 
 remained naked, until the following; spring.* 
 
 At this time, Governor Chester was at the head of the 
 government of West Florida. He was universally esteemed, 
 and, under his auspices, the people prospered, and their valuable 
 products continued to increase. Slavery was in exist- 
 1772 ence, and the government of the mother country was 
 Mar. active in transporting Africans into this country. The 
 freeholders assembled in Mobile, Pensacola, and other 
 parts of the province, to elect representatives to a colonial legis- 
 lature ; but, finding that the writs .required the continuance of 
 members for three years in office, they added the condition to 
 their votes, that the elected members were to serve but one year. 
 The governor, disliking this arrangement, declined to accept it. 
 The freeholders remained, inflexible, and, rather than be deprived 
 of annual elections, chose to remain without representatives.f 
 In 1771, Pensacola contained about one hundred and eighty 
 houses, built of timber, in good taste, and arranged with 
 1771 much convenience. The town formed an oblong square, 
 near the foot of an eminence, called Gage Hill, named in 
 honor of the great British officer, well remembered by the whigs 
 of America.^ 
 
 Turning our eyes towards the British province of Georgia, 
 
 we find that the Cherokees and Creeks had assembled 
 
 1773 at Augusta, at the instance of Sir James Wright, the 
 
 June 1 governor, and John Stuart, superintendent of Indian 
 
 afl'airs. These Indians there ceded to Great Britain a 
 
 large area of territory, upon the head waters of the Ogechee, and 
 
 » Roman's Florida, pp. 4-13. Ibid. t Ibid, p. 303. 
 
ENGLISH OCCUPATION. OF ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 329 
 
 northlwest of Little river. The object was to compensate the 
 Honorable George Galphin, and some other traders, for large 
 debts due them by these nations. The governor, having no 
 power to accept' this cession, but seeing the influence it would 
 enable him to wield, in behalf of the tottering power of his King, 
 to whom he was devotedly attached, he had already obtained the 
 consent of the ministry to make the treaty. But Galphin never 
 obtained any of these lands, or the proceeds of the sales thereof, 
 on account of his boldly expressed patriotic opinions ; and Gov- 
 ernor Wright, with a vindictive partiality, paid the loyal traders, 
 in preference, keeping the larger portion of the proceeds, to 
 strengthen his government, and perhaps to add to his own cof- 
 fers. Galphin was wealthy ; he sacrificed thousands in defence 
 of American liberty, and, to this day, his descendants remain 
 without remuneration.* It is said that Governor Wright received 
 the order of knighthood, for the unjust direction which he gave 
 these funds. In the meantime, land offices had been established 
 at Augusta, and at the confluence of the Broad and Sa- 
 vannah rivers, where a town was laid out, called Dart- 1773 
 mouth, but which was subsequently changed to the 
 name of Petersburg. 
 
 This newly ceded territory began to be rapidly settled, when 
 a party of Creeks attacked Sherrill's Fort, killed seven persons, 
 and forced the others to baTricade an outhouse, where they would 
 have been butchered, but for the timely arrival of Captain Bar- 
 nard, with forty men, who dispersed the enemy. Other 
 attacks by the Indians succeeded, and the settlers aban- 1774 
 doned their new homes, and retired into the old British 
 settlements, lower down upon the Savannah. The noble Gal- 
 phin, who had great influence with the Indians, despatched run- 
 ners to the nation, who induced the Chiefs to put a stop to the 
 
 * Since I have written this paragraph, some of the heirs of Galphin have recelTed a 
 large amount of money, from the United States government, on account of this claim. 
 They had previously applied to Georgia, Great Britain, and the United States, without 
 
330 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 effusion of blood, which afforded the settlers the opportunity of 
 coming back, and of renewing their abandoned improvements.* 
 
 success. The claiin of tbe heirs of Galphin was just upon one of these powers ; but 
 many have contended that it was not a just claim upon the federal government, but one 
 upon Qeor^ia, while others have contended that it was a just claim upon Great Britain. 
 * MoCall's History of Georgia, vol. 2, pp. 11-12. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 Habdships op the Early Emigrants. 
 
 Takhtg the reader with us, to the settlements of the distant 
 Natchez region, he will find that emigrants continued to pour in, 
 upon those fertile hills and alluvial bottoms, from all parts of 
 « his majesty's Atlantic plantations." Many were the hardships 
 and perils they encountered, in reaching this remote and com- 
 paratively uninhabited region. It is believed that the history of 
 one party of these emigrants will enable the reader to under- 
 stand what kind of hardships and deprivations all the others were 
 forced to undergo. 
 
 Major General Phineas Lyman, a native, of Durham, a 
 graduate of Yale, a distinguished lawyer, and a member of 
 the legislature of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, became 
 commander of the Connecticut forces, in 1755. He served 
 with so much distinction, during the Canadian war, that he 
 was invited, by persons high in office, to visit England. He 
 had formed an association composed of his brothers in arms, 
 called the " Military Adventurers," whose design was, the col- 
 onization of a tract of country upon the Mississippi. He sailed 
 to England, as agent for this company, with the sanguine, 
 yet reasonable hope, that the King would make the grant. 
 Arriving there he found, to his astonishment, that land in a 
 wilderness was refused to those who had fought so valiantly 
 for it, and whose contemplated establishment would have formed 
 a barrier against enemies, who might seek to acquire it. In his 
 own country Lyman had never solicited favor, otherwise than by 
 faithful public services. The coolness which he now experienced 
 
 331 
 
332 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 deeply mortified him — his spirits sank, and he lost all his former 
 energy. Shocked at the degradation which he imagined he should 
 sustain by returning home unsuccessful, he made up his mind to 
 bury his bones upon an ungrateful soil. There he remained for 
 eleven years, a neglected man. His wife, a lady of superior en- 
 dowments, distressed at his long absence, sent her son to solicit 
 his return. The sight of his boy called up the remains of his 
 resolution, and he resolved to go back to America, as the grant 
 upon the Mississippi had at last been made.* He reached home 
 in 1773. But the grave had closed over most of his original asso- 
 ciates, while others had arrived at an age unsuitable to bold 
 enterprises. In company with his eldest son, a man of rare at- 
 tainments, but who had become subdued and listless, in conse- 
 quence of the deep distress and mortification of his 
 1773 father while so long absent, General Lyman sailed from 
 Dee. New England with a number of emigrants, in two ves- 
 sels, bound for New Orleans. 
 It is deemed proper that an enumeration of these emigrants 
 be here made, as the eyes of some of their descendants, still liv- 
 ing in Mississippi, may perhaps rest on these pages. On board 
 of these vessels were : 
 
 General Lyman, of SuflSeld. 
 Captain Ladley, of Hartford. 
 Thomas and James Lyman, Durham. 
 Hugh White, Middletown. 
 
 Captain Elsworth, Ira Whitmore and Sage, Middleton. 
 
 Major Easley, Weatherford. 
 
 Thaddeus and Phineas Lyman, with eight slaveSj Suflfleld. 
 
 Moses and Isaac Sheldon, Roger Harmon and Hanks, 
 
 Shuffield. 
 1773 Seth Miller, Elisha and Joseph Flowers, Springfield. 
 
 Moses Drake, Ruggles Winchel and Benjamin Bar- 
 ber, Westfleld. 
 
 * " Travels in New York and New England," by Theodore Dwlght, S.T.D., LL.D., late 
 President of Yale College, vol. 1, pp. 306-16. 
 
HARDSHIPS OF THE EABLT EMIGEANTS. 333 
 
 Alcott, Windsor. 
 
 Daniel and Rosswell Magguet, Hartford. 
 
 Thomas Comstock, Weed, New Hartford. 
 
 Captain Silas Crane, Robert Patrick, Ashbell Bowen, John 
 Xewcomb and James Dean, of Lebanon. 
 
 Abram Knapp and Matthew Phelps, of Norfolk. 
 
 Giles and Nathaniel Hull, James Stoddart and Thaddeus 
 Bradley, Salisbury. 
 
 Ephraim Case and Hezekiah Kew, ShefiBeld. 
 
 John Fisk and Elisha Hale, Wallingford. 
 
 Timothy and David Hotchkiss, Waterberry. 
 
 John Hyde, William and Jonathan Lyon, and William Davis, 
 Stratford or Derby. 
 
 James Harman and family, and Elnathan Smith, Suffield. 
 
 William Hurlbut and Elisha Leonard, with a number of 
 slaves, Springfield. 
 
 General Lyman and these emigrants'at length saw the mouth 
 of the Mississippi, passed up to New Orleans, there obtained 
 boats, and, after a laborious ascent of that powerful stream, 1774 
 arrived upon the Big Black river. He settled his grant, but 
 was too old to cultivate it. In a short time his son died, and, before 
 he could arrange his own affairs, to return home, for the purpose 
 of bringing out his family, the grave also closed over him, termi- 
 inating a life, first, of honor and military glory, and 
 then of sadness and misfortune. But the half has Summer 
 not yet been told of the troubles of his family, the of 1781 
 last of whom were miserable sufferers in the Creek 
 nation, as will hereafter be narrated. 
 
 Captain Matthew Phelps, one of the companions of General 
 Lyman, returned to Connecticut, and his representations of the 
 fertility of the new country excited many of the citi- 
 zens, who resolved to return with him to occupy it. 1776 
 But various causes prevented their departure. At May 1 
 length, however, they sailed from Middletown. Among 
 
334 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 these emigrants were Madame Lyman, the wife of the late Gen- 
 eral, with three sons and two daughters ; Major Timothy Dwight, 
 his wife and one child; Sereno and Jonathan Dwight, of North 
 Hampton ; Benjamin Day and his family ; Harry Dwight and 
 three slaves ; Joseph Leonard and Joshua Flowers, with their 
 
 families, from Springfield ; the Rev. Smith and his family, 
 
 from Granville ; Mrs. Elnathan Smith and children ; and John 
 Felt and his family, from Suffleld ; together with Captain Phelps, 
 wife and children, with many others.* 
 
 After a voyage of three months, attended with many dan- 
 gers, the party reached New Orleans, on the 1st August. 
 1776 Here, obtaining boats, they began to stem the muddy cur- 
 Aug. rent of the Mississippi. Mrs. Flowers, an estimable 
 1 to 18 lady, who was too sick to continue the voyage, was left 
 at Point Coupee, where she soon died. The eldest 
 daughter of Captain Phelps was seized with a violent fever, and, 
 in a few days after, the enterprising father became sick 
 Aug 27 with the same disease. Many of the emigrants suffered 
 with fever, and the boats were moved slowly up the 
 river, by the feeble efforts of those who were less debilitated. 
 Captain Phelps and all his children becoming prostrated with 
 disease, his boat was tied to the willows, while the others con- 
 tinued the voyage. His intimate friend, Leonard, who had 
 messed with him at sea, arrived at Natchez, where he buried his 
 
 wife. The boat containing the Lymans and the Rev. Smith 
 
 reached Natchez about the same time, a few days after which the 
 worthy minister closed his earthly career, and was soon followed 
 to his long home by the refined and estimable Major Dwight. At 
 length, those of this party who were left, reached the Big Black, 
 and the improvements made by General Lyman. Here Madame 
 Lyman soon died, and was buried by the side of her husband and 
 son. 
 
 • Memoirs and ad rentures of Captain Matthew Phelps, pp. 18-72; also his Appendix, 
 pp. 60-68. 
 
HARDSHIPS 01" THE EARLY EMIGRANTS. 335 
 
 The unfortunate Phelps remained in his boat, which was 
 anchored fifteen ■ miles above Point Coupee, when his 
 daughter, Abigail, died. He was compelled to bury her 1776 
 with his own hands. All this time, it was only at in- Sept. 7 
 tervals that bis family were able to assist each other in to 
 the severe fits of the ague which afflicted them. Sept. 16 
 
 The Disposer of Events removed from this dis- 
 tressed man an infant, born on the ocean, whom the sail- 
 ors had named " Atlantic." Phelps again had to perform Sept. 16 
 the melancholy task of digging a grave, and burying the 
 boy by the side of his lovely sister. Mr. Flowers, the other mem- 
 bers of whose family had died below, came, with his child, in a 
 small boat, to the gloomy habitation of Phelps. They now both 
 obtained a larger boat, and, placing in it their joint effects, began 
 again to ascend the river. The Phelpses were worn to skeletons, 
 but, struggling forward, against singular adversity, and buoyed 
 up with the hope of brighter scenes, they finally arrived 
 at the landing of Natchez. Advancing, after a few days, Oct. 12 
 they reached the Petit Gulf, where lived Philip Alston, 
 a gentleman of wealth and humanity. Mrs. Phelps, worn down 
 with trouble and disease, was rapidly approaching dissolution. 
 In a few days she died, and Alston had her remains decently 
 interred. He did all in his power to alleviate the sorrows of the 
 unhappy husbaiid, and sheltered him and his two remaining 
 children under his hospitable roof. A few days afterwards, the 
 fated Phelps began again to move up the river, and, upon gaining 
 Grand Gulf, entered the hospitable abode of an old acquaintance. 
 Leaving this place, he came in sight of the mouth of the Big 
 Black river, having consumed nearly one hundred days 
 in performing a voyage from New Orleans, which can 1776 
 now be accomplished in a few hours. Near this place, Nov. 24 
 three years before, he had purchased some improve- 
 ments. Captain Phelps was so debilitated, that he had hired a 
 lad, of fourteen years of age, and a man, by the name of 
 
336 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Nov. Knapp, to propel his boat. Upon entering the Big 
 Black, the captain and the boy, disembarking, walked 
 along the bank, dragging the boat after them with a long line, 
 while Knapp remained on board, to steer, in company with the 
 children, a boy of five and a girl of ten years of age. The chil- 
 dren were quietly sitting upon the bed on which they had suffered 
 so much. Presently the boat entered a whirlpool, which forced 
 the stern under a willow. Knapp jumped out and swam ashore. 
 The terrified Phelps secured the end of the rope around a tree, 
 and rushed to the spot where his all remained in such imminent 
 peril. Unable to swim, he crawled into the river upon the willow, 
 imploring his daughter to remain quiet, until he could get out 
 her little brother. While the little fellow was wading the water 
 in the bottom of the boat, endeavoring to reach his unhappy 
 father, the willow began to sink, with the additional weight 
 upon it, and, at that moment, an angry billow came rushing 
 down, the boat suddenly went under, and the poor children 
 were swept rapidly off. " Oh, God, save them ! " was all that 
 the miserable Phelps could utter. Standing upon the unsteady 
 willow, he saw them rise again to the surface, locked in each 
 other's arms, and then sink forever. The bereaved man stood 
 upon the tree in mournful silence — wet, cold, emaciated — with- 
 out property, without friends, and without children, and with no 
 wife to encourage him and sympathize with him in his misfor- 
 tunes. But Phelps was a Christian, and he bore up, with aston- 
 ishing fortitude. The calamities which had befallep him had 
 been unavoidable, and yet he tortured his imagination, for some 
 time, with reproaches upon himself. In addition to his 
 1776 weighty troubles, he found that, during his absence, his 
 Dec. improvements had been taken from him, by a wretch 
 who availed himself of the customs of the country. 
 Phelps, however, survived all this, and lived to be an old man, 
 surrounded, in New England, with a wife, children and plenty. 
 He was long accustomed to relate to the sober Yankees the hor- 
 
HARDSHIPS OF THE EARLY EMIGRANTS. 337 
 
 rors which he experienced in the "Natchez country," with per- 
 fect composure ; always, however, avoiding the last terrible af- 
 fair, when his two children, whom God had spared him, and with 
 whom he had expected yet to see much happiness in the wilder- 
 ness, rose up to his view, from their watery bed, for one short 
 moment, locked in each other's arms, and then went down for- 
 ever.* 
 
 * Memoirs and Adventures of Phelps, pp. 56-100. 
 
 -22 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 Journey of Baeteam Theoutgh Alabama. 
 
 William Baeteam, the botanist, who has been mentioned in 
 
 our remarks upon the aborigines of the country, pass- 
 
 1777 ed through the Creek nation, and went from thence to 
 
 Summer Mobile. He found that that town extended, back from 
 
 the river nearly half a mile. Some of the houses were 
 vacant, and others were in ruins. Yet a few good buildings were 
 inhabited by the French gentlemen, and others by refined emi- 
 grants from Ireland, Scotland, England, and the Northern Brit- 
 ish Colonies. The Indian trade was under the management of 
 Messrs. Swanson and McGillivray. They conducted an exten- 
 sive commerce with the Chickasaws, Choctaws and Creeks. Their 
 buildings were commodious, and well arranged for that purpose. 
 The principal houses of the French were of brick, of one story, 
 of a square form, and on a large scale, embracing courts in their 
 rears. Those of the lower classes were made of strong cypress 
 frames, filled in with plaster. 
 
 Major Farmar, one of the most respectable inhabitants of 
 West Florida, who formerly had much to do with the colon- 
 ial government, resided at Tensaw, in sight of the present 
 Stockton, where once lived the tribe of Tensaw Indians. The 
 
 bluff sustained not only his extensive improvements, 
 
 1777 but the dwellings of many French families, chiefly his 
 
 Summer tenants, while his extensive plantations lay up and 
 
 down the Tensaw, on the western side. Indeed, all 
 up that river, and particularly on the eastern branch, were many 
 well cultivated plantations, belonging to various settlers, while 
 others were in ruins, having been abandoned by the French when 
 the English took possession of the country. The plantations on 
 the Mobile river, as seen five years before, have already been men- 
 
JOUENEY OF BAETEAM THEOUGH ALABAMA. 339 
 
 tioned. At one of these Bartram stayed all night, in company 
 with Dr. Grant, a physician of the garrison of Fort Charlotte. 
 The occupant, who was an old gentleman and a famous hunter, 
 annually killed three hundred deer, besides bears, panthers and 
 wolves. 
 
 Arriving at Pensaoola, Bartram received from Dr. Lorimer, 
 one of the honorable council, much politeness and attention. 
 Mr. Livingston, the government secretary, took him to the de- 
 partment in which he did business. Shortly afterwards, Gov- 
 ernor Chester rode by in his chariot, having been upon a morning 
 ride to his farm. He received the learned botanist with cor- 
 diality, invited him to remain some time in the country, to make 
 his house his headquarters, commended his laudable pursuits, 
 and offered to defray his expenses in traveling over the country 
 under his jurisdiction. 
 
 Pensacola, at this period, contained several hundred habita- 
 tions. The governor's place was a large stone building, 
 erected by the Spaniards, and ornamented with a tower. 1 777 
 The town was defended by a large stocKade fortress, Oct. 
 of wood, on the plan of a tetragon, with a salient angle 
 at each corner, where stood blockhouses a story higher than the 
 curtains. Upon these, light cannon were mounted. Within this 
 fortress was a council chamber, where the records were kept, 
 also houses for the oflScers and barracks for the garrison, together 
 with arsenals and magazines. The secretary resided in a hand- 
 some and spacious house, as did some eminent merchants and 
 professional gentlemen.* 
 
 Returning to Mobile, the botanist presently embarked in a 
 trading vessel, manned by three negroes, and set sail for 
 Pearl river. Passing along the western coast, and 1777 
 reaching the mouth of Dog river, he there landed, and Autumn 
 entered the woods for recreation. Here he saw the 
 remains of the old Fort St. Louis de la Mobile, with a few pieces 
 of iron cannon, and also vast iron kettles, for boiling tar into 
 
 • Bartram's Travels, pp. 402-407-412-414. 
 
340 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 pitch. Pursuing his voyage, he again came to the shore, a few 
 miles beyond, where resided a Frenchman, eighty years of age, 
 who was active, strong and muscular; his mother, who was 
 present, and who appeared to be brisk and cheerful, was one 
 hundred and five years of age. Fifty years previous to this 
 period, she had landed in Mobile, froni la belle France. Arriv- 
 ing at Pearl Island, Bartram took up his quarters at the house 
 of a generous Englishman, named Eumsey, with whom he 
 passed a month. Leaving this place in a handsome boat, 
 navigated by three negroes, he coasted along the northern 
 shore of Lake Pontchartrain, entered Lake Maurepas, and pro- 
 ceeded up the Amite river for thirty miles to the large plantation 
 of a Scotch gentleman, who gave him a hospitable reception. 
 Bartram, still ascending the Amite, next entered the Iberville on 
 the left, and it was not long before he reached a landing, at which 
 were situated warehouses for depositing English merchandise. A 
 beautiful road overhung with evergreens led from this place to 
 
 Manchac, upon the Mississippi. Here, also, the English 
 
 1777 had mercantile depots, the chief establishment of which 
 
 Autumn was that of Swanson and McGillivray, who were Indian 
 
 traders. The Iberville was now dry, its channel being 
 higher than the Mississippi, which had receded from it. It was, 
 however, navigable in winter and spring, for the " Father of Wa- 
 ters " then disgorged some portion of his tide through this chan- 
 nel into the lakes. It also separated, as before observed, the 
 English colony of West Florida and the Spanish province of 
 Louisiana. On one side of this bayou was an English fort, at 
 Manchac, and just across, at the south point, was a Spanish fort. 
 A slender wooden bridge connected the two establishments, and, 
 strange to say, they were at this time peaceable, although such 
 near neighbors. The next day Bartram began the ascent of the 
 Mississippi, and two miles above Manchac stopped at an Indian 
 town. The inhabitants were a portion of the Alabamas, who had 
 once lived upon the river of that name, but who, when the J''rench 
 
JOUKNEY OF BAKTEAM THROUGH ALABAMA. 341 
 
 evacuated Fort Toulouse, followed them to Louisiana, and here 
 had formed an establishment. The botanist visited Baton Rouge, 
 now called by the English New Richmond, and various planta- 
 tions on both sides of the great river. He was particularly pleased 
 with the French planters, who had long tilled these superior 
 lands. They were ingenious, industrious, and lived in ease and 
 great abundance. 
 
 About the middle of November Bartram returned to Mobile 
 by the same route, arranged his specimen plants and flowers, and 
 left them in the hands of Swanson and McGillivray, to 
 be shipped to Dr. Fothergill, at London. He then 1777 
 entered a boat and went to the mansion of Major Far- Nov. 27 
 mar, at Tensaw. The next morning he set out for the 
 Creek nation with a caravan of traders, who transported their mer- 
 chandise upon pack-horses. The road, like all others in an Indian 
 country, was narrow and well beaten. The pack-horses were 
 arranged one after the other, the oldest and best trained in the 
 lead. At night they were belled and turned out to graze in the 
 woods. In the morning so much time was occupied in collecting 
 tliem, arranging their packs and preparing breakfast that the sun 
 was high when a start was made. Then these faithful animals 
 fell into line on the trail, like regular soldiers, and began a brisk 
 trot, which was continued all day, amid the ringing of their bells 
 and the whooping and cursing of the drivers. 
 
 When near the site of the present city of Montgomery the 
 caravan met a party of Georgians, consisting of a man, his wife, 
 a young woman, several young children, and three stout 
 young men, with a dozen horses laden with their effects. 1777 
 These fearless people had passed through the Creek na- Dec. 
 tion, then very extensive, and were on their way to settle 
 upon the Alabama, a few miles above the confluence of that river 
 and the Tombigby. They are believed to have been among the 
 first Anglo-Americans who settled in the present Baldwin 
 county.* 
 
 * Bartram, pp. 416-441. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 An Account of the McGillivkat Family — The Revolu- 
 TioNAEY Was. 
 
 Wak had now raged between the mother country and her 
 colonies of North America for more than three years. It had be- 
 come fierce and sanguinary along the Atlantic. But the people 
 of West Florida,' whose government was composed chiefly of mil- 
 itary dependencies, had hitherto enjoyed peace. They were 
 mostly loyal subjects of the King. But now, even in this remote 
 region, the contest began to be felt. The Creek Indians were re- 
 lied upon, mainly, by the British authorities, to harass the whig 
 inhabitants of Georgia and Carolina. They had stationed at 
 Hickory Ground, the site of the lower suburbs of the modern 
 Wetumpka, Colonel Tait, an English oflScer, of captivating ad- 
 dress, for the purpose of influencing the Creeks in behalf 
 1778 of the King. There, he soon became acquainted with 
 the most gifted and remarkable man that ever was born 
 upon the soil of Alabama, the history of whose family will now 
 be given. 
 
 A Scotch boy, of sixteen years of age, who had read of 
 the wonders to be seen in America, ran away from his wealthy 
 and respectable parents, living in Dunmaglass, and entered a 
 ship which was bound for South Carolina. He arrived, without 
 accident, at the port of Charleston. Young Lachlan McGillivray 
 there first set his foot upon American soil. He then had no prop- 
 erty, except a shilling in his pocket, a suit of clothes upon his 
 back, a red head, a stout frame, an honest heart, a fearless dis- 
 position, and cheerful spirits, which seldom became depressed. 
 
 342 
 
THE EEVOLUTIONAET WAR. - 843 
 
 About this period, the English were conducting an ex- 
 tensive commerce with the Cherokees, Chickasaws and 1735 
 those of the Creeks who were not in the interest of the 
 French. Young McGillivray repaired to the extensive quarters 
 of the traders, in the suburbs of Charleston. There he saw hun- 
 dreds of pack horses, pack saddles, and curious looking pack 
 horsemen, in demi-civilized garbs, together with packs of mer- 
 chandise, ready to be carried to the wilderness. The keen eyes 
 of one of these traders soon fell upon the smart Scotch boy, who, 
 he.saw at a glance, would be useful to him. The next day, 
 Lachlan might have been seen, in the pine woods, several miles 
 distant from Charleston, mounted upon a horse, and driving 
 others before him, in company with a whole caravan of traders. 
 Arriving upon the Chattahoochie, his master, as a reward for his 
 activity and accommodating spirit, gave him a jack knife, which 
 he sold to an Indian receiving in exchange a few deer skins. 
 These he sold in Charleston, upon his return, and the proceeds 
 of this adventure laid the foundations of a large fortune. In the 
 course of a few years, he became one of the boldest and most en- 
 terprising traders in the whole country. Whether it was owing 
 to a superior address, a fearless disposition, or, which is more 
 probable, a leaning towards the French, for personal interests, he 
 even extended his commerce, without interruption, to the very 
 neighborhood of Fort Toulouse. 
 
 At the Hickory Grround, a few miles above that fort, he found 
 a beautiful girl, by the name of Sehoy Marchand, whose father 
 once commanded at Fort Toulouse, and was there killed, in 1722, 
 by his own soldiers, as we have already seen. Her mother was 
 a full-blooded Creek woman, of the tribe of the Wind, the most 
 aristocratic and powerful family in the Creek nation. Sehoy was 
 an Indian name, which had attached to many persons of the 
 family, time out of mind. 
 
 Sehoy Marchand, when first seen by young Lachlan McGil- 
 livray, was a maiden of sixteen, cheerful in countenance, be- 
 
344 - HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 .witching in looks, and graceful in form. Her unfortunate father, 
 Captain Marchand, was a Frenchman, of dark complexion, and, 
 consequently, this beautiful girl scarcely looked light enough for 
 a half blood ; but then, her slightly curled hair, her vivacity and 
 peculiar gesticulation, unmistakably exposed her origin. It was 
 
 not long before Lachlan and Sehoy joined their des- 
 
 About tinies in marriage, according to the ceremony of the 
 
 1745 country. The husband established a trading house at 
 
 Little Tallase, four miles above Wetumpka, on the east 
 bank of the Coosa, and there took home his beautiful wife. The 
 Indian tradition ran, that, while pregnant with her first child, 
 she repeatedly dreamed of piles of manuscripts, of ink and paper, 
 and heaps of books, more than her eyes had ever beheld in the 
 fort, when, a child, she used to visit her father. She was deliv- 
 ered of a boy, who received the name of Alexander, and who, 
 when grown to manhood, wielded a pen which commanded the 
 admiration and respect of Washington and his cabinet, and 
 which influenced the policy of all Spanish Florida. 
 
 Lachlan McGillivray, assisted by his alliance with the most 
 influential family in the Creek nation, continued to extend his 
 commerce. He became wealthy, and owned two plantations, well 
 stocked with negroes, upon the Savannah, besides stores fllled 
 with Indian merchandise, in the towns of Savannah and Augusta. 
 When his son, Alexander, was fourteen years of age, he carried 
 him to Charleston, by the consent of his .wife, for we have seen 
 that, among the Creeks particularly, the children always belonged 
 to the mother. He was placed at school in that town, andi after 
 a few years, was transferred to a counting house at Savannah. 
 But Alexander had a distaste for business, and, while the other 
 clerks were delving among the goods, and squabbling with the 
 paOk-horse traders, he was accustomed to steal to some corner, 
 and there pore over the histories of European nations. Having 
 an inordinate thirst after knowledge, his father, through the ad- 
 vice of his friends, again carried him to Charleston, and placed 
 
THE EBVOLUTIONART WAE. , 345 
 
 him with a clergyman of his name, with whom, in a short time, 
 he mastered the Greek and Latin tongues, and became a good 
 belles lettres scholar. But Alexander was now a man. He had 
 a thousand times thought, and dreamed, of his bow and arrows, 
 his blow-gun, his mother's house by the side of the clear and 
 beautiful Coosa, in which he used to fish and bathe with the In- 
 dian lads of his own age — of the old warriors, who had so often 
 recounted to him the deeds of his ancestors — of the bright eyes 
 of his two lovely sisters, Sophia and Jeannet — yes, he remem- 
 bered all these, and, one day, he turned his back upon civiliza- 
 tion, and his horse's head towards his native land. 
 
 About this time, the Chiefs of the Creek nation were getting 
 into much trouble with the people of Georgia, and with anxiety 
 they had awaited the time when Alexander McGillivray could, 
 by his descent from the Wind family, assume the affairs of their 
 government. His arrival now was most opportune, and 
 the first we hear of him, after he had so suddenly left 17T6 
 Charleston, he was presiding at a grand nfitional coun- May 
 cil, at the town of Coweta, upon the Chattahoochie, 
 where the adventurous Leclerc Milfort was introduced to him, as 
 we have seen. He was, at this time, about thirty years of age. 
 He was then in great power, for he had already become 
 the object of attention on the part of the British author- 1778 
 ities of the Floridas. When Colonel Tait was stationed 
 upon the Coosa, they conferred upon Alexander McGillivray the 
 rank and pay of a colonel, and associated him with Tait, for the 
 purpose of procuring, through them, the alliance of the Creek 
 nation in the war of the revolution. McGillivray, throughoutthe 
 whole war; was devoted to their interests, and it was natural that 
 he should have pursued that course towards those who first hon- 
 ored him ; besides, his father, a man of great influence, was also 
 a royalist. 
 
 Colonel McGillivray was tall, rather slender, and of a consti- 
 tution by no means robust. To be a leader in war was not his 
 
846 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 forte, and was unsuited to his tastes and habits. His great power 
 lay in diplomacy, and in the controlling of men, as the reader 
 
 will often see, in perusing this history at a later date. 
 1778 In 1778, he carried on an extensive correspondence with 
 
 the British colonial governments of Florida, and also 
 with that of the province of Georgia, and was indefatigable in 
 co-operating with Tait, in confederating the Indians against the 
 whigs. During the war, he led, in person, several expeditions 
 with that officer ; but his chief reliance was upon Leclerc Milfort, 
 a man at once bold, daring, enthusiastic, possessed of an iron 
 constitution, and every way qualified to lead Indians into battle. 
 He often did so, while Col. McGillivray remained at home, con- 
 trolling the arbitrary (ihiefs, and compelling them to raise war- 
 riors for his King. All the while, McGillivray was not unmindful 
 of the aggrandizement of himself and his nation, for it must be 
 borne in mind that the blood which coursed his veins was Scotch, 
 French and Indian. During the desperate struggle for human 
 liberty, he acted in concert with many royalists, who had fled to 
 East Florida, among the most conspicuous of whom were Colonel 
 Daniel McGirth, and his brother. Captain James McGirth. They 
 were bad men, but were brave and enterprising, and well suited 
 to the times. Colonel McGirth commanded the " Florida Rangers," 
 whose sudden and sanguinary attacks the whigs of Georgia often 
 severely felt. Leaving Colonel McGillivray, with his red army 
 and white allies, engaged in expeditions most harassing to the 
 Georgians, on their western frontier, we hasten to portray the ' 
 exciting scenes about Natchez.* 
 
 Here, also, the revolution began to be felt. James 
 
 1778 Willing, of Philadelphia, with a small body of Ameri- 
 
 Mar. 7 can soldiers, arrived at Natchez, by the way of the Ohio. 
 
 The ports upon that river, and the Upper Mississippi, 
 
 * MS. in my possession. Also information derived from conversations with the intel- 
 ligent niece and nephew of Colonel McGillivray, still living ; also with old Indian 
 traders, who knew him in tliose times. See also Milfort's "Sejour dans la Nation 
 Creek," and JVJcCall's History of Georgia. 
 
THE EEVOLUTIONAET WAR. 347 
 
 had fallen into the hands of the Americans, and had been sup- 
 plied, for more than a year, by shipments from New Orleans, in 
 consequence of a private arrangement between Don Galvez and 
 Oliver Pollock, the American agent at New Orleans. Willing was 
 now sent to further that end, and he was supplied with blank 
 commissions, and authorized to recruit for the American service. 
 Knowing that the inhabitants of this part of West Florida were 
 loyal subjects of Britain, to allay their opposition to his schemes, 
 he first sought to place them in a neutral position. A man 
 of ingenuity and address, he made speeches, eloquently depict- 
 ing the justice of our cause, and the certainty of final success, 
 asserted that five thousand troops were then on their way 
 to protect these inhabitants from the aggressions of the Brit- 
 ish government. He generally prevailed on them to take 
 an oath of strict neutrality. Also enlisting a hundred men, 
 whose officers he commissioned, he continued his voyage to 
 Manchac, and was equally successful there. By stratagem, he 
 made himself master of an English armed ship, which he con- 
 veyed to New Orleans, sold to the Spaniards, and wasted the 
 avails in debauchery. With two subalterns, and forty of his 
 original party, he returned to Manchac, plundered the planta- 
 tions, without distinction, and rioted upon the booty. In the 
 meantime, the Natchez people, hearing of these outrages, formed 
 a large armed association, for their protection, and stationed 
 themselves about the mouth of St. Catherine, not far below 
 N"atchez, to prevent the ascent of Captain Willing. He was 
 presently seen to approach, but turned his boats to the opposite 
 side of the Mississippi. Through the effects of a flag, and upon 
 his professions of friendship, and assurances that he intended 
 no injury to this section of the country, he received permission 
 from the " settlers " to come over to them, across the 
 river. After some consultation, he despatched Lieuten- 1778 
 ant Harrison, with a command, in a boat. In the mean- 
 time, the " associated settlers," reposing confidence in the prom- 
 
348 HISTOKT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 ises of Willing, had abandoned their defensive positions, and now 
 sat and lay upon the banks, at their ease. "When the boat ap- 
 proached near ehough, the gunner, by the orders of Lieutenant 
 Harrison, tired a swivel upon the settlers, by which many were 
 wounded. The latter instantly rose up, in great confusion, re- 
 turned the flre with their guns, riddled the boat, and killed Lieu- 
 tenant Harrison and seven of his men. The others came ashore, 
 and surrendered. Willing, with his remaining banditti, fled to 
 Manchac, sailed over to the Tensaw settlements, above Mobile, 
 and endeavored, in vain, to enlist the people in his cause. He 
 was eventually made a prisoner of war, and kept in the British 
 camp, in chains, and was not released until the cloSe of 1779. 
 
 The inhabitants now considered themselves absolved from 
 their oath of neutrality, by the baseness of Captain Willing, and 
 they all swore to defend the * government of the King. They 
 elected officers, repaired old Fort Panmure, and occupied it with 
 a regular garrison. They also marched, in April, to the relief of 
 the people in the neighborhood of Manchac, from which place 
 Willing had already fled. Thus, by the indiscretions and out- 
 rages of the first American command sent here, our glorious 
 cause was materially injured.* 
 
 Fort Panmure, at the Natchez, in a short time, received as 
 a commander, Michael Jackson, a native of New England, an 
 abandoned horse thief, who had been driven from the border.-! 
 of civilization. During the whole of the fall and winter, this 
 man, now a captain in the British service, produced great 
 dissatisfaction by his oppressions and extortions. Colonel Hut- 
 chens, an influential citizen of Natchez, placed himself at the 
 
 • Memoirs and Adventures of Phelps, pp. 107-120. This anther was one of the " asso- 
 ciated settlers," and appears to have been a conscientious and truthful man. He is sus- 
 tained by Judge Martin, In his History of Louisiana, vol. 2, pp. 42-3, in regard to the 
 outrages of Willing. It is, however, due to the descendants of that officer, to observe, 
 that Monette, in his History of the Valley of the Mississippi, represents him as a brave 
 and honorable man, and severely censures the ■' associated settlers " for the perfidy 
 which they displayed in the flre upon Harrison and his command. I, however, after a 
 careful and dispassionate examination, believe the statement of Phelps. See Monette, 
 vol. 1, pp. 4S4-6. Monette quotes EUieott's Journal, pp. 131-2. 
 
THE EEVOLUTIOSTAEY WAR. 349 
 
 head of the malcontents, arrested and confined Jackson, 
 and placed Captain Thaddeus Lyman in command. On 1778 
 promising tq leave the country he was released, but the 
 first night after his dismission from the fort he was joined by 
 thirty deserters, who were as abandoned as himself. Jackson 
 now stationed himself " under the hill," where he seized some 
 military stores and artillery. Sending runners to the Chootaws, 
 they returned with a considerable force of these savages. Jack- 
 son now exultingly fired his artillery upon the fort; but his 
 Indian allies, seeing the British fiag flying from the ramparts, 
 and learning the nature of the dispute, refused to be made the 
 instruments of the rascal, and retired peaceably to their homes. 
 Seeing himself abandoned, Captain Jackson requested a parley, 
 which was agreed to, and he was suffered, with his men, to enter 
 the fort, and there peaceably to remain until the whole afl:'air 
 should undergo an investigation. Here he soon raised a mutiny, 
 and one night caused the drums suddenly to beat to arms, and 
 seizing Captain Lyman placed him in close confinement. His 
 tyranny caused many to desert, who were pursued by a detach- 
 ment under Lieutenant Pentacost. An engagement took place, 
 when Pentacost was killed, and the deserters made their escape 
 to the Spanish garrison at Manchac, across the Iberville. Again 
 Jackson was overthrown and forced to retire ; but before doing 
 so he robbed the fort of all the valuables which he could trans- 
 port.* In this manner the royalists were divided, and in the 
 midst of their dissensions a large number of whigs were scattered 
 about the country, anxiously awaiting the time when they should 
 be joined by aid from a distance, under Colonel Clark, of Vir- 
 ginia. 
 
 Although Spain had long experienced evasions of her revenue 
 laws on the part of the British, and had been compelled to estab- 
 lish a fort at Manchac to prevent them, nevertheless she had up 
 to this period maintained a neutrality in the war waging between 
 
 * Phelps, pp, 121-197. 
 
350 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 England and the United American Colonies. But France had 
 not been an indiiferent spectator, and the leaning of that power 
 towards us brought about a collision with arbitrary John Bull. 
 Spain interposed her friendly efforts to effect a reconcil- 
 1779 iation ; but the canine propensities of England were 
 aroused, and that ungenerous government declared war 
 against Spain as well as Prance. His Catholic Majesty, fired at 
 the ruthless manner in which he had been treated for a friendly 
 act, now resolved to dispossess England of every foot of land in 
 the Floridas. According to his directions, Don Galvez, the gov- 
 ernor of his province of Louisiana, stood before Fort 
 Sept. 1 Bute, at Manchac, with a force of fourteen hundred men. 
 After a resistence of five days it was carried by storm 
 and utterly demolished. Reinforced by a number of militia, in- 
 cluding American patriots, Galvez marched up and invested 
 Baton Eouge. After a severe cannonade of two hours and a 
 half, Colonel Dickson, the British commander, surrendered the 
 fort and a garrison of four hundred regulars and one hundred 
 militia. Fort Panmure, at the Natchez, a small fort and garrison 
 on the Amite, and another at Thompson's creek, were also sur- 
 rendered at the same time. 
 
 Leaving Don Grandpre in command, at Baton Eouge, and 
 sending Spanish detachments to the other forts, which had already 
 yielded to his arms, Galvez returned to New Orleans, and there 
 began extensive preparations for the reduction of Mobile. After 
 encountering a terrible storm, which came near destroying his 
 transports and stores, he landed his army a little below Mobile, 
 early in March, 1780. Fort Charlotte refused to surrender, and 
 Galvez planted his six batteries. A severe cannonade 
 1780 opened a breach in the fort, when the British ofBcer 
 Mar. 14 capitulated, by the surrender of Mobile and all its de- 
 pendencies, extending from the Perdido to the Pearl 
 river. Thus, the Spaniards were now in possession of all West 
 Florida, except Pensacola, and the country as far as the Chatta- 
 
THE KEVOLUTIONABT WAR. 351 
 
 hoochie. Knowing the great strength of Pensacola, Galvez de- 
 termined to be well prepared for a siege. He put in requisition 
 all his disposable regular forces and militia, both of Louisiana 
 and of the country which he had conquered, and, in the mean- 
 time, sailed to Havana to obtain more troops and heavier artil- 
 lery. With a large number of well equipped troops, and an 
 abundance of stores and ordnance, he entered the bay of Pensa- 
 cola with his fleet, while his Louisiana and Mobile forces marched 
 across the country, from the mouth of the Perdido. Being in- 
 vested both by sea and by land. General Campbell, after a vigor- 
 ous defence, in which he was assisted by the Creek 
 Indians, finally surrendered. The Cre^eks, on this oc- 1781 
 casion, were commanded by William Augustus Bowles, May 9 
 an interesting person, who will figure in our narrative 
 hereafter. 
 
 The town of Pensacola, the fortress and seaport, with eight 
 hundred men, as prisoners of war, and the whole of West Flor- 
 ida, thus fell into the hands of the King of Spain. The victori- 
 ous Galvez received many honors for his brilliant services.* 
 
 * Spanish MS. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 ExTKBMB Perils and Sufferings of the Natchez Refugees. 
 
 During the siege of Pensacola, a series of events, of an in- 
 teresting and romantic character, began at Natchez, and after- 
 wards ended, with unparalelled sufferings, in the vast Indian 
 wilderness, which extended from thence to the Ogechee river, m 
 the distant province of Georgia. Some citizens of the Natchez 
 district, the most prominent of whom were Philip Al- 
 1781 ston. Colonel Hutchens, John Alston, Captain Thaddeus 
 Lyman, Thompson Lyman, Jacob Blomont, and Jacob 
 Winfrey, put themselves at the head of a large party of royalists, 
 for the purpose of seizing Fort Panmure, and expelling there- 
 from the Spanish troops, who had held it since September, 1780. 
 They had learned that a powerful British fleet was off the Florida 
 coast, whose object was the re-occupation of the country, and, 
 believing that Don Galvez had already been defeated at Pensa- 
 cola, they resolved immediately to anticipate what they sup- 
 posed would be the desire of their King. Having as- 
 Apr. 22 sembled a large body of Choctaws, the insurgents as- 
 sumed a position upon an eminence, above the town of 
 Natchez, in full view of the fort. At night they advanced and 
 planted their artillery so as to bear upon the works ; but, when 
 day approached, the Spanish cannonade compelled them to re- 
 tire. During the succeeding twenty-four hours, the firing con- 
 tinued between the parties. The commandant sent a flag to 
 Colonel Hutchens, representing the danger of rebellion, 
 1781 and promising the clemency of his government, if the 
 Apr. 29 people would disperse, after they should have surren- 
 
PEEIL8 AND SUFFBBINGS OP NATCHEZ REFUGEES. 353 
 
 dered the ringleaders. An answer was promised, to be re- 
 turned the next day. During the interval, the malcontents ar- 
 rested a man bearing a despatch to the Spanish commandant. 
 It was from Captain Mcintosh, a warm friend of the Spaniards, 
 who lived in the neighborhood, and who wrote, entreating the 
 commandant to hold out a little while longer, when he would 
 be supported by friends from the country. His letter was de- 
 stroyed, and another substituted, written by one who could imi- 
 tate the autograph of Mcintosh. It was conveyed to the Span- 
 ish commandant, and disclosed the astounding news, that the 
 insurgents, by means of a deep ravine, which was at the 
 base of the fort, had formed a cavern, leading directly April 
 under the fort, in which a vast quantity of powder had 
 been placed, ready to be exploded by a train ; that the people of 
 the country were flocking to the standard of the enemy, and he, 
 consequently, suggested an honorable surrender. Not suspect- 
 ing the fraud, the Spanish commandant, in his confusion and 
 alarm, surrendered the fort, and marched his garrison to Baton 
 Rouge. 
 
 But the exulting insurgents were, in a few days, deprived 
 of the fruits of their victory. The news reached them, that 
 General Campbell was defeated, and that the whole of West 
 Florida had been surrendered to Spain. Consternation seized 
 every one. They knew that they should receive no mercy at the 
 hands of those whom they had harassed by rebellion and 
 conquered by stratagem. Abandoning the fort they fled 1781 
 to the cane swamps, with their wives, children, horses, May 
 and movable effects, with the determination of cutting 
 their way to the British settlements on the Savannah.* The 
 aven'ues by the Mississippi were closed against them by the Span- 
 iards below and the American whigs above. In a short time 
 more than one hundred individuals, besides slaves, mounted 
 upon horses, and with other horses laden with their effects, set 
 
 * Memoirs and Adventures of Phelps, Appendix, pp. 4-5. Monette, Vol. 2, pp. 462-3. 
 
354 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 off to avoid the Spaniards, whom they had expected hourly to 
 arrive at Natchez. Many of the children were small, and some 
 were at the breast. They began their painful and distressing 
 flight by striking towards the prairie country in the present 
 State of Mississippi. Wishing to avoid the Chickasaws and 
 Choctaws, into whose power they feared to fall, a circuitous 
 route was wholly unavoidable, and they wandered from point to 
 point, as their desperate circumstances led them. It was during 
 an unusually dry spring, and the prairies, which they had now 
 reached, afforded them no water. At one time they suffered 
 from the want of it with an intensity more than ordinary human 
 beings, it would seem, could bear. Bordering upon desperation 
 and becoming bewildered, the general direction, which they had 
 endeavored to keep, was abandoned, and they now strolled over 
 
 the country, with parched lips, under the burning rays 
 1781 of the sun, and amid the heart-rending cries of the chil- 
 June dren. Ever and anon their eyes fell upon distant clumps 
 
 of trees, and their spirits revived, in the hope that there 
 certainly would be found the sweet beverage of nature. Pushing 
 on to the delusive spot, they found it as moistureless as the land 
 over which they had traveled. Mrs. Dwight, a heroine upon this 
 pventful march, was descended from one of the best families of 
 New England. She exhorted the miserable caravan to persevere 
 in their efforts to find water, although more than thirty-six hours 
 had passed since they had wet their mouths. They now halted 
 and erected a small camp. The men, leaving the women and 
 children in the camp, hunted for hours for <vater, but towards 
 evening returned with their tongues exposed and fell down in 
 despair. The noble Mrs. Dwight now set out, in company with 
 several men and women. Fortune led her to the foot of two ad- 
 joining hills. The surface of the ground was spongy, and here by 
 her directions they began to dig. Hitherto they had not resorted 
 to this plan, but had wandered from point to point, expecting to 
 find running streams. The signs of moisture increased, andpres- 
 
PBEILS AND SUFFERINGS OF NATCHBZ EEFUGEKS. 355 
 
 ently slow drippings commenced. Redoubling their exertions they 
 struck a fountain. « Thank God ! " was the shout of all. A mes- 
 senger rapidly bore back the tidings. The miserable wretches 
 rose from the ground and rushed to the spot. Dr. Dwight, the 
 husband of the lady mentioned above, stationed a guard over 
 the spring, until, by bathing the temples and the palms of the 
 hands, they could drink a few drops, without fatal consequences. 
 With their horses, also, who seemed as if they would tear up the 
 very earth, and destroy everything that obstructed their passage 
 to the water, they adopted the prudent course, of allow- 
 ing small quantities at a time. All night, a continual 1781 
 drinking went on. The next day, filling their vessels June 
 from this spring, they continued northeast, and, on that 
 day, happily reached some of the sources of the Tombigby. But 
 now their provisions were exhausted. They killed and devoured 
 the few things which crossed their route, and the meat of a large 
 terrapin, divided into small pieces, once saved their lives. They 
 had but little ammunition, which was reserved for defence alone. 
 Having lost their compass, they could only follow the sun, which 
 was sometimes obscured by clouds. It rained occasionally, now 
 that they had crossed the prairies. Now and then they came 
 across small hunting parties of Indians, who, at night, robbed 
 them of their pack-horses and plundered their effects. In addi- 
 tion to all these misfortunes, a loathsome disease spread in the 
 camp. Finally, after wandering nearly to the Tennessee river, 
 and then marching in a nearly southern direction, they reached 
 the Tombigby, about the site of the present town of Aberdeen, 
 where they crossed upon rafts, constructed of dry logs. They 
 next made the Warrior, at the Tuscaloosa Falls, which they 
 crossed,' by alternately wading and swimming, from rock to rock. 
 Unfortunately, from this point, they assumed an improper direc- 
 tion. Fearing to follow any trail, they, after a long time, found 
 themselves among the mountains of Blount county, Alabama. 
 Having come thus far, again, towards the Tennessee, they thought 
 
356 HISTORY GF ALABAMA. 
 
 that they might reach Georgia, by way of the Cherokee nation, 
 and they continued in that direction, until, one day, in a distant 
 valley, they saw some persons approaching. All was breathless 
 suspense. Presently an old Indian-trader, with two 
 1781 Chickasaw Indians, rode up, for they were now upon a 
 June trail. Shocked at the condition of the miserable caravan, 
 the trader generously gave them all the provisions he 
 had, and shared among them his last gallon of taffai.* He 
 warned them not to attempt to reach Georgia through the Ten- 
 nessee mountains, for they would meet with insurmountable 
 obstacles, and be cut off by the Cherokees, many of 
 1781 whom were now in the interest of the wliigs; but ad- 
 June vised them to assume a southern direction, and enter 
 the Creek nation, the inhabitants of which were entirely 
 under the influence of Colonel McGillivray, who was a man of 
 humanity, and a friend of King George. Turning immediately 
 southward, they once more struck through the woods, re-crossed 
 the mountains, and, after incessant toil and hunger, passed over 
 those which border the Cahawba. Most of them had to walk, 
 and lead their horses over the perilous rocks, while their naked 
 feet bled at every pore. Finally, the caravan arrived upon the 
 banks of the Coosa, in the upper part of the present county of 
 Autauga, a few miles below the Big Island. Here the river was 
 wide and deep, and its bottom rocky. But occasionally it was 
 partially obstructed by small clumps of rocks, between which 
 rushed the rapid current. 
 
 The feeble wanderers lay down upon the wild banks, with- 
 out energy to construct a raft. Indeed, some believed that a raft 
 would be torn to pieces by the rocks. Mrs. Dwight, who con- 
 tinued to infuse a spirit of resolution into the party, 
 1781 which had, thus far, overcome all difficulties, put her- 
 July self forward) and declared that, if but one man would ac- 
 company her, she would attempt the passing of the river, 
 
 • A mean New England runi, the only spirituous liquor drunk, in those days, by the 
 Indians. 
 
PERILS AND SUFFERINGS OP NATCHEZ REFUGEES. 357 
 
 when, perhaps, on the other side, they might find a canoe, or some 
 better crossing place. Her husband, roused by her intrepidity, 
 swore that he would not suffer his wife to risk her life for the 
 good of the company without sharing in her perils. These two, 
 with one other, then plunged their horses into the river, and the 
 current carried them some distance down to a dry bed of rocks. 
 Prodeeding over these, to the farther end of the ledge, the two 
 horsemen plunged from a steep rock and disappeared under the 
 water, but presently arose, and their faithful horses carried them 
 to the opposite shore. Mrs. Dwight, shutting her eyes, then made 
 the fearful leap, and arose with her hands hold of the horn of her 
 saddle. She, too, happily reached the opposite shore. Then the 
 fearless party gave a whoop, to encourage their anxious friends, 
 whom they had left behind. A mile above this they found a 
 large, old Indian canoe, which had been stove against the rocks. 
 Stopping the seams with whatever they could obtain,' the two 
 men went over the river in it, to their comrades, leaving the spir- 
 ited Mrs. Dwight with the horses. Then the wide and angry 
 Coosa roared and lashed its shores, separating her from every 
 friend she had upon earth. 
 
 In the course of that day and the next, thewhole party were 
 safely boated over. Proceeding some twenty miles farther, they 
 approached the Creek town, called by the traders the " Hickory 
 Ground," embraced in the southern suburbs of the present We- 
 tumpka, on the east bank of the same river which they had 
 crossed. It is impossible to imagine a more forlorn band, or one 
 more agitated by hopes and fears. This was the first Indian 
 town which they had the boldness to approach, since they left 
 Natchez, for, indeed, during the whole of their travels, they ex- 
 pected, every moment, to be tracked out, and all suddenly butch- 
 ered. They now held a consultation, and it was decided 
 to despatch three of their most plausible men, as ambas- 1781 
 sadors, to implore the compassion and hospitality of the July 
 inhabitants. With palpitating hearts, these men rode on. 
 
358 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 leaving their companions behind to await the issue. As they rode 
 up to the square, the squaws w.ere hoeing their green corn, and 
 the warriors reposed by the sides of their cabins. The reader has 
 often seen the fierce mastiff, as he slumbered in the yard, or the 
 tiger of a menagerie as he dozed in his cage arouse out of his 
 sleep, erect his ears, move his tail, and throw his fiery eyes upon 
 strangers as they entered. He can then imagine the sudden 
 and fierce looks which the lusty warriors bestowed upon these 
 haggard, way-worn and miserable men. Colonel McGillivray, 
 unfortunately, was from home, for this place was one of his resi- 
 dences. The Indians scanned their saddles closely, and, as they 
 were like those of the Georgians, they believed they were whigs. 
 In vain they asserte'^ they were royalists, and good friends of 
 the Creeks. About seventy of the savages formed a circle around 
 them. In vain did they allege the defenceless state of them- 
 selves, their company behind, with their wretched women and 
 , children, their destitution of provisions, and the frank and 
 friendly manner in which they had entered their town. The 
 expedition appeared to be mysterious, the motives which led to 
 it inexplicable, and the unfortunate saddles, upon which 
 1781 they rode, contradictory to all their professions. A ve- 
 July hement debate began among the Indians, of which only 
 a few ill-boding words were understood, such as Vir- 
 ginians/ long knives/ no good/ From all appearances, the fate 
 of the wanderers was sealed. Instantly every warrior seized his 
 knife, every face became distorted with wrath, every eye lighted 
 up with fierce and gloomy Vengeance. 
 
 Colonel McGillivray had a body servant. He was a smart 
 black fellow, named Paro, who understood the English language 
 as well as he did the Indian tongue. He had been off on a jour- 
 ney, and, at this moment, rode up among the excited throng. 
 He demanded the cause of the tumult. They replied that these 
 strangers were Georgians, were bad men, no friends to them or 
 to their father, the King of Great Britain, and ought to be put to 
 
PJSRILS AND StTFFEEINGS OF NATCHEZ EBFUGBES. 359 
 
 death. The ambassadors now appealed to the negro, and gave 
 him an account of the nature of their journey. He expressed 
 himself fully satisfied, and endeavored to disabuse the minds of 
 the savages. But they remained inflexible, when Paro called 
 them fools and madmen. On account of their fear of McGilliv- 
 ray, they did not resent his offensive language, but assured him 
 that the death of the strangers,. and their friends behind, was 
 resolved upon. A warrior, more moderate than the rest, said to 
 the white men, " If tou tell the truth, make the paper talk. 
 The ingenious Paro caught the idea, and asked the men if they 
 had not kept a journal of their travels. They replied. No ! He 
 then asked if they had any paper about them, with writing on it, 
 and said anything would do. One of them found an old letter in 
 his pocket, which, according to the directions of Paro, he pre- 
 tended to read, slowly and solemnly, giving a complete history of 
 their flight from Natchez, and the cause of it. Paro, all the time, 
 interpreted it to the Indians, with great animation. As the 
 recital went on, their countenances gradually softened, and, be- 
 fore it was finished, the gloom gave way to a smile, and the 
 ferocity was succeeded by friendship. The whole body , 
 put up their knives, and coming, one by one, to the am- 1781 . 
 bassadors, shook them cordially by the hand, and wel- July 
 comed them to the town. They presently brought in 
 the whole caravan, lodged them in their houses, fed them at their 
 tables, and " poured oil upon their wounds." 
 
 When this party of royalists had sufficiently recruited, 
 they proceeded on their route, crossed the Tallapoosa, Chat- 
 tahoochie and Flint, and then divided their company, and 
 separated. One of the parties shaped their course down 
 towards East Florida, and finally reached Savannah in safety. 
 The other party were taken prisoners by the whigs, but 
 shortly afterwards were released. Strange to say, not 1781 
 one died, or was killed, upon the whole route from Nat- Aug. 
 chez, which was accomplished in one hundred and forty- 
 nine days. 
 
360 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Several of the Lymans, called the « unhappy family," were 
 in this singular expedition. Two of the daughters of the late 
 General Lyman died after reaching Savannah. Three of his 
 sons were also in company. When the British evacuated Geor- 
 gia, one of them went to New York, another to Nova Scotia, and 
 the, third to Providence. They all died with broken hearts. Few 
 have been born to higher hopes ; few have begun life with a 
 fairer promise of prosperity than their honorable father, and, for 
 a time, no American possessed a more extensive reputation.* 
 
 Colonel Hutchens, with one of his friends, also fled from 
 Fort Panmure to the swamps. Receiving information 
 1781 that the Indians were in pursuit of him, he set off, with 
 twenty men, upon horses, intending to overtake the 
 larger party, whose peregrinations we have just described. They 
 left their families and most valuable effects. Hutchens aban- 
 doned an excellent plantation, with twenty workers upon it, an 
 immense body of land, and seventeen hundred head of cattle. 
 The Spaniards confiscated the whole of it, except a bare support 
 for his wife. On the second night of their flight, the Choctaws 
 overtoojj; them, and killed all of them but Hutchens and one 
 other man, who fled towards Georgia and arrived there naked, 
 sunburnt, starved, and worn down with fatigue. John Alston, 
 and another small party, escaping to ths Creek nation, were 
 there arrested by the Indians, carried to Mobile, and from thence 
 to New Orleans, where, after being tried for rebellion, they were 
 condemned to die. But the governor pardoned them. 
 1781 During the fall of 1781 the property of all these unfor- 
 tunate people was confiscated. f 
 In the meantime, the wild region upon the Cumberland river 
 was explored, and some temporary establishments formed at the 
 
 * Travels in New Vork and New England, by Theodore Dwight, S.T.D., LL.D., late 
 President of Yale College, vol. 1, pp. 306-316. Memoirs and Adventures of Phelps, Ap- 
 pendix, pp. 2-17. I also held conversations with several old Indian traders, of the 
 Creek nation, two of whom, when youths, were at the Hickory Ground when these re- 
 treating royalists arrived there. 
 
 t Phelps' Memoirs, Appendix, pp. 17-19. 
 
PERILS AND SUFPEEINGS OP NATCHEZ REFUGEES. 361 
 
 blufE, on which is now situated the city of Nashville. Captain 
 James Eobertson was the hero of these bold adventures, 
 and had seve] al times, with a small party of men, cut 1779 
 his way from extreme East Tennessee to that country, 
 passing over the lofty Cumberland mountains and through 
 dangerous Indian settlements. Returning to the Holston, after 
 having made several of these trips, he raised a large com- 
 pany of emigrants, and built boats at Long Island. When 
 they were nearly ready to be launched, he placed himself at 
 the head of a horse party, and set out over the mountains 
 for the Cumberland, intending to leave signs upon the trees 
 at the head of the Muscle Shoals, after going from Nashville 
 to that place. These signs he intended for the purpose of letting 
 the voyagers know whether it would be practicable for them to 
 disembark at the Muscle Shoals and go to the Cumberland by 
 land. 
 
 A large number of flat boats, fllled with emigrants and their 
 effects, began the voyage from Long Island, upon the Holston. 
 Those recollected will be mentioned, for the gratification of 
 descendants. The large Donaldson family, who, after 
 reaching the Cumberland, settled upon Stone's river, 1779 
 and became connected by affinity with General Andrew Dec. 22 
 Jackson, all embarked on this occasion. Among the 
 others were Robert Cartwright, Benjamin Porter, Mary Henry, 
 
 Mary Purnell, James Cain, Isaac Neely, John Cotton, Roun- 
 
 sever, Jonathan Jennings, William Cutchfield, Moses, Joseph and 
 
 James Renfroe, Solomon Turpin, Johns, Francis Armstrong, 
 
 Isaac Lanier, Daniel Dunham, John Boyd, John Montgomery, 
 John Cockrill, Mrs. Robertson, the wife of Captain Rob- 
 ertson, John Blackman and John Gibson. These per- 1779 
 sons had families with them, besides slaves. 
 
 In consequence of great difficulty in descending the Holston 
 and many unavoidable delays, the rude fleet did not 
 reach the mouth of the French Broad until March 2. It 1780 
 
362 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 was then the habit to tie up at sunset, encamp upon the 
 banks and around large fires, and to make the wild forests re- 
 sound with noise and merry peals of laughter. All were now 
 happy and filled with the most pleasing excitement. But when 
 they approached the Cherokee towns below they observed great 
 caution. When near Nidkajaek they were fired upon from both 
 banks of the river by the savages, but keeping in the middle re- 
 ceived no material injury. However, unfortunately, a boat be- 
 longing to Stewart, containing his family and negroes, amounting 
 to twenty-eight souls, who had been compelled to keep behind a 
 few miles on account of the small pox which they had taken, 
 were all killed by the Indians, while their companions in advance 
 could afford them no assistance. In passing the celebrated 
 " Suck " the boats were again fired upon, when several of the 
 voyagers were severely wounded. In the midst of the dismay 
 and confusion a young woman, named Nancy Glover, seized the 
 oar of her father's boat and steered it safely through the narrows, 
 exposed to all the firing, and receiving a severe wound, of which 
 she never complained. When the terrified voyagers had passed 
 this place they entered a wide and smooth sheet of water, and 
 were out of danger. But just at the termination of the narrows 
 the boat of Jonathan Jennings was stove upon a large rock. The 
 voyagers were forced to leave these unhappy people. The Indians 
 coming upon them, all the effects were thrown out of the boat in 
 great haste, and it was shoved off with Mrs. Jennings and Mrs. 
 Peyton in it, who singularly made their escape. The Indians 
 captured Jennings, his son, a negro, and a young man with them, 
 and carried them to Chickamauga, where they soon burned the 
 latter to death by a slow fire. They knocked Jennings down 
 with a club, but his life was spared by Rodgers, a trader, who 
 ransomed him. After being again attacked near the head of the 
 Muscle Shoals, they finally reached those cataracts, where a con- 
 sultation was held. Being unable, upon a diligent search, to find 
 the signals of Captain Robertson on the north bank, they resolved 
 
PERILS AND SUFFERINGS OF NATCHEZ REFUGEES. 363 
 
 to trust their boats to the angry waves below. Fortunately the 
 swollen state of the river carried them safely over the extended 
 shoals. Reaching the mouth of the Tennessee on the 20th of 
 March, an affecting and painful separation took place — Colonel 
 Donaldson and more than half the voyagers going up the Cum- 
 berland, and the remainder to Natchez and the Illinois.* 
 
 * Haywood's History of Tennessee, pp. 85-94. Mrs. Rachel Jackson, the wife of Gen- 
 eral Jackson, and the daughter of Colonel Donaldson, who was then but a little girl, 
 was with this party. 
 

 
 i^ 
 
 
 Ancient Indian Fortifications, at Little River Falls, Cherokee County, Ala- 
 bama, from a Sketch by A. J. Pickett, who visited that 
 place, in October, 1850. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The Spaniaeds in Alabama and Mississippi. 
 
 England, having lost her West Florida provinces by the 
 victories of Galvez, and having the American whigs, as well as 
 the natives of France, Spain and Holland, arrayed against her, 
 was finally forced to retire from the unequal contest. 
 A preliminary treaty of peace was signed at Paris. 1782 
 England there acknowledged our independence, and Nov. 30 
 admitted our southern boundary to be as follows : A 
 line beginning at the Mississippi, at 31° north of the equator, and 
 extending due east to the Chattahoochie river ; down that river 
 to the mouth of the Flint, and thence to the St. Mary's, and along 
 that river to the sea. Great Britain also expressly stipulated, in 
 that treaty, our right to the navigation of the Mississippi river, 
 from its mouth to its source. 
 
 Great Britain and Spain entered into a treaty. 
 The former warranted and confirmed to the latter 1783 
 the province of West Florida, and ceded to her East Jan. 20 
 Florida.* 
 
 But although England, by the treaty of 1782, assigned to 
 the United States all the territory between the Mississippi and 
 the Chattahoochie, lying between the parallels of latitude 31° 
 and 82° 28', embracing the same portion of the territory of Ala- 
 bama and Mississippi, which lay in the British province of West 
 Florida, yet it was not surrendered to us by Spain for years 
 afterwards. Spain occupied it, contending that Great Britain, 
 in the treaty with her, in 1783, warranted the province of West 
 
 * American State Papers, Boston edition, vol. 10, p. 132. 
 
 365 
 
366 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 Florida to her, not defining its northern limits, and that England 
 had no right to restrict her limits, even if she had attempted it, 
 for Spain had, before the negotiations commenced, acquired all 
 of West Florida, by conquest, through the victorious arms of 
 Don Galvez. 
 
 Turning to Georgia, with which this history will now be 
 much connected, we find that that province continued to consist, 
 as at the time of its colonization by Oglethorpe, of a narrow 
 strip of country, between the Savannah and Ogechee rivers, until 
 1773, when, as we have already seen. Governor Wright acquired 
 
 from the Creeks and Cherokees a strip of country north 
 
 1783 of this, extending above Broad river. The Legislature 
 
 May 31 of Georgia elected commissioners, who met a delegation 
 
 of Cherokees at Augusta. The latter ceded to Georgia 
 the country upon the western side of the Tugalo, including the 
 
 head waters of the Oconee. A small delegation of the 
 Nov. 1 (Jreeks also assembled at Augusta, and agreed to the 
 
 boundary made with the Cherokees. Thus, as Georgia 
 supposed, the lines between her and those tribes were, for a 
 while, determined. But the treaty made with the "Creeks was 
 denounced by a large majority of that nation, as obtained un- 
 fairly, and with the representation of scarcely any of 'the towns.* 
 But, before entering upon these exciting topics, it will be 
 necessary to recur once more to the close of the war. It has been 
 observed, that Lachlan McGillivray, previous to the revolution, 
 owned extensive trading-houses in Savannah and Augusta, and 
 plantations upon the river. He was an active and influential 
 royalist, and the whigs of Georgia and Carolina sensibly felt his 
 weight. When the British were forced to evacuate Savannah, 
 he sailed with them to his native country, having scraped together 
 a vast amount of money and movable effects. His plantations 
 and negroes he abandoned, in the hope that his son, Alexancfer, 
 his two daughters, and his Indian wife, Sehoy, then living upon 
 
 * American State Papers, Indian Affairs, folio edition, vol. 1, p. 23. 
 
THE SPANIAEDS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 367 
 
 tke Coosa, might be suffered l.o inherit them. But the whigs 
 confiscated the whole of this valuable property, with the ex- 
 ception of a few negroes, who fled to the nation, and were added 
 to those already at the residence of Sehoy. Thus, Col. Alexander 
 McGillivray was deprived of a large patrimony, while his affec- 
 tionate father was forced to flee the country. Another Scotch- 
 man, remarkable for his great commercial enterprise and capital 
 sense, must also be introduced. 
 
 William Panton was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and, 
 at an early period, sailed for America, and landed in Charles- 
 ton. He became an extensive Indian merchant, and owned 
 large estates, in South Carolina and Georgia ; but, at an early 
 period of the war, was driven from these provinces, and his es- 
 tates confiscated. He then established himself upon the St. 
 Mary's. In 1781, when the Spaniards took Pensacola, he was _/ 
 residing there, owning an extensive trading house. He soon 
 formed a commercial treaty with Spain, which enabled him to 
 become enriched, while the government of Florida was strength- 
 ened by his influence with the Indian tribes south of the Tennes- 
 see. He had formed an acquaintance with Colonel McGillivray, 
 and was struck with the power of his mind. Knowing that he 
 had been deserted by the British, he sought to place him under 
 the wing of Spain, for the personal advancement of the great 
 Chieftain himself, who he expected would, in return, promote his 
 Indian commerce. He introduced him to the Spanish authorities 
 of West Florida. According to arrangement, Colonel 
 McGillivray went to Pensacola, and entered intoa treaty 1784 
 of alliance with Spain. Spain was represented by Don June 1 
 Miro, of New Orleans, Governor of West Florida ; Don 
 Arthur O'Neill, Commandant of Pensacola ; and Don Martin Na- 
 varro, In tendant- General of Florida. Colonel McGillivray rep- 
 resented the whole Creek and Seminole nations. It was stipu- 
 lated that the Creek and Seminole Indians should defend and 
 sustain the cause of his Catholic Majesty, and obey his orders, 
 
368 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 through his Captain-General of the provinces of the Floridas and 
 Louisiana, in those points which are compatible with Indian char- 
 acter ; that Spain should proportion among the Indians a desira- 
 ble and permanent commerce at the most judicious places ; that 
 the Creeks should establish a general peace with the Chick- 
 asaws, Choctaws and Cherokees ; that all strangers, introducing 
 themselves among the Indians for the purpose of stirring up re- 
 bellion against the King of Spain, should immediately 
 
 1784 be seized and conveyed to the Governor of Pensacola; 
 that the Indians should admit no white person into their 
 
 country who did not bear a Spanish permit; that they should 
 abandon the practice of taking scalps, if engaged in war; that 
 they should deliver up all white prisoners, subjects of the United 
 States, and not admit into their nations fugitive slaves from the 
 provinces of Louisiana and Florida, but should apprehend and de- 
 liver them to the commandants.* 
 
 Colonel McGillivray was induced to form an alliance with 
 the Spaniards for various reasons, the chief of which were that 
 the whigs, as he contended, had confiscated his estates, banished 
 his father, threatened him with death and his nation with exter- 
 mination, and were constantly encroaching upon Creek soil. The 
 Spaniards wanted no lands — desired only his friendship, and had 
 not encroached upon him or his people. Besides, they were the 
 first to offer him promotion and commercial advantages. When 
 he had signed the treaty, they made him a Spanish commissary, 
 with the rank and pay of colonel. 
 
 Great dissatisfaction arose, as has been stated, in consequence 
 of the treaty at Augusta and the occupation of the 
 
 1785 Creek lands. Border war commenced. The Spanish 
 authorities fomented these discords between the Creeks 
 
 and Georgians, for the purpose of monopolizing the entire com- 
 merce of the nation, Colonel McGillivray exerted himself to 
 
 L 
 
 t^ . . 
 
 * American State Papers, Boston edition, vo). 10, pp. 223-227. 
 
THE SPANIAEDS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 369 
 
 defeat all attempts at peaceable negotiation, now undertaken by 
 those who had charge of our national affairs. 
 
 The provisional Congress appointed Benjancin Hawkins, An- 
 drew Pickens, Joseph Martin and Lachlan Mcintosh, commis- 
 sioners, to treat with the Southern Indians. Pickens addressed 
 a letter to Colonel McGrillivray, urging him to meet 
 them at a convenient place, at the head of all the Chiefs 1785 
 of the nation, to enter into treaties of friendship. The 
 Alabama Talleyrand replied, and we will publish his able and 
 ingenious letter, as the reader can better understand from it the 
 character of the man, and of, the times of which he writes, than 
 by a narration from the author : 
 
 " Little Tallasb,* 5th Sept., 1785. 
 
 "/iS'«V — I am favored with yoyr letter by Brandon, who, after 
 detaining it near a month, sent it by an Indian, a few days ago. 
 He, perhaps, had some reasons for keeping himself from this 
 region. 
 
 "The notification you have sent us is agreeable to our 
 wishes, as tbe meeting is intended for the desirable purpose of 
 adjusting and settling matters, on an equitable footing, between 
 the United States and the Indian nations. At the same time, I 
 cannot avoid expressing my surprise that a measure of this 
 nature should have been so long delayed, on your part. When 
 we found that the American independence was confirmed by the 
 peace, we expected that the new government would 
 soon have taken some steps to make up the differ- 1785 
 ences that subsisted between them and the Indians dur- Sept. 5 
 ing the war, to have taken them under their protection, 
 and confirmed to them their hunting grounds. Such a course 
 would have reconciled the minds of the Indians, and secured the 
 States their friendship, as they considered your people their nat- 
 
 * Little Tallase, four miles above Wetumpka, on the east bank of tbe Coosa, was one 
 of tbe residences of Colonel McGillivray, and from tbat point he wrote most of liis able 
 letters. Colonel Howell Kose now owns the site of Little Tallase, which is embraced in 
 a cotton plantation. 
 
 24 
 
370 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 ural allies. The Georgians, whose particular interest it was to 
 conciliate the friendship of this nation, have acted, in all respects, 
 to the coiitrary. I am sorry to observe that violence and preju- 
 dice have taken place of good policy and reason, in all their pro- 
 ceedings with us. They attempted to avail themselves of our 
 supposed distressed situation. Their talks to us breathed noth- 
 ing but vengeance, and, being entirely possessed with the idea 
 that we were wholly at their mercy, they never once reflected 
 that colonies of a powerful monarch were nearly surrounding us, 
 to whom, in any extremity, we might apply for succor and pro- 
 tection, and who, to answer some ends of their policy, might 
 grant it to us. However, we yet deferred any such proceeding, 
 still expecting we could bring them to a true sense of their in- 
 terest; but still finding no alteration in their conduct towards us, 
 we sought the protection Of Spain, and treaties of friendship and 
 alliance were mutually entered into — they guaranteeing our hunt- 
 ing grounds and territory, and granting us a free trade in the 
 ports of the Floridas. 
 
 " How the boundary and limits between the Spaniards and 
 the States will be determined, a little time will show, as 1 believe 
 
 that matter is now on foot. However, we know our 
 
 1785 lifnits, and the extent of our hunting-gnunds. As a 
 
 Sept. 5 free nation, we have applied, as we had a right to do, 
 
 for protection, and obtained it. "We shall pay no atten- 
 tion to any 'limits that may prejudice our claims, that were 
 drawn by an American, and confirmed by a British negotiator. 
 Yet, notwithstanding we have been obliged to adopt these meas- 
 ures for our preservation, and from real necessity, we sincerely 
 wish to have it in our power to be on the same footing with the 
 States as before the late unhappy war, to effect which is entirely 
 in your power. We want nothing from you but justice. We 
 want our hunting grounds preserved from encroachments. They 
 have been ours from the beginning of time, and I trust that, with 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 371 
 
 the assistance of our friends, we shall be able to maintain them 
 against every attempt that may be made to take them from us. 
 
 " Finding our representations to the State of Georgia of no 
 effect, in restraining their encroachments, we thought it proper 
 to call a meeting of the nation, on the subject. We then came 
 to the resolution to send out parties, to remove the Georgians and 
 their effects from the lands in question, in the most peaceable 
 manner possible. 
 
 " Agreeably to your requisition, and to convince you of my 
 sincere desire to restore a good understanding between us, I have 
 taken the necessary steps to prevent any future predatory ex- 
 cursions of my people against any of your settlements. I could 
 wish the people of Cumberland showed an equal good disposition 
 to do what is right. They were certainly the first aggressors 
 since the peace, and acknowledged it in a written certificate, left 
 at the Indian camp they had plundered. 
 
 "I have only to add, that we shall meet the commissioners 
 of Congress whenever we shall receive notice, in expec- 
 tation that every matter of difference will be settled, 1785 
 with that liberality and justice worthy the men who Sept. 5 
 have so gloriously asserted the cause of liberty and 
 independence, and that we shall, in future, consider them as 
 brethren, and defenders of the land.* 
 
 " I am, with much respect, sir, 
 ?' Your obedient servant, 
 
 "ALEXANDER McGILLIVRAY." 
 " Hon. Andrew Pickens." 
 
 This well-written communication affords the first 
 evidence of the consummate diplomacy of this great na- - 1785 
 tive Alabamian. The history of this remarkable Indian Oct. 28 
 will be found to be full of interest. 
 
 The commissioners'of Congress, elated by tjie cpnciliatory 
 
 * Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 17-18. 
 
372 HISTOBT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 tone of Colonel McGillivray, arrived at Galphlnton* The latter 
 failed to appear, and only the Chiefs from two towns, with sixty 
 warriors, met them. Disappointed and mortified, the commis- 
 sioners declined to treat with so few. In the meantime the 
 Georgia commissioners protested against those proceedings which 
 the agents of Congress had intended to adopt ; but the latter de- 
 clined to do anything further than to explain to the Indians the 
 policy which the Congress intended to pursue towards them, 
 thanked them for their attendance and afterwards depairted. No 
 sooner had they left than the commissioners representing Georgia 
 made a treaty with the Creeks who were present, which con- 
 firmed the treaty of Augusta of 1783, and granted to the State of 
 Georgia the territory lying on the east side of a line to run from 
 the junction of the Oconee and Ockmulgee to the St. Mary's river, 
 including all the islands and harbors, and which now constitutes 
 more than half the coast of Georgia. What considerations induced 
 the Indians to divest themselves of so much jierritory is not 
 
 stated. The commissioners of Georgia laid before the 
 1786 legislature a copy of the articles intended to have been 
 
 proposed to the Creeks by the agents of Congress had a 
 sufficient number been present, which that body declared, by 
 resolutions, to be subversive of the rights of the State. They in- 
 structed their members in Congress to insist on the abolition of 
 the powers of the commissioners, while they adopted measures 
 for the preservation of the rights of the citizens of Georgia. Ed- 
 ward Telfair, John King and Thomas Glasscock received the 
 thanks of the General Assembly for their vigilance and patriot- , 
 ism, and particularly for the treaty which they had made. 
 
 Tlie Georgia Legislature established a county called Houston, 
 
 embracing the territory extending from Nickajack, below 
 1785 the Muscle Shoals, out of which are now formed the mod- 
 •Dec. ern Alabama counties of Lauderdale, Limestone, Madison 
 
 aiid Jackson. Sevier, Downs, Herd, Donaldson and Lin- 
 
 * ThlB town was named in honor of George Galphin, the great Indian trader. 
 
THE SPANIARDS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 373 
 
 sey were appointed commissioners to organize the county of Hous- 
 ton. With eighty men, in flat boats, they arrived at the Muscle 
 Shoals, and in the western part ol the present Lauderdale county, 
 established a land office, appointed military officers and magis- 
 trates, and elected Valentine Sevier to be a member of the Georgia 
 Legislature. This remarkable government existed but two weeks, 
 when the colonists were driven off by the Indians.* 
 
 Congress appointed James White a superintendent of the 
 Creek Indians, who immediately proceeded to the town of Cus- 
 ' seta, upon the Chattahoochie. He addressed a letter to Colonel 
 McGillivray, and received the following reply : 
 
 " LiTTLB Tallase, 8th April, 1787. 
 
 "/iSiV." — It is with real satisfaction that I learn of your being 
 appointed by Congress for the laudable purpose of enquiring into 
 and settling the differences that at present subsist between our 
 nation and the Georgians. It may be necessary for you to know 
 the cause of these differences and our discontent, which, perhaps, 
 have never come to the knowledge of the honorable body that 
 sent you to our country i 
 
 " There are Chiefs of two towns in this nation, who, 
 during the late war, were friendly to the State of 1787 
 Georgia, and had gone, at different times, among those April 8 
 people, and once, after the general peace, to Augusta. 
 They there demanded of them a grant of lands, belonging to and 
 enjoyed as hunting grounds by the Indians of this nation in 
 common, on the east of the Oconee river. The Chiefs rejected 
 the demand, on the plea that these lands were the hunting 
 grounds of the nation, and could not be granted by two indi- 
 viduals; but, after a few days, a promise was extorted from 
 them, that, on their return to our country, they would use their 
 influence to get a grant confirmed. Upon their return, a general 
 convention was held at Tookabatcha, when these two Chiefs were 
 
 • Haywood's History of Tennessee, pp. 157-158. 
 
374 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 severely censured, and the Chiefs of 'ninety-eight towns agreed 
 upon a talk, to be sent to Savannah, disapproving, in the strongest 
 manner, of the demand made upon their nation, and' denying the 
 right of any two of their country to make cession of land, which 
 could only be valid by the unanimous voice of the whole, as joint 
 proprietors in common. Yet these two Chiefs, regardless of the 
 voice of the nation, continued to go to Augusta, and other places 
 within that State! They received presents and made promises ; 
 but our customs did not permit us to punish them for the crime. 
 We warned the Georgians of the dangerous consequences that 
 would certainly attend the settling of the lands in question. Our 
 just remonstrances were treated with contempt, and these lands 
 were soon filled with settlers. The nation, justly alarmed at the 
 encroachments, resolved to use force to maintain their rights ; 
 yet, being averse to the shedding of the blood of a people whom 
 we would rather consider as friends, we made another effort to 
 awaken in them a sense of justice and equity, But we found, 
 from experience, that entreaty could not prevail, and parties of 
 warriors were sent, to drive off the intruders, but were instructed 
 to shed blood, only where self-preservation made it necessary. 
 "This was in May, 1786. In October following, we were 
 invited by commissioners, of the State of Georgia, to 
 1787 meet them in conference, at the Oconee, professing a 
 April 8 sincere desire for an amicable adjustment of our dis- 
 putes, and pledging their sacred honors for the safety 
 and good treatment of all those that should attend and meet 
 them. It not being convenient for many of us to go to the 
 proposed conference, a few, from motives of curiosity, attended. 
 They were surprised to find an armed body of men, prepared 
 for and professing hostile intentions. Apprehensions for per- 
 sonal safety induced those Chiefs to sulDscribe to every de- 
 mand that was asked by the army and its commissioners. Lands 
 were again demanded, and the lives of some of our Chiefs were 
 required, as well as those of some innocent traders, as sacrifice 
 
THE SPASrlAEDS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 375 
 
 to appease their anger. Assassins have been employed to eflfeet 
 some part of their atrocious purposes. If I fall by the hand 
 of such, I shall fall the victim of the noblest of causes, that 
 of maintaining the just rights of- my country. I aspire to 
 the honest ambition of meriting the appellation of the preserver 
 of my country, equally with the Chiefs among you, whom, from 
 acting on- such principles, you have exalted to the highest pitch 
 of glory. And if, after every peaceable mode of obtaining a re- 
 dress of grievances proved fruitless, a recourse to arms to obtain 
 it be a mark of the savage, and not of the soldier, what savages 
 must the Americans be, and how much undeserved ap- 
 plause have your Cinclnnatus, your Fabius, obtained. 1787 
 If a war name had been necessary to distinguish April 8 
 that Chief, in such a case, the Man-Killer, the Great 
 Destroyer, would have been the proper appellation. 
 
 '-I had appointed the Cussetas, for all the Chiefs of the 
 Lower Creeks to meet in convention. I shall be down in a few 
 days, when, from your timely arrival, you will meet the Chiefs, 
 and learn their sentiments, and I sincerely hope that the propo- 
 sitions which you sha'll offer us will be such as we can safely ac- 
 cede to. The talks of the former commissioners, at Galphinton, 
 were much approved of, and your coming from the White Town 
 (seat ,of Congress) has raised great expectations that you will 
 remove the principal and almost only cause of our dispute, that 
 is, by securing to us our hunting grounds and possessions, free 
 from all encroachments. When we meet, we shall talk these 
 matters over. Meantime, I remain, 
 
 ■'With regard, your obedient servant, 
 
 "ALEXANDEE McGILLIVRAY." 
 "Hon. James White." 
 
 Dr. White met McGillivray at Cusseta, with a large number 
 of Lower Creeks, when the Superintendent desired them to ratify 
 the treaties of Augusta, Galphinton and Shoulderbone, and 
 
376 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 1787 to make arrangements for running the boundary 
 April 10 line around the ceded territory. The Chiefs boldly op- 
 posed the proposition, and declared that their « lands 
 were .their life and breath, and if they parted with them they 
 parted with their blood." The two Chiefs, who conveyed away 
 these lands, being severely censured, stated that the Georgians 
 compelled them to make the grant b^ threats and the flourish of 
 long knives. 
 
 McGillivray startled the Superintendent with a new propo- 
 sition. He said: "Notwithstanding I prompt the Indians to 
 defend their lands, I look upon the United States as our most 
 natural ally. Two years I waited before I would seek the alli- 
 ance I have formed. I was compelled to it. I could not but re- 
 sent the greedy encroachments of the Georgians, to say nothing 
 of their scandalous and illiberal abuse. But I will now put it to 
 the test, whether they or myself entertain the most generous 
 sentiments of respect for Congress. If that honorable body can 
 form a government to the southward of the Altamaha, I will be 
 the first to take the oath of allegiance, and, in return to the 
 Georgians for yielding to the United States that claim, I will ob- 
 tain a regular and peaceable grant of the lands on the Oconee, on 
 which they have deluded people to settle, under the pretence of 
 grants from the Indians, and which you yourself (Dr. White) 
 have seen are most ill-founded. I will give you till the first of 
 August for an answer." 
 
 Thus terminated the council, and the Superintendent found 
 himself baffled and perplexed by the ingenuity of McGillivray, 
 who always managed to defeat any scheme of the Federal Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 The Georgians on the other hand, denied the charges of vio- 
 lence and fraud, contended that a sufficient delegation 
 1787 of Indians were present to make the grants, and that 
 Apr. 10 they were procured from them fairly and honorably, 
 without threats or the display of knives. They con- 
 
THE SPANIAEDS IN ALABAMA.' AND MISSISSIPPI. 377 
 
 tended that the Upper Creeks, who never occupied the Oconee 
 lands, had no right to have a voice in the matter. They ad- 
 mitted that, at the treaty of Shoulderbone, in 1786, they had 
 armed troops present; but they were there for the purpose of 
 suppressing hostilities, should they show themselves. They also 
 admitted that, for enforcing a compliance of the treaty, they car- 
 ried hostages to Augusta, which had been customary in all for- 
 mer negotiations with savages.* 
 
 • Indian AjEEairs, vol. 1, pp. 18-23. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Bloody Scenes in Alabama and Georgia. 
 
 At this period, some exciting scenes occurred in the region 
 
 now known as North Alabama. We have already followed a 
 
 party of emigrants to the Cumberland. Many others 
 
 1779 flocked to that country, and it soon became well settled, 
 
 1780 for a wild country. The Upper Creeks and Cherokees 
 continually made war upon these Cumberland people. 
 
 The French, upon the Wabash, had, for a long time, carried on a 
 commerce, near the sites of the present towns of Tuscumbia and 
 Florence. So long as M. Viez was at the head of this trade, the 
 Cumberland people were not harassed; but, recently, he had 
 been succeeded by others, who supplied the Indians with arms, 
 and encouraged them to attack the American settlements. The 
 latter had only acted upon the defensive, but it was now deter- 
 mined to advance upon the frontier towns of the In- 
 1787 dians. One hundred and thirty men assembled, from 
 June 1 different parts of the Cumberland region, and marched, 
 under Colonel James Robertson, to the Tennesse river, 
 piloted by two Chickasaws. David Hays was despatched from 
 Nashville with boats, laden with provisions, destined for the Mus- 
 cle Shoals: Descending the Cumberland, he was furiously at- 
 tacked by the Indians, at the mouth of Duck river, and, after 
 some of his men had been killed and others wounded, he re- 
 turned to Nashville with his boats. Owing to this the horse- 
 men were without food during the greater part of the expedi- 
 tion. 
 
 Striking the Tennessee at a point very near the present 
 
 378 
 
BLOODY SCENES IN ALABAMA AND GEORGIA. 379 
 
 town of Florence, Colonel Robertson concealed his men. 
 A well-beaten path was discovered, leading down the 1787 
 banks, and on the south side of the river stood some June 
 cabins, in view. Seven men were placed in the canes, 
 to observe the movements of the Indians. A canoe was seen to 
 move to an island, filled with natives, who there plunged into the 
 river and engaged in bathing. They then returned to the south 
 bank, evidently watching for the Americans, of whose approach 
 they had gained some vague intelligence. Captain Rains had set 
 out up the river, with fifteen men, with orders to capture an Indian 
 alive; but, after marching to the mouth of Blue Water, he re- 
 turned, without having made any discovery. When the shadows 
 of twilight began to darken the wilderness, the troops assembled, 
 in the most noiseless manner, upon the low grounds. The seven 
 men, who had watched all day, plunged into the mighty river 
 early in the night, and swam to the opposite shore, where €hey 
 discovered that the cabins were unoccupied. Finding a tremen- 
 dous canoe, with a hole in the bottom of it, they brought it over 
 to the north bank. Stopping the leak with their shirts. Colonel 
 Robertson placed in it all the tire-arms, and forty men ; but they 
 soon paddled back, in a sinking condition. The party made no 
 further attempt to cross, until daylight ; then fifty men, with the 
 arms and ammunition, went over in the boat, which had now 
 been rendered seaworthy, by a piece of linn-bark. The rest of 
 the party swam their horses over. A heavy rain coming on, as 
 soon as they reached the southern shore they took shelter in' the 
 cabins. When the clouds had dispersed, they came forth, and 
 began the march upon a plain path, leading westwardly. At 
 about the distance of five miles they reached cornfields, and, 
 further on, they came to Cold Water Creek, the same which runs 
 by the modern Tuscumbia. The larger portion of the command 
 immediately crossed over, and entered upon the low grounds, 
 among a number of cabins, distant from the river about three 
 hundred yards. The people of the town ran down to their boats. 
 
380 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Some, in endeavoring to escape, crossed over the creek, to the east 
 side, where . they were shot down by Captain Rains and a few 
 men stationed there to intercept them. Colonel Robert- 
 1787 son charged to the river, and his troops committed havoc 
 June on all sides. They killed many of the Indians, who got 
 into the boats, and others who had plunged into the 
 stream. Three French traders, and a white woman, who would 
 not surrender, fled to a boat, and entered it, along with twenty- 
 six Indians. The Americans, with one volley, killed them all., 
 The chief French trader, and six others, were captured. In 
 this town were stores of taffai, and all kinds of Indian mer- 
 chandise, arms and ammunition. Colonel Robertson brought 
 all the boats up the creek, had a strong guard placed over 
 them, and then burned the town, killing the fowls and hogs. 
 Next morning, giving to Toka, the Chickasaw guide, and his 
 companion, who presently set out for their nation, a liberal sup- 
 ply of merchandise and arms, Colonel Robertson buried the 
 whites, loaded several of the boats with goods, and placed them 
 in charge of three men, who departed down the river with the 
 French prisoners. Robertson marched by land, and near Col- 
 bert's Ferry overtook the boats, and they all encamped there to- 
 gether. To their great joy they found that not a soul had 
 received a wound. In the morning the French prisoners, with a 
 squaw, were permitted to depart in a boat. They were liberally 
 supplied with provisions, and their trunks of clothing were given 
 up to them. The sugar and co£fee taken at the town were arti- 
 cles of great luxury in those days, and were now equally divided 
 among the troops. Robertson marched across the country to the 
 Cumberland, and thus terminated a fatiguing expedition of nine- 
 teen days. The boats with the merchandise proceeded down the 
 Tennessee river in charge of Denton and others. On their way 
 they met a party of French traders destined for the town which 
 they had destroyed, who, in their enthusiasm, fired off their guns 
 in a fit of joy, supposing the voyagers were also traders of their 
 
BLOODY SCENES IN ALABAMA AND 6E0BGIA. 381 
 
 people. The Americans took advantage of the discharge, and be- 
 fore they could re-load, captured the whole party with all their 
 goods. Arriving in the Cumberland settlements the merchandise 
 was sold at Eaton's Station, and the proceeds divided among the 
 troops. 
 
 This expedition produced a short respite from Indian at- 
 tacks. The savages, however, rallied, and began a warfare fiercer 
 than ever. At length, in the fall, Captain Shannon with a 
 mounted party pursued some Creeks from the Cumberland to the 
 northern bank of the Tennessee, in the present county 
 of Lauderdale, and engaged in a severe fight with Black 1787 
 Foot and his clan. Victory at length declared for the 
 daring Cumberlanders- The Chief was killed with a number of 
 his warriors. During this fall the settlers engaged in numerous 
 military excursions, upon Duck and Elk rivers, in pursuit of In- 
 dians who were retreating from fresh scenes of pillage and blood. 
 The magnificent forests of North Alabama were scoured in all 
 directions by these intrepid Americans.* 
 
 At the same time the Creeks were active upon the Georgia 
 frontier. Enraged at the settlement of the Oconee lands, they 
 reduced to ashes the new town of Greensboro, together with the 
 court house, killed many inhabitants on various portions of the 
 frontier, and carried to the nation white captives, negroes, and 
 all sorts of plunder.t Georgia urged the Congress to punish 
 these depredators by sending against them an army ; but the na- 
 tional agents were reluctant to enter into another war. How- 
 ever, Secretary Knox did plan upon paper a Southern army, 
 which was not raised, while the Georgians were left to defend 
 themselves to the best of their ability. 
 
 Congress, again seeking to interpose by a treaty, appointed 
 Richard Winn, Indian Superintendent, with whom was associ- 
 ated George Mathews, on the part of Georgia, and Andrew Pick- 
 
 • Haywood's History of Tennessee, pp. 217-225. 
 t Indian Ailairs, vol. 1, ppi 23-24. 
 
382 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 ens, on the part of South Carolina. They opened a negotiation 
 with Colonel McGillivray, but he refused to meet them, unless 
 they first removed the Georgians from the Oconee lands, within 
 the bounds of the old British government. Hostilities, of coursej 
 continued, for it was now impossible to comply with the bold de- 
 mands of McGillivray, who stood upon an enviable and 
 1788 independent footing. Caressed by Panton, with whom 
 he was a co-partner in an extensive commerce, paid by 
 the Spanish government, obeyed by his own people, and many of 
 the Cherokees and Choctaws, and supplicated by the American 
 Congress, the Chieftain could well afford to dictate arbitrary 
 terms, and continue to advance against the Georgians with hun- 
 dreds of his prowling warriors. 
 
 At length, Governor Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, 
 entered into a correspondence with McGillivray, to endeavor to 
 bring about a peace and the settlement of the boundary, and 
 elicited from him several letters. A portion of one of them runs 
 as follows : 
 
 * * * « The third invitation which was sent to us to treat, 
 was from the Georgians only, through their commissioners, at the 
 head of whom was Mr. Habersham, President of the Executive 
 Council, and he proposed the Oconee as the place of meeting. 
 They pledged their sacred honors for the safety and welfare of 
 every Indian that should attend ; but I, being so often threat- 
 ened, and having the worst opinion of the back people, as they 
 are called, did not go, but sent a few Coweta warriors, to report 
 to me on their return. During the conferences of the Oconee, an 
 additional cession was demanded, which was strongly opposed by . 
 the Cowetas and others, for which they were violently insulted 
 by a Colonel Clarke, which the commissioners could not prevent. 
 Though their sacred honors were pledged for maintaining good 
 order, several warriors, of different towns, were forcibly seized 
 upon by armed men and conveyed to Augusta, more as prisoners 
 than hostages, to be kept as a pledge that my life, and six more 
 
BLOODY SCBNES IN ALABAMA AND GEORGIA. 383 
 
 of the leading men, should be taken. Such conduct convinced 
 the whole nation that it was full time to adopt measures for the 
 general safety."* 
 
 About this time, a bloody transaction occurred in the terri- 
 tory of tlje present county o± Conecuh. During the revolution- 
 ary war. Colonel McGillivray formed an acquaintance with many 
 conspicuous royalists, and, among others, with Colonel 
 Kirkland, of South Carolina. That person was at Mc- 1788 
 Gillivray's house, upon the Coosa, in 1788, with his 
 son, his nephew, and several other gentlemen. They were 
 on their way to Petisacola, where they intended to procure 
 passports, and settle in the Spanish province of Louisi- 
 ana. "When they determined to leave his hospitable abode, 
 McGillivray sent his servant to guide them to Pensacola. The 
 presence of this servant would assure the Indians that they 
 were friends, for it was dangerous to travel without the Chief- 
 tain's protection. Colonel Kirkland and his party had much 
 silver in their saddle-bags. Arriving within a mile of a large 
 creek, which flows into the Conecuh, they met a pack-horse 
 party, about sunset, going up to the nation. They 'had been to 
 Pensacola, on a trading expedition. This party consisted of a 
 Hillabee Indian, who had murdered so many men, that he was 
 called Istillicha, the Man-slayer — a desperate white man, 
 who had fled from the States for the crime of murder, 1788 
 and whom, on account of his activity and ferocity, the 
 Indians called the Cat — and a blood-thirsty negro, named Bob, 
 the property of Sullivan, a Creek trader of the Hillabees. As 
 soon as Colonel Kirkland and his party were out of sight, these 
 scoundrels formed an encampment. The former went on, crossed 
 the creek, and encamped a short distance from the ford, by the 
 side of the trading path. Placing their saddle-bags under their 
 heads, and reclining their guns against a tree, Kirkland and his 
 party fell asleep. At midnight, the bloody wretches from the 
 
 * Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 19-20. 
 
384 HISTOEY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 other side, cautiously came over, and, seizing the guns of Kirk- 
 land and his men, killed every one of them, except three negroes, 
 one of whom was the servant of the great Chieftain, as before 
 stated. Dividing the booty, the murderers proceeded to the 
 Creek nation, and, when the horrid affair became known, Colonel 
 McGillivray sent persons in pursuit of them. Cat was arrested; 
 but the others escaped. Milfort was directed to convey the 
 scoundrel to the spot where he had shed the blood of these men, 
 and there to hang him, until he was dead. Upon the journey to 
 that point, Milfort kept him well pinioned, and, every night, se- 
 cured his legs in temporary stocks, made by cutting notches in 
 pine logs, and clamping them together. Reaching the creek 
 where poor Kirkland and his men were murdered. Cat was sus- 
 pended to the limb of a tree, the roots of which were still stained 
 
 with the blood of the unfortunate colonel and his com- 
 1788 panions. While he was dangling in the air, and kicking 
 
 in the last agonies, the Frenchman stopped his motions 
 
 with a pistol ball. Such is the origin of the name " Miteder 
 
 Cebek."* 
 
 b 
 
 * Conversations witli Lachlan "Dnrant, and two old traders, named Abram Mordecai 
 and James Moore. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The Deep Intrigues of McGillivrat. 
 
 Occasionally, the Spanish authorities at Pensacola and 
 Mobile were guilty of consummate folly in imposing restrictions 
 upon the Creeks, which frequently offended them, creating a 
 prejudice, which it required the compromising spirit of Panton 
 and the authority and ingenuity of MoGillivray to remove. We 
 will her6 introduce a letter of the Chief, in relation to the Spanish 
 outrages. It was written to Panton and_ dated at Little Tallase. 
 
 " I had written to you, during the great hubbub at Pensacola, 
 by Frank Leslie. I gave, then, a sketch of my idea of the times. 
 The sudden flight of Curnells and Walker ought not to surprise 
 you. The cowardice of the former is proverbial, and Walker 
 fled, being my servant. When Linder and the others were taken 
 up, a little Irishman, living at Tensaw, was in Pensacola. He 
 became frightened, ran out to Walker, and informed him 
 that the governor, in very severe terms, threatened to 1788 
 seize him, understanding that he was recruiting men for Sept. 
 my service. Upon which, says Cuj-nells, ' I am his in- 
 terpreter, therefore my chance to escape is small.' The idea of 
 the mines operated so strongly upon their imaginations, that they 
 precipitately fled. This custom, of taking up traders ignorant 
 of the language, laws and customs of Spain, upon frivolous 
 reports, if persevered in, will have effects of the most pernicious 
 tendency. * * * You were lucky that the American stores 
 were broken up by us, upon the Altamaha ; or else, after paying 
 you some part of their skins, the whole of the Lower Creeks and 
 part of the Upper Towns would have, in future, gone to them 
 
 385 - — 25 
 
386 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 for supplies, so greatly have the traders been alarmed by the late 
 proceedings at Pensacola. If our friends, the Spaniards, knew 
 how very delicate it was to awaken the suspicions and fears of 
 my people, by harsh measures, they would use none in future. 
 All the traders that have already gone to you, 1 was positively 
 obliged to drive down, or you would not have seen one, for they 
 would rather have gone to St. Marks or St. Johns. I hope all 
 this is now subsided in Pensacola, for I am ashamed and sorry 
 for it. 1 can see no reason for all this bustle. If the Grand Turk, 
 or any other power, chooses to make me a present, provided they 
 are not at war with Spain, they cannot be reasonably offended 
 with me for accepting it. We are a free people, and mean to con- 
 tinue so. * * * Your letter of the 2d runs in the 
 1788 same strain of advice as your others, advising and ex- 
 Sept, horting me to be guarded in treating with the Ameri- 
 cans, and to reserve our trade wholly to Spain. Gov- 
 ernor Miro has instructed me to the same puipose, and which 
 I am fully resolved to do, that is, it I have power to offer and 
 insist upon any stipulations, and so I have answered his Ex- 
 cellency. But I was apprehensive that our late royal orders 
 (concerning our treaty with the Americans), now strictly operat- 
 ing, would embarrass our affairs, if not altogether frustrate our 
 intentions, regarding trade : because, if I comprehend the order 
 right, it is that I must treat of peace, and measures which I have 
 found fault with, to enforce ■ it. It must be, of course, allowed 
 that every power to insist upon an article of that kind, or, indeed, 
 any other, is wholly taken from me — for experience has proved 
 that such matters are only to be attained by the longest fire and 
 point of sword, particularly with the Americans. So, as our 
 affairs now stand, I cannot see a chance of our resisting any con- 
 ditions which they may choose to dictate to us, and we all can 
 foresee these will be no means favorable to our present 
 1788 condition. In the meantime, I have thrown some ob- 
 Sept. stacles in the way of the present treaty, and have written 
 
THE DEEP INTEIGUES OF m'GILLIVEAY. 387 
 
 to Governor Miro, stating these matters in a strong point of 
 view, which he mentions he has referred to the Captain- Gen- 
 eral Esplelata, of Havana. The letter is dated 28th August, and 
 sent by one Nolen,a genteel young Irishman, whom the governor 
 desired me to forward to Cumberland, with some propositions 
 towards a commercial treaty. 
 
 " The present interregnum in the American government, and 
 the commissioners putting off the treaty until the next spring, 
 will afford us all time to look around us. Whitefleld's letter will 
 show you the dispositions of the Georgians; The United States 
 oommissioners wanted the Assembly to co-operate, in a treaty of 
 peace, and the House would not assemble. The Georgians pro- 
 claimed a truce of arms with us, on the 31st July. A Coweta 
 Indian gave me, lately, a wretched, dirty and scandalous scrawl, 
 ■on foul paper, which he found on a tree, near Flint river. It 
 proved to-be a threatening talk to me and my savage subjects; 
 that we (the Creeks) should have no establishment of peace until 
 they (the Georgians) shall have full satisfaction of all their de- 
 sires, etc. Signed, James Alexander, the 15th August. The 
 chap that signs is Colonel Alexander, who murdered the Cus- 
 setas. He and Clarke sway Upper Georgia. 
 
 " The impolicy of certain late measures, in tieing us up, is 
 •evident. If we could have followed up our blows, those fellows, 
 «re this time, would have been effectually humbled ; but we have 
 all our work to do over again. 
 
 " I observe, with much satisfaction, that the Governor and 
 Intendant of New Orleans have relinquished their claim 
 of one-fourth of the profits of your trade. Sucha pro- 1788 
 <jedure is extremely generous, and, as for my part, I now Sept. 
 repeat to you what I told you more than twelve months 
 ago, when we were talking upon the subject of the trade. I then 
 observed that my nation was much benefited by the honorable 
 and liberal manner in which you supplied them with goods ; that, 
 as my attention was wholly occupied about my people, it could 
 
388 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 not be in my power to be of any essential service to your busi- 
 ness ; therefore I could not, and ought not, to claim or hold a 
 share of your industry and risks. * * * In the meantime, I 
 am thankful for the generous credit of necessaries which you 
 offered me, and if I conclude a peace with the Americans, which 
 I expect to do, it will be in my power and ability to settle my 
 account with you. These gentry will probably restore me my 
 property now among them. 
 
 " Our Indian news is in the old strain. The Congress, on 
 the one hand, pretends to hold out the white wing to all the 
 Southern nations ; on the other, the back settlers of North Caro- 
 lina are overrunning the Cherokees, driving them into the woods, 
 murdering women and children, as if they wished to extirpate 
 these poor wretches. A party of my warriors lately 
 1788 went among the Cherokees, collected some of them from 
 Sept. their hiding places, and attacked a body of the Franklin 
 troops, that were laying all waste before them, and com- 
 pletely routed them. Only three Americans escaped. This is 
 the first check they ever got in that country, and it has revived 
 the drooping spirits of the Cherokees. 
 
 " During our present suspense and half truce, I have en- 
 couraged a considerable party of the Upper Creek warriors to go 
 to the assistance of these poor devils, for a few more checks will 
 be of great service to their affairs with the Americans. » * * 
 I have instructed Daniel McGillivray, concerning the skins he 
 carries down, of the Wewocoe store. This specimen of the 
 troubles of trade has sickened me with it. 
 
 « Farewell, my dear sir, may every good attend you. 
 " Yours most truly, 
 
 " ALEXANDER McGILLIVRAY." 
 « To William Panton, Pensacola." 
 
 The perusal of this letter has revealed the motives of its au- 
 thor. McGillivray had offended the Spanish authorities, and 
 
THE DEEP INTBIGUES OF m'GILLIVEAY. 389 
 
 this letter appears to have been written chiefly for their eyes- 
 He affects, also, to be under great obligations to Panton, and of 
 little service to him in their commercial connection, 
 which he pretends to desire shall terminate. This was 1788 
 all done for the purpose of alarming Panton, whom he Sept. 
 informs he hopes to be able to pay up, if he Should make 
 a favorable treaty with the Americans. The wily Chieftain well 
 knew that both Spain and this distinguished merchant would 
 make any sacrifice, before they would permit him to be bought 
 up by the Americans, and that his letter would go to extort from 
 them further favors and emoluments. 
 
 During the succeeding twelve months, the Federal Govern- 
 ment seized upon every occasion to gain the friendship of Mc- 
 Gillivray, and to put an end to the excitement in Geor- 
 gia. H. Osborne and Andrew Pickens were all the time 1789 
 upon the frontiers, representing the General Govern- 
 ment, and writing to McGillivray to meet them, with a delega^ 
 tion from the entire Creek nation, at Rock Landing, upon the 
 Oconee, to settle the serious matters in dispute. The Chieftain 
 at length arranged to meet them ; but, just before the time of 
 joining them, wrote the following letter to Panton, which he re- 
 quested should privately be exhibited to the Spanish authorities : 
 
 "Little Tallase, 10th August, 1789. 
 
 " Dear Sir : — There being no pack-horses going to 
 Pensacola for a long time past, I have had no oppor- 1789 
 tunity to answer your last letters. The bearer, on my Aug. 10 
 promising him two kegs of taffai, has undertaken to 
 convey these to you. 
 
 " Galphin, whom I sent to the Rock Landing with a talk, de- 
 clining the treaty of June last, returned about a fortnight since, 
 and I find that they are resolved upon making a treaty. In order 
 to accommodate us the commissioners are complaisant enough to 
 postpone it till the 15th of next month, and one of them, the late 
 
390 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Chief Justice Osborne, remains all the time at Kock Landing. 
 
 Pickens returned for the Cherokee treaty ; but in this I took 
 
 measures to disappoint him, for those Chiefs would not 
 
 1789 meet. In this do you not see my cause of triumph, in. 
 Aug. 10 bringing these conquerors of the Old and masters of the 
 New World,' as they call themselves, to bend and sup- 
 plicate for peace at the feet of a people whom shortly before they 
 despised and marked out. for destruction;* 
 
 " My being all at home, and the grand ceremony of kind- 
 ling the new fire being just over, I deem it the fittest time to 
 meet these commissioners, and have accordingly made the 
 broken days, of which nine are left, to set out in. In conducting 
 the business of the treaty I will, as you observe, confine it to the 
 fixing of our limits and the acknowledgment of the independence 
 of my nation. This I deem very necessa,ry, as the Americans 
 pretend to a territorial claim and sovereignty over us in virtue of 
 the late peace made with England. This being settled will, in a 
 great measure, be doing away with any cause of future quarrel 
 between us. You well know how customary it is in all treaties 
 with the Indians to agree to a commercial one also, it being abso- 
 lutely necessary, as it more firmly attaches them to 
 
 1789 friendships formed ; for without stipulations of that 
 Aug. 10 5ort in a treaty of peace, none will be lasting. However, 
 in this instance I will agree to none, as you have a pros- 
 pect of being able,, by the favor of the Spanish government, to 
 supply this trade on as moderate, terms as the Georgians can do. 
 Here let me observe to you, that in the affair of trade the Ameri- 
 cans will push hard for it, and it will be for us the most difficult 
 part of the negotiation. But I will risk the breaking off of the 
 conference before I will give in to it. On the whole, if I find that 
 the commissioners insist upon stipulations that will in their 
 operation clash with those already entered into with Spain,, I 
 
 • I can well imagine bow McG-illirray looked when he wrote this strong and eloquent 
 sentence. At that moment he evidently felt his power, and his face must hare been ex- 
 pressive of much pride, exultation and scorn. 
 
THE DEEP INTRIGUES OF m'gILLITEAY. 891 
 
 shall not hesitate to cut. short the negotiation, and support the 
 connection which we' have with Spain, it being more safe and re- 
 spectable than the republicans .can make one. But at the same 
 time I must insist upon an equal resolution in our friends, the 
 Spaniards, to afford us their decided support by every means in 
 their power, and not under any pretences to repeat their conduct 
 of last summer, in the very moment of vigorous exertion to refuse 
 a further aid, and incense and menace us to make a peace, right 
 or wrong, with the Americans, which, if we had done at the time, 
 we should have been driven into hostility with Spain before this 
 day. I repeat to you what I have frequently done to Governor 
 Miro, that if we are obliged, for want of support, to conclude an 
 unconditional peace with the Americans, it will prove essentially 
 hurtful to the King's interest. 
 
 " The ammunition and arms, given us by the King, we have 
 not yet been able to fetch away. It is a good store in hand; to make 
 ourselves firm in treating with the Americans. But I am 
 miserably disappointed in the guns. These, my people, 1789 
 who have ever been accustomed to the best English Aug. 10 
 guns, find the greatest difficulty to use, being entirely 
 unfitted either for the purposes of hunting or war. They may 
 say they have no other ; but I pointed out where they may be 
 got, and, if our friends resolve to support us, they might do it 
 with that which is good. 
 
 « A chief of the Coosawdas, named Red Shoes, has lately re- 
 turned from New Orleans, very well satisfied with the reception 
 and treatment there, and has brought a very good talk with him, 
 and I am equally satisfied that the western horizon is again 
 cleared up, and looks fair, and so it will always continue, if the 
 intention of adopting, as good Spaniards — * * * The rest- 
 less American is entirely given up, 1 mean in our neighborhood, 
 between us and the Choctaws. I have observed to Governor 
 Miro, that the reasons he gave me for settling Americans on the 
 west side of the Mississippi are founded in real political princi- 
 
392 HisTOBT or Alabama. 
 
 pies, and I truly wish it was in tbe compass of our power to 
 drive them all from the Cumberland and Ohio, to seek tbe new 
 asylum, so, being moved out of our way, our warriors would 
 never follow them there. The Coosawda Chief, Red Shoes, being 
 disgusted with Captain Folch, of Fort ' Tombecbe,' resolved to 
 go to Grovernor Miro, who satisfied him. Between you and I, be- 
 lieve me, that Folch is a madman. If he had spoken to an assembly 
 of the Creek Chiefs, as he did to the Alabamas, challenged them 
 to war, and exhibited to them his swivels, etc., he would have 
 been directly taken at his word. He has been heard to declare 
 that any person who would murder me should be protected in 
 Spanish limits. I .do not doubt his evil intention, as he has 
 already given a specimen of it, in having assassins to murder a 
 poor fellow, Lawrence, in the house of my sister, Sehoy Weather- 
 ford.* Such men, in ofiGlcial stations, do great injury to their 
 country, at one time or another. This has been proved. 
 
 "My friend, the governor, is likewise possessed with the 
 belief that all the damage done the settlers below is done by 
 us; but it is wrong. The whole was a few horses and men 
 taken, and my sister Durant took back the greater portion of 
 these from the Coosawdas. But, at present, the Choctaw is the 
 favorite, and all the outrages which they commit are carefully 
 turned upon us by their partizans. It is notorious that the 
 Choctaws are discontented, and Indians never fail to manifest it, 
 either in taking scalps or committing depredations, which last 
 they do, for it is common for them to kill horses and cattle, etc., 
 on ' Tombecbe,' and this summer even about Mobile. But all 
 this is concealed from Governor Miro. Ben James, who is so 
 
 * Lawrence was killed in the house of Sehoy Weatherford, then situated upon the 
 spot where Colonel Charles Hooks formerly lived, and which is now owned by Maurice 
 Connolly. In those days a man and his wife seldom lived in the same house. The hus- 
 band, Charles Weatherford, lived at his race track, a few miles above, on the Alabama. 
 Lawrence and others were accused of stealing horses from the Spaniards, near Mobile, 
 and Captain Folch sent some equally bad men in pursuit of them. The accused took 
 refuge in Sehoy Weatherford's house. It was surrounded, and Lawrence was killed in 
 the middle of the floor. The others escaped. It is this circumstance to which MoGil- 
 livray alludes. I derived these facts from Lachlan Durant, who was at the house of his 
 aunt Weatherford when Lawrence was killed. Durant was then a boy. 
 
THE DEEP INTKIGUES OF m'GILLIVEAT. 393 
 
 much confided in, is privately an American agent, and has act- 
 ually a commission, which he received from Georgia, to act with 
 Davenport, and I know, could he be supported with any neces- 
 saries by the Americans, he would throw off the mask. He was 
 even weak enough to address me for leave to open a trade with 
 the States, which I refused him, as well as his applica- 
 tion. As a proof of my assertions respecting the Choc- 1789 
 taws, Folch sent them a talk this summer, menacing Aug. 10 
 them with a stoppage of their trade, until they made 
 satisfaction. I am ever ready to make allowances for a momen- 
 tary impression, caused by false reports ; but it would be better 
 that they were more guarded against, and not made the grounds 
 of making differences, which might produce a serious effect. 
 The late menaces which were thrown out to me created no great 
 anxiety in my mind, because I could have directly opened the 
 eastern door, where large magazines of goods, etc., have been 
 stored for some time past, awaiting it to be opened, but, for peace 
 and quietness sake, I hope that there will be no occasion now for 
 it — as everything is fallen into a calm, so let it remain ; and all 
 that I have said or done was solely to discover and show the 
 means to prevent it, I hope forever, between us. 
 
 " The Chickasaw nation are content (whatever Diego Mingo 
 may say to the contrary,) to put up with the loss of that 
 chap's brother and son, for having fallen in bad com- 1789 
 pany. This will be a warning, and convince them that Aug. 10 
 they will not be permitted, with impunity, to act or 
 encourage hostile designs against us, in concert with any people. 
 
 " Now, let me talk a little upon my private affairs. I wish 
 I could lay my hand on that last letter, to send you, and a very 
 curious, and, to you, not an uninteresting Carolina newspaper, 
 just redieived; but they are both swallowed up in a multitude of 
 papers. You know how it is with me, in the paper way. The 
 commissioners of the United States say it would give them great 
 pleasure to have a private conversation, previous to our entering 
 
394 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 into the business of the treaty, as it would tend to make it go on 
 agreeably, and with more ease. I need not interpret this para- 
 graph to you, when you already know that I have, for some time 
 past, been endeavoring to recover my house and lands, with my 
 family estate, which, to your knowledge, is more than £30,000 
 sterling, the offer of which is now, I expect, to be pressed upon 
 me. And there has, since I saw you last, arisen considerable con- 
 flict in my mind, in revolving these matters over. Here am I, 
 an absolute heavy tax upon you, for years, and, in fact, not 
 only for my private support, but for all the extra expenses of 
 this department; and although, my dear sir, I know that I 
 can still depend upon your generosity, and in your friendship, 
 that you overlook the heavy expense that I put you to, yet you 
 well know how hurtful it is to the feeling heart, to be beholden 
 to subsist on the bounty of private friendship. Thus situated, I 
 ask — I wish you to give me your opinion. On the one hand, I 
 am offered the restoration of my property, of more than one hun- 
 dred thousand dollars, at the least valuation : and on the other, 
 not wherewithal to pay an interpreter. And I find that letters 
 are still addressed to me, as agent for his Catholic Majesty, when 
 
 I have some time ago renounced the pittance that was 
 
 1789 allowed, as being a consideration disgraceful to my sta- 
 
 Aug. 10 tion. If they want my services, why is not a regular 
 
 establishment made, as was done by the English, with a 
 competent salary affixed, and allowance for two interpreters, one 
 among the Upper and one among the Lower Towns, for hitherto 
 I have had to maintain them myself ; or shall I have recourse to 
 my American estate, to maintain them and myself? I wish you 
 to advise me what I had best do. 
 
 "Although I have no solid ground to hope a complete ad- 
 justnient of our dispute with the Americans, I am resolved to go, 
 if it is only to wipe oft" the suggestion made to me by our friends, 
 that I am actuated by unjust motives and an unreasonable pre- 
 judice against the Americans, as the ground of hostility against 
 
THE DEEP INTKIGITES OF m'gi'LLIVBAY. 395 
 
 tbem. But if they, on the other hand, should find a body 
 of people approaching their mines, would not they say, What 
 business have you here? Do not you know that there are 
 ground[s from which we draw the chief source of our conven- 
 iences and happiness, and we cannot suffer you to participate in, 
 or deprive us of them ; and these encroachers should refuse to 
 withdraw, would they not commence and support an inveterate 
 hostility, until they should expel them ? 
 
 " The fellow, Remain, whom Madame Villar writes of, was 
 a great liar. He came here from the Choctaws, with a quantity 
 of silverware and a few goods, and wanted Nick White 
 to join him in purchasing negroes, to carry and sell in 1789 
 New Orleans. After roving about for some time, he Aug. 10 
 had a difiSculty with Milfort,* who threatened to send 
 him, in irons, to New Orleans, which terrified him, apparently, 
 and he went off to the Creek town, Chehaw, and, from thence, 
 either to Detroit or to the States. 
 
 "A copy of this letter you can send to the **** Miro, as I in- 
 tended the former one. 
 
 " I expect our treaty will be over by the middle of Septem- 
 ber. If we return safe, expect a visit early in October, from, 
 "Dear sir, yours most truly, 
 
 "ALEXANDER McGILL,IVRAY." 
 " To William Panton, Pensacola." 
 
 William Panton was under great obligations to McGilliv- 
 ray, for the power of the Chieftain had enriched him beyond 
 measure. He now had large trading establishments at all 
 the prominent posts of Florida. His chief store was at Pensa- 
 cola. It usually contained a stock of goods to the value of fifty 
 thousand dollars, and he employed fifteen clerks to attend to 
 it. Here he had extensive "skin-houses," where his valuable 
 skins and rich furs were assorted, and packed up, for foreign 
 
 * The French oflacer who lived so long in the nation. 
 
396 HISTORY OP ALABAMAi 
 
 markets. Besides his stores at St. Johns, St. Marks, St. Augus- 
 tine, Pensaoola and Mobile, he had trading establishments at the 
 Chickasaw Bluff, upon the Mississippi. It is said that fifteen 
 schooners, owned by himself, were constantly employed by him, 
 in his business. How alarming to him, then, was the preceding 
 letter of McGillivray, and how anxious was he that no treaty 
 should be made with the Americans, that would affect his ex- 
 tensive commerce. McGillivray, on the other hand, was in a 
 situation the most favorable to obtain honors and emoluments, 
 and he could well threaten the Spaniards with "opening the 
 eastern door " — the Americans with support from the King of 
 Spain — and alarm Panton with the idea of a new commercial 
 treaty. This able and ingenious Indian, Scotchman or French- 
 man, (for who can tell which blood most influenced his disposi- 
 tion), kept Panton, Spain and the United States in a 
 1789 state of feverish excitement, while Georgia was horribly 
 harassed, and made to feel his malignant resentments, 
 for the banishment of his father and the confiscation of his 
 patrimony. 
 
 Washington was now President. He associated with Gen. 
 Pickens, David Humphreys, Cyrus GrifEln and Benjamin Lin- 
 coln, as commissioners, to treat with McGillivray. These three 
 gentlemen, sailing from New York, arrived at Savan- 
 Sept. 10 nah, with abundant provisions to feed the Indians, 
 while at the treaty ground. In a few days, they reached 
 Rock Landing, upon the Oconee, where McGillivray, at the head 
 of two thousand warriors, had been encamped for more than a 
 week, on the western bank of the river. The commissioners 
 pitched their camp on the eastern bank. The first two days were 
 spent in private conferences with McGillivray, much to the satis- 
 faction of the commissioners, for they were treated by him with 
 great courtesy and politeness. The latter also visited most of 
 the Chiefs, who all appeared friendly, and glad to make 
 1789 their acquaintance. The commissioners crossed the 
 Sept. 24 river, to the western side, and, after partaking of the 
 
THE DEEP INTRIGUES OB' m'GILLIVEAT. 397 
 
 black drink, were conducted, by the Chiefs, with great pomp 
 and ceremony, to the place of council." One of them made 
 a speech to the Indians, promising much liberality on the part of 
 the United States, which was well received. Impressed with the 
 fayorable turn of things, as they supposed, they immediately 
 read to the Chiefs a copy of the treaty, which they had drawn 
 up. It stipulated that the boundary made at Augusta, Should- 
 erbone and Galphinton should remain ; that the United States 
 would guarantee the territory, west of that boundary, forever to 
 the Creeks ; that a free trade should be established with the In- 
 dians, from ports upon the Altamaha, through which the In- 
 dians could import and export, upon the same terms as the citi- 
 zens of the United States. That all negroes, horses, goods and 
 American citizens, taken by the Indians, should be restored. 
 
 The commissioners then retired to their encampments, and 
 that night McGillivray and his Chiefs went into a grand pri- 
 vate council. • The next morning the Chieftain informed the 
 commissioners, by letter, that the terms they proposed were 
 not satisfactory, and that the Indians had resolved to break up 
 and go home. He promised to meet them again at some future 
 time, and to keep his warriors from acts of hostility during the 
 ensuing winter. The commissioners were astounded, for they 
 had imagined that everything was in a proper train. But the 
 terms they proposed "were unaccompanied with a solitary equiva- 
 lent, and exhibited an extremely niggardly spirit, from which the 
 high-minded Andrew Pickens wholly dissented. He knew that 
 a treaty could not be made without liberal compensation for the 
 valuable lands which the Georgians were then cultivat- 
 ing. The federal powers also knew this, and had in- 1789 
 structed the commissioners to pay the Creeks a fair Sept. 
 equivalent for this territory. They now sought every 
 means to induce McGillivray to remain, and begged him to state 
 his grounds of objection to the draft of the treaty. But he broke 
 up his encampment and retreated to the Ockmulgee, from which 
 place he addressed the commissioners the following letter : 
 
898 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 "OcKMULGEE RivEE, 27th Sept., 1789. 
 
 " Gentlemen : — I am favored with your letter of yesterday, by 
 Weatherford. I beg to assure you that my retreat from my far- 
 mer camp on the Oconee was entirely owing to the want of food 
 for our horses, and at the earnest entreaty of our Chiefs. Col- 
 onel Humphreys and myself at diflEerent interviews entered 
 deeply and minutely into the subject of the contest between our 
 nation and the State of Georgia. I observed to him that I ex- 
 pected ample and full justice should be given us in restoring to 
 us the encroachments we complained of, in which the Oconee 
 lands are included ; but finding that there was no such intention, 
 and that a restitution of territory and hunting grounds was not 
 to be the basis of a treaty between us, I resolved to return to 
 the nation, deferring the matter in full peace till next spring. 
 Many of. the principals have gone hunting — nothing further can 
 be done. I am very unwell, and cannot return. We sincerely 
 desire a peace, but cannot sacrifice much to obtain it. As for a 
 statement of our disputes, the honorable Congress has long since 
 been in possession of and has declared that they will decide on 
 them on the principles of justice and humanity. 'Tis that we 
 expect. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, etc., 
 
 "ALEXANDER McGILLIVRAY." 
 " To the Hon. Commissioners, Rock Landing." 
 
 The commissioners repaired to Augusta with their fingers in 
 their mouths. They drew up a series of questions for Governor 
 Walton, of Georgia, who answered them. He stated that the lands 
 between the mountains and the old Ogechee line, north of the 
 Oconee, were equally the property of the Creeks and Cherokees ; 
 that before the revolution the lands in the territory of Wilkes 
 couhty were ceded by these tribes to Georgia; that during the war 
 the province had been attacked by these Indians, and at the close of 
 it they were respectively dalled upon to make some satisfaction ; 
 
THE DEEP INTRIGUES OP m'gILLIVKAY. 399 
 
 that in the spring of 1783 the Cherokees came to Augusta and 
 signed a treaty, and the Lower Creeks came in the autumn 
 and performed the same act, thus ceding to Georgia their re- 
 spective rights to lands specified in these treaties. These 
 treaties were laid before the legislature. These lands 1789 
 were surveyed, sold, settled and cultivated in peace ; Nov. 
 that the Indians made these cessions voluntarily, and 
 received presents, in return, of value, and that, at the treaty of 
 Galphinton, no unworthy use was made of the force which was 
 sent upon the ground. 
 
 Governor Walton appended tc this statement, a list of the 
 Georgians who had been killed, and of the property stolen, during 
 the recent hostilities, which was alarming in magnitude.* 
 
 The first impulse of Pi-esident Washington, upon the return 
 of the commissioners to New York, was to wage a war of invasion 
 against the Creeks and compel them to make a , peace, and re- 
 linquish the Oconee lands. He was influenced to this course, 
 against his judgment, by the urgent demands of the Georgia 
 delegation in Congress. But when he found, from an estimate, 
 that the expenses of the war would amount to fifteen 
 millions of dollars, he abandoned the project, believing 1789 
 that the General Government could not sustain such an 
 expense, while it was still struggling with that incurred by a 
 long war with England. He believed that the difficulties could 
 yet be settled by negotiation, if he could once get Colonel McGil- 
 livray into his presence. Colonel Marinus Willett, a native of 
 Long Island, New York, and a distinguished officer in the Cana- 
 dian war, and the American ]pevolution, was selected by Wash- 
 ington, as a secret agent, to visit the Creek nation, by a circuitous 
 route; and to endeavor to return, with McGillivray, to the seat of 
 the Federal Government. He was strictly enjoined to keep his 
 mission a profound secret from every one, except General Pickens, 
 to whom he bore a letter. Colonel Willett sailed from New York, 
 
 * American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 65-78. 
 
400 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 with a servant and two horses, and, after a passage of fourteen 
 days, arrived in Charleston. Leaving this place, he had not pro- 
 ceeded far, before the servant, manifesting much fear, was ordered 
 
 back to New York, while a German, of doubtful charac- 
 
 1790 ter, supplied his place. Colonel "Willett reached the 
 
 Apr. 13 residence of General Andrew Pickens, on the Seneca 
 
 river. General Pickens was a gentleman who had been 
 engaged extensively, as we have already seen, in negotiations 
 with the Indians, and one in whom Washington reposed great 
 
 confidence. Obtaining from General Pickens an Indian 
 Apr. 19 guide for the Cherokee country, and purchasing two 
 
 additional horses, he sat out to complete his lonely and 
 difiBcult mission, after having enjoyed for several days the hos- 
 pitality and kindness of that distinguished revolutionary charac- 
 ter. Pursuing his journey leisurely, the Cherokee town of Santee, 
 containing eighteen houses, and surrounded by mountains, was 
 first reached. The route lay through Little Chote, and the town of 
 Huntowekee, which embraced both sides of a branch of the Coosa, 
 and contained about fifty houses. Along the banks of the Etowah, 
 Colonel Willett entered Newcoheta, or Long Swamp, where 
 he met Mr. Thomas Gogg, to whom he bore a letter from Gen- 
 eral Pickens. This gentleman accompanied him to Pine Log, 
 where he had long resided, as a trader among the Cherokees, and 
 introduced him to Yellow Bird, the Chief, who not only received 
 him with unaffected hospitality, but invited him to witness the 
 novel and exciting game of the ball play. On the banks of the 
 river, they reached Eustenaree, a city of refuge, to which the 
 guilty were wont to fly and be safe from punishment. No blood 
 could be shed within the bounds of its sacred corporation. Here 
 resided two Indian Chiefs, Badger and Jobberson, who gave him 
 a warm reception, induced by the letters of General Pickens. 
 The next morning Jobberson and the interpreter, Mr. 
 1790 Carey, having agreed to accompany him to the Creek 
 April 28 nation, the party all proceeded to Hihote, the last of 
 
THE DEEP INTEIGUBS OF m'gILLIVEAT. 401 
 
 the Cherokee towns in this direction, crossed the Etowah 
 in a canoe, swam the horses, and ascended the Pumpkin 
 Posh mountain, which is nearly a day's travel from the river.. 
 The wealthy Mr. Scott, a European, who had long been a trader 
 in the nation; resided in the first Creek settlement, which they 
 now entered. -Here, learning that McGillivray was then 
 on a visit to Ocfuske, on the Tallapoosa river, Colonel April 30 
 Willett determined to join him at that place. Since 
 he liad left the borders of South Carolina, more than ten days 
 had been consumed in his solitary march over a wilderness 
 country, which was the constant scene of murder and robbery. 
 The expenses of the expedition, chiefly for provender, were paid 
 for in ribbons and paints. At the house of Mr. Graison, in the 
 Hillabees, the secret agent had the good fortune to meet Colonel 
 McGillivray. He describes him as a " man of an open, generous 
 mind, with a good judgment and very tenacious memory." De- 
 livering the important letter of General Washington, two days 
 were passed in conversation with this distmguished Indian per- 
 sonage, and here Colonel Willett, for the first time, wit- 
 nessed the religious ceremony of the black drink. The 1790 
 party, accompanied by Colonel McGillivray and his ser- May 3 
 vant, took leave of the hospitable mansion of Graison, 
 and, aftet ten miles travel, approached the Pish Pond Town, 
 where, in the evening, they were honored with a dance by the 
 inhabitants. They soon arrived at the Hickory Ground, 
 a large town, and one of the residences of Colonel Mc- May 4 
 Gillivray. Here, it was understood that the Indians of 
 Coosawda were engaged in a grand busking for mGlberries. 
 
 It was not long before Colonel McGillivray sent out ten 
 broken days, for the Chiefs of the Lower Towns to meet at 
 Ositchy to consult on public business; and, during this time. 
 Colonel Willett amused himself in riding about the vicinity. He 
 visited the old French fort, " Toulouse," the remains of which 
 were scarcely visible. He tarried several days at Little Tallase, 
 
 26 
 
402 HISTORY O*? ALABAMA. 
 
 the birthplace of McGillivray, "which was also called the "Apple' 
 Grove," situated on the east bank of the Coosa, five miles 
 above the Hickory Ground, a most delightful and well im- 
 proved place. Here he fared sumptuously on fish, venison, 
 strawberries and mulberries. On the 12th of May the agent 
 and McGillivray, with their servants, set out eastwardly, and 
 arrived at the great town of Tookabatcha at four o'clock 
 in the evening, and passed the night with Mr. Curnells, the 
 interpreter. Crossing, the Tallapoosa, in company with their 
 host, they went by the house of the Tallase King, and saw a 
 Scotchman, named James McQueen, who had been, a trader for 
 sixty years, in the nation. The next day, they passed the resi- 
 dence of the Hollowing King, and reached Coweta, upon the 
 Chattahoochie river, where Mr. Deresau, the interpreter, shel- 
 tered them for the night. Many of this numerous population 
 were engaged in drinking taflfai, and the night was spent in 
 much noise and carousal. Passing down to Ositchy the next 
 morning, these distinguished gentlemen remained there, await- 
 ing the arrival of the Chiefs, when, at 11 o'clock a. m.. Colonel 
 Willett, the secret agent, delivered to the assembled wisdom of 
 the Creek confederacy an address, the substance of which was, 
 that he had been sent an immense distance by our Great Chief, 
 
 George Washington, to invite them to his council-house, 
 
 1790 at New York, where he, with his own hand, wished to 
 
 May 17 sign, with Colonel McGillivray, a treaty of peace and 
 
 alliance. He stated to them that the United States 
 wanted none of their lands, and that Washington would take 
 effectual measures to secure their territory to them, according to 
 the treaty which he and Colonel McGillivray ^vould conclude ; 
 that the President was ready to promote their trade, by afford- 
 ing them means to procure goods in a cheap and easy manner, 
 and intended to perform other acts which would promote the 
 welfare and happiness of the Creek nation. Colonel Willett con- 
 cluded his speech by earnestly inviting them to embrace these 
 
THE DEEP INTEIGUBS OF m'GILLIVRAT. 403 
 
 terms, and to select such Chiefs as they chose to accompany 
 Colonel McGillivray "to the great council-house of New York, 
 where Washington would make a treaty with their Great Chief 
 "as strong as the hills aqd lasting as the rivers." 
 
 Retiring for an hour from the vast assembly, whom he left 
 to deliberate upon his overtures, Colonel Willett was again called 
 in, when he received the following speech from the Hollowing 
 King, a flne-looking man and great orator: 
 
 " We are glad to see you. ' You have come a great way, and, 
 as soon as we fixed our eyes upon you, we were made glad. We 
 are poor, and have not the knowledge of the white people. We 
 Avere invited to the treaty at the Rock Landing. We went there. 
 Nothing was done. We were disappointed, and came back with 
 sorrow. The road to your gr^at council-house is long, and the 
 weather is hot; but our beloved Chief shall go with you, 
 and such others as we may appoint. We will agree to 1790 
 all things which our beloved Chief ^hall do. We will May 17 
 count the time he is away, and, when he comes back, we 
 shall be glad to see him with a treaty that shall be ' as strong as 
 the hills and lasting as the rivers.' May you be preserved from 
 every evil." 
 
 Having negotiated this business to the mutual satisfaction 
 of himself and the warriors. Colonel Willett returned to Coweta 
 that evening, and the next morning assumed the retrograde 
 march for Tookabatcha, where he arrived on the 21st, partook of 
 the ceremony of the black drink, and received a speech from the 
 venerable White Lieutenant, as the voice of the Upper CreeKs, 
 breathing sentiments similar to those delivered at Ositchy. Late 
 in the evening of the next day McGillivray and the agent arrived 
 at the Hickory Ground. From this place Colonel Willett des- 
 patched a letter to the Secretary of War, by the hands of Mr- 
 €arey, tbe Cherokee interpreter. 
 
 Finally, Colonel McGillivray, with his nephew and two ser- 
 vants, accompanied by the secret agent, set out from Little Tal- 
 
404 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 lase for New York. They were all mounted on horse- 
 1790 back, and accompanied by several pack-horses. Taking 
 June 1 a northeastern direction through the wilderness, they 
 arrived at the Stone Mountain, in the present State of 
 Georgia, and were there joined by the Coweta and Cusseta 
 Chiefs. Reaching the house of General Pickens, the party 
 received the warmest welcome, and, after being joined by the 
 Tallase King, Chinnobe, the " great Natchez warrior," and other 
 Chiefs, the expedition again set out, \^ith three wagons, in which 
 rode twenty-six warriors, while four were on horseback. Colonel 
 McGillivray and suit were mounted on horses, and, the agent rode 
 in a sulky. At Guildford C. H., North Carolina, a truly affecting 
 scene occurred, f Some years before this the Creeks had killed a 
 man named Brown, and captured his wife and children, 
 June whom they brought to the nation. Colonel McGillivray, 
 moved at their unfortunate situation, redeemed them 
 from slavery by paying the price of their ransom, as he had done 
 many others, and maintained them at his house over a year. Mrs. 
 Brown, hearing of the arrival of Colonel McGillivray, rushed 
 through the large assembly at the court house, and, with a flood 
 of tears, almost overpowered him with expressions of admiration 
 of his character, and gratitude for his preservation of her life, and 
 that of her children, while alone in a land of savages^ The party 
 passed through Richmond and Fredericksburg, where they were 
 treated with much kindness, while Colonel McGillivray 
 1790 was received by the most prominent citizens with distin- 
 July 17 guished consideration. Arriving at Philadelphia, Col- 
 onel Willett and his party were there entertained, for 
 three days, in a manner which could not fail to please. Entering 
 a sloop at Elizabethtown Point, they landed in New York, where 
 the Tammany Society, in the full dress of their order, received 
 them in splendor, marched them up Wall street by the Federal 
 Hall, where Congress was then in session, and next to the house 
 of the President, to whom they were introduced with much pomp 
 
THE DEEP INTKIGUES OF m'GILLIVEAT. 405 
 
 and ceremony. Then, visiting the Minister of War and Governor 
 Clinton, a sumptuous and elegant entertainment at the City 
 Tavern finished the day.* 
 
 When it beqame known that McGillivray had departed for 
 New York, great excitement arose in Florida and Louisiana.. A 
 correspondence began with the Captain -General at Havana, and 
 ending by his despatching from East Florida an agent with a 
 large sum of money to New York; ostensibly to buy flour, but 
 really to embarrass the negotiations with the Creeks. Washing- 
 ton, apprised of the presence of this officer, had his movements 
 so closely observed, that the object of his mission was defeated. 
 
 Washington, communicating with the Senate, advised that 
 the negotiations with McGillivray should be conducted infor- 
 mally, as all the overtures hitherto offered by the commissioners 
 had been rejected. Embarrassments existed, because the com- 
 merce of the Creeks was in the hands of a British com- 
 pany, who made their importations from England into 1790 
 Spanish ports. It was necessary that it should be di- 
 verted into American channels; but McGillivray's treaty, at 
 Pensacola, in 1784, could not be disregarded, without a great 
 breach of faith and morals on his part. 
 
 • But finding, from the informal intercourse with thejn, that 
 McGillivray and the Chiefs were ready to treat, upon advan- 
 tageous terms, Henry Knox was appointed to negotiate 
 with them, and a treaty was concluded by him, on the Aug. 7 
 part of the United States, and, on the other, side, by 
 McGillivray and the delegation, representing the whole Creek 
 nation. It stipulated that a permanent peace should be estab- 
 lished between the Creeks and the citizens of the United States ; 
 that the Creeks and Seminoles should be under the protection, 
 solely, of the American government, and that they should not 
 make treaties with any State, or the individuals of any State ; 
 that they should surrender, at Rock Lauding, white prisoners 
 
 * A Narrative of tbe Military Actions of Colonel Marinus Willett, pp. 96-1)3. 
 
406 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 and negroes, taken during the recent hostilities, in default of 
 which the Governor of Georgia was authorized to send persons 
 in the nation to claim and demand them ; that the boundary line 
 between the Creeks and Georgia was to be that claimed by the 
 latter in the treaties which she had made at Augusta and Should- 
 erbone. 
 
 Thus did Alexander McGillivray at last surrender the Oconee 
 lands, about which so much blood had been shed, and so much 
 negotiation wasted. And for what ? For fifteen hundred dol- 
 lars, to be paid annually to the Creek nation, with also some 
 goods, to be distributed among the Indians, which were then in 
 the warehouses of Augusta. The Federal "Government also guar- 
 anteed to them their territory free from future encroachments.* 
 
 Did the proud, the powerful, the shrewd Alexander McGil- 
 livray surrender these valuable lands for the pitiful amount 
 already mentioned? Ah! — but the reader must not be too fast. 
 There was a secret treaty between him and Washington, which 
 now for the first time, comes to light m history. It provided that, 
 after two years from date, the commerce of the Creek 
 1790 nation should be carried on through the ports of the 
 United States, and, in the meantime, through the pres- 
 ent channels ; that the Chiefs of the Ocfu^kees, Tookabatdhas 
 Tallases, Cowetas, Cussetas, and the Seminole nation, should be 
 paid annually, by the United States, one hundred dollars each^ 
 and be furnished with handsome medals ; that Alexander Mc- 
 Gillivray should be constituted agent of the United States, with 
 
 THB BANK OF BErGADIBB GeNEEAL, AND THE PAT OF TWELVE HUN- 
 DEED D0LLAE8 PEE ANNUM ; that the United States should feed, 
 clothe and educate Creek youth at the North, not exceeding four 
 at one time. 
 
 Thus Colonel McGillivray secured to himself new honors, 
 and a good salary, by a secret treaty, which left him in a po- 
 sition to return home and intrigue with Spain. Even in the 
 
 ! '. 
 
 * American State Papers, Indian AfEairs, vol. 1, pp. 81-82. 
 
THE DEEP INTRIGUES OF m'GILLIVBAT. 407 
 
 presence of Washington, and his able cabinet, the Chieftain 
 pushed hard for favorable terms, and received them.* 
 
 Receiving half of his salary in advance, McGillivray left 
 New York, with the Chiefs, for the bright waters of the Ala- 
 bama. A veil of silence covers the acts of the august 
 Chieftain for several months, and we hear nothing more 1780 
 of him, until he was visited, in the nation, by Lieutenant Aug. 18 
 Heth, who bore with him two thousand nine hundred 
 dollars in gold, the balance due to the Chiefs, agreeaWy to the 
 treaty. He brought this money, on pack-horses, from New York 
 around by Virginia and East Tennessee. Heth was instructed 
 to remain with McGillivray a long time, and endeavor to get him 
 to carry out the provisions of the treaty, in regard to the restor- 
 ation of prisoners and negroes, and the running of the line be- 
 tween the Creeks and Georgians. 
 
 * I am indebted to Colonel Jobn A. Campbell, an eminent lawyer of Mobile, and to 
 Mr. Alfred Hennen, a distingniBhed member of the New Orleans bar, for placing in my 
 bands papers filed in the District Court of Louisiana, containing the letters of Alex. 
 McGillivray to Panton, dated at Little Tallase, September 20, 1788, and August 10, 1789, 
 which have been copied in this History, at length. I also found among this file the " se- 
 cret treaty," written upon sheep-skin, and signed by Washington, Knox, McGillivray 
 and the Chiefs. A celebrated law-suit brought in this court by Johnson and other 
 claimants, under the heirs of McGillivray vs. the heirs of Panton, was the means of the 
 preservation of these important historical papers. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 The First Yazoo Sale — Bowles, the Fbeeboothe. 
 
 Geoegia claimed, under a charter of Charles II., all the ter- 
 ritory, from the Savannah to the Mississippi river, lying between 
 31° and 35°. She had, as early as February, 1785, established by 
 legislative enactment, the county of Bourbon, embrac- 
 1789 ing the settlements along the Mississippi, above and be- 
 Dec. low Natchez ; but the occupation of this country by the 
 Spanish government prevented its occupation and set- 
 tlement. 
 
 Governor Telfair approved an act of the General Assembly, 
 at Savannah, which authorized a conditional sale of the larger 
 portion of this wild domain, for the purpose of peopling it, and 
 enriching the treasury of the State. For a little upwards of 
 sixty thousand dollars, five millions of acres, now embracing the 
 territory of the middle counties of Mississippi, were sold to a 
 " South Carolina Yazoo Company." 
 
 Seven millions of acres now embracing the territory of the 
 northern counties of Mississippi, were sold to the "Virginia 
 Yazoo Company," for a little over ninety-three thousand dol- 
 lars. 
 
 Three million, five hundred thousand acres, now embracing 
 the territory of the northern counties of Alabama, were sold for 
 something over forty-six thousand dollars to the "Tennessee 
 Company." 
 
 Spain claimed much of this territory, by conquests made 
 
 towards the close of the revolutionary war, as we have 
 
 1789 already seen, and that power and the United States were 
 
 Dec. now negotiating to settle the boundaries ; but Georgia 
 
 408 
 
THE FIRST YAZOO SALE BOWLES, THE FEEEBOOTEE. 409 
 
 took the matter into her own hands, as she has ever 
 done with whatever concerned her, and as she always will do, as 
 long as her soil is inhabited by its present enterprising, brave 
 and restless population. 
 
 Washington, becoming alarmed at the collision which he 
 supposed would take place between the Federal Government, 
 Georgia, Spain and the Indians,, in consequence of this 
 extraordinary sale of territory, issued a proclamation 1790 
 against the whole enterprise. But the "Tennessee Com- Aug. 25 
 pany " heeded him not. Its head and front, Zachariah 
 Ooxe, with a number of his friends, floated down on flat-boats 
 from East Tennessee to the Muscle Shoals. Here, upon 
 an island, they built a block-house, and other works of 1791 
 defence, intending to sell out much of the best lands, May 
 north and south of the river. But the Cherokees, under 
 the Chief, Class, probably set forward by Governor Blount, of 
 Tennessee, who was the active agent of Washington, advanced 
 upon this establishment, drove Coxe and his adherents out of the 
 block-house, and consumed it by fire. Other efforts were after- 
 wards made to colonize this region;' but were defeated by the 
 opposition of the Chickasaws, the Cherokees and the Federal 
 Government.* 
 
 The "South Carolina Yazoo Company" also attempted to 
 colonize their lands, and for that purpose constituted Dr. James 
 O'Fallan their agent-general, who went to Kentucky, raised 
 troops, and issued commissions, in an illegal manner, with the 
 design of taking the Natchez country from the Spaniards, and 
 peopling the territory. At the same time, Edmund 
 Phelan, the sub-agent of the company, was piloted 1790 
 through the Creek and Choctaw country to Natchez by 
 an old Indian countryman, named Thomas Basket, who was to 
 have been their interpreter. But Washington caused O'Fallan 
 to be arrested, and ordered General St. Clair to put down, by 
 
 * Haywood's History of Tennessee, pp. 249-256. Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 116. 
 
410 HISTORY OF ALABAMA.. 
 
 military force, all attempts to colonize the Natchez country, 
 against which the Spanish Minister had vehemently remonstrated. 
 Great excitement existed; Washington was much embarrassed 
 and much abused. 
 
 The "Virginia Yazoo Company" made no attempts to settle 
 the lands which they had purchased. 
 
 These companies all failed to meet the payments due Georgia 
 for these lands, and that State, by subsequent enactments, re- 
 scinded the whole bargain, having in the meantime withheld 
 grants from the purchasers, which was a condition of sale, until 
 the debt was fully discharged. A great deal of recrimination and 
 abuse passed between the authorities of Georgia and these com- 
 panies, and the people who had innocently suffered in fitting out 
 private enterprises to settle the new region. So ended the first 
 Yazoo sale by the legislature of Georgia. An account of another, 
 and a more important and extensive one, will hereafter be intro- 
 duced.* 
 
 A Quaker of Pennsylvania, named Andrew EUicott, appointed 
 
 by the Federal Government to run the line between the Creeks 
 
 and Georgians, arrived at Rock Landing, upon the Oco- 
 
 1791 nee, in company with James Seagrove, an Irishman, 
 
 May who was appointed Superintendent of the Creek nation. 
 
 At this place the government erected a strong fort, and 
 
 threw into it a large garrison. McGillivray was constantly 
 
 Urged from this point, to cause the Indians to consent to the 
 
 running of the boundary line, and to assist in its execution ; but 
 
 the Chieftain delayed, and threw all the blame upon the hostile 
 
 efforts of an extraordinary man, who must now be introduced to 
 
 the reader. 
 
 William Augustus Bowles, a native of Maryland, at the age 
 of fourteen, entered the British army, as a foot soldier, and, after 
 a year's service against his countrymen, sailed with a Biitish 
 regiment to Jamaica, in 1777, as an ensign, and from thence 
 
 * Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 116-117. Public Lands, vol. 1, pp. 120-121-163. 
 
THE FIRST TAZOO SALE BOWLES, THE FEEEBOOTBE. 411 
 
 went to Pensacola. Here he was deprived of his rank, for ih- 
 subordination. Disgusted with military discipline, and fond of a 
 roving life, he contemptuously flung his uniform into the sea, 
 and left Pensacola in company with some Creeks. He lived 
 upon the Tallapoosa for several years, and acquired the Musco- 
 gee language to great perfection. He visited the Lower Towns, 
 and there married the daughter of a Chief. His elegant and 
 commanding form, fine address, beautiful countenance of varied 
 expressions; his exalted genius, daring and intrepidity, all con- 
 nected with a mind wholly debased and unprincipled, eminently 
 fitted him to sway the bad Indians and worse traders among 
 whom he lived. 
 
 Bowles led a party of Creeks to Pensacola, in 1781, and as- 
 sisted General Campbell to defend that place from the attacks of 
 Don Galvez. He went to New York, joined a company of come- 
 dians, and sailed to New Providence, of the Bahamas. Here he 
 alternately acted upon the stage, and painted portraits, for which 
 he had taste and genius. Lord Dunmore was then the Governor 
 of the Bahamas. Panton, Leslie & Co., despatched to John Forbes, 
 one of their associates, living at New Providence, a schooner, in 
 which were six thousand piastres. Lord Dunmore seized upon 
 this money, as contraband property. Panton instituted a com- 
 plaint to the British Court, when the money was ordered to be 
 returned. Dunmore ever afterwards hated Panton and his 
 co-partners. He selected Bowles as an agent, to establish a com- 
 mercial house upon the Qhattahoochie, which would check the 
 prosperous commerce of these merchants. Bowles shortly 
 appeared among the Lower (Greeks, and threw the weight of 
 his influence against Panton, and against McGillivray and 
 the Georgians, all of whom he despised. But Milfort was sent 
 to the Chattahnochie, with an order for Bowles to leave the 
 nation in twenty-four hours, on penalty of losing his ears. 
 He fled to New Providence, and from thence was sent to Eng- 
 land, by Dunmore, in company with a delegation of Creeks, 
 
412 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Semiaoles and Cherokees, to enlist the English government in the 
 cause of these nations by repelling American aggression. The 
 British Court treated him with kindness, and heaped upon him 
 valuable presents. He soon returned to New Providence, and 
 began a piratical war upon the coasting vessels of Panton, having 
 taught his warriors to navigate the Gulf. He captured some of 
 these vessels, laden with arms and ammunition, ran them up in 
 bayous, where he and an abandoned set of white men from the 
 prisons of London, together with hosts of savages, engaged in 
 protracted debaucheries, and day and night made the woods echo 
 with horrid oaths and panther screams. Panton's boxes of mer- 
 chandise were torn open, distributed among the Indians, and 
 carried to all parts of the nation. Such piratical successes soon 
 gave him popularity in the Creek country.* He now boldly ad- 
 vanced to the heart of it, denouncing General McGillivray as a 
 traitor to his people, and sought to overthrow him and 
 1791 place himself in power. He had many bad men of in- 
 fluence with the Indians, who endeavored to stir up re- 
 bellion. The most conspicuous of these were Willbanks, a native 
 of New York and a refugee tory, and a half-breed Cherokee 
 named Moses Price. His emissaries contended that neither the 
 Americans nor Spaniards had any right to control the Indians, 
 for that England had, not ceded any of their country to either 
 power, and that General McGillivray had endeavored to sell his 
 people, first to Spain and next to the Federal Government. In- 
 deed, at this period McGillivray, for the first time in his life, 
 began to lose the confidence of many of the Chiefs and common 
 Indians, who were indignant at the provisions of the New York 
 treaty, which they openly disavowed. The Spanish authorities 
 were angry with him, and Panton was deceived by him. Bowies 
 even bearded him in his den. All this time the Federal Govern- 
 ment was annoying him with urgent solicitations to comply with 
 
 * Du Lac's Voyage dans lea deaux Loulsianes, In 1801, 1802, 1803, pp. 468-460. Milfort's 
 Sejourn dans le nation Creek, pp. 116-124, 
 
THE FIKST YAZOO SALE BOWLES, THE PEEEBOOTEE. 413 
 
 the treaty. Truly one might suppose that General McGillivray 
 was an unhappy man, and was soon to fall from his high 
 position. At length he departed for New Orlieans, when 1791 
 Bowles and his emissaries exultiugly declared that he Nov. 
 had fled, never again to show his face upon the Coosa. 
 He went frequently to New Orleans, Mobile and Pensacola dur- 
 ing the winter, and was treated with great attention by the 
 Spanish authorities, notwithstanding the treaty of New York. 
 The secret one, of course they knew nothing of, nor did Panton. 
 He professed to be sick of his trip to New York, and requested 
 not to be given the title of General. Here he arranged for the 
 capture of Bowles, and soon the freebooter was brought to New 
 Orleans in chains, and from thence sent to Madrid, in Spain, 
 where we must leavehim for the present. 
 
 It was not long before measures were adopted to expel the 
 American inhabitants, principally traders, from the Creek na- 
 tion. Governor Carondelet decreed that they were all 
 to take the Spanish oath of allegiance, and "fight for 1792 
 the King from the head waters of the Alabama to the June 
 sea." James Leonard, who had recently arrived at Ten- 
 saw, refusing to take the oath, was stripped of his property, and, 
 while arrangements were making to send him to Moro Castle, in 
 Havana, he made his escape to Rock Landing, upon the distant 
 Oconee. 
 
 McGillivray returned to the banks of the Coosa, still in power 
 and authority. It was suspected that he had intrigued with the 
 Spanish authorities. Not long afterwards, one Captain Don Pedro 
 Oliver, who was a Frenchman, but wore the Spanish military 
 uniform, made his appearance in the nation, and was stationed 
 at the Hickory Ground, upon the Coosa. His pay was one hun- 
 dred dollars a month, and he was accompanied by an interpreter 
 name'^ Antonio. These things looked very suspicious to the fed- 
 eral agents upon the Oconee. It was believed by many that Gen- 
 eral McGillivray did not openly act against the American gov- 
 ernment, but that he was doing it secretly, through Captain Oli- 
 
414 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 r 
 
 ver and others. It was certain that, upon the representations of 
 Carondelet to the Court of Spain, respecting the treaty 
 1792 of New York, and the remonstrances of Panton to that 
 power, in regard to its neglect of the Chieftain, his 
 Catholic Majesty made McGrillivray Superintendent General of 
 the Creek nation, with an annual salary of two thousand dollars ! 
 In July, to this amount was added a salary of fifteen hundred 
 dollars by the same power.* He was, at this time, the agent of 
 Spain, with a salary of thirty-five hundred dollars ; the agent of 
 the United States, with a salary of twelve hundred dollars ; the 
 co-partner of Panton, and the Emperor of the Creek and Semi- 
 nole nations. He was almost unrivalled in intrigue, and we 
 doubt it Alabama has ever produced, or ever will produce, a man 
 of greater ability .f We wish we could defend his conduct with 
 a clear conscience, but we cannot. It was eminent for treachery, 
 intrigue and selfish aggrandizement. However he may have been 
 wronged by the Americans, he ought to have acted in good faith 
 with them, after he had made the treaty with Washington. But 
 McGillivray was like many ambitious and unscrupulous Ameri^ 
 cans of our day, who view politics as a trade. But, notwithstand- 
 ing he displayed eminent selfishness in his relation towards these 
 rival powers, he was generous to the distressed, whom he always 
 sheltered and fed, and protected from the brutalities of his red 
 brethren. He had many noble traits, and not the least of which 
 was his unbounded hospitality to friends and foes. 
 
 During the summer and fall of 1792, General McGillivray se- 
 cretly caused large meetings to be held over the Creek and Cher- 
 okee nations, at which he appeared to be only a visitor, while Pan- 
 ton and Captain Oliver, in speeches, forbid the running of the 
 line between them and the Georgians, in the name of the King 
 of Spain, and decreed that no American trader should 
 enter the nation. Governor Carondelet was also active in 
 
 * Papers filed in tlie District Court of Louisiana. 
 
 1 1 have only introduced a few of McGillivray's letters, to show the order of his mind. 
 The American State Papers contain many of his ablest letters, addressed to Congress 
 and to the Secretary of war. 
 
THE FIRST YAZOO SALE BOWLES, THE FEKEBOOTEE. 415 
 
 endeavoring to defeat the provisions of the New York treaty. 
 He sent to the Creek nation a large body of bloody Shawnees, 
 armed and equipped, who took up their abode at Souvanoga, 
 upon the Tallapoosa. McGillivray moved his negroes to Little 
 river, gave up his house to Captain Oliver, whom he had so well 
 established in the affections of his people, and was gone a long 
 time to New Orleans and Pensacola. The Spaniards not only 
 had in view the prevention of the advancement of the Americans 
 on the east, but determined to oppose the settlements upon the 
 Mississippi, to effect all of which they attempted to unite the 
 four nations of Indians on their side. They strengthened all 
 their forts, and authorized Captain John Linder, of Tensaw, and 
 other active partisans, to raise volunteers. Carondelet gave 
 Richard Finnelson and Joseph Durque passports to go through 
 the Spanish posts to the Cherokee nation as emissaries to incite 
 those Indians to make war upon the Cumberland people. 
 John Watts, a half-breed of Willstown, was also an 1792 
 active agent. There was, suddenly, great excitement 
 produced over the whole Indian country. One Chief declared at 
 Willstown* that he had taken the lives of three hundred Ameri- 
 cans, but that now he intended to " drink his fill of blood." The 
 Cumberland people fell victims on all sides, while the settlers 
 upon the frontiers of Georgia shared the same fate. During all 
 this time McGillivray and the Federal authorities at Rock Land- 
 ing were engaged in fruitless correspondence — the former pro- 
 fessing his willingness to carry out the provisions of the New 
 York treaty, but never doing it. Everything conspired to defeat 
 the hopes of Washington. Even Captain Oliver had become 
 intimate with Willbanks and the rest of the adherents of Bowles, 
 and used them against the American interests. McGillivray 
 also carried on a correspondence with the Secretary of War, in 
 which he displayed his usual powers of diplomacy .f 
 
 * Willstown, named for a half-breed Chief called Red Head Will, whose father was a 
 British officer, was an important Cherokee village. The grave of Red Head Will is 
 within two hundred yards of the residence of Jesse G-. Beesou, who owns the entire site 
 of Willstown, situated in Little Will's Valley, DeKalb county, Alabama. 
 
 t Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 305-315-288-290-432. 
 
CHAPTER XXVTI. 
 
 Singular Inhabitants of Alabama. 
 
 The territory now called Alabama was but sparsely settled 
 in 1792, except by the natives, and they occupied only some of 
 the principal water-courses. Fort Charlotte, at Mobile, 
 1792 was garrisoned with Spanish troops. The old French 
 " Tombecbe," which, in Spanish times, was called Fbrt 
 Confederation, contained also a Spanish garrison. The English 
 trading post, near the present Stockton, then called Tensaw, was 
 repaired and occupied. A Spanish garrison occupied Fort St. 
 Stephens, which was built upon a bluff on the Tumbigby, called 
 by the Choctaws, Hobuckintopa. A considerable Spanish gar- 
 rison held the fortress at Pensacola. West Florida and Louisiana 
 were governed by the Captain-General at Havana. The next 
 person in authority was the Governor of Louisiana, to whom all 
 the commandants of the posts in Alabama and Mississippi were 
 subordinate. The whole territory of Alabama was then 
 1792 an immense wilderness, with American trading-posts on 
 the east upon the Oconee, and those of Spain upon the 
 south and west, while it was uninhabited by whites as far as the 
 distant Cumberland settlements on the north. 
 
 The most populous settlement, with the exception of Mobile, 
 was upon the Tensaw river and lake of that name. It was com- 
 posed of both whigs and royalists. The latter had been driven 
 from Georgia and the Carolinas. Added to these, were men, 
 sui generis, appropriately called old Indian countrymen, who had 
 spent much of their lives in Indian commerce. The most con- 
 spicuous and wealthy inhabitant of this neighborhood 
 1792 was Captain John Linder, a native of the Canton of 
 
 416 
 
SINGULAR INHABITANTS OF ALABAMA. 417 
 
 Berne, in Switzerland. He resided many years in Charles- 
 ton, as a British engineer and surveyor. There General McGil- 
 livray became acquainted with him, and, during the revolution, 
 assisted in bringing hejjp his family and large negro property. 
 
 In February, 1791, a party of emigrants, consisting of |Colo- 
 nel Thomas Kimbil, John Barn ett, Robert Sheffield, Bar- 
 ton Hannon, and Mounger, with a wife and 179] 
 
 children, three of whom were grown, set out from Feb. 
 Georgia for the Tombigby. Entering the Creek nation, 
 one of the children was injured by a fall, which compelled the 
 elder Mounger and his younger family to stop upon the trail. 
 They were afterwards robbed by the Indians of everything they 
 possessed, and had to make their way back to Georgia on 
 foot. The three young Moungers, and the other emigrants, con- 
 tinued to the Tensaw, passing the creeks and rivers upon rafts. 
 They found upon their arrival at Tensaw, the Halls, Byrnes, 
 Mims, Kilcreas, Steadhams, Easlies, Linders and others. Cross- 
 ing the Alabama and Tombigby upon rafts, they found 
 residing below Mcintosh Bluff, the Bates, Lawrences 1791 
 and Powells. Above there, on the Tombigby, they dis- Mar. 
 covered the Danleys, Wheets, Johnsons, McGrews, 
 Hookets, Freelands, Talleys and Bakers. Among these few 
 people. Colonel Kimbil and his little party established them- 
 selves, and began the cultivation of the soil with their horses, 
 upon the backs of which they had brought a few axes and ploughs. 
 
 The garrison at St. Stephens was composed of one company, 
 commanded by Captain Fernando Lisoro. The block house, the 
 residence of the commandant, and the church, were good build- 
 ings, of frame- work, clay and plaster. The other houses were 
 small, and covered with cypress bark. All the inhabitants of 
 this place, and of the country, were required to labor so many 
 days upon the public works, to take the oath of allegiance, and 
 to assist in repelling the depredations of the Creeks, who stole 
 horses and other property. Some French farmers also lived 
 
418 HISTOBY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 upon this river, who dwelt in houses made almost entirely of 
 
 clay, while those of the Americans were constructed of 
 1792 small poles, in the rudest manner. They all cultivated 
 
 indigo, which was worth two dollars and fifty cents per 
 pound. The burning of tar engaged much of the time of the 
 Spaniards, still lower down. 
 
 Upon Little river, dividing the modern counties of Baldwin 
 and Monroe, lived many intelligent and wealthy people, whose 
 blood was a mixture of white and Indian. This colony was 
 formed at an early period, for the benefit of their large stocks of 
 cattle, for the wild grass and cane were here never killed by the 
 frost. A most remarkable woman, a sister of General McGilliv- 
 ray, lived occasionally among these people. Sophia McGillivray, 
 a maiden beautiful in all respects, was living at her native place, 
 upon the Coosa, when Benjamin Durant, a man of Huguenot 
 blood, came from South Carolina, to her mother's house. A 
 youth of astonishing strength and activity, he had mastered all 
 who opposed him at home. Being informed by the traders that 
 a man in the Creek nation was his superior, he immediately set 
 out for that region, to which he had long before been inclined to 
 go. He was handsome, and his complexion was almost as brown 
 as that of the pretty, dark-eyed Sophia. She went with him to 
 
 the Hickory Ground, only a few miles distant, where 
 1792 many Indians had collected, to see the antagonists meet. 
 
 They encountered each other, and a tremendous fight 
 ensued. Durant felled his antagonist to the ground, where he 
 lay, for a time, insensible. The conqueror was proclaimed the 
 champion of the nation. He soon married Sophia, and went to 
 reside upon one of the estates of her father, the wealthy Lachlan 
 McGillivray, situated upon the Savannah river. During the 
 siege of Savannah, she WEts there with her father, her husband 
 and her little boy, Lachlan Durant, who is now favorably known 
 to many of our modern citizens, and is yet a resident of Baldwin 
 county. When the city was surrendered to the Americans, she 
 
SINGULAR INHABITANTS OF ALABAMA. 419 
 
 parted from her father, amid a flood of tears, and set out for her 
 native Coosa, while he, as we have seen, sailed with his British 
 friends back to Scotland. 
 
 Sophia Durant had an air of authority about her, equal, if 
 not superior, to that of her brother, Alexander. She was 
 much better acquainted with the Indian tongue, for he had 
 long lived out of the nation. When, therefore, he held councils 
 in the vicinity of her residence, she was accustomed to deliver 
 his sentiments in a set speech, to which the Chiefs listened with 
 •delight. Her husband became a wealthy man, and "Durant's 
 Bend,"* and other places upon the Alabama, still preserve his 
 memory. In the summer of 1790, while McGillivray was at New 
 York, the Creeks threatened to descend upon the Tensaw settlers 
 and put the whole of them to death. Mrs. Durant mounted a 
 horse, with a negro woman upon another, and set out from Little 
 river, camped out at night, and, on the fourth day, arrived at the 
 Hickory Ground, where she assembled the Chiefs, threatened 
 them with the vengeance of her brother upon his return, which 
 <jaused the arrest of the ringleaders, and put a complete stop to 
 their murderous intentions. Two weeks afterwards, 
 this energetic and gifted woman was delivered of twins, 1792 
 at the Hickory Ground. One of them married James 
 Bailey, who was killed at the fall of Fort Mims, in 1813, and the 
 other lived to be an old woman. At a later period Mrs. Durant 
 will again appear in this history. 
 
 The territory of the present county of Montgomery contained 
 a few white inhabitants in 1792. Among others, there was a 
 white woman, who had lived with her husband at Savannah. He 
 was there a foot soldier in one of the British regiments, but de- 
 serted from the army, when she fled with him to the Chatta- 
 hoochie. He died at Cusseta, and his bold and adventurous wife 
 
 * The most remarkable bend upon the Alabama, embracin": a large tract of land lying 
 between MontKomery and Selma, formerly the property of the late Honorable William 
 Kmith, and now owned by John Steele, of Autauga. It was cultivated by Benjamin 
 Durant as early as 1786. 
 
420 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 contiDued to wander through the Creek nation, and finally settled 
 in the territory of the present county of Montgomery, upon the 
 eastern side of a creek, which still bears her name, for she was 
 called by no other than that of " Milly." Here, among the Cu- 
 walla Indians, she established herself, without husband, father, 
 children, or even a single friend. Espousing one of the sons of 
 the forest, she soon began to have comforts around her. Her 
 stock of cattle became large, to which was added in a few years, 
 a large drove of ponies. For many years Milly lived alone upon 
 this creek. The trading path leading from Pensacola to Tooka- 
 batcha passed by her house. But, at the period of 1792, her 
 solitary hours were agreeably relieved by the prattle 
 179'2 of a little white girl. In 1790, a party of Creeks ad- 
 vanced to the Georgia frontiers, and, surrounding the 
 house of one Scarlett, killed him and his wife and children. 
 A little girl, named Tempey Ellis, about eight years old, the 
 child of a neighbor, was in the house at the time, and, when 
 the attack was made, she concealed herself under the bed. Af- 
 ter all the family lay upon the floor, in the sleep of death, a 
 warrior discovered Tempey Ellis, and, dragging her out by 
 the hair, raised his hatchet to kill her; but, reflecting that 
 he could possibly obtain a handsome sum for her ransom, he 
 placed her on. his horse and carried her to Auttose, on the 
 Tallapoosa. Here she was often beaten, and made to bring 
 water from the springs. One day Milly heard that the Auttoses 
 had a white girl in slavery. She immediately mounted her pony, 
 rode to Auttose, paid ten ponies and six head of cattle 
 1792 for Tempey, and the next day carried this unfortunate 
 child to her house. For several years she acted the part 
 of a most affectionate mother. Subsequently the child was de- 
 livered to Seagrove, the Creek Agent, at St. Mary's, and was 
 sent from tl^ence to her friends in Georgia. Old Milly was ex- 
 ceedingly attached to Tempey, and gave her up with great 
 reluctance.* 
 
 * I have conversed with Tempey Ellis. She is now a respectable old woman, the "wife 
 of Mr. Thomas Frizell, residing in Fike connty, Alabama. 
 
SINGULAR INHABITANTS OF ALABAMA. 421 
 
 Near the prairies, within a few miles of this solitary woman, 
 lived William Gregory, a native of one of the States, who had 
 resided for years among the Indians. - He was now a stockkeeper, 
 and lived in a cabin, which contained, his Indian family. As far 
 as the eye could reach over the beautiful and gently rolling plains 
 his cattle and horses fed, undisturbed by man or beast. It is 
 said that William Gregory was a kind-hearted man, who fed the 
 wanderer- "without money and without price," and who, even in 
 a lawless land, possessed a heart which prompted him to be 
 honest. 
 
 In 1785 came also into this neighborhood a Jew, named 
 Abram Mordecai, a native of Pennsylvania, and who established 
 a trading house at the spot where now stands the house of Mrs. 
 Birch, two miles west of Line Creek. Here also lived James 
 Russell, another trader, who, being a tory, had sought this place 
 to be rid of whig persecution. A tory, named Love, and Dargan, 
 a Dutchman and notorious horse thief, lived near the site of 
 Mount Megs, where they carried on a small commerce. All these 
 traders had Indian wives except Mordecai, whose faithful spouse 
 was Indian considerably darkened with the blood of Ham. 
 
 At Econchate, Red Ground, now embracing the southern 
 suburbs of the city of Montgomery, lived several white traders. 
 Charles Weatherford established a trading house upon the first 
 eastern bluff below the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, 
 and laid out the first race-paths ever known in East Alabama. 
 Often would the noted horse thief, fresh from the frontiers of 
 Georgia, here for the first time try the speed of his stolen ponies. 
 
 The most blood-thirsty, fiendish and cruel white man that 
 ever inhabited any country was Savannah Jack, or, as 
 he was universally called by this outlawed world, 1792 
 "iSavaner Jack" who lived .at Souvanoga, upon the Tal- 
 lapoosa. He boasted that he had killed so many women and 
 children, upon the Cumberland and Georgia frontiers, in company 
 
422 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 with his town's people, that he could swim in their blood if it 
 was collected in one pool. 
 
 Thus we see that the territory of Montgomery county, now 
 the focus of so much wealth and intelligence, was then a wilder- 
 ness, inhabited by Indians and the few singular characters who 
 have been named. Indeed, all over the territory of Alabama 
 and Mississippi, wherever an Indian town of importance 
 was found, white traders lived. Some of them became wealthy, 
 but like all property acquired in a commerce with Indians, it 
 generally left the owner in his old age. One of these up-country 
 traders, " Woccocoie Clarke," living at Woccocoie, in the modern 
 Coosa county, transported his merchandise and skins upon 
 seventy pack-horses. His squaw, who was of great assistance 
 to him, he called Queen Anne, for Clarke was an Englishman. 
 
 Besides skins of various kinds, the traders bought up bees- 
 wax, hickory -nut oil, snake-root, together with various medicinal 
 barks, and transported them to Augusta and Pensacola on pack- 
 horses, and to Mobile and New. Orleans in large canoes. The 
 pack-horses used in this trade were generally small ones, raised 
 in the nation, but were capable of sustaining heavy loads and of 
 enduring great fatigue. A saddle of a peculiar shape was first 
 placed upon the pony. The load consisted of three bundles, each 
 weighing sixty pounds. Two of these bundles were 
 1792 suspended across the saddle, and came down by the 
 sides of the pony, while the third was deposited on top 
 of the saddle. The whole pack was covered with a skin to keep 
 off the rain. Thus the pony sustained a load of one hundred and 
 eighty pounds, .Even liquids were conveyed in the same man- 
 ner. Taft'ai, a mean rum, was carried on these horses in small 
 kegs. Indeed, these hardy animals transported everything for 
 sale ; and even poultry of all kinds was carried in cages made of 
 reeds strapped upon their backs. A pack-horseman drove ten 
 ponies in a lead. He used no lines, but urged them on with big 
 hickories and tarrible oaths. Accustomed to their duty, they, 
 
SINGULAR INHABITANTS OF ALABAMA. 423 
 
 however, seldom gave trouble, but jogged briskly along. The 
 route and the stopping places became familiar, and, as evening 
 approached, the little fellows quickened their trot with new life 
 and activity. When the sun retired over the hills the caravan 
 stopped ; the packs were taken off, piled in a heap, and covered 
 with skins; the horses were belled and turned out to find their 
 food, which consisted of grass and young cane. It was usually 
 late the next morning before the horses were collected and 
 packed, for no person in an Indian country is fool enough to 
 regard time. An attack from the natives upon traders was of 
 rare occurrence. They imagined that* they needed the supplies 
 which they brought into their country, and regarding these sin- 
 gular merchants as their best friends, did not even rob them. A 
 pack-horseman always drank taffai — it cheered him in the forest 
 and emboldened him in distress. With a bottle slung by his 
 saddle he often indulged, while those before and behind him fol- 
 lowed his custom. Those going to Pensacola and other places 
 were frequently in want of the stimulant, and it was 
 customary for the traders, whom they met coming 1792 
 from the market, to halt and treat and interchange 
 jokes. The trader who suddenly rushed by a thirsty party was 
 long remembered as a mean fellow. 
 
 Nothing stopped these men on their journey. They swam 
 all swollen creeks and rafted over their effects or oroduce. 
 Where they had no canoes, rivers were crossed in the same 
 manner. If they reached a stream having large cane on its 
 banks, these were presently cut, ten feet long, and tied up into 
 bundles about three feet in circumference, which were placed in 
 the water. Across these others were laid, which formed 
 an admirable raft, capable of sustaining great weight. 1792 
 Logs were, also, often employed in the construction of 
 rafts. Guided by long grapevines, they were generally dragged 
 safely across to the opposite side, where the wet ponies stood, 
 ready to receive their packs again. Then all hands drank taffai. 
 
424 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 and journeyed on, with light hearts and laughing faces. The 
 average travel was twenty-five miles a day. The route from 
 Pensacola was a well-beaten path, leading up the country and 
 across the fatal Murder Creek, and thence to within a few miles 
 of the Catoma, when it diverged into several trails, one of which 
 led to Tookabatcha, along the route of the old Federal road, the 
 other to Montgomery and Wetumpka, by the Red Warrior's 
 Bluff, now Grey's Ferry, upon the Tallapoosa. This trail con- 
 tinued to the Tennessee river.* 
 
 Northward, there were no white settlements between the 
 Alabama river and the vicinity of Nashville. Here, in 1792, 
 the Creeks committed many depredations. They pushed their 
 hostilities to the very doors of Nashville. They attacked the 
 house of Thompson, a wealthy and respectable man, killed the 
 whole family, except his interesting daughter, just arrived at 
 
 womanhood, whom they carried in captivity to Kialigee, 
 1792 upon the Tallapoosa river, together with an amiable 
 
 lady, named Caffrey, with her little son. The unhappy 
 prisoners found in this town a young woman, named Sarah 
 Fletcher, who had, several years before, been captured in the 
 Miro district, which was also called Cumberland district. Miss 
 Thompson was ransomed by Riley, a trader, for eight hundred 
 weight of dressed deer -skins, worth two hundred and sixty dollars, 
 and was treated with kindness by her benefactor, and restored to 
 her friends. Mrs. Caffrey was separated from her son, beaten 
 with sticks, scratched with gar's teeth, and mad© to work in the 
 fields. After two years, she was also carried to Nashville, but 
 without her boy. The little fellow became an Indian in his feel- 
 ings, and, when he had been in the nation five years, it was with 
 difficulty that Mordecai could separate him from his Indian play- 
 mates, and carry him to Seagrove. That gentleman sent him to 
 
 * Conversations witli Abram Mordecai, James Moore, and many other old traders; 
 also conversations with Hiram Mounger, of Washington county, Mrs. Sophia McComb, 
 Mrs. Howse and Lachlan Durant. In many things, they are supported by the reports 
 contained in Indian Affairs, vol. 1. 
 
SINGULAR INHABITANTS OP ALABAMA. 425 
 
 Governor Blount, and he finally reached his mother's arms. The 
 bloody Coosawdas, who lived upon the Alabama, were frequently 
 out upon the Cumberland, engaged in the massacre of the 
 settlers and the plunder of their effects. Captain Isaacs, the 
 Chief of this town, returned, in 1792, with Elizalseth Baker, 
 a young lady from Cumberland. How miserable and lonely 
 must have been the journey, with these sanguinary warriors, 
 who bore the scalps of her father, mother, brothers and sisters, 
 daily suspended upon poles before her eyes. When she ar- 
 rived in Coosawda, the savages hung their trophies upon the 
 council-house, and danced around them with exulting shouts. 
 But she found a friend in Charles Weatherford, who lived across 
 the river. He ransomed Miss Baker, and placed her in charge 
 of his wife, Sehoy, the half sister of General McGillivray, and 
 the mother of the celebrated William Weatherford, who will 
 figure in this history hereafter. The unfortunate captive ulti- 
 mately reached her friends. It would be an endless task, to 
 enumerate all the instances of murder and captivity which oc- 
 curred upon the frontiers of Georgia and Tennessee.* 
 
 » Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 43W33-270-274-634. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Death of McGillivbay — Bloody Scenes- 
 
 The Spanish authorities of Louisiana and the Floridas were 
 accuse 1 of producing the bloody scenes, to which allusion was 
 
 made in our last chapter. Great jealousies and difGicul- 
 1792 ties existed between them and the southwestern people 
 
 of the United States, and even between them and the 
 Federal Government. John Jay, on the part of the latter, and 
 Don Guardoqui, representing Spain, began a correspondence at 
 New York, then the seat of the Federal Government, as early as 
 1785, for the purpose of settling the matters in dispute. Jay in- 
 sisted upon the right of the people of the Union, now fast set- 
 tling upon the head branches of the Tennessee, the Cunaberland 
 and the Ohio, to navigate the Mississippi to the Gulf, with their 
 commerce, free of duty, and also the right/to occupy, exclusively, 
 all the territory east of that river, as low down as the line of 
 31°, all of which, he contended, was consistent with our treaty 
 with England, made in 1782. Guardoqui resisted these claims, 
 with great show of reason. He contended that Don Galv^z, 
 in 1780, by his victories, took from England, Mobile, Baton 
 Rouge, and Fort Panmure, at Natchez, with all their depend- 
 encies ; that, at the same time. Captains Parre and Villars, with 
 Spanish troops, took formal possession of the English posts on 
 the Upper Mississippi, east of that river, one of which was situ- 
 ated two hundred and twenty- two leagues above St. Louis ; that, 
 in 1781, Don Galvez completed these conquests by the reduction 
 of Pensacola; that the territories now in dispute were, at the 
 time of the signing of the treaty between England and the Usited 
 
 426 
 
DEATH OP m'giLLIVEAY BLOODY SCENES. 427 
 
 States, solely in the occupation of Spain, and that England had 
 no right to negotiate in regard to them, and, in fact, did not really 
 do so, but rather "tacitly left safe the territorial rights of his 
 Catholic Majesty." These positions were met by Jay, by a ref- 
 erence to the treaty which Spain made with England, seven 
 weeks after the latter had made the one with us. In the eighth 
 article, Spain agreed to restore, without compensation, all the 
 English territories conquered by her, except the Ploridas, the 
 northern limit of which, he asserted, was 31°; that Spain was 
 bound, by this article, to have delivered up to England (who was 
 to deliver to the United States) all the territory claimed by 
 Georgia, from the Chattahoochie to the Mississippi, between 31° 
 and 35°. But there was the rub. Which was the northern 
 boundary ot Spanish West Florida? We have impartially exam- 
 ined this subject. The charter of Charles II. to the lords pro- 
 prietors of South Carolina, unc^er which Georgia claimed all the 
 present States of Alabama and Mississippi, that monarch had no 
 right to make. The territory of these Sta;tes was discovered (to 
 say nothing of the conquest of De Soto) by the French, under 
 Marquette and La Salle, and then by Iberville. Alabama and 
 Mississippi were immediately occupied by France. That power 
 continued to hold possession for sixty-two years. We have seen 
 that she did not surrender these territories to England until 1768. 
 These territories were occupied, then, by England from 1763 
 until 1780 or 1781, when they fell by conquest into the hands of 
 Spain, who immediately occupied them with her troops and ex- 
 tended over them her government. Well, now, where was the 
 just claim of the United States for Georgia? Did England have 
 any right to transfer to us, in a treaty, territories of which she 
 had three years before been deprived by Spanish conquest ? Nay, 
 England not only had no right to do that, but she admitted she 
 had no right when, seven weeks afterwards, she concluded a 
 treaty with Spain, and confirmed to her West Florida, the Brit- 
 
428 HiSTOKT OF Alabama; 
 
 ish northern line of which was 32° 28', and not 31°, as contended 
 for by Jefferson, Jay, and various American historians. 
 
 The negotiations between Guardoqui and Jay resulted in noth- 
 ing, and the navigation of the Lower Mississippi remained closed 
 against American citizens. In the meantime Spain became alarmed. 
 The treaty with McGillivray at New York and the move- 
 1792 ments of the first Yazoo companies aroused her. She 
 March asked for a renewal of negotiations. The President res- 
 ponded by sending to Madrid Carmichael and Short, 
 who entered into negotiations once more with Guardoqui, who 
 had been recalled to Spain, and was then Secretary of Foreign 
 Affairs.* After much correspondence, in which both powers 
 frequently accused each other of improper interference with the 
 Indians inhabiting the disputed region, over whom they each ex- 
 clusively claimed the superintendence, the negotiations termi- 
 nated, without arrangernent satisfactory to us. All that 
 1793 Spain would admit, was the probability of her ultimately 
 April allowing the northern boundary of her West Florida pos- 
 sessions to be the line of 32° 28', while she was also- 
 disposed to allow the establishment of a warehouse at the mouth 
 of the Yazoo, in which American citizens could deposit their pro- 
 duce, from their own boats, brought down the Mississippi. These 
 productions were then to be taken to New Orleans in Spanish 
 boats, and sold or exported, subject to Spanish duties-t All this 
 time the agents of Spain, near the Federal Government, were 
 constantly annoying Jefferson, ^he Secretary, with a series of 
 complaints against Governor Blount, of Tennessee, and Seagrove, 
 the Creek Agent, which were answered by similar complaints 
 against the Spaniards on the part of the latter. Much ill-feeling 
 was elicited between these parties, while the people of Georgia 
 were perfectly rampant, censuring the Federal authorities for the 
 weakness, irresolution and tardiness displayed in conducting the 
 
 •American State Papers, Boston edition, vol. 10, pp. 131-137; also, Foreign AiEairs, 
 vol. 1, pp. 26!i-255. 
 t American State Fapern, Boston edition, vollO, pp. 159-162. 
 
DEATH OF m'GILLIVBAT BLOODY SCJENES. 429 
 
 negotiations. Thiey proclaimed that, if the United States much 
 longer neglected to drive the Spaniards from their territory, they 
 would undertake it themselves. The horizon of this vast Indian 
 wilderness was still further darkened by the incessant border 
 warfare between the Indians and the frontier Americans.* Spain 
 assumed very high and unwarrantable grounds, in one respect. 
 She even opposed the running of the line around the Oconee 
 lands, and it was made the subject of remonstrance to the Fed- 
 eral Government. She claimed a surveillance over the affairs of 
 the Creeks, by her treaty with them, at Pensacola, and avowed 
 her determination to protect them against the encroachments of 
 the Georgians. As none of the Oconee territory lay within the 
 limits of West Florida, Spain certainly stepped beyond reason 
 in seeking a quarrel with the Americans about it. 
 
 General McGillivray continued to make visits to Governor 
 Carondelet. In returning from New Orleans, late in the summer 
 of 1792, a violent fever detained him long in Mobile. Recover- 
 ing, he went to Little Tallase, where he wrote his last letter to 
 Major Seagrove. He appeared to deplore the unhappy disturb- 
 ances which existed, and ascribed them to the interference of the 
 Spaniards with our affairs. He had often responded to the let- 
 ters of the Secretary of War, in relation to carrying out the pro- 
 visions of the New York treaty, and, several times, assured him 
 that he had explained that instrument frequently to the Chiefs, 
 and had urged them to comply, but that the Spanish influence 
 had defeated his recommendations. In one of his letters, he says 
 to the Secretary : " You will recollect, sir, that I had great ob- 
 jection to making the south fork of the Oconee the limit, and, 
 when you insisted so much, I candidly told you that it might be 
 made an article, but I could not pledge myself to get it confirmed, 
 or that of the restoration of the negro pro.perty, which had so 
 often changed owners." 
 
 But this remarkable man was fast approaching dissolution. 
 
 * American State Papers, Boston edition, vol. 10, pp. 185-186. 
 
430 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 He had long been afflicted, and was always of a delicate 
 
 1792 constitution. He spent the winter upon Little river, 
 and which now divides the counties of Monroe and Baldwin. 
 
 1793 The account of his death is presented in the language of 
 the great merchant, William Panton, in a letter, dated 
 
 Pensacola, April 10, 1794, and addressed to Lachlan McGil- 
 livray, the father of the Chieftain, who was, at that time, still 
 alive at Dunmaglass, Scotland. 
 
 * * * » Your son, sir, was a man that I esteemed greatly. 
 I was perfectly convinced that our regard for each other was 
 mutual. It so happened that we had an interest in serving each 
 other, which first brought us together, and the longer we were 
 acquainted the stronger was our friendship. 
 
 " I found him deserted by the British without pay, without 
 money, without friends and without property, saving a few 
 negroes, and he and his nation threatened with destruction by 
 the Georgians, urtless they agreed to cede them the better part 
 of their country. I had the good fortune to point out a mode by 
 which he could save them all, and it succeeded beyond expect- 
 ation. 
 
 * * * "He died on the 17th February, 1 793, of compli- 
 cated disorders — of inflamed lungs and the gout on his stomach. 
 He was taken ill on the path coming from his cow-pen on Little 
 river, where one of his wives, Joseph Curnell's daughter, resided, 
 and died eight days after his arrival here. No pains, no atten- 
 tion, no cost was spared to save the life of my friend. But fate 
 would have it otherwise, and he breathed his last in my arms. 
 
 * * * " He died possessed of sixty negroes, three hundred 
 head of cattle, with a large stock of horses. 
 
 * * * " I advised, I supported, I pushed him on, to be 
 the great man. Spaniards and Americans felt his weight, and 
 this enabled him to haul me after him, so as to establish this 
 house with more solid privileges than, without him, I should 
 have attained. This being the case, if he had lived, I meant, 
 
DEATH OF m'gILLIVRAY — BLOODY SCENES. 431 
 
 besides what he was owing me, to have added considerably to 
 his stock of negroes. What I intended to do for the father I 
 will do tor his children. This ought not to operate against your 
 making that ample provision for your grandson and his two 
 sisters which you have it in your power to make. They have 
 lately lost their mother, so that they have no friends, poor 
 things, but you and me. My heart bleeds for them, and what I 
 can I will do. The boy, Aleck, is old enough to be sent to Scot^ 
 land to school, which I intend to do next year, and then you will 
 see him."* 
 
 General McGillivray was interred with Masonic honors in 
 the splendid garden of William Panton, in the city of Pen- 
 sacola. He was a severe loss to that gentleman and to the 
 Spanish government. His death, among the Indians, everywhere, 
 produced deep sorrow and regret. The great Chieftain, who had 
 so long been their pride, and who had elevated their nation, and 
 sustained it in its trials, now lay buried in the sands of the 
 Seminoles. 
 
 General McGillivray was six feet high, spare made, and re- 
 markably erect in person and carriage. His eyes were large, dark 
 and piercing. His forehead was so peculiarly shaped, that the 
 old Indian countrymen often spoke of it: it commenced expand- 
 ing at his eyes, and widened considerably at the top of his head. 
 Jt was a bold and lofty forehead. His fingers were long and 
 tapering, and he wielded a pen with the greatest rapidity. His 
 face was handsome, and indicative of quick thought and much 
 sagacity. Unless interested in conversation, he was disposed to 
 be taciturn, but, even then, was polite and respectful. /When a 
 British colonel, he dressed in the British uniform, and when in 
 the Spanish service, he wore the military dress of that country. 
 When Washington appointed him a brigadier-general,, he some- 
 times wore the uniform of the American army, but never when 
 
 * I found Panton's letter among the bundle of papers in the District Court of New 
 Orleans. 
 
432 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 in the presence of the Spaniards. His usual dress was a mixture 
 of the Indian and American garb. He always travelled with two 
 servants, David Francis, a half-breed, and Pare, a negro, who 
 saved the lives of over a hundred royalists, in 1781, as we have 
 seen. He had good houses at the Hickory Ground and at Little 
 Tallase, where he entertained, free of charge, distinguished 
 government agents, and persons travelling through his extensive 
 dominions. Like all other men, he had his faults. He was 
 ambitious, crafty, and rather unscrupalous ;(yet he possessed a 
 Cgood heart, and was polite and hospitable. For ability and 
 sagacity, the reader will admit that he had few superiors. We 
 have called him the Talleyrand of Alabama. Will not his polit- 
 ical acts, but a few of which have been presented for the want 
 of space, entitle him to that appellation ? 
 
 The Indian sky still remainedjdarkened by scenes of murder 
 and robbery. The Chehaw Creeks, upon the Flint, instigated by 
 William Burgess, a trader in the Spanish interest, plundered the 
 
 store of Robert Seagrove, at Trader's Hill, upon the St. 
 1793 Mary's, killed Fleming, the clerk, and two travellers. 
 Mar. named Mofflt and Upton, most cruelly beating, with 
 
 sticks, a woman residing there, named Ann Grey. Six 
 miles from the hill, they killed a family of men, women and 
 children, moving in their wagons, and made prisoners a woman 
 and a child, whom they reserved for greater sufferings. The 
 
 inhabitants of the new counties of Glynn and Camden 
 April often felt such attacks. At the Skull Shoals, of the 
 
 Oconee, Richard Thrasher, two children and a negro 
 woman, were shot down, while his wife, plunging into the 
 river, with a babe in her arms, received a ball in her head, turned 
 over, and sunk beneath the waves. Governor Telfair deter- 
 mined, at once, to raise a large force for the invasion of the 
 Creek country. Washington, at the solicitation of the Georgia 
 delegation in Congress, sent to Augusta a large stand of arms and 
 ammunition. He authorized Governor Telfair to enlist a few 
 
DEATH OF m'GILLIVBAT BLOODY SCENES. 433 
 
 companies for the protection of Georgia, but remonstrated against 
 the contemplated invasion, stating that it was unauthorized by 
 law, would embarrass the negotiations still pending between the 
 Federal agents and the Creeks, and also those going on with 
 Spain, and that the enemy had only killed some people upon the 
 remote frontiers. But Governor Telfair, with-the true spirit of 
 a Georgian, heeded him not, and resolved to " carry the war into 
 Africa." Se disdained to accept of the troops which the Presi- 
 dent had authorized him to raise, but placed General Twiggs at 
 the head of seven hundred mounted men. That gallant ofBcer, 
 of revolutionary memory, marched to the Ockmulgee 
 river, where a mutinous spirit and the want of provis- 1793 
 ions caused a retreat. This abortive attempt at con- • June 
 quest emboldened the Creeks to new scenes of pillage 
 and blood. Although mortified at the failure of his first attempt 
 at invasion, Governor Telfair did not relax in his exertions to 
 protect the people, but constantly scoured the country between 
 the Oconee and Ockmulgee, with a large force of mounted 
 militia, which, for a time, stopped the Indian ravages. These 
 operations again called out the remonstrances of Washington 
 which had no effect whatever upon the Georgians, many of whom 
 entertained for the President the most implacable hostility, and 
 placed his efQgies upon pine trees, and fired guns at them. It is 
 a very common belief, with people of modern times, th^t Wash- 
 ington, during his executive career, had no enemies. He re- 
 ceived as much abuse, not only in Georgia, but in various por- 
 tions of the Union, as any of our Presidents.* 
 
 Although Seagrove had been Superintendent over two years, 
 he had never entered the Creek nation, but had communicated 
 with the Chiefs through an honest and intelligent man, named 
 Timothy Barnard, who had long resided among the red 
 people. At Cusseta, that gentleman met a council of 1793 
 Chiefs, the most prominent of whom were the White March 
 Lieutenant, John Kinnard, cheMad Dog, the Head King, 
 
 » Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 362-368. 28 
 
434 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 and Alexander Curnells, representing the Upper and Lower 
 Towns, who requested him to assure Seagrove that they desired 
 to see him in their country, and promised to protect him while 
 he remained with them. But the efforts of the agent to restore 
 peace, and to procure the marking of the boundary, were embar- 
 rassed by the military operations of Governor Telfair, who as- 
 sured him that his contemplated mission to the Creek nation 
 would result in no good; that his mind was made up to chastise 
 the Creeks, until they restored the white prisoners, the negroes, 
 and other stolen property, and delivered up ten hostages from 
 the Upper, and an equal number from the Lower Towus, to- 
 gether with thirteen principal hostiles, to be put to death by the 
 •people of'Georgia ; that he would submit to no treaty made with 
 the Creeks, where Georgia agents were not allowed to partici- 
 pate. Such was the treaty of New York. It is singular that 
 this treaty, made by Washington, for the good of all parties con- 
 cerned, should have been so violently opposed. The Spaniards, 
 as was anticipated, denounced it, but it received equal opposition 
 from the Creeks and Georgians. 
 
 Notwithstanding the high grounds assumed by Governor 
 Telfair, Seagrove resolved to go into the nation ; but was deterred 
 by information which he received that- a body of armed men, 
 under Captain Peter B. Williamson,* intended to intercept and 
 prevent him, and that the Georgia troops had destroyed 
 1793 Little Ocfuskee, upon the Chattahoochie, which resulted 
 Sept. 21 in the death of six Indians, while eight othere were car- 
 ried prisoners to Greensboro. Barnard was again sent 
 to. the Chattahoochie, who, after a council with the Chiefs, re- 
 turned, with another invitation for Seagrove to visit their coun- 
 try, and that, although they were much aroused against the 
 Georgians for this attack upon a peaceable town, they imputed 
 ' no blame to the Federal authorities. Finally, the agent spt out 
 from Fort Fidius, escorted by a military guard, to " prevent," as 
 
 * Afterwards Judge of the County Court of Lowndes, Alabama. 
 
DEATH OF m'GILLIVBAY^BLOODT SCENES. 435 
 
 he wrote , to the Secretary of War, " my being robbed by the 
 frontier banditti, who two days ago stole ten of the horses upon 
 which I had to carry goods to the Indians." Seeigrove had the 
 reputation of being a timid man, and of not entertaining a very 
 high sense of honor. Arriving at the Ockmulgee the escort was dis- 
 missed, when one hundred and thirty Indian warriors took charge 
 of his person from thence to Cusseta, upon the Chattahoochie. At 
 this place he was saluted by the Indians with the beating of 
 drums and the roars of a piece of artillery. He advanced to 
 Tookabatcha, the capital of the nation, which lay upon 
 the west bank of the Tallapoosa. He occupied one Nov. 23 
 whole day in a speech to a vast assembly, and, although 
 surrounded by Spanish agents and enemies, he rose above his 
 character, boldly pointed out the aggressions of the Creeks, and 
 their faithlessness in not complying- with the New York treaty. 
 
 The council sat forty-eight hours without adjournment, and 
 then rose, having stipulated, on the part of the Creeks, to deliver 
 to Seagrove the negroes, horses, cattle, and other property taken 
 from the Georgians during the last twelve months. They, further 
 agreed to put to death two or more of the principals engaged in 
 the late murders upon the frontiers. The Spanish agent. Captain 
 Don Pedro Oliver, was present, and congratulated Seagrove upon 
 what he was pleased to term his fortunate mission. 
 
 Having remained at Tookabatcha some weeks, arranging his 
 business with the Chiefs, Seagrove one night was attacked by the 
 Tallase King at the head of a pa.rty ; his house was plundered, 
 and he was forced to fly for his life to a pond, thick with trees 
 and bushes. There h6 remained several hours, up to his waist 
 in cold water, expecting every moment to be scented out, dragged 
 forth and put to death. In the morning the Chiefs interposed, 
 pacified the Tallase King, and the trembling agent came out 
 from his watery place of refuge. The Tallase King was one of 
 those who had conveyed away the Oconee lands, at Augusta, and 
 
436 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 who, like the Georgians, entertained no good feeling for 'the Fed- 
 eral agent.* 
 
 A spirited border war continued to be waged upon the 
 northern frontiers. Captain Hadley, whose troops had been at- 
 tacked upon the Cumberland mountain, was brought to Willstown 
 by the victorious party, composed of Creeks, Cherokees and 
 Shawnees. They debated, for several days, upon his life, which 
 was at length saved, through the solicitations of Alexander 
 Campbell and John McDonald, two old British traders of Wills- 
 town, but now in the Spanish interest. Great preparations were 
 oil foot, in this region, for the final extermination of the Cumber- 
 land people. John Watts, a Cherokee half-breed, had regularly 
 organized three companies of mounted Indians, who had been 
 furnished with the necessary arms by Governor Carondelet. A 
 large deputation of Shawnees, from the north, had just completed 
 a campaign through the Creek nation, endeavoring to enlist re- 
 cruits for that end, and had succeeded in collecting six hundred 
 and seventeen warriors, who passed through Willstown on their 
 way up. The people of East Tennessee, also, felt the attacks of 
 these marauding parties. They defended themselves 
 1793 with bravery, but sometimes were guilty of acts of 
 June 12 great imprudence, which served to irritate the In- 
 dians who were friendly. Captain Beard, at the head 
 of mounted militia, attacked the peaceable people of Hiwassa, 
 wounded Hanging Maw, the Chief, and killed his wife and a 
 dozen others. The Indians rallied and repulsed the asailants. 
 Such was the state of feeling and alarm, that Governor Blount 
 placed General Sevier at the head of six hundred mounted men. 
 That ofllcer, crossing the Tennessee below the mountains, 
 marched for the Oostanaula, where he made some Chero- 
 1793 kee prisoners. Proceeding to the site of the modern 
 Oct. 17 Rome, he discovered Indian entrenchments on the oppo- 
 site bank of the Etowah. Plunging into that stream, the 
 
 * Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 305-412-422-471-472. Also conyersations with old Indian 
 countrymen. 
 
DEATH OP m'gILLIVEAY — BLOODY SCBNHS. 437 
 
 troops gained the southern bank, and, after a fight of an hour, the 
 Indians gave way, bearing off their dead and wounded, but leav- 
 ing their camp equipage, horses, Spanish guns and ammunition. 
 General Sevier afterwards scoured this whole region, without op- 
 position, and returned to East Tennessee. It appeared that the 
 evil one, himself, was stalking through this wild region, for, in- 
 dependently of the commotions upon the frontiers of Georgia and 
 Tennessee, the Creeks and Chiokasaws were engaged in a bloody 
 war, while French emissaries were at work to estrange the affec- 
 tions of the Southwestern people from the Federal Government.* 
 
 * Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 434-439^41-454-464-470. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 The Fkbnch Ministeb, Genet— His Designs Upon the 
 Southwest. 
 
 Louis XVI., the friend of America, had been beheaded at 
 Paris, and Robespierre and other hyenas swayed unhappy France. 
 Genet was their Ainerican Minister. Upon his arrival 
 1793 in the United States he assumed unwarrantable grounds. 
 Jan. 26 After failing to enlist Washington in his Jacobinical no- 
 tions of liberty, he sought to disaffect the Southern and 
 Western people, and to dismember the Union. He took advan- 
 tage of the excited feeling of the population upon the Holston, 
 Cumberland, Ohio and other tributaries of the Mississippi, who 
 had long denounced the Federal Government for allowing them 
 no protection against the savages, and for not compelling the 
 Spaniards, who held the Lower Mississippi, to grant them the 
 free navigation of that river. Indeed, these brave and adventur- 
 ous people had just grounds of complaint. They were cut off 
 from the rest of the Union, and had to defend themselves, while 
 their rich products of corn, flour and tobacco rotted at their 
 doors on account of the arbitrary laws of the Spanish provinces 
 below them. They, naturally enough, entertained no love for a 
 Union which was no advantage to them. The Georgians, on the 
 other hand, claimed all the territory between 31° and 35°, from 
 the Savannah to the Mississippi, and, although independent of 
 the navigation of the " Father of Waters," viewed its exclusive 
 occupation by the Spaniards as a great outrage, not only against 
 their rights, but those of their Northwestern brethren. Georgia 
 was also irritated with the Federal Government for its irresolu- 
 
 438 
 
genet's designs upon the southwest. 439 
 
 tion and tardiness in adjusting her various rights, both in regard 
 to the Spaniards and Creeks, as we have repeatedly seen. Again, 
 Genet was further encouraged in his nefarious schemes on ac- 
 count of the war which was then declared between France and 
 Spain. He was led to believe, from all these circumstances, that 
 it would be an easy matter to make the disaffected citizens of 
 the United States allies of France, and, associated with the dis- 
 satisfied French population on the Mississippi, he could over- 
 throw the Spanish provinces of Louisiana and the Floridas, and 
 establish a government dependent upon the republic of France. 
 Two expeditions were planned by him in the West while in 
 Charleston. Several distinguished citizens had accepted com- 
 missions under him. The desire to invade the Floridas pre- 
 vailed in Georgia to an alarming extent. From the frontiers 
 of South Carolina and Kentucky detachments, called the 
 "French Legion," marched to places of rendezvous. They 
 were to serve three months, and receive bounties of land. 
 Genet was to have been commander-in-chief. His most 
 influential and powerful assistant was General Elijah Clarke, of 
 Georgia. That gentleman had despatched an agent to Lexing- 
 ton, Kentucky, who purchased, upon his credit, two boats, pow- 
 der and cannon ball, which were conveyed down the Ohio. An 
 agent was furnished with ten thousand dollars, to purchase sup- 
 plies for a Georgia army, to assemble at St. Mary's. 
 Clarke had authority to issue military appointments, in 1794 
 the name of the French republic, and he constituted Pe- March 
 ter B. Williamson, major, r- Carr, a colonel, and con- 
 ferred the commission of captain on ■ Bird and other citizens 
 
 of Georgia. The French sloop-of-war, Las Casas, direct from 
 Charleston, anchored at St. Mary's, within musket-shot of the 
 American post, which was in command of Major Gaither. She 
 was destined for Louisiana, and her officers asserted that thir- 
 teen sail, large and well-manned, were yet to follow, from differ- 
 ent ports of the United States. In the meantime, boat-builders 
 
440 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 were vigorously employed upon the Ohio, and persons of char- 
 acter and wealth sold their property at auction, to facilitate their 
 completion. A considerable body of Creeks and Cherokees had 
 likewise been enlisted in the cause of the « French republic." 
 The Governor of East Florida, alarmed at these preparations, 
 remonstrated with Governor Mathews, of Georgia, who imme- 
 diately issued his proclamation, forbidding the people of 
 May 14 Georgia to engage in such enterprises. Shortly after- 
 wards, Washington issued a proclamation against the 
 whole project, and authorized Governor Mathews to employ all 
 the United States troops, then in Georgia, to put down the con- 
 templated invasion. 
 
 Governor Carondelet was active in preparations for defence. 
 He strengthened New Orleans, and added troops to the fort at 
 Mobile, and other posts, while he erected new ones at several 
 points below the mouth of the Ohio. The militia, throughout 
 Louisiana and the Floridas, were completely organized. It is 
 strange that the Baron Carondelet should, at this time, have re- 
 sorted to the same scheme contemplated by his enemy. Genet. 
 He, too, despatched an emissary — an Englishman, named Pow- 
 ers — among the Western American citizens, with offers of arms, 
 ammunition, money and free navigation, if they would join his 
 standard, and separate themselves from the Federal Union. But 
 his plans, as well as those of Genet, were defeated by the firm- 
 ness of Washington and the loyalty of the States of 
 1794 Georgia and South Carolina. The latter, too, came to 
 the rescue of the Federal Government — the Legislature 
 adopting measures for the arrest of Genet's agents.* 
 
 Seagrove remained at Tookabatcha until the 1st of April. 
 Then he departed for Georgia, with a delegation of Chiefs, 
 who visited Governor Mathews, who appears to have been a 
 more conciliatory man than the fiery Telfair, who had now gone 
 
 • American State Papers, Foreign Relations, folio edition, vol. 1, pp. 454-460. Mar- 
 tin's History of Louisiana, vol. 2, pp. 91-118-122-123-126-11!7-128. Monette's History of tlie 
 Valley of the Mississippi, vol. 1, pp. 469-48B-492-496-505-610. 
 
genet's designs upon the southwest. 441 
 
 out of office. The Chiefs expressed a desire for peace, and 
 Governor Mathews sent them back to the nation, well pleased 
 with their visit, and guarded by a detachment, under General 
 Glasscock. 
 
 A new settlement, contemplated west of the Oconee, was now 
 about to originate more trouble with the Creeks. The restless 
 and enterprising General Elijah Clarke, who had fought with so 
 much indomitable courage, and who had displayed such remark- 
 able endurance, during the whole of the revolutionary war, and 
 was one of the best whigs that ever lived, was at the head of 
 this movement, and that, too, immediately upon the heels of the 
 abortive attempt to invade Florida. After the revolution, he 
 continued to defend his State, and his resolute spirit and mighty 
 arm beat off many a murderous savage band. But he was too 
 impulsive and restless for times of peace. He now undertook to 
 extinguish the Creek claims, in a very practical manner. 
 With a large party of men, he began a settlement op- 1794 
 posite Fort Fidius, on the west side of the Oconee, upon July 
 Indian tertitory. General Irwin, on the part of the 
 State, ordered him to remove, which he refused to do. Mathews 
 forbid, by proclamation, the contemplated settlement, and accused 
 Clarke of an attempt to form a separate and independent govern- 
 ment. The latter appeared at the Superior Court of Wilkes, and 
 surrendered himself to the Judge, who placed his case before the 
 Magistrates. These worthy and learned men went into a full 
 history of the laws of the United States, those of Georgia, those 
 of the world, called the " law of nations," those of the Creeks, 
 and those of the Spaniards, and came to the very liberal decision, 
 endorsed upon the indictment, " that the said Elijah Clarke he, 
 and is, hereby discharged." 
 
 Many people now flocked to the standard of Clarke. His 
 settlements were .pushed with vigor, a town was laid off, and 
 Forts Advance and Defiance were erected and garrisoned. Wash- 
 ington was uneasy at this movement, and requested Governor 
 
442 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Mathews to put down all attempts at the occupation of the Indian 
 domain, and promising to furnish him with troops from South 
 Carolina, if it should become necessary. Mathews directed Gen- 
 erals Twiggs and Irwin to break up these establishments. They 
 approached them with Georgia militia, who acted with 
 1794 great firmness and moderation. Clarke, abandoned by 
 Sept. 25 all his men except twenty, surrendered, upon condition 
 that his property, and that of the colonists, should be 
 returned to them. The forts and houses were destroyed by flre, 
 and the affair happily ended, without the shedding of a drop of 
 blood. 
 
 The northern frontiers were still disturbed by Indian ma- 
 rauding parties. Major James Ore advanced from Nashville, 
 with five hundred and fifty mounted infantry, to the 
 Sept. 13 town of Nickajack, surrounded and attacked it by sur- 
 prise, and killed many of its inhabitants, while nineteen 
 women and children were made prisoners. On his march from 
 thence up the river, he was attacked at the Narrows by the 
 savages, who, after a few fires, gave way and retreated to Run- 
 ning Water, which was soon taken, and likewise destroyed. Ore 
 re-crossed the Tennessee, before night, and took up the line of 
 march for Nashville, with his prisoners and a large quantity of 
 effects, which had been taken by the Indians from various per- 
 sons. Andrew Jackson, afterwards President, was a private in 
 this expedition.* 
 
 * Indian Affairs, toI. 1, pp. 495-B00-632. Kendall's Life of Jackson, p. 89. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 The- Second Yazoo Sale. 
 
 The winter of 1794 and 1795 was remarkable for the cele- 
 brated Yazoo speculation, or, as the more intolerant opponents 
 of the measure termed it, the " Yazoo fraud." We have already 
 seen how a prior sale of territory, lying in Alabama and-Misssis- 
 sippi, by the Georgia Legislature, ultimately terminated. 
 We have said that we did not believe that Georgia, un- 1794 
 der the treaties made between Spain, Great Britain and and 
 the United States, in 1782 and 1783, had a right to the 1795 
 extensive territory lying between the Chattahoochie and 
 the Mississippi, but, as the Federal Government contended that 
 she had, it ought to have placed her in possession of the country, 
 by the expulsion of the Spaniards. The Georgians felt much 
 aggrieved by the conduct of the General Government, in not only 
 permitting the Spaniards to occupy what they really believed to 
 be their soil, but in suffering them constantly to instigate the 
 Creeks in killing and plundering their frontier population, and 
 in interfering with their treaties. In truth, Georgia did not 
 recognize the right, even in the Federal Government, to make 
 treaties with the Indians, respecting the territory which she 
 claimed — while the General Government, on the other hand, did 
 not admit any right in Georgia -to make treaties. These, and 
 many other things of a like nature, we are charitable enough to 
 believe, prompted the Yazoo sale. 
 
 The first bill which the Legislature of Georgia passed, in re- 
 gard to the Yazoo sale, at the session of 1794, was returned with 
 the objections of Governor George Mathews. He contended that 
 
 443 
 
444 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 the time had not arrived for the disposal of the terri- 
 
 1794 tory; that the sum offered for it was not enough; that 
 Dec. 29 the quantity reserved for the citizens was too small; 
 
 that greater advantages were secured to purchasers than 
 
 to citizens ; that it would operate as a monopoly ; and that at 
 
 least one-four£hof the lands ought to be reserved for the 
 
 1795 future disposal of the State. The Legislature became 
 Feb. 7 excited at the veto of the bill, and in a few days passed 
 
 another, which Governor Mathews signed. 
 
 Governor Mathews was a man of honor and integrity. He 
 vetoed the first bill, not on account of any fraud which he sup- 
 posed the Legislature was committing upon the Federal Govern- 
 ment, for, in common with many other prominent citizens of 
 Georgia, he believed that the State had a right to sell its own 
 lands ; but he vetoed it for the reasons which we have enumer- 
 ated." 
 
 Governor Mathews was a native of Ireland, and landed upon 
 the Virginia shore in 1737. Establishing himself in the county 
 of Augusta, he immediately became a formidable and fearless de- 
 fender of the country against the Indians west of the Ohio, wlio 
 frequently made incursions into Western Virginia. After many 
 combats, in defence of his father's house, and those of his neigh- 
 bors, he was appointed a captain, and participated in the most 
 gallant manner in the great battle fought between the Virginians 
 and Indians, at the junction of the Ohio with the Kenawha, on 
 the 10th October, 1774. In 1775 he was elected a colonel of the 
 ninth regiment, and for two years he commanded it on the east- 
 ern shore of Virginia, after which he joined General Washington. 
 Colonel Mathews commanded his regiment at Brandy wine, and at 
 the battle of Germantown captured a regiment of the enemy. He 
 received a very severe wound with a bayonet in another skirmish, 
 was taken a prisoner, and confined on board a British ship in the 
 harbor of New York. He was not exchanged until the termina- 
 tion of the war, when he joined General Greene as commander of 
 
THE SECOND YAZOO SALE. 445 
 
 the third Virginia regiment. He removed to " Goose Pond," on 
 Broad river, Georgia, in 1785, with his family. One year after- 
 wards, he was elected Governor of the State. Under the present 
 constitution he was the first representative of Georgia in Con- 
 gress, and in 1794, 1795, he was again Governor. 
 
 Governor Mathews was short in stature and compactly made. 
 His hair was light, and his complexion was fair and florid. He 
 wore a three-cornered cocked hat, a pair of top-boots, a shirt full- 
 ruffled in front and at the wrist, and occasionally a long sword 
 at his side. He was a man of unsurpassed bravery, and of 
 indomitable energy. His mind was of a strong and vigor- 
 ous order, but wholly uncultivated, except by observation of 
 men and things. His education was more limited than that 
 of any other man of the same distinction. In consequence of his 
 valuable military services, the Legislature of Virginia has pre- 
 served his memory in the name of one of the counties of that 
 State. 
 
 The preamble to the Yazoo bill declared that the articles of 
 confederation stipulated that each State was to retain her terri- 
 tory; that, by the treaty of Paris, of 1783, the boundaries of 
 Georgia, as well as those of other States, were confirmed ; that 
 they were consistent with all the former acts of Georgia, and 
 with the convention held at Beaufort, in 1787, between South 
 Carolina and Georgia; that the States had the right of pre-emp- 
 tion, as well as the' full exercise of all territorial rights,; that the 
 Legislature disapproved of the New York treaty with McGilliv- 
 ray ; that the President had no authority to guarantee therein all 
 the territory west of the Oconee to the Creeks ; and that Georgia 
 clearly had the right to convey fee simple titles to all her territo- 
 ries to individuals or companies. 
 
 The act stipulated that one-fifth of the purchase money 
 should be paid into the Georgia treasury previous to. the passage 
 of the bill. The remainder was to be paid on the 1st November 
 following, secured, by a mortgage, to the Governor. Payments 
 
446 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 were to be made ia specie, United States Banli bills, br military 
 warrants, drawn by the Governor, from 1791 to 1795, inclusive. 
 
 For the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand doUass, the 
 Legislature sold to James Gunn, Matthew McAllister, George 
 Walker and their associates, termed the " Georgia Company," 
 an immense area of territory, which now embraces the following 
 modern counties : 
 
 In Alabama — Clarke, Marengo, Greene, Perry, Autauga, 
 Bibb, Shelby, Tuscaloosa, Pickens, Fayette, JefEerson, St. Clair, 
 the southern portions of Blount, Walker and Marion, and por- 
 tions of Wilcox, Monroe, Dallas, Sumter and Baldwin. 
 
 In Mississippi — The larger portions of Kemper, Neshoba, 
 Leake, Madison, Yazoo and Issaquena, all of Washing- 
 1795 ton. Holmes, Attala, Winston, Noxubee, Lowndes, 
 Feb. 7 Oktibbeha, Choctaw, Carroll, Sunflower, Bolivar, Talla- 
 hatchie, Yalabusha, Chickasaw and Monroe. 
 
 For the sum of one hundred and flfty thousand dollars, the 
 Legislature sold to Nicholas Long, Thomas Glasscock, Ambrose 
 Gordon, Thomas Cumming, and their associates, called the 
 " Georgia Mississippi Company," all the territory out of which 
 has since been formed the following counties : 
 
 In Mississippi— The northern portions of Greene, Perry, 
 Marion, Pike, Amite and Wilkinson, all of Adams, Franklin, 
 Lawrence, Covington, Jones, Wayne, Jefferson, Copiah, Simpson, 
 Smith, Jasper, Clarke, Lauderdale, Newton, Scott, Rankin, Hinds, 
 Warren, Claiborne, and the southern portions of Yazoo, Issa- 
 quena, Madison, Leake, Neshoba and Kemper. 
 
 In ALABAMA^Nearly all of old Washington and Sumter, and 
 the southwest corner of Greene. 
 
 For the sum of thirty-five thousand dollars, that body also 
 conveyed to Wade Hampton, John B. Scott and John C. 
 Nightingale, termed the "TJppee Mississippi Company," the 
 territory extending entirely across the extreme northern part of 
 the State of Mississippi,, twenty-five miles deep, now embracing 
 
THE SECOND YAZOO SALE. 447 
 
 the northern portions of the modern counties of De Soto, Mar- 
 shall, Tippah, Tishamingo and a fragment of the northern part 
 of Tunica. 
 
 For the sum of sixty thousand dollars the Legislature of 
 Georgia also sold to Zachariah Coxe, Mathias Maher and their 
 associates, called the " Tennessee Company," all the territory 
 comprising the whole of North Alabama, out of which 
 the following counties have since been formed : Lauder- 1795 
 dale, Limestone, Madison, Jackson, DeKalb, Cherokee, Feb. 7 
 Marshal], Morgan, Lawrence, Franklin, and the north- 
 ern parts of Marion, Walker and Blount. 
 
 The lands thus conveyed to the four Yazoo companies, for 
 the gross sum of five hundred thousand dollars, contamed 
 twenty-one million five hundred thousand acres. A reserve of 
 two millions of acres was made from this purchase for the ben- 
 efit of the citizens who desired to become purchasers upon the 
 original terms of sale. The four companies paid promptly into 
 the treasury one-fifth of the purchase money, and obtained titles 
 from the governor. During the progress of this bold measure 
 the members of the Legislature were in the midst of the pro- 
 foundest excitement, which extended to the "lobby members" 
 and the whole community. 
 
 The bill, was signed -by Thomas Napier, Speaker of the 
 House ; Benjamin Taliaferro, President of the Senate ; and ap- 
 proved by his Excellency, George Mathews, Governor. 
 
 It was asserted that "bribery and corruption distinguished 
 the proceedings of the members favorable to the Yazoo act." 
 •The public documents abound with affidavits, pro and con. It 
 was asserted that members were bought up to vote for the meas- 
 ure, by receiving in advance from the companies certificates of 
 large shares of the land which they were about to vote to sell. 
 The public became aroused upon the subject. 
 
 A majority of the counties, through their grand juries, pro- 
 nounced against the act. Public meetings assembled all over 
 
448 HISTORY OF ALABAMA, 
 
 Georgia, and the bitterest denunciations fell from the lips 
 
 1795 of every speaker. A large convention was held at Louis- 
 May 10 ville, where hundreds of petitions were read and evidence 
 
 adduced setting forth "the atrocious peculation, corrup- 
 tion and collusion by which said usurped acts and grants were 
 obtained." Although the tide of public sentiment swept over the 
 State in angry torrents, destroying the popularity of the mem- 
 bers who voted for the act, and elevating to power its most vio- 
 lent opponents, yet the four companies paid up the 
 Nov. 1 whole of the purchase money, and believed themselves 
 
 secure in their vast fortunes, because the bill stipulated 
 that the acts of no subsequent legislature should affect their title. 
 Washington was astounded at the Yazoo sale, and laid be- 
 fore Congress copies of the bill, using this language in reference 
 
 to it: " These acts embrace an object of great magni- 
 Feb. 17 tude, and their consequences may deeply affect the peace 
 
 and welfare of the United States." The two houses of 
 Congress adopted a resolution instructing the Attorney-General 
 to investigate the title of Georgia to the lands sold. 
 
 The Legislature of Georgia again convened in the winter, 
 with a new governor and a new body of members, except those 
 
 who voted against the Yazoo sale. General James Jack- 
 1795 son, a distinguished partisan oflQcer of the revolution, 
 
 was at the head of the new organization. He had can- 
 vassed the State, and, from the hustings, denounced the extra- 
 ordinary measure, while, with his able pen, he produced several 
 severe pamphlets upon the subject. He introduced a bill for the 
 repeal of the Yazoo sale, which declared it "null and void." It 
 was adopted, and received the signatures of Jared Irwin, the new 
 
 Governor, Thomas Stephens, Speaker of the House, and 
 
 1796 Benjamin Taliaferro, President of the Senate. In the 
 Feb. 12 midst of the largest procession ever known in the land, 
 
 the records of the Yazoo act were expunged, and, to 
 
THE SECOND YAZOO SALE. 449 
 
 show the indignation of its opponents, the bill itself was con- 
 sumed, in the streets of Louisville, by fire from Heaven.* 
 
 But, in the meantime, hundreds had emigrated to the Tom- 
 bigby and the Mississippi, establishing themselves in those dis- 
 tant and isolated regions, intending soon to occupy the lands 
 which the companies had proposed to grant them. In this re- 
 spect, the Yazoo sale was a great blessing. It contributed to 
 throw into that wild region, a population of Georgians, whose 
 activity, ability and enterprise better fitted them to seize, occupy 
 and bring into cultivation a wilderness, mark out towns, people 
 them, build female academies, erect churches and hold courts 
 than any other people. 
 
 By an arrangement between the President and the Geoigia 
 authorities, Benjamin Hawkins, of North Carolina, 
 George Clymer, of Pennsylvania, and Andrew Pickens, 1796 
 of South Carolina, repaired to Coleraine, upon the St. May 
 Mary's river, where they met James Jackson, James 
 Simms and James Henricks, agents for Georgia. The object was 
 the formation of a treaty of peace with the Creeks, and the 
 cession to Georgia of the lands between the Oconee and the 
 Ockmulgee. A full delegation of Indians, consisting of twenty 
 Kings and seventy-five Chiefs, together with three hundred and 
 forty warriors, soon arrived. Seagrove, the Creek Agent, sug- 
 gested the propriety of moving the council from Coleraipe to 
 Muscogee, a short distance off, which was accordingly done. 
 There, the Chiefs, after marching under the United States flag, 
 performing the eagle-tail dance, smoking with the commission- 
 ers,, and engaging in other ceremonious preparations, began the 
 council. The first day was occupied with the speeches of the 
 commissioners, who gave a full exposition of the views and 
 wishes of the President. On the following day. General Jackson, 
 
 ♦ They held a sun-glass over the paper until it was consumed by the fire thus gen- 
 erated. The Yazoo act may be seen, together with all the rotes upop it, and an account 
 of the excitement which it produced, in Public Lands, vol. 1, pp. 120-144. Indian Af- 
 fairs, vol. 1, pp. 551-555-561. Georgia Digest of 1798, pp. 567-568. 
 
 29 
 
450 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 on the part of Georgia, made a loqg speech, in which he pointed 
 out the faithless observance of their treaties with his State by 
 the Creeks, and exhibited two schedules of the property which 
 they had stolen, amounting to the value of one hundred and ten 
 thousand dollars, which he demanded to be restored. The In- 
 dians listened with profound attention, and when he had con- 
 cluded, they adjourned for the day — the Big Warrior, who had 
 lately become a prominent Chief, facetiously remarking, "I can 
 fill up more paper than Jackson has done, with a list of similar 
 outrages of the Georgians upon my people." 
 
 A treaty was concluded, between the Chiefs of the whole 
 
 Creek nation and the Federal commissioners, the former 
 
 1796 ratifying the New York treaty, and pledging themselves 
 
 June 29 to carry out its provisions, and to assist Spain and the 
 
 United States to run their line. They also stipulated to 
 allow the government the right to establish posts upon the ter- 
 ritory between the Ockmulgee and Oconee, allowing to each five 
 miles square of land ; but they positively refused to cede any of 
 this territory to Georgia. The United States stipulated to allow 
 the Creek nation two blacksmiths and two strikers, with tools 
 and iron, and to distribute immediately six thousand dollars' 
 "worth of goods among those who were present. 
 
 The Georgia agents were ofliended with Seagrove, with the 
 Indians, and with the Federal commissioners. They presented 
 
 to the latter a protest, in which they accused them of 
 June having disregarded the interests of Georgia. They 
 
 brought charges against Seagrove, who, they contended, 
 influenced the Creeks not to cede the lands as far as the Ock- 
 mulgee. The Federal commissioners denied these allegationsi 
 Seagrove and Jackson became great enemies, and afterwards 
 fought a duel.* 
 
 • Washington had despatched Thomas Pinckney, as Envoy 
 Extraordinary, to Madrid, who there concluded, with the Prince 
 
 » Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 586-616. 
 
THE SECOND YAZOO SALE. 451 
 
 of Peace, a treaty, in which the King of Spain stipulated that the 
 southern boundary of the United States should be the 
 line of 31°, from the Mississippi to the .Chattahoochie, 1795 
 thence down the middle of that river to its junction Oct. 27 
 with the Flint, thence direct to the head of the St. 
 Mary's river, thence down the middle of that stream to the At- 
 lantic ; that all Spanish posts and inhabitants, found north of 
 this boundary, should be removed within six months after the 
 ratification of the treaty, and the American posts and inhabitants 
 living south of it, should also be removed within the same period ; 
 that the navigation of the Mississippi, from its source to the 
 Oulf, should remain free for the commerce of the subjects of 
 Spain and the citizens of the American Union ; that both powers 
 should cultivate peace with the Indians for mutual benefit and 
 protection; that, hereafter, Spain should not form treaties of 
 alliance with Indians living upon American soil, nor the Federal 
 Grovernment with Indians living upon Spanish territory ; and 
 that Spanish and American commissioners should mark the 
 boundary, before the expiration of six months, after the ratifica- 
 tion of the treaty.* 
 
 Colonel Andrew Ellicott, who had remained upon the Oco- 
 nee so long, to no purpose, awaiting a favorable opportunity 
 to run the line according to the New York treaty, was now 
 transferred by Washington to Natchez, as one of tbe com- 
 missioners to mark the boundary between Spain and the 
 United States. He reached Natchez, by way of the Ohio, and im- 
 mediately commenced negotiations with Don Manuel 
 Gayoso de Lamos, commandant of Fort Panmure, Gov- 1797 
 ernoT of the Natchez dependencies, and commissioner on Feb. 24 
 the part ot Spain. But Carondelet had determined not 
 to comply with the treaty, affecting to consider it made by his sov- 
 ereign as a " court finesse" until he could settle his European 
 difficulties, when he would wholly disregard it, and hold on to his 
 
 • Foreign Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 553-559. 
 
452 HISTORY OF ALABAMA.. 
 
 posts east of the Mississippi. He again began to intrigue with 
 the Western American population for the dismemberment of the 
 Union, through his emissary, the notorious Powers. Genernl 
 James Wilkinson, then at the head of the Western American 
 army, who had long been the intimate friend of Carondelet, and 
 had received from him private and exclusive privileges of trade, 
 which were highly beneficial to him as a Western planter, was 
 suspected of secretly advancing these ends. Meanwhile Lieuten- 
 ant McLeary, with an American force, unfurled the Fed- 
 Mar. 15 eral flag upon the heights of Natchez. He soon after- 
 wards marched to Fort Panmure, and demanded its 
 surrender, agreeably to the treaty. But Gayoso, who' had placed 
 it in complete repair, and had strengthened it with artillery and 
 men, refused to evacuate it. The Spanish posts at Walnut Hills 
 and Baton Rouge were all strengthened, by the order of Caron- 
 delet. An angty correspondence ensued, in which Ellicott 
 remonstrated against this conduct, as conflicting with the letter 
 and spirit of the treaty. Gayoso justified himself upon the 
 ground that the Choctaws and Chickasaws, whom he had hired 
 to surround Natchez and make threats, intended to attack the 
 Natchez settlements, in Consequence of the presence of the Amer- 
 ican troops. While these things were going on Lieutenant Percy 
 Smith Pope arrived at Natchez with forty men, which were added 
 to the American force. Gayoso rempnstrated against the pres- 
 ence of these troops, intrenched within sight of Fort Panmure. 
 Their flag was an eye-sore to the Spaniards. He desired 
 1797 their removal to Dlarksville, but Ellicott refused. Va- 
 May rious reasons were given by the Spaniards for not evac- 
 uating' the country, one of which had some foundation, 
 and tliat was the descent upon New Orleans contemplated by 
 Western American citizens, who had joined the British of Canada 
 for that purpose. One of these men was Governor Blount, of 
 Tennessee, whom the United States Senate, of which he was a 
 member, unanimously expelled for endeavoring to enlist Western 
 
THE SECOND YAZOO SALE. 45'3 
 
 « 
 
 men in such an enterprise. Colonel Hutohens, Mr. Ripelge, and 
 other prominent citizens of the Floridas, it is asserted, were also 
 concerned in the contemplated invasion. But this soon blew over, 
 and other excuses for delay were invented by Carondelet and his 
 subordinate commandants. These things served to irritate the 
 Natchez population, which had greatly increased, and desired the 
 expulsion of the Spaniards. EUicott constantly urged Gayoso to 
 begin the running of the line, but never could get him to appoint a 
 time. The people became tumultuous, and Gayoso, dreading the 
 consequences of an outbreak, issued a proclamation, announc- 
 ing that the treaty would ultimately be complied with. They 
 refused to listen to his promises, and the excitement became 
 alarming, when it was ascertained that Gayoso had imprisoned 
 an American citizen, a Baptist preacher, named Hannah, who 
 having taken too much whiskey, had given the Spanish com- 
 mandant some insulting language. The excitement was great in 
 the country. Public meetings advised violent measures. 
 Gayoso. was greatly alarmed, and issued another proc- 1797 
 lamation, exhorting the people to submit to the Span- June 14 
 ish government until the difficulties could be settled, 
 and promising pardon to all who should repent of their misdeeds. 
 The Georgians had never been accustomed to such language as this, 
 and their anger now knew no bounds. Gayoso skulked through 
 the cane, and had an interview with EUicott, whose room he ap- 
 proached by the back way. By his earnest entreaties, the Amer- 
 ican commissioner urged the people to become quiet, and he was 
 greatly assisted by Colonel Hutchens, who had much influence 
 with the old English population. He is the same gentleman, it 
 will be recollected, whose property the Spaniards confiscated in 
 1781, and who made his escape, through the Creek nation, to 
 Georgia. 
 
 In the midst of scenes like these, EUicott was kept in sus- 
 pense, until the 29th March, when the Spanish fort was evac- 
 uated, and all the Spanish troops sailed down the river 
 
454 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 1798 He then marched his own troops, and corps of wood- 
 Mar. 29 men and suryeyors, to Tunica Bayou, and comnienced 
 
 his survey in a dense swamp, upon the eastern bank 
 of the Mississippi, where the line of 31'^ strikes it. In a few days 
 he was joined by Major Stephen Minor and Sir William Dunbarj 
 commissioners on the part of Spain.* Gayoso was now Governor 
 of Louisiana, and he visited Ellicott's camp, with his military 
 sta£f, and approved of the work, as far as it had progressed. 
 Spain, as well as the United States, furnished troops to protect 
 the surveyors from attacks of the Indians. These, with the 
 pack-horses, woodsmen and laborers, had the appearance of tm 
 army. The commissioners met with great diflSculties, from thick 
 
 swamps, creeks, marshes and rivers, all of which they 
 
 1798 had to go through. The trees were well blazed along 
 Nov. 19 the line, and a mound thrown up at the ^ end of every 
 
 mile. They did not reach Pearl river until the 19th 
 November. There EUicott left the surveyors, and went down 
 that stream in a canoe to New Orleans. Arranging his business 
 with Gayoso, and purchasing a small vessel, camp equipage and 
 
 supplies, he sailed to Mobile, and thence up the river of 
 
 1799 that name until he reached the camp of the survey- 
 Mar. 17 ors. They had passed entirely through the Choc- 
 taw nation without opposition from that people. 
 
 The line of 31° struck Mobile river six miles below the 
 junction of the Tombigby and Alabama, where sev- 
 April 2 eral rivers run parallel, forming an immense swamp 
 several, miles wide, which was now inundated. By 
 means of boats, they erected signals upon the high lands of either 
 side, and took the necessary observation and distances. These 
 signals consisted of flags and tremendous lightwood fires. EUi- 
 cott here again left the surveyors, sailed to Pensacola, and 
 lodged at the elegant quarters provided by the hospitable firm of 
 
 * Monette, Tol. 1, pp. SlT-532. Stoddart's Sketches of Louisiana, p . 89. Marbois' Lou- 
 isiana, pp. 163-165. BUicott'B Journal, pp. 26-176. American State Papers, Boston erli- 
 tion, vol 3, p. 335. 
 
THE SECOND YAZOO SALE. 455 
 
 Panton, Leslie & Co. Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, now a promi- 
 nent Creek Superintendent, left the nation, by appointment, and 
 reaching Pensacola, informed Ellicott that a large number of 
 Creeks were then on their way down, to bold a council. It was 
 decided to meet them upon the Conecuh, where the line would 
 cross. This was in opposition to the suggestion of Governor 
 Folch, who proposed Pensacola, where, it was supposed, he in- 
 tended to intrigue with the Creeks to prevent the line being 
 run. Indeed the Spaniards generally were opposed to the sur- 
 render of so much territory. At Miller's Bluff, Ellicott, Haw- 
 kins, Minor, and Colonel Maxant, with several Spanish officers, 
 met the Creeks. These agents of the United States and Spain, 
 addressing the Indians, urged them to assist in running the line, 
 and not to oppose it, all of which they had stipulated to do at 
 . the treaty of Coleraine. The Mad Dog, of Tookabatcha, replied, 
 on the other side, and assured the commissioners that their 
 wishes would be complied with, as they now understood that 
 the line was to be run through their territory, by the consent of 
 Spain. The surveyors, to whose party were added two Chiefs 
 and twenty Creek warriors, had reached the Conecuh, and begun 
 the line from thence to the Chattahooehie. Eeturning to Pensa- 
 cola, Hawkins and Ellicott learned, to their surprise, that a large 
 body of Creeks were on their way, by an arrangement of Gov- 
 ernor Folch, and that the survey would be stopped. Encamping 
 three miles north of Pensacpla, these savages demanded presents 
 of the American commissioner, which, from motives of policy, 
 were granted, although he had no agency in assembling them. 
 It was soon ascertained that Folch was secretly using every ex- 
 ertion to defeat the plans of the American government. Ellicott 
 left Pensacola, sailed for the mouth of the Apalachicola, and 
 ascended that river. Reaching the surveyor's camp, he ascer- 
 tained that the Creeks had been very insolent, hanging upon 
 their rear in large bodies, and plundering their effects. Greatly 
 discouraged by this news, he pushed the survey to the Chatta- 
 
DRAWING OF FORT MIMS, 
 
 Found iiiiiong Gen Claiborno'd manuscript papers. 
 
 REFERE 
 
 1 Block House. 
 
 2 Pickets cut away by the Indians. 
 
 3 Guard's Station. 
 
 4 Guard House. 
 
 6 Western Gate, bm not up. 
 6 This Gate was shut, but a hole 
 was out through by the Indians. 
 1 Captain Bailey's Station. 
 
 8 Steadham's House 
 
 9 Mrs. Dyer's House. 
 
 10 Kitchen. 
 
 11 Mims' House. 
 
 12 Randon's House. 
 
 IS Old Gate- way — open. 
 
 NOES 
 
 14 Ensign Chambliss' Tent. 
 
 15 Ensign 'Gibbs'. 
 
 16 Randon's. 
 
 17 Captain Middleton's. 
 
 18 Captain Jack's Station. 
 
 19 Port-holes taken by Indians. 
 
 20 21 Port-holes taken by Indians. 
 
 22 Major Beafley's Cabin. 
 
 23 Captain Jack's Company. 
 
 24 Captain Middleton's Company. 
 26 Where Major Beasley fell. 
 
 26 Eastern Gate, where the- In- 
 dians entered. 
 
THE SECOND YAZOO SALE. 457 
 
 hoochie, where he fortified himself. He sent a runner to the 
 Ockmulgee, for Hawkins, who had left Pensaoola. About this 
 time, Captain Minor dismissed his military escort, dis- 
 charged many of his laborers, according to the instruc- 1799 
 tions of Gayoso, given in May, and became very impor- Aug. 25 
 tunate to set out for the St. Mary's. In the meantime, 
 Hawkins had arrived, and advised the continuance of the work. 
 But a party of Indians advanced, and declared their intention to ' 
 plunder the camps. Resolutely marching up to them, with the 
 military, Hawkins kept them at bay until 10 o'clock at night, 
 when they promised to remain at peace till morning. All that 
 night, however, the woods rang with their riotous yells, while 
 they threw down the beef- pens, and stole cattle and horses. They 
 cut all the rigging of EUicott's schooner, and robbed the master 
 and crew, stripping them to their shirts. Fortunately, the cargo 
 had been taken to the camp. The commissioners determined 
 to retreat from Governor Folch's savage banditti. Captain 
 Minor, who is believed to have been innocent of any participation 
 in originating these hostilities, set out for the St. Mary's, 
 attended by the American military escort, with the 
 surveyors, who now ceased to work. Ellicott entered Sept. 18 
 his naked schooner, and propelled her, in the best way 
 he could, down the Apalachicola, having saved all his papers and 
 astronomical apparatus. Nearly three years had expired since 
 he landed at Natchez, and he had only been able to mark the 
 line from the Mississippi to the Chattahoochie, in consequence of 
 the duplicity, treachery and opposition of the Spaniards. But 
 the chief object was accomplished — the establishment of the south- 
 ern boundary of the pr-esent States of Mississippi and Alabama. 
 Colonel Hawkins, abandoned by the whole expedition, fearlessly 
 remained several days among the Indians endeavoring- to recon- 
 cile them. 
 
 Approaching the sea, Ellicott found, wrecked upon Fox 
 Point, a schooner of the British navy, commanded by Lieutenant 
 
458 HISTORY OV ALAJBAMA. 
 
 Wooldridge, among whose crew was the celebrated William Au- 
 gustus Bowles. We left that gifted but bad man in 
 Sept. 22 the prison of Madrid in 1792. Knowing his great in- 
 fluence with the Creeks, the King of Spain often sent 
 persons of his Court to the prison, with ofEers of military titles 
 and pay if he would abandon his allegiance to the English inter- 
 est, join that of Spain, return to the Floridas and contribute to 
 strengthen the colonies with his warrior forces. But the proud 
 and unyielding Bowles spurned these offers. The Court then 
 confined him in elegant quarters, and surrounded him with ser- 
 vants, sparkling wines and rich viands, with the hope of engag- 
 ing his affections ; but this treatment answering no purpose, he 
 was threatened with transportation to the Island of Manilla, in 
 the distant Pacific. Still unyielding, he was ironed and sent 
 there in a vessel, where he remained until February, 1797. He 
 was then despatched back to Spain, but on the way, hearing of 
 the war between that power and England, he escaped at Ascen- 
 sion Island, and reached .Sierra Leone, where the English Gov- 
 ernor gave him a passage to London.* Mr. Pitt and the Duke 
 of Portland provided for his necessities in a munificent manner. 
 He left England in the schooner in which he was now wrecked, 
 with which he had for some time preyed upon the commerce of 
 Panton and Spain in the Mexican Gulf. General Bowles ad- 
 dressed Ellieott a polite note, inviting him to the wreck, where 
 the latter repaired and was entertained with kindness. He and 
 Bowles were of mutual assistance to each other — the one supply- 
 ing the perishing crew with some American stores, and the other 
 giving him charts and valuable directions in relation to the navi- 
 gation around the Florida peninsula. Bowles had repeated con- 
 versations with Ellieott, in which he avowed his hatred, of the 
 Americans and his hostility to Spain, and declared his determi- 
 nation to visit his vengeance upon the latter in incessant attacks 
 upon ,the Florida posts at the head of the Creeks, whom he 
 termed " My people." 
 
 * Du Lac's Voyage dans les deaux Louisianes, pp. 466-470. 
 
I'HB SECOND YAZOO SALE. 459 
 
 Ellicott sailed from the wreck to St. Marks, where he 
 lodged in the house of the commandant, Captain Poitell, 
 and was agreeably entertained by his fascinating wife. 
 Having repaired his schooner, he sailed around the penin- 1800 
 sula, and went up the St. Mary's to the camp of the Feb. 26 
 surveyors, where he found all had arrived safe, and 
 where, in conjunction with Minor, he determined the point of the 
 line of 31°, and there erected a large mound. Thus ended this 
 protracted and disagreeable business.* 
 
 * EUioott's Journal, pp. 180-278. Also his Appendix, p. 83^ The Indians who brokenp 
 the survey belonged to the towns of Tallase, upon the Tallapoosa, and Ufaula, upon the 
 Chattahoochie. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 The Amekicans in Alabama and Mississippi. 
 
 It has been seen that the Legislature of Georgia prompt- 
 ly repealed the Yazoo act. Congress, with the consent, of 
 
 that State, organized a large portion of the domain, 
 
 1798 which was conveyed under the Yazoo sale, into a terri- 
 
 May 10 torial government, embracing the country between the 
 
 Chattahoochie and Mississippi rivers, extending from 
 the line of 31° to that of 32° 28'. This government was not to 
 impair the rights of Georgia to the soil. 
 
 John Adams, now President of the United States, conferred 
 upon Winthrop Sargent the post of Governor of the "Mississippi 
 Territory." John Steele was, at the same time, appointed Secre- 
 tary, while Thomas Rodney, of Delaware, and John Tilton, of 
 
 New Hampshire, were constituted Judges of the Superior 
 1799 Court. Four months after the evacuation of the coun- 
 April try by the SpaniardSj these officers arrived at Natchez. 
 
 They found the country in the occupation of the Fed- 
 eral troops, under General Wilkinson. The Governor, whose 
 powers were extensive, commenced the organization of his 
 government. He decreed, by proclamation, the formation of 
 the Natchez district into the counties of Adams and Picker- 
 ing. He established County Courts, which were to be holden 
 quarterly by Associate Justices. Six thousand inhabitants, in- 
 cluding slaves, comprised the population, who lived upon the 
 waters of Bayou Pierre^ St. Catharine, Cole, Homochitto, and 
 Buffalo creeks. There was also a settlement at the Walnut 
 Hills, and one upon Big Black. It has been seen what kind of a 
 
 460 
 
THE AMERICANS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 461 
 
 population lived upon the Tensaw and Tombigby in 1792. It 
 was now much increased, but was composed of the same kind of 
 people. An advance towards civilization had, however, been 
 made in that region by the establishment of a ferry by 
 Hollinger, an Indian countryman, across the Tombigby, 1797 
 and another by Samuel Mims to convey people over Oct. 
 the Alabama. The route lay across Nannahubba Island, 
 and in times of high water passengers were ferried from one river 
 to the other, the distance of ten miles. Lieutenant Mc- 
 Leary had marched across the country, from Natchez, 1 799 
 and had taken possession of Fort St. Stephens, when May 5 
 the Spanish garrison marched out and dropped down 
 below EUicott's line. 
 
 This portion of the Mississippi territory ■ was utterly de- 
 fenceless, entirely isolated, and surrounded by Indian nations on 
 the north, east and west, while the treacherous Spaniards were 
 just below at Mobile. To protect it the Federal Government 
 •established a post upon the first bluff below the confluence of the 
 Tombigby and Alabama. Captain Shaumberg, of the second reg- 
 iment, marched from Natchez with two companies and 
 built a stockade with one bastion, which was called July 
 Fort Stoddart, and was situated on the site of the pres- 
 sent arsenal landing of Mount Vernon. 
 
 Governor Sargent issued another proclamation, defining the 
 limits of Washington county, embracing the population 
 upon the Tombigby and Alabama. Of all counties that 1800 
 ever were established it was by far the most extensive June 4 
 in territory. It extended to the Chattahoochie on the 
 east and to Pearl river on the west, and was bounded on the 
 south by the line of 31% and on the north by that of 32% 28'. 
 Twenty counties in Alabama and twelve in Mississippi have since 
 been formed out of the territory of the original county of Wash- 
 ington. The people of the territory, becoming dissatisfied with the 
 arbitrarv measures of the Governor, remonstrated with the Presi- 
 
462 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 dent. These things, together with a prodigious increase of 
 population, induced Congress to establish a second grade of ter- 
 ritorial government, which allowed a Legislature. Four repre- 
 sentatives from Adams, four from Pickering, and one 
 
 Dec. from Washington, convened at Natchez. The Governor 
 held an unqualified veto power. 
 
 ' General Wilkinson deserves to be remembered for many im- 
 portant public services, among which were the treaties which he 
 made with Indian tribes, and the military organization of new 
 counties. He wrote with astonishing ease, and always expressed 
 himself well. He was unquestionably a man of genius, as well as 
 of much usefulness ; yet he had always been suspected of allowing 
 personal considerations to control much of his military and official 
 conduct. However, now acting with great zeal and fidelity, he sta- 
 tioned troops at different points on the line of demarkation, from 
 Fort Ad ams, upon the Mississippi, to Pearl river, and caused, as we 
 have seen. Fort Stoddart to be built. While his head^uar- 
 
 1801 ters were at Natchez, he made an advantageous treaty with 
 Oct. "27 the Chickasaws, obtaining their consent, among other 
 
 things, to the cutting of a road, to remain as a highway, 
 exteuding from the Cumberland district to the American settle- 
 ments of Natchez. He made another treaty with the 
 Dec. 17 Choctaws for a road from Fort Adams to the Yazoo 
 river. The old boundary between the British and Choc- 
 taws was also confirmed by him and marked anew. He likewise 
 repaired to the distant Oconee, and, near a fort named in honor 
 of him, made a treaty with the Creeks, by which the latter, for 
 valuable considerations, ceded to the United States all 
 
 1802 the territory east of a line, to run from High Shoals, 
 June 16 upon Apalache, thence down the Oconee to its junction 
 
 with the Ockmulgee, and thence to Ellicott's mound, 
 upon the St. Mary's. The fearless, wise and patriotic agents, 
 Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens, were associated with 
 General Wilkinson in all these treaties, and, with him, travelled 
 
THE AMERICANS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 463 
 
 from the Chickasaw Bluff, upon the Mississippi, backwards and 
 forwards over this Indian world, encountering its dangers and 
 sharing in mutual hardships.* 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, who was now President of the United States, 
 appointed William C. C. Claiborne Governor of the Mississippi 
 Territory. Governor Sargent retired from ofiflce, and never after- 
 wards filled a public station. The new Governor, who was de- 
 scended from an ancient Virginia family, removed to Tennessee 
 when a youth, was a member of the convention which formed the 
 constitution of that State, a Judge of the Supreme Court, 
 and a member of Congress. A man of unquestioned tal- 1801 
 ents, fine address, and strict probity and honor, he could 
 not fail to make a popular and useful officer in the Mississippi 
 wilderness. The Territorial Secretary was Cato West, and the 
 bench of the Superior Court was filled by Daniel Tilton, Peter B. 
 Bruin and Seth Lewis. 
 
 The counties of Adams and Pickering being sub-divided into 
 five others, and the name of the latter changed, they were now 
 
 called Adams, Jefferson, Wilkinson, Claiborne and . A code 
 
 of jurisprudence was adopted, and the seat of government re- 
 moved six miles east of Natchez, to the town of Wash- 
 ington. Joshua Baker was Speaker of the House, and 1801 
 John Ellis President of the Executive Council or Sen- and 
 ate. About this period. Colonel Andrew Marschalk, of 1802 
 Wayne's army, established the " Natchez Gazette," the 
 first paper issued in our country, and, afterwards, was so long 
 engaged in the occupation, issuing different journals for forty 
 years, that he was styled the " Father of the Mississippi press." 
 It was not long, however, before Timothy and Samuel Terill pub- 
 lished the " Mississippi Messenger," at the seat of government, 
 where, also performing the duties of public printers, they pub- 
 lished the first Digest of the Territory, compiled by Judge Harry 
 Toulmin.t 
 
 * Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 648-681. 
 
 t Monette, vol. 2, p. 345. Notes on the War In the South, by Nathaniel H. Claiborne, 
 pp. 91-102. 
 
464 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Upon the Tombigby and Lake Tensaw, the pepple still lived 
 without laws, and without the rite of matrimony. For years, 
 the sexes had been m the habit of pairing off, and living together, 
 with the mutual promise of regular marriage, when ministers or 
 magistrates should make their appearance in the country. An 
 amusing incident will here be related, in which a young couple 
 were united by a functionary not hitherto known as participat- 
 ing in such sacred rites. The house of Samuel Mims, a wealthy 
 Indian countryman, was the most spacious in the country, and 
 hither the young and the gay flocked to parties, and danced to 
 the music furnished by the Creoles of Mobile and others, for the 
 country abounded in fiddlers, of high and low degree. Daniel 
 Johnson and Miss Elizabeth Linder had, for some time, loved 
 each other. She was rich and he was poor, and, of 
 1800 , course, the parents of the former objected to a pairing. 
 On Christmas night, a large party was assembled at 
 " Old Sam Mims," and the very forests resounded with music 
 and merry peals of laughter. In the midst of the enjoyment, 
 the lovers, in company with several young people, of both sexes, 
 secretly left the house, entered some canoes, paddled down Luke 
 Tensaw, into the Alabama, and arrived at Fort Stoddart, an hour 
 before daylight. Captain Shaumberg, who had risen early to 
 make his egg-nog, was implored to join the lovers in the bonds 
 of matrimony. The proposition astounded the good-natured old 
 German, who protested his ignorance of all such matters, and 
 assured them that he was only a military commandant, having 
 no authority whatever to make people man and wife. They en- 
 treated, telling him with truth, that the Federal Government had 
 placed him there as a general protector and regulator of affairs, 
 and that the case, before him demanded his sanction and adjust- 
 . ment. After the egg-nog had circulated pretty freely, the com- 
 mandant placed the lovers before h'im, and, m a stentoi- 
 1800 ian voice, pronounced the following marital speech : " I, 
 Captain Shaumberg, of the 2d regiment of the United 
 
THE AMERICANS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 465 
 
 States army, and commandant of Fort Stoddart, do hereby pro- 
 nounce you man and wife. Go home ! behave yourselves — mul- 
 tiply and replenish the Tensaw country !" The happy pair en- 
 tered their canoes, rowed back to the Boat Yard, and were pro- 
 nounced, by the whole settlement, " the best married people they 
 had known in & long time."* 
 
 The Federal Government displayed much wisdom in the es- 
 tablishment of a factory, or trading-house, at St.. Stephens. It 
 was well stored with such merchandise as suited the 
 Choctaws, for whom it was particularly designed. It 1 802 
 served to create a good feeling with those Indians, and 
 to entice them from the control of Panton and the Spaniards, be- 
 low the line. Joseph Chambers, a man of a well-cultivated 
 mind, and of business capacity, a native of Salisbury, North 
 Carolina, was made superintendent of this factory, with an as- 
 sistant, Thomas H. Williams, also from North Carolina, who af- 
 terwarr's was Secretary of the Territory, Collector of the port of 
 New Orleans, and United States Senator from Mississippi. 
 
 The Yazoo act had been repealed, the treaty of Madrid had 
 been made, Ellicott's line had been run, and the Spaniards had 
 been removed ; still great dif&culties had arisen between Georgia 
 and the Federal Government in relation to lands granted under 
 the Yazoo act, which the companies and various purchasers under 
 them resolutely claimed and defended. Many plans were pro- 
 posed for satisfactory adjustment, which produced debate and 
 contention of an angry character. Finally, Albert Gallatin, 
 James Madison and Levi Lincoln, on the part of the government, 
 and James Jackson, Abraham Baldwin and John Milledge, rep- 
 resenting Georgia, made a final disposition of the mat- 
 ter. For the sum of one million two hundred and fifty 1 802 
 thousand, dollars Georgia ceded to the United States all Apr. 24 
 the territory within the following boundai ies : Begin- 
 ning upon the Mississippi, at the line of 31°, thence continuing 
 
 * GonTersatious with old settlers. 
 
 80 
 
466 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 up that river to the line of 35° ; thence along that line, due east, 
 to Nickajack ; thence southward to the mouth of Uchee creek ; 
 thence down the Chattahoochie to Ellicott's line ; thence along 
 that line due west to the Mississippi, the place of beginning. 
 The purchase money was to be paid to Georgia out of the first 
 net proceeds of the sales of these lands. The United States stip- 
 ulated to recognize all good claims to any of this territory under 
 Spanish and British grants, and also under the act of Georgia of 
 1785 creating the county of Bourbon ; but it refused to admit any 
 of the Yazoo claims.* The United States now held the right of 
 jurisdiction and the right of soil to all the terri-toiy which forms 
 the present States of Alabama, and Mississippi. After this com- 
 promise the money paid by the Yazoo companies was made over 
 to the United States. Some of it had been drawn by the pur- 
 chasers under the laws of Georgia; some of it had been lost 
 whilst in deposit at the treasury, from which the State had 
 taken the precaution to be saVed harmless, having declared in 
 good time that the deposit should remain in the treasury at the 
 risk of the depositors. The Yazoo grantees, or those claiming 
 under them, were never suffered to hold lands in Alabama or 
 Mississippi, in virtue of either the Yazoo act or the compromise. 
 They might have held as much as they pleased in virtue of the 
 stock of five million scrip created by an act of Congress. 
 
 Emigrants flocked to the Mississippi Territory by various 
 routes, all of which were diflBcult, and some of theni very cir- 
 cuitous. A party set out from North Carolina, consisting of 
 Thomas Malone, a young clerk in the land office of Raleigh; 
 John Murrel and his family ; James Moore, Goodway 
 1801 My rick, George Nosworthy, Robert Caller, "William 
 Dec. Murrel, and sixty negroes. With great difficulty they 
 ascended the Blue Ridge with their wagons, and de- 
 scended through its dark gorges into the valley of the Tennes- 
 see. Constructing flat-boats at Knoxville, they floated down the 
 
 • Public Lands, voL 1, p. 114. 
 
THE AMBRICANS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 467 
 
 river to the head of the Muscle Shoals, where they disembarked 
 at the house of Double- Head, a Cherokee Chief. Placing their 
 effects upon the horses, which had been brought down by land 
 from Knoxville, they departed on foot for the " Bigby settle- 
 ments," about St. Stephen's, a great distance off, and to which 
 not a solitary direct path led. After a fatiguing march, they 
 reached the residence of Levi Colbert, a celebrated Chickasaw 
 Chief, who gave them the necessary directions. Pursuing their 
 journey, they came upon the Tombigby, at the Cotton Gin, which 
 had not long before been erected by the Federal Government to 
 encourage the Chickasaws in the cultivation of the great staple. 
 Desiring to lessen the fatigues of the long and painful trip, 
 the party constructed two canoes at this point, each forty feet in 
 length, and very large, but of miserable workmanship, 
 being executed with no other tools than axes and grub- 1802 
 bing hoes. These they placed in the river, in parallel Jan. 
 positions, five feet apart. They were connected by a 
 platform made of cane, upon which were deposited the effects of 
 the expedition, which were piled up high above the heads of the 
 emigrants, who now sat down in long rows in the two canoes. 
 A few of the men went by land with the horses towards St. Ste- 
 phens, to make preparations for the arrival of the main party. 
 This rude and singular craft, then quite common in savage re- 
 gions, had proceeded but two miles down the rapid, crooked and 
 swollen stream, when it struck with great force against a log, 
 which extended half across the channel, and immediately disap- 
 peared. The cane ligament which bound the Siamese canoes 
 burst asunder, and every soul was washed deep under the waves. 
 Those who rose again were presently seen struggling with the 
 torrent, amid the wreck, now tossed about in the fury of the 
 waters. Murrel rose, but in his arms was the lifeless body of a 
 daughter. His wife also came to the surface^ with a babe at her 
 breast, both, happily, alive. Malone and others, swimming 
 ashore, became active in assisting many of the party in reaching 
 
468 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 limbs of trees by extending to them grapevines and canes. At 
 length, all who survived huddled upon a small piece of land, sur- 
 rounded by water. 
 
 It was now night. The north wind swept over the gloomy 
 swamp. The ducks, in their rapid flight, whizzed through the 
 air. The wolves howled upon the prairies. The owls screamed 
 and hooted upon the lofty trees. The mighty timber crashed as 
 the angry currents passed by. Such were the unwelcome sounds 
 that fell upon the ears of this miserable party. No succor came. 
 No encouraging voice saluted them. Benumbed with cold, they 
 hovered together to keep alive, shivering and knocking their agi- 
 tated limbs against each other, while their wet apparel froze fast 
 upon them. Being without flre, they had noway to produce one. 
 It was two miles back to the old camp, and the route lay over 
 thick cane, water and small islands. A resolute young negro 
 man volunteered to find it. He plunged into the low grounds, 
 and, strangely, made his way to the camp. In the meantime, the 
 helpless pioneers, despairing of his return, bewailed their condi- 
 tion with deep moans and' bitter lamentations. Beneath the 
 shadows of one of the darkest nights ever known, they mourn- 
 fully counted over the missing and the drowned. Two long 
 hours passed away, when the cheerful halloo of the negro was 
 heard afar off. It was answered by a united and sympathetic shout. 
 All eyes were turned in the direction from which the sound 
 came, and in the darkness was seen an indistinct light, which 
 shone over the tops of the distant canes like a far-off Aurora 
 Borealis. It was fire, and the noble negro had brought it from 
 the old camp. At length he came, with a cracking, crashing 
 noise, familiar only to the ears of those who have walked through 
 the dense cane swamps of Alabama. 
 
 Fires were kindled with dry Oane, and around them sat th& 
 sufferers until the morning sun dispelled the horrid night. It 
 was now ascertained that one white child and twenty-one negroes 
 were entombed beneath the tide of the angry Tombigby. The 
 
THE AMERICANS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 469 
 
 survivors groped their way to the Cotton Gin, vrithout provis- 
 ions, without hats, without tools, without firearms, 'without 
 money, and with no clothes except those which drooped upon 
 their limbs. They were friendless and alone in a savage country, 
 far from their point of destination, and still further from their 
 native land. 
 
 Who saved these people from starvation, and enabled them 
 to reach Washington county, Alabama, after a journey of one 
 hundred and twenty days from North Carolina ? Not the Indians, 
 for one of them stole a negro from the brave Malone, for the re- 
 turn of whom he had to give his watch. Those animals who 
 cling to their unfortunate masters to the last moment, and are 
 never once guilty of the crime of ingratitude, who hunted rabbits, 
 opossums and raccoons for their famished owners. They saved 
 the lives of these people. 
 
 Several years previous to this period two, brothers from New 
 England came to the Boat Yard, upon Lake Tensaw. William 
 Pierce pursued the business of weaving, a protLtable employment 
 in those days. His brother John established the first 
 American school in Alabama. There the high-blood 1799 
 descendants of Lachlan McGillivray, the Taits, Weath- 
 erfords and Durants, the aristocratic Linders, the wealthy Mima's, 
 and the children of many others, first learned to read. The pupils 
 were strangely mixed in blood, and their color was of every hue. 
 It was not long before these Yankee brothers engaged in mercan-. 
 tile pursuits. They established a cotton gin at the 
 Boat Yard, the first in that part of the country. Six 1802 
 months before this Abram Mordeeai, an Indian trader, Oct. 
 procuring the consent of the Creek Chiefs and the ap- 
 probation of Col. Hawkins, had established a cotton gin at Weath- 
 erford's race track, on the first eastern bluff below the junction 
 of the Coosa and Tallapoosa. It was built by Lyons & Barnett, 
 of Georgia, who brought their tools, gin saws and other materials 
 from that State on pack-horses. The same enterprising mechan- 
 
470 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 ics also built th« one for the Pierces, and another at Mcintosh 
 Bluff, upon the Tombigby. 
 
 -Abram Mordecai was a queer fellow. He traded extensively 
 with the Indians, exchanging his goods for pink root, hickory- 
 nut oil and peltries of all kinds. These he carried to New 
 
 1802 Orleans and Mobile in boats, and to Pensacola and Au- 
 gusta on pack-horses. The hickory-nut oil was a luxury 
 
 with French and Spanish epicures. It was manufactured by 
 the Indians in a simple manner — by boiling the cracked nuts in 
 water, and skimming oflf the oil as it floated on the surface. 
 Mordecai bought cotton of the Indians in small quantities, 
 ginned it, and carried it to Augusta on pack-horses, in bags 
 much smaller than those of the present day. He was a dark- 
 eyed Jew, and amorous in his disposition. Tourculla, (Captain 
 Isaacs,) the Chief of the Coosawdas, hearing of his intrigues with 
 a married squaw, approached his house with twelve warriors, 
 knocked him down, thrashed him with poles until he lay insen- 
 sible, cut off his ear, and left him to the care of his wife. They 
 also broke up his boat, and burned down his gin-house. A pretty 
 squaw was the cause of the destruction of the first cotton gin in 
 Alabama.* 
 
 General Bowles, quitting the island where Ellicott found 
 him, boldly advanced into the Creek nation, disturbed the mild 
 and beneficial influence which Hawkins had began to engender, 
 declared his eternal hostility to Spain and the United States, 
 and became an object of dread to all quiet minds, and a terror to 
 all interests against which he acted. Among other out- 
 
 1803 rages, he headed a party of Indians, advanced upon St. 
 Marks, captured the fort, and plundered the store of 
 
 Panton, Leslie & Co. Hawkins united with the Spanish au- 
 thorities in a scheme to rid the country of a common enemy. A 
 large secret reward was offered for his capture. A great feast 
 
 * Conversations witb Lachlan Duiant, James Moore, Abram Mordecai, and many 
 other old traders. 
 
THE AMERICANS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 471 
 
 was given by the Indians at the town of Tuskegee, where the 
 old French Fort Toulouse stood, to which Bowles and the Micca- 
 soochy Chiefs were invited. They attended, and during the feast 
 the unsuspecting freebooter was suddenly seized by concealed 
 Indians, who sprang upon him, securely pinioned him and placed 
 him in a canoe full of armed warriors. They then rapidly rowed 
 down the river. Hawkins and John Forbes, of Pensacola, were 
 in the town, but were concealed, until Sam McNao, a half-breed, 
 had caused Bowles to be made a prisoner. Arriving at a point 
 in the present Dallas county, the canoe was tied up, the prisoner 
 conducted, upon the bank, and a guard set over him. In the 
 night the guard fell asleep, when- Bowles gnawed his ropes apart, 
 crept down the bank, got into the canoe, quietly paddled across 
 the river, entered a thick cane swamp, and fled. At the 
 breaK of day, the astonished Indians arose in great con- 1803 
 fusion, but fortunately saw the canoe on the opposite 
 side, which Bowles had foolishly neglected to shove off. Swim- 
 ming over to that point, they got upon his track, and by the 
 middle of the day once more made him- a prisoner. He was con- 
 veyed to Mobile, and from thence to Havana, where, after a few 
 years, he died in the dungeons of Moro Castle.* 
 
 While the inhabitants of the eastern section were disturbed 
 by Bowles, a notorious robber, named Mason, was a terror to 
 the people of the western part of the Mississippi Territory. 
 During the occupancy of the country by the Spaniards, the 
 lair of this remorseless human tiger was in a cave upon the 
 Ohio, where he secreted his banditti, and the booty which he had 
 acquired in a long and bloody havoc upon the public. He 
 had now stationed himself upon the highway between New 
 Orleans and Natchez, with his two sons and their desperate asso- 
 ciates. The Western people boated their produce down the Mis- 
 sissippi, sold it in New Orleans, purchased horses, and returned 
 
 * Gonrersations with old traders, who were present when Bowles was captured. See 
 also Indian AfCairs, vol. 1. 
 
472 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 by this route to Natchez, and from thence to Nashville, laden 
 with goods and money. This, therefore, offered the most exten- 
 sive theatre for the operations of Mason and his banditti. Hence 
 his sanguinary outrages were perpetrated one day in the Chick- 
 asaw nation and the next upon Pearl river. At length the people 
 in all parts of the country were aroused by his inhuman murders, 
 and every hand was raised against him. Governor Claiborne 
 declared him an outlaw, and offered a large reward for his head. 
 The proclamation was widely distributed, and fell into the hands 
 of Mason ; and while he was reading it with a smile of scorn and 
 contempt, a blow from behind felled him to the earth. His sons 
 were out upon an expedition, and he was alone with 
 1803 two of his men, who, tempted by the reward, now cut off 
 his head and bore it to Washington to Governor Clai- 
 borne. Fortunately, on account of a temporary lack of funds in 
 the treasury, the reward was not paid. In the meantime, hundreds 
 flocked to the governor's quarters to see the head of Mason, and 
 it was recognized by many who had seen him. Among others 
 went two young men, whose respectable father Mason and his 
 gang had waylaid and robbed while they were with him. They 
 immediately recognized his two associates, who brought in the 
 bead. These men were thrown into prison, condemned and 
 hung, and the reward was thus saved to the territory, while 
 Mason was also out of the way.* 
 
 Down to this period, no Protestant preacher had ever raised 
 his voice to remind the Tombigby and Tensaw settlers of their 
 duty to the Most High. Hundreds, born and bred in the wild- 
 erness, and. now adult men and women, had never even 
 1803 seen a preacher. The mysterious and eccentric Lorenzo 
 April Dow, one day suddenly appeared at the Boat Yard. He 
 came from Georgia, across the Creek nation, encounter- 
 ing its dangers, almost alone. He proclaimed the truths of the 
 
 • Monette, vol. 2, pp. 351-353. Conversations with aged persons in Wasliington coun- 
 ty, Alabama. 
 
THE AMERICANS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 473 
 
 gospel here, to a large audience, crossed over the Alabama, and 
 preached two sermons to the " Bigby settlers," and went from 
 thence to the Natchez settlements, where he also exhorted the 
 people to « turn from the error of their ways." He then 
 vtsited the Cumberland region and Kentucky, and came 1804 
 back to the Tombigby, filling his appointments to the Dec. 27 
 very day. Again plunging into the Creek nation, this 
 holy man of God once more appeared' among the people of 
 Georgia.* 
 
 As early as the summer of 1799, the Rev. Tobias Gibson, a 
 Methodist missionary from South Carolina, visited the Natchez 
 settlements, by way of the Cumberland and Ohio — organized re- 
 ligious societies in Washington and its vicinity, and then de- 
 parted from the wilderness. In the fall of 1800, he again ap- 
 peared, now as a missionary from the Tennessee Conference, and 
 formed societies from Bayou Pierre to the Spanish line, number- 
 ing, collectively, two hundred church members. After perform- 
 ing the most arduous labor in the cause of our Divine Master, for 
 three years, in this rude and savageland, he died. The Rev. Mr. 
 Brown, another Methodist missionary, came from Tennessee in 
 1802, and brought with him to the Natchez country, a mind 
 stored with a knowledge of science, and a heart fervent with 
 piety. He labored in Natchez until 1807. Montgomery and 
 Hall, two reverend gentlemen of the Presbyterian order, also 
 preached in Natchez for several years. The Baptists, too, sent a 
 "laborer into the vineyard," in the person of the Rev. David 
 Cooper, who arrived in 1802. Dr. Cloud, of the Episcopal 
 Church, was also sent to "proclaim the glad tidings." The ef- 
 forts of these various sects were highly salutary, serving to 
 soften and refine the people, and to banish much sin and vice 
 from the worst region that ministers ever entered.f 
 
 Congress established regulations respecting the English, 
 
 • Lorenzo Dew's complete works," pp. 76-101. 
 t Monette, vol.2, pp 354-357. 
 
474 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Spanish and Georgia grants. Many of the inhabitants 
 
 1803 claimed extensive tracts of land under them. A land 
 Mar. 3 ofBce was established at the town of Washington, and a 
 
 board of commissioners formed, composed of Thomas 
 Rodney and Robert Williams, who proceeded to consider all 
 claims arising under these grants, in a district extend- 
 July 9 ing from Pearl river to the Mississippi. They contin- 
 ued in office until the 3d July, 1807, having recorded two 
 thousand and ninety claims. Their acts were sanctioned by the 
 President. Another board of commissioners, consisting of Joseph 
 Chambers, Epham Kirby and Robert Carter Nicholas, 
 
 1804 was formed at St. Stephens, upon the Tombigby, whose 
 Feb. 2 district extended from Pearl river eastward. They ad- 
 journed on the 21st December, 1805, having admitted to 
 
 record two hundred and seventy-six claims, which the President 
 likewise ratified. The inhabitants living upon public lands about 
 the time of Ellicott's survey, were afterwards allowed by the 
 government a section of land ; and those who came just before 
 the board of commissioners was established, received a quarter 
 
 section. Isaac Briggs was surveyor-general. The Ter- 
 Mar. 27 ritorial government was made to extend to the southern 
 
 boundary of the State of Tennessee ; but the extinguish- 
 ment of the Indian title had been obtained to no portion, except 
 a strip seventy miles long, above and below Natchez, and ex- 
 tending back twenty miles, and the small district upon the Tom- 
 bigby. The balance of the territory was occupied by the Creeks, 
 Cherokees, Chickasaws and Choctaws. 
 
 Col. James Call6r, of North Carolina, was one of the first 
 representatives to the Legislative Council, from the county of 
 Washington, Alabama. The first County Court of this county 
 was held at Mcintosh Bluff, where John Caller, Cornelius Rain 
 and John Johnson, presided with great frontier dignity. These 
 justices had no code before them, and coming from different 
 States, decided cases according to the laws of their native land, 
 
THE AMERICANS IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. 475 
 
 80 that the most amusing differences of opinion often prevailed. 
 This was the case all over the territory ; but the Justices from 
 Georgia holding the laws of South Carolina, North Carolina, 
 Virginia, and the whole of New England in great contempt, con- 
 tended that the practice in the State from which they came, was 
 alone correct. With their usual success, they generally managed 
 to carry their points. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 GovEBNOR Troup, or the McIntosh Family — Incidents in the 
 Mississippi Territory. 
 
 At the close of our last chapter it was stated that the first 
 American court held in Alabama was at Mcintosh Bluflt', which. 
 is situated upon the western bank of the Tombigby, between its 
 confluence with the Alabama and the town of St. Stephens. 
 Connected with this bluflf, there is, to us, a pleas-ing historical 
 reminiscence. Alabama has the honor of being the birth- 
 place of George M. Troup, late Governor of Georgia, and who 
 is one of the most vigorous and expressive political and epis- 
 tolary writers of the age. His grandfather. Captain John Mc- 
 intosh, the Chief of the Mcintosh clan, was long attached to 
 the army of West Florida, and his valuable services were re- 
 warded by the King of England, with the grant of Mcintosh 
 Bluff, and extensive tracts of land upon the Mississippi. He 
 had a son, who was also a British of&cer, and a daughter, a 
 native of Georgia. The latter, while on a visit to England, 
 married an officer of the royal army, named Troup. She 
 sailed from England to Mobile, and, arriving at the latter 
 place, entered a barge, and went up the Tombigby river to 
 the residence of her father at Mcintosh Bluff, where, in the wilds 
 of Alabama, Governor Troup was born in September, 1780. She 
 had an uncle, named Roderick Mcintosh, or " Old Rory," as he 
 was familiarly called, a most extraordinary character, a kind of 
 Don Quixote, old Arab Chief, Scottish and Irish Chieftain, the 
 Saladin and Coeur de Leon of chivalry. He was long an officer 
 of his Majesty's army in Georgia and East Florida. Thus the 
 
 476 
 
INCIDENTS IN THE MISSISSIPPI TEBRITOEY. 477 
 
 father, brother, uncle and husband of this lady, the mother of 
 George M. Troup, were all British officers before the commence- 
 ment of the revolution. Being removed from the scenes of that 
 revolution, none of them may be said to have taken sides against 
 it, except " Old Rory," who during the war was frequently in 
 Georgia and East Florida, and, although far advanced in years, 
 was at all timss ready to storm any whig fortress that might 
 present itself. Before he came to America he had been the cham- 
 pion of his native glen in Scotland, and was strongly attached to 
 the Stuart family. In 1777 he was over sixty-five years ot age. 
 He was tall ; his form was admirably proportioned for strength 
 and activity. His complexion was ruddy, and his hair was white, 
 frizzled and bushy. In walking, or rather striding, his step ordi- 
 narily embraced the space of four feet. He was not rich, but 
 lived in ease and comfort, when not engaged in the actual service 
 of the King. He cared nothing for money. During the Spanish 
 occupation of East Florida he sold a drove of cattle in St. Augus- 
 tine, and receiving payment in specie, placed it in a bag on his 
 horse and rode towards home. On the route the canvas gave 
 way, and many of the dollars fell upon the path. He secured 
 those which were left and pursued his journey, giving himself no 
 concern about those upon the ground. Some years afterwards, 
 being in want of money, he recollected his loss, went to the place, 
 picked up as many dollars as he wanted and returned home. He 
 was fond of dogs. He once laid a considerable bet that he could 
 hide a doubloon, at three miles distance, and that his setter, which 
 he had taught to take his back track, would find it. Luath 
 presently went oft" on his trail, was gone some time, and returned 
 panting, with his tongue out, but came without the doubloon. 
 " TVeasow /" vociferated " Rory," and he walked rapidly to the 
 place where he had hidden the money. He turned over the log, 
 and found that Luath had torn up the earth in search of it. A 
 man was seen some distance off engaged in the splitting of rails. 
 Without ceremony "'Eory" drew his dirk, advanced upon him. 
 
478 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 and swore he would put him to death if he did not give up the 
 doubloon. The man, very much alarmed, immediately handed 
 him the coin, observing that, having seen Mcintosh put some- 
 thing under the log, he had gone to the place and found the gold. 
 " Rory," tossing him back the money, said, " Take it, vile caitiff ; 
 it was not the pelf, but the honor of my dog, I cared for." 
 
 In 1778 a portion of the garrison of St. Augustine, under 
 General Provost, marched by land to join a force from New 
 York to attack Savannah, then in the occupation of the 
 whigs. "Rory" was a captain of light infantry upon this 
 expedition. On the march they passed near a small whig 
 fort, commanded by Captain, afterwards Colonel John Mcintosh. 
 Early one morning, when « Rory " had made rather free with the 
 morning glass, he insisted on sallying out to summon the fort to 
 surrender. His friends were unable to restrain him, and he pres- 
 ently advanced, with claymore in hand, fqllowed by his faithful 
 negro, Jim. Approaching the gate of the fort, he said, in an 
 audible and commanding tone, " Surrender, you miscreants ! 
 How dare you presume to resist his majesty's arms ! " Captain 
 Mcintosh knew him, and, forbidding any of his men to lire, 
 threw open the gate, and said, " Walk in, cousin, and take pos- 
 session." « No," said Rory, with great indignation, " I will not 
 trust myself with such vermin, but I order you to surrender." 
 A rifle was fired at him, the ball of which passed through his 
 face. He fell, but immediately recovered. He retreated back- 
 wards, flourishing his sword. His servant, seeing his face cov- 
 ered with blood, and hearing the shot falling around him, im- 
 plored his master to face about and run for his life. He replied, 
 « Run yourself, poor slave, but 1 am of a race that never runs." 
 In this manner, he backed safely into the lines, flourishing^ his 
 sword in deflance, and keeping his face to the enemy. 
 
 Upon a certain occasion, " Rory " rode from St. Augustine 
 to Savannah, and applied to his friend, Couper, for money to de- 
 fray his expenses from that place to Charleston. Couper saw 
 
INCIDENTS IN THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 479 
 
 that something ot an extraordinary character agitated him, and 
 with difQeulty learned the cause of his excitement. « That rep- 
 tile in Charleston, Gadsden, has insulted my country, and I will 
 put him to death." " What has he done? " said Couper. " Why," 
 said Rory, "on being asked how he meant to fill up his wharf, in 
 Charleston, he replied, 'By importing Scotchmen, who were fit 
 for nothing better.' " With great diffloulty the friends of Rory 
 prevailed on him to return home. 
 
 It would be an endless task to enumerate all the anecdotes 
 in our possession in relation to this remarkable Highlander, the 
 grand-uncle of Governor Troup. He was often in the Creek na- 
 tion, and was the father of Colonel William Mcintosh, a half- 
 breed Muscogee, of high character, whom the Upper Creeks 
 killed for his friendship to the Georgians. "Rory" always 
 dressed in the Highland costume. He was perfectly fearless in 
 spirit, while his broadsword, wielded by one of the most power- 
 ful arms, caused streams of human blood to flow in many des- 
 perate engagements. Although engaged in the rebellion of '45, 
 King George was nevertheless much attached to him, and "Rory" 
 was ready to die for that monarch at any moment. 
 
 There was another branch of the Mcintosh family — all, 
 however, close connections of Governor Troup, by consanguin- 
 ity — who were conspicuous whigs in the revolution, citizens 
 of Georgia, and men who occupied high ranks in the army. 
 One of these was General Lachlan Mcintosh, who came out 
 to Georgia with Oglethorpe, when a little boy, and the other, 
 Colonel John Mcintosh, who also fought for liberty through- 
 out the war. In later times. Colonel John S. Mcintosh, one 
 of the same family, became a distinguished American ofBcer, 
 was in the wars of 1813 and 1814, and recently, in the Mexi- 
 can war, was wounded at Resaca de la Palma, and after- 
 wards at Molino del Rey, and died in the city of Mexico. The 
 Mcintosh family was composed of people of marked character, all 
 -whom were born to command. The blood always exhibited itself, 
 
480 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 even when mixed with that of the Indian. After the revolution, 
 the father of Governor Troup established himself in Georgia, 
 became an American citizen, and was much esteemed and re- 
 spected to the day of his death. His body is interred at Belleville, 
 Mcintosh county, and that of his wife in the family vault of 
 General Lachlan Mcintosh at Savannah.* 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte had turned his eagle eye to the 
 1801 rich province of Louisiana, and it was ceded by Spain to 
 Mar. 21 France. He contemplated its occupation, with a large 
 army, and probably entertained designs of conquest 
 against portions of the United States ; but, becoming deeply in- 
 volved in wars with the whole of Europe, he reluctantly 
 
 1803 relinquished these intentions, and ceded Louisiana to 
 April 30 the United States for sixty millions of francs. Governor 
 
 Claiborne, with a large number of emigrants, who had 
 already flocked to Natchez from all parts of the Union for the 
 
 purpose of occupying Louisiana, sailed down the Missis- 
 Dec. 20 sippi, with Wilkinson and his forces, and took formal 
 
 possession of the city of New Orleans, in behalf of the 
 United States. He had been appointed the Governor of the 
 Louisiana Territory. He left the people of the Mississippi Ter- 
 ritory duly impressed with a deep sense of obligation for his 
 valuable public services. Cato West, the Territorial Secretary, 
 discharged the executive duties until his successor arrived. 
 
 The distance of Natchez from the Tombigby was so great 
 
 that Congress authorized the President to appoint an 
 
 1804 additional Superior Court Judge for the' benefit of the 
 Mar. 27 people settled upon that river. The Hon. Harry Toul- 
 
 min was selected. He was born at Taunton, in England, 
 the 7th April, 1766, and descended from a learned and respectable 
 family. He became a pastor of the Unitarian church, at Chow- 
 bert, in Lancashire, in 1788, where he occupied a prominent 
 position, officiating before a congregation of a thousand hearejs. 
 
 * MS. notes in my possession. 
 
INCIDENTS IN THE MISSISSIPPI TEBEITOKY. 481 
 
 Becoming an object of suspicion to the government, it determined 
 to silence not only his efforts, but those of every other person who 
 indulged in an independent expression of opinion. Frequently 
 threatened with personal injury, and often surrounded by mobs, 
 who extended their violence to his private residence, as well as his 
 church, Mr. Toulmin determined to seek a land where all religious 
 opinions are tolerated. Landing at Norfolk, Virginia, he pro- 
 ceeded to Winchester, where he had the misfortune to lose two 
 of his children. The year following, he became the President of 
 Transylvania University, of Lexington, the duties of which he 
 discharged for four years. He was then Secretary of State of 
 Kentucky for the long period of eight years, and wrote most 
 of the public documents of that day. Having pursued the study 
 of law and attained great proficiency in it, he compiled a 
 code of laws for Kentucky in the most satisfactory manner. A 
 fine writer, an excellent scholar, an amiable man, and a delightful 
 fireside companion, Judge Toulmin won upon the hearts of his 
 friends and engaged the confidence of the public. He came to 
 Alabama by way of New Orleans, settled at a cantonment near 
 Fort Stoddart, and afterwards removed to the court house, which 
 he called Wakefield, in memory of Goldsmith's good vicar. His 
 first court was held in the fall of 1804, he having been diligently 
 engaged for several months previous in arranging the judicial 
 department of Washington county. There was no newspaper 
 here, and Thomas Malone, the clerk, advertised libels against 
 boats for smuggling in a New Orleans paper, published by Brad-' 
 ford & Anderson. 
 
 Fort Stoddart was now a prominent post. Captain Shaum- 
 berg retired from the command, which was assumed by Captain 
 Schuyler, of New York, who had the command of eighty 
 men. Lieutenant Reuben Chamberlain, now of Mobile, 1804 
 arrived at this station in June, as paymaster. Edmund Fall 
 Pendleton Gaines was then a lieutenant under Captain 
 
 -31 
 
482 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Schuyler. Here the Court of Admiralty was held, for it was a 
 port of entry.* 
 
 Robert Williams, of North Carolina, appointed to succeed 
 Governor Claiborne, arrived at the town of Washington, Missis- 
 sippi, and partook of a public dinner, at which the Hon- 
 1805 orable Thomas Rodney presided. His staff consisted of 
 Jan. 26 William Scott, William B. Shields, William Woolridge 
 and John C. Carmichael, the first with the rank of 
 colonel and the others with that of major. 
 
 Congress having constituted the country upon theTombigby 
 a revenue district, known as the " District of Mobile," the most 
 vigilant and annoying system of searches commenced. The 
 people, with just cause, considered it an unnecessary restriction 
 upon a weak' and defenceless territory. Not only did Spain 
 exact heavy duties at the port of Mobile upon American mer- 
 chandise destined for the American settlements above, but the 
 Federal Government, which ought rather to have fostered and 
 protected her wilderness children, also exacted duties from them 
 at Fort Stoddart. These arbitrary revenue laws of Spain and 
 the United States were applied with equal, severity also to what- 
 ever the persecuted settlers of Alabama chose to export, so that a 
 Tombigby planter, sending his produce to New Orleans by way 
 of Mobile, and exchanging it there for goods and supplies, paid, 
 by the time he reached home, an ad valorem duty of twenty -five 
 per^cent. Vessels were required to pass under the guns of Fort 
 Charlotte, and to submit to insult and search. The Spaniards 
 valued the goods themselves, and imposed a duty of 
 1805 twelve and a half per cent. The Federal Government 
 remonstrated with Spain, in an extensive correspond- 
 ence, but, we think, with a very ill grace, while restrictions were 
 imposed by herself upon her own people at the port of Fort 
 Stoddart. 
 
 * I bave consulted some biographical notices of the life and character of Judge Tonl- 
 min— Conversatlous with Major Reuben Chamberlain, of Mobile, and Thomas Malone. 
 
INCIDENTS IN THE MISSISSIPPI TEEEITORY. 483 
 
 When the line of demarcation was established by Elli- 
 cott and the Spanish commissioners, those inhabitants, chiefly 
 Spaniards, old British subjects and tories — living in the Natchez 
 district, retii-ed below the line, within Spanish jurisdiction, as 
 the reader has already seen. Notwithstanding that General 
 Wilkinson then entered into a convention with the Governor of 
 Louisiana, for the mutual surrender of deserters, and both sides 
 adopted wise measures to prevent border disturbances, yet much 
 prejudice and ill-feeling continued to exist between the American 
 settlers and Spaniards. No serious outbreaks, however, occurred 
 until after Louisiana was surrendered to the United States. A 
 controversy then arose, in relation to a strip of country lying be- 
 tween the line of 31° on the north, the Bayou Iberville on. the 
 south, the Mississippi on the west, and Pearl river on the east. 
 This had been organized by the Spaniards, into a district, called 
 the " Government of Baton Rouge," and placed under the control 
 of Don Carlos de Grandpre. It comprised the posts of Baton 
 Rouge, Manchac, Thompson's Creek, and Bayou Sara. A con- 
 troversy also arose in relation to the country bounded by the 
 Perdido on the east. Pearl river on the west, the line of 31° on 
 the north, and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, which was the 
 Spanish " Mobile district." The United States contended that 
 these two districts should have been surrendered at the same 
 time that the island of New Orleans and the counti-y west of the 
 Mississippi were given up; that Bonaparte, in his treaty with 
 Spain, acquired the whole of the Louisiana which belonged to 
 France before 1762; that, when subsequently he ceded Louisiana 
 to the United States, he ceded all which he had acquired from 
 Spain, and, of course, the Baton Rouge and Mobile districts were 
 included, for they once belonged to French Louisiana. Spain 
 met these arguments by assuming the positions, that, just before 
 the close of the American revolution, she became herself engaged 
 in a war with England ; that she took from Great Britain, by 
 conquest, the Baton Rouge district, and that of Mobile, which 
 
484 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 was then a part of West Florida; that, in 1783, Great Britain 
 confirmed these to her by treaty ; that, since then, she (Spain) had 
 always considered these districts as a part of Spanish West 
 Florida'; that Bonaparte only ceded to the United States Louis- 
 iana, not embracing, of course, the Baton Rouge and Mobile 
 districts. 
 
 The people of the Mississippi Territory, believing that the 
 American government was right in the controversy, were impa- 
 tient to occupy the rich lands in the Baton Rouge district, and 
 were loud and open in their denunciations of the Spaniards. Bor- 
 • der troubles commenced. Lieutenant John Glasscock, a 
 1805 subject of Spain, placed himself at the head of twelve 
 Aug. 12 Spanish light-horse, crossed over the line two miles into 
 the Mississippi territory, seized William Flannagin and 
 his wife, and forcibly carried them fifteen miles, into Spanish 
 territory. Here, finding that they were not the persons whom 
 the authorities wanted, he turned them loose, to make their 
 way back on foot, having retained their horse. This first 
 open violation of American rights was followed by one more 
 serious. Many citizens of the Union had settled already in 
 the Baton Rouge district, while others lived near the line, 
 ready to enter it when a suitable opportunity offered. Among 
 the most conspicuous of the latter class were Nathan, Reu- 
 ben and Samuel Kemper, sons of a Baptist preacher, who 
 emigrated from Loudon, Virginia, to Ohio. They came to the 
 Mississippi Territory in 1803, and established themselves at and 
 near Pinckneyville, within a few miles of the Spanish line. Men 
 of stro'ng frontier sense, with a pleasing appearance and fine ad- 
 dress, the Kempers were well suited to the times and were 
 dreaded by the Spaniards. They had acquired lands in the 
 Baton Rouge district, under Spanish grants, which they knew 
 would enrich them could the country once be occupied by Ameri- 
 cans. Beginning to exert their influence, with an end to the ex- 
 pulsion of the Spaniards, Governor Grandpre determined to seize 
 
INCIDENTS IN THB MISSISSIPPI TKEEITOET. 485 
 
 and imprison them. He, despatched a company of kid- 
 nappers to the house of Nathan Kemper. They arrived 1805 
 there at 12 o'clock at night. They were Lewis Ritchie, Sept. 3 
 Minor Butler, Abraham Horton, James Horton, Dr. 
 
 Bomer, Henry Flowers, Jr., and McDermot, who were in 
 
 disguise, and were citizens of the Mississippi Territory, but ac- 
 complices in the schemes of Grandpre, Seven negroes were also 
 in company with them. The party were armed with guns and 
 clubs, and provided with ropes. They forced the door, entered 
 the room in which Reuben Kemper was sleeping, dragged him 
 from his bed, beat him with clubs, and then tied him. Some of 
 them at the same time dragged Nathan Kemper from the bed, in 
 which he was sleeping with his wife, who received some blows 
 from their clubs in the scuffle, one of the kidnappers crying out, 
 <' If she utters another word I will kill her ! " 
 
 Nathan was also severely beaten and well secured with cords. 
 The brothers begged to know what they had done. A voice 
 answered, " You have ruined the Spanish country ! " The party 
 gagged them by placing large sassafras roots in their mouths. 
 Then tying a line around their necks they were made to run be- 
 fore the horses of the kidnappers, and were conducted to the 
 Spanish line. At the same time a branch of this party had entered 
 the tavern of Samuel Kemper at Pinckneyville, the proprietor of 
 which they seized, beat with clubs, gagged and pinioned. In 
 running along by the side of a horseman, this prisoner, 
 unable to keep up, fell to the earth, and was cruelly 1805 
 dragged an hundred yards by a rope around his neck. Sept. 3 
 He, too, was conducted to the Spanish line, where all 
 three of the unhappy brothers were delivered to Captain Solomon 
 Alston, who conveyed them with a guard to the Tunica Land- 
 ing, where they were placed in a boat, also guarded, which was 
 ordered to transport them to Baton Rouge. In the meantime a 
 Dr. Towles, who had been visiting a patient, hearing of the out- 
 rage early in the morning, galloped his horse to Point Coupee, 
 
486 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 informed Lieutenant Wilson, the commandant at that place, who, 
 with a file of soldiers, rescued the Kempers and captured the 
 Spanish guard. They were all sent to the town of Washington, 
 and the affair was legally investigated by Judge Rodney, and 
 the parties were discharged. It, however, created much excite- 
 ment, and Governor Williams formed a strong patrol, com- 
 posed of two companies, at the head of which was Colonel 
 John Ellis. After some sharp correspondence between the 
 governor and Colonel Grandpre, the people became quiet, and 
 border troubles ceased for a while. However, this shameful 
 treatment of American citizens produced some excitement in 
 Washington city, and John Randolph, of the committee of foreign 
 relations, reported a bill for the raising an army to repel and 
 punish Spanish aggressors. But the friends of Jefferson's admin- 
 istration refused to adopt it.* 
 
 Nothing but an Indian trail led from the Oconee to the Ala- 
 bama river at Lake Tensaw. The houses of accommodation were 
 few, kept by Indians and half-breeds, and were of the most in- 
 different kind. None of the rivers were provided with 
 1805 ferry-boats, nor were the creeks bridged. The Federal 
 Nov. 14 Government, desiring to open a better avenue to the new 
 country, obtained from a delegation of thirty Creek 
 Chiefs and warriors, then at Washington city, the right of using 
 a horse-path through their country; along which the Chiefs agreed 
 to establish ferries and bridges, and to open good houses 
 Oct. 7 of accommodation. The Cherokees, at Tellico Block- 
 house, granted the right for a mail route from Knoxville 
 to New Orleans by way of the Tombigby. The United States 
 also acquired more territory from the Chickasaws, who 
 July 23 ceded about three hundred and fifty thousand acres, 
 lying in the bend of the Tennessee, a very small portion 
 of which, in the' shape of a triangle, fell into Alabama and was 
 
 * American State Papers, Boston edition, vol. 6, pp. 103-124. Also blstorical MS. notes 
 in tlie possession of B. T. Wood, of Mobile. 
 
INCIDENTS IN THE MISSISSIPPI TEEKITOEY. 487 
 
 afterwards formed into the county of Madison. At 
 
 Mount Dexter, the Choctaws ceded to the government Nov. 1 6 -< 
 
 five millions of acres, commencing at the Cut-Off, at a 
 
 point half way between the Alabama and Tombigby, running 
 
 north to the Choctaw corner, west to Fulluctabuna Old Fields, 
 
 thence across the Tombigby to the Mississippi settlements, thence 
 
 south to Ellicott's line, and east along that line back to the 
 
 Cut-Oft* 
 
 Thus the whole southern portion of the present 8tate of 
 Mississippi was thrown open to the Americans. The new pur- 
 chase was soon formed into three counties — Marion, Wayne and. 
 Greene. A population from Georgia and Tennessee poured into 
 the magnificent forest north of the Tennessee, about " Hunt's 
 Spring," which had been obtained from the Chickasaws, as just 
 mentioned. The population of the Mississippi Territory had 
 much increased, Natchez had become a large town, where boats 
 going down and up the great river landed and traded, while the 
 crews engaged in fights, drunkenness, gambling, and all kinds of 
 debaucheries. It was the greatest thoroughfare in the whole 
 forest world, and was decidedly a most abandoned place. 
 
 The subject of education was not neglected, and Jefferson 
 College had been established at Ellicott's Spring, in the vicinity 
 of the town of Washington. Many improvements', in the way of 
 houses, farms and new towns, gave the territory an air of civili- 
 zation. 
 
 * Indian Affairs .and Land Laws. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 The Arrest of Aaron Burr in Alabama. 
 
 Aaron Burr — a descendant of learned ancestry, a native of 
 New Jersey, a graduate of Princeton, a whig colonel of the Rev- 
 olution, a lawyer of ability, a leading member of the New York 
 Legislature, a State's Attorney-General, a Senator of the United 
 States, a Vice-President of the Union — at length found 
 
 1804 himself nominated by the republican party of New 
 July 1 1 York as a candidate for the ofiBice of Governor of that 
 
 State. Among his most formidable enemies was Alex- 
 ander Hamilton, whom he not long after killed in a duel. The 
 tide of public opinion set strongly against him in consequence 
 
 of this unfortunate affair, and he was swept into exile 
 
 1805 upon the seacoast of Carolina- He, however, returned 
 Mar. 4 to Washington, and presided over the Senate until the 
 
 expiration of his term of office as Vice-President. 
 A warrant for the killing of Hamiltoh, in the hands of the 
 officers of justice, prevented Burr from returning to New York. 
 He had likewise become unpopular with the friends of Jefferson, 
 with whom he had been a close competitor for the Presidency. 
 Of course he had no friends among the prominent federalists, 
 against whom he had always acted. These things combined to 
 make him long for brighter prospects in the Southwest. In 
 1805 he traveled through Kentucky and Tennessee, enjoying the 
 society of Clay and Jackson, besides that of many other distin- 
 guished persons. From January until August of the following 
 year his hours were passed in Washington and Philadelphia, 
 
THE ARREST OF AARON BURR IN ALABAMA. 489 
 
 consumed in revolving schemes, the consummation of which he 
 believed vi^ould elevate him above his fallefa condition. 
 
 Burr had purchased a portion of the lands granted by the 
 King of Spain to Baron Bastrop, which lay between the Sabine 
 and Natchitoches. His designs appear to have been the coloni- 
 zation of these lands, the expulsion of the Spaniards, the conquest 
 of Texas, and, ultimately, of Mexico. To effect these things it 
 >yas necessary to raise a large armed force in the West. He be- 
 lieved, also, that a war would soon ensue between the United 
 States and Spain, and he expected, in that event, to co-operate 
 with General Wilkinson, who had charge of the Western and 
 Southern army. Upon his death-bed Burr denied that he had 
 any intention of dismembering the Union, and, as he had then 
 arrived at the age of eighty, and outlived both his descendants 
 and his reputation, it would seem that there was no inducement 
 to conceal any act of his life. 
 
 Burr again made his appearance in the western country, 
 where his plausibility captivated the people, who made 
 active preparations to carry out his designs. Boats were 1806 
 constructed and stored with provisions and concealed Summer 
 arms. General Wilkinson was suspected of having 
 countenanced his enterprise. Rumors had reached President 
 Jefferson that Burr was raising troops for the purpose of dis- 
 membering the Union. He caused him to be arrested at 
 Lexington, where Clay appeared in his defence. Burr 1806 
 was discharged, for the want of sufficient evidence to Dec. 6 
 convict him. Then, descending the Cumberland river, 
 and the Mississippi, with thirteen boats and sixty men, he was 
 met, some miles above Natchez, by Colonel F. L. Claiborne, 
 whom the Governor of the Mississippi Territory, influenced by 
 the proclamations of Jefferson, had despatched, at the head of a 
 detachment of two hundred and seventy -five men, for the 
 purpose of arresting him. Burr surrendered his boats 1807 
 and men, and proceeded, with Claiborne, to the town of Jan. 
 
490 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 Washington, once more a prisoner of the United States. 
 The people, generally, sympathized with him, and thought him 
 much wronged. He was honored with balls and parties in Adams 
 county. He found no difficulty in giving bonds, in the sum of 
 ten thousand dollars, for his appearance at court. When it con- 
 vened he appeared, with his counsel, and demanded a release 
 from his bonds, as the Attorney-General stated that he was satis- 
 fled his offenses did not come within the jurisdiction of Missi_s- 
 sippi, and insisted on his being sent to a competent tribunal. 
 The motion of the Attorney-General was sustained, and Burr's 
 application for a discharge was overruled by the Judges. The 
 next morning the prisoner did not make his appearance in the 
 court room, apd it was soon ascertained that he had fled. A 
 troop of cavalry was despatched in pursuit of him, while the 
 governor distributed proclamations over the country, which 
 promised a reward of two thousand dollars for his apprehension. 
 His destination was unknown. 
 
 TT TT TT "K" rfr tT '*1t 
 
 During a cold night in February, two young men — Nicholas 
 Perkins, a lawyer, and Thomas Malone, clerk of the court — were 
 sitting in their cabin, in the village of Wakefleld, Washington 
 county, Alabama. Before them was a backgammon board, and 
 they were absorbed in the playing of that game. The hour was 
 ten o'clock. The distant tramp of horses arrested their atten- 
 tion. Two travellers presently rode up to the door, one of whom 
 inquired for the tavern. It was pointed out to him, and then he 
 asked the road to Colonel Hinson's. Perkins informed him that 
 
 the route lay over difficult paths, the place was seven 
 
 1807 miles distant, and a dangerous creek intervened. The 
 
 Feb. 18 flre, being replenished with pine, now threw a light in 
 
 the face of the traveller who propounded these questions. 
 His countenance appeared to Perkins exceedingly interesting. 
 His eyes sparkled like diamonds, while he sat upon his splendid 
 horse, caparisoned with a flne saddle and new holsters. His dress 
 
THE AEEEST OF AAEON BUEE IN ALABAMA. 491 
 
 was that of a plain farmer, but beneath his coarse pantaloons 
 protruded a pair of exquisitely shaped boots. His striking fea- 
 tures, with the strange mixture of his apparel, aroused the sus- 
 picions of Perkins, and, no sooner had the two travelers ridden 
 from the door, than he said to Malone, with the most earnest 
 gesticulation, « That is Aaron Burr. I have read a description 
 of him in the proclamation. I cannot be mistaken. Let us 
 follow him to Hinson's, and take measures for his arrest." Ma- 
 lone declined to accompany him, remonstrating, at the same 
 time, upon the folly of pursuing a traveler, at such a late hour 
 of the night, and upon the basis of the merest conjecture. Per- 
 kins now rushed to the cabin of Theodore Brightwell, 
 the sheriff, and awoke him. Presently these men were 1807 
 seen riding oft" with a rapid pace. The night was bitter Feb. 18 
 cold, and the pine trees of the forest sadly moaned. 
 
 The travelers strangely made their way to the residence of 
 Hinsoa, where they arrived about half past eleven o'clock. The 
 moon had just risen, and enabled the lady of the house, whose 
 husband was absent, to see that they were travelers, by their 
 saddle-bags and tin cups, as she timidly peeped through a small 
 window. She made no answer to their "halloo,'' but quietly 
 closed the iJv^indow. The strangers alighted and went into the 
 kitchen, where a cheerful lire was yet burning. Perkins and the 
 sheriff soon came in sight of the house. The former, recollecting 
 that he had already been seen at Wakefield, thought it politic to 
 remain in the woods, until Brightwell could go. in the house, 
 make the necessary discoveries, and return to him. Mrs. Hinson 
 was a relative of the sheriff, and, recognizing his voice, felt re- 
 lieved by his appearance from the fears she had felt in conse- 
 quence of the strangers having come at such a late hour of the 
 night. Brightwell repaired to the kitchen and discovered one of 
 these men sitting by the fire, with his head down, while a hand- 
 kerchief partially concealed his face. His companion had gone 
 to the stable to assist a negro in taking care of the horses. It 
 
492 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 was not long before they went into the main building, where the 
 hostess had hastily prepared supper. "While the elder traveler 
 was eating, h,e engaged her in a sprightly conversation, in which 
 he often thanked her for her kindness. At the same 
 1807 time he cast the keenest glances at the sheriff, who stood 
 Feb. 18 before the fire, evidently with the endeavor to read his 
 thoughts and intentions. After he had finished his sup- 
 per he arose from the table, bowed to the lady, walked back to 
 the kitchen and took his seat by the fire. Mrs. Hinson then 
 turned to his companion, and said, " Have I not, sir, the honor of 
 entertaining Colonel Burr, the gentleman who has just walked 
 out?" He gave her no answer, but rose from the table, much 
 embarrassed, and also repaired to the kitchen. Her question had 
 been prompted by Brightwell. In the morning, after breakfast, 
 the elder traveler sought an interview with the lady, 
 Feb. 19 took occasion again to thank her for the hospitable at- 
 tentions, regretted the absence of her husband, inquired 
 the route to Pensacola, and rode off with his companion. 
 
 Perkins remained at his post in the woods, shivering with 
 cold, and wondering why Brightwell did not return to him. 
 His patience at length became exhausted, and, believing the 
 person he was pursuing to be really Burr, he mounted his 
 horse, and rode rapidly to the house of Joseph Bates, Sr., at 
 Nannahubba Bluff. Procuring from that gentleman a negro 
 and a canoe, he paddled down the river, and arrived at Fort 
 Stoddart at the breaking of day. Kushing into the fort, and 
 acquainting Captain Edward P. Gaines with his suspicions, 
 the latter made instant preparations to take the road. After a 
 hasty breakfast, about the rising of the sun, Gaines, placing him- 
 self at the head of a file of mounted soldiers, rode off 
 1807 with Perkins. About nine o'clock that morning they 
 Feb. 19 met the two mysterious travelers, on the descent of a 
 hill, near a wolf pen, at the distance of two miles from 
 
THE AEBEST OF AAEON BUEE IN ALABAMA. 493 
 
 the residence of Hinson. The following conversation imme- 
 diately ensued : 
 
 Gaines — I presume, sir, I have the honor of addressing 
 Colonel Burr. 
 
 Steangee — I am a traveler in the country, and do not recog- 
 nize your right to ask such, a question. 
 
 Gaines — I arrest you at the instance of the Federal Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Steangee — By what authority do you arrest a traveler upon 
 the highway, on his own private business ? 
 
 Gaines — I am an officer of the army. I hold in my hands 
 the proclamations of the President and the Governor, directing 
 your arrest. 
 
 Steangee — ^You are a young man, and may not be aware of 
 the responsibilities- which result from arresting travelers. 
 
 Gaines — I am aware of the responsibilities, but I know my 
 duty. 
 
 The stranger now became exceedingly animated, and with 
 much eloquence and force denounced these proclamatins as doeu- 
 ipents which had emanated in malevolent feeling, without any 
 just foundation, and endeavored again to frighten the young 
 officer from discharging his duty, by ingeniously animadverting 
 upon the great liabilities which he was about to assume. But 
 Gaines sternly replied, " My mind is made up. You must accom- 
 pany me to Fort Stoddart, where you shall be treated 
 with all the respect due the ex- Vice-President of the 1807 
 United States, so long as you make no attempt to escape Feb. 19 
 from me." The stranger for a moment gazed at him with 
 Earnestness, apparently surprised at the unusual firmness which 
 the young officer exhibited. He then assented, by a gentle mo- 
 tion of his head, wheeled his horse around, and took the road to 
 the fort, riding by the side of the captain. His traveling com- 
 panion rode back toward Wakefield with Brightwell, the sheriff. 
 
494 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 who was in company with the two travelers \Fhen they were met 
 by Gaines.* 
 
 The party reached the fort in the evening, and Colonel 
 Burr, being conducted to his room, took his dinner alone. 
 Late in the night, he heard a groan in an adjoining room. He 
 arose from a table, at which be was reading, opened the 
 1807 door, entered the room, and approached the bedside of 
 Feb. 19 Geo. S. Gaines, the brother of the commandant, who was 
 sick. He was kind to the sufferer, felt of his pulse, said 
 he had traveled much and knew something of medicine, and 
 offered his services. They now entered into an agreeable con- 
 versation. Burr asked the Choctaw factor many questions about 
 the Indians and their commerce. The next day he appeared at 
 the dinner table, and was introduced to the wife of the com- 
 mandant, who was the daughter of Judge Harry Toulmin. In 
 the evening, he played chess with that accomplished lady, and, 
 during his coniinement at the fort, was often her competitor in 
 that intricate game. Every night he sought the company of the 
 invalid, who became exceedingly attached to him, and who felt 
 deep regret on account of the downfall of so interesting and so 
 distinguished a character. Often and often did the good heart of 
 George S. Gaines grieve over the adversities and trials of this 
 remarkable man, as they discoursed together. In all their con- 
 versations, maintained every night, the impenetrable Burr never 
 once alluded to the designs which he had failed to carry out, to 
 his present arrest, or to his future plans. 
 
 In the meantime. Captain Gaines had been untiring in his 
 
 * It remains a mystery to this day why Brigbtwell did not keep his promise with Per- 
 kins, and I can only account for it by supposing that he became fascinated with Colonel 
 Burr, was sorry that he had sought to arrest him, and was now conducting him to Mrs. 
 Carson's ferry, upon the Tombigby, on the route to Fensacola. Burr had seen Colonel 
 Hinson at Natchez, who had invited him to his house should he ever pass that way. 
 When he escaped from Natchez he was secreted, from time to time, at the houses of his 
 friends, and he was hastening to Hinson's, with whom he had intended to pass a week. 
 But when he found him absent, and himself discovered by Brightwell, who probably in- 
 formed him of the intentions of Perkins, he determined to fly to Pensacola, and there 
 take a ship for Europe. He intended to enlist wealthy and influential persons, both in 
 England and France, in the scheme of making the conquest of the North American 
 Spanish possessions, now that he had so signally failed to accomplish it in the United 
 States. 
 
THE AEBEST OF AABON BURR IN ALABAMA. 495 
 
 exertions to fit out an expedition for the conveyance 
 of his distinguished prisoner to ihe federal city. At 1807 
 length he placed Burr in a boat, along with a file of About the 
 soldiers, and he was rowed up the Alabama river and period of 
 then into Lake Tensaw. Passing some houses on the March 5 
 banks, several ladies wept upon seeing the ex- Vice- 
 President a prisoner, and one of them named a son for him. 
 Everywhere in the Southwest the ladies were attached to the 
 man, and suffered their feelings to become enlisted in behalf of 
 his unfortunate enterprises. It is a prominent and noble trait 
 in the female character to admire a man of daring and generous 
 impulses, and to pity and defend him in his adversities !* 
 
 Arriving at the Boat Yard, Burr disembarked and was de- 
 livered to the guard which was so long to be with him in dangers 
 and fatigues. It consisted of Colonel Nicholas Perkins, 
 of Tennessee, who had, as we have seen, been the 1807 
 cause of his arrest, Thomas Malone, formerly a clerk About the 
 in the land office at Raleigh, North Carolina, but who, period of 
 at this period, was a clerk of the court of Washington March 6 
 county, Alabama, Henry B. Slade, of North Carolina, 
 John Mills, a native of Alabama, John Henry, of Tennessee, two 
 brothers, named McCormack, of Kentucky, and two federal 
 soldiers. With the exception of the two soldiers, Perkins 
 had chosen these men on account of the confidence which he 
 reposed in their honor, energy anid fidelity. He had been placed 
 over them by Captain Gaines, who entertained a high opinion 
 of his bravery and capacity. Perkins took his men aside and 
 obtained from them the most solemn pledge that they would 
 not suffer the prisoner to influence them jn any manner in his 
 behalf; to avoid which, they promised to converse as little as 
 possible with him upon the whole route to Washington. The 
 character of Burr for making strong impressions in his favor 
 upon the human mind was well known to Perkins. 
 
 * Burr was not only popular with tlie ladies, but the most prominent men in the 
 Southwest favored his enterprise, as they had long been anxious for the expulsion of 
 the Spaniards. 
 
496 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 When the prisoner fled from the Natchez settlements he 
 assumed a disguised dress. He was still attired in it. It con- 
 sisted of coarse pantaloons, made of homespun of a copperas 
 dye, and a roundabout of inferior drab cloth, while his hat was a 
 flapping, wide-brimmed beaver, which had in times past been 
 white, but now presented a variety of ditigy colors. When the 
 guard was ready to depart he mounted the same elegant horse 
 which he rode when arrested. He bestrode him most gracefully, 
 flashed his large dark eyes upon the many bystanders, audibly 
 bade them farewell, and departed.* Perkins and his men were 
 well provided with large pistols, which they carried in holsters, 
 while the two soldiers had muskets. They left the Boat Yard, a 
 quarter of a mile from which the terrible massacre of Fort Mims 
 afterwards occurred, and, pursuing the Indian path, encamped 
 the first night in the lower part of the present county of Monroe. 
 The only tent taken along was pitched for Burr, and under it he 
 lay the first night by large fires, which threw a glare over the 
 dismal woods. All night his ears were saluted with the fierce 
 and disagreeable howling of wolves. In the wilds of Alabama, 
 in a small tent, reposed this remarkable man, surrounded by a 
 guard, and without a solitary friend or congenial spirit. He was 
 a prisoner of the United States, for whose liberties he had 
 fought ; and an exile from New York, whose statutes and insti- 
 tutions bore the impress of his mind. Death had deprived him 
 of his accomplished wife, his only child was on the distant coast 
 of Carolina, his professional pursuits were abandoned, his fortune 
 swept from him, the magnificent scheme of the conquest of Mex- 
 ico defeated, and he was harassed from one end of the Union to 
 the other. All these things were sufficient to weigh down an 
 ordinary being and hurry him to the grave. Burr, however, was 
 no common man. In the morning he rose with a cheerful face, 
 and fell into traveling order, along with the taciturn and watch- 
 ful persons who had charge of him. 
 
 * Many persons who saw Burr in Alabama have told me tbat bis eyes were peculiarly 
 brilliant, and, to use the comparison of Malone, ** they looked like stars." 
 
THE AKEEST OP AARON BUBB IN ALABAMA. 497 
 
 Although guarded with vigilance, , he was treated with 
 respect and kindness, and his few wants were gratified. The 
 trail,- like all Indian highways, was narrow, which required the 
 guard to march in single file, with Burr in the middle of 
 the line. The route lay about eight miles south of the 1807 
 present city of Montgomery, then an Indian town called 
 Econchate.* Passing by the residence of " Old Milly," who, as 
 we have seen, lived upon the creek in Montgomery county, 
 which still bears her name, Perkins employed her husband, 
 a mulatto named Evans, to conduct the guard across Line 
 Creek, Cubahatchee and Calabee, all of which they were forced 
 to swim. It was a perilous and fatiguing march, and for days 
 the rain descended in chilling torrents upon these unsheltered 
 horsemen, collecting in deep and rapid rivulets at every point. 
 Hundreds of Indians, too, thronged the trail, and the party might 
 have been killed in one moment. But the fearless Perkins bore 
 on his distinguished prisoner, amid angry elements and human 
 foes. In the journey through Alabama the guard always slept 
 in the woods, near swamps of reed, upon which the belled and 
 hobbled horses fed during the night. After breakfast, it was 
 their custom again to mount their horses and march on, with a 
 silence which was sometimes broken by a remark about the 
 weather, the creeks or the Indians. Burr sat firmly in the sad- 
 dle, was always on the alert, ahd was a most excellent 
 rider. Although drenched for hours with cold and 1.807 
 clammy rain, and at night extended upon a thin pallet,, March 
 on the bare ground, after having accomplished a ride of 
 forty miles each day, yet, in the whole distance to Richmond, 
 this remarkable man was never heard to complain that he was 
 sick, or even fatigued.. At the Chattahoochie was a crossing, 
 place, owned by an Indian named Marshall, where the effects of 
 the expedition were carried over the river in canoes, by the sides 
 of which the horses swam. In this manner they passed the Flint 
 
 * Econcbate means Red Grround. 
 
 32 
 
498 HISTOKY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 and Ockmulgee. Arriving at Port Wilkinson, on the Oconee, 
 Perkins entered the first ferry-boat which he had seen upon the 
 whole route, and, a few miles beyond the river, was sheltered by 
 the first roof — a house of entertainment, kept by one Bevin. 
 
 While breakfast was in a state of preparation, and the guard 
 were quietly sitting before a large fire, the publican began a 
 series of questions ; and learning that the party were from the 
 " Bigby settlement," he immediately fell upon the fruitful theme 
 of « Aaron Burr, the traitor," He asked if he had not been ar- 
 rested — if he was not a very bad man — and if every one 
 1807 was not afraid of him. Perkins and the rest of the 
 March guard, much annoyed and embarrassed, hung down their 
 heads, and made no reply. Burr, who was sitting in a 
 corner near the fire, majestically raised his head, and flashing 
 his fiery eye upon Bevin, said : 
 
 " I am Aaron Burr; what is it you want with me?" 
 
 Struck with the keenness of his look, the solemnity of his 
 voice, and the dignity of his manner, Bevin stood aghast, and 
 trembled like a leaf. He asked not another question of the guard, 
 but quietly moved about the house, offering the most obsequious 
 attentions. 
 
 When Perkins reached the confines of South Carolina, he 
 watched the prisoner more closely than ever, for in this State 
 lived Colonel Joseph Alston — a man of talents and influ- 
 ence, afterwards governor — who had married the only daugh- 
 ter, and, indeed, the only child of Burr. Afraid that the pris- 
 oner would be rescued at some point in this State, he ex- 
 horted his men to renewed vigilance. Before entering the 
 town, in which is situated the Court House of Chester Dis- 
 trict, South Carolina, he made a halt, and placed two men in 
 front of Burr, two behind, and two on either side of him. In 
 this manner they passed near a tavern, at the Court House, 
 where many persons were standing in front of the portico, while 
 music and dancing were heard in the house. Seeing the coUec- 
 
THE AEREST OP AARON BURR IN ALABAMA. 499 
 
 tian of men so near him, Burr threw himself from his horse, and 
 exclaimed in a loud voice, " I am Aaeon Burr, under military 
 
 ARREST, AND CLAIM THE PROTECTION OF THE CIVIL AUTHOR- 
 ITIES." Perkins, with several of the guard, immediately 1807 
 dismounted, and the former ordered the prisoner to re- Mar. 
 mount. Burr, in a most defiant manner, said, " I will 
 not!" Being unwilling to shoot him, Perkins threw down his 
 pistols, both of which he held in his hands, and seizing Burr 
 around the waist with the grasp of a tiger, threw him into his 
 saddle. Thomas Malone caught the reins of the prison's horse, 
 slipped them over his head, and led the animal rapidly on, while 
 others whipped him up from behind. The astonished citizens 
 saw a party enter their village with a prisoner, heard him appeal 
 to them for protection in the most audible and imploring manner 
 saw armed men immediately surround him and thrust him again 
 into his saddle, and then the whole party vanish from their 
 presence, before they could recover from their confusion. The 
 least timidity or hesitation on the part of Perkins would have 
 lost him his prisoner, for the latter was still popular in South 
 Carolina. 
 
 Far in the outskirts of the town the party halted. Burr was 
 in a high, state of excitement, and burst into a flood of tears. 
 The kind-hearted Malone also wept, at seeing the low condition 
 to which this conspicuous man was now reduced. The bold at- 
 tempt to escape, and the irresolution of the people to whom he 
 appealed, suddenly unmanned him. Perkins held a short con- 
 sultation with some of his men, and sending Burr on the route 
 in charge of the guard, with Malone in command, he went back 
 to the village, and purchasing a gig overtook the party before 
 night. Burr was placed in this vehicle and driven by 
 Malone, escorted by the guard. Without further inci- 1807 
 dent they arrived at Fredericksburg, where despatches Mar. 30 
 from Jefferson caused them to take Burr to Richmond. 
 The ladies of the latter place vied with each other in contribut- 
 
500 
 
 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 ing to the comforts of the distinguished ex-Vice- President, send- 
 ing him fruit, wine, and a variety of fine apparel. Perkins and 
 his men repaired to Washington, reported to the President, and 
 returned to Alabama by the distant route of Tennessee. 
 
 Aaron Burr was arraigned for treason, and was tried and 
 acquitted. He was then arraigned for misdemeanor, and was 
 tried and acquitted. Thus ended the most expensive and extra- 
 ordinary trial known to the country. A part of the time that he 
 was in Richmond the Federal Government caused him to be con- 
 fined in the upper story of the penitentiary, where he was per- 
 mitted to enjoy the company of his daughter. 
 
 Sailing to Europe, Burr was at first treated with great 
 distinction in England. The winter of 1809 found him in 
 Edinburgh, Residing some time in Sweden and Germany, he 
 at length arrived in Finance, where Bonaparte, influenced by 
 letters from America, conceived a prejudice against him so 
 immovable that he refused him passports to leave the country. 
 At length the Duke de Bassano procured him the necessary 
 documents, when he sailed for America, and arrived at New 
 Fork on the 8th of June, 1812. Here he engaged again in the 
 lucrative practice of the law, living in dignified obscurity, if such 
 a position could be assigned to a man of his notoriety. He died 
 at Staten Island, on the 11th of September, 1836, at the ad- 
 vanced age of eighty. His body, attended by his relations and 
 friends, was taken to Princeton, New Jersey, and interred among 
 the graves of his ancesters. 
 
 With the private character of Burr, we conceive we have 
 nothing to do, except to add that we believe him to have been a 
 most profligate and licentious man. When the world put him 
 down — when he received nothing but abuse and ingratitude from 
 those whO' once sycpphantically surrounded him, and whom he 
 had helped to offices of honor and profit — when he was shunned 
 by his old companions in arms, not invited into the society of 
 the refined, but was pointed at, in walking Broadway, as the 
 
THE AHEEST OP AAEON BUEE ITS ALABAMA. 501 
 
 murderer and the traitor — he became disheartened and soured ; 
 and, being without those religious feelings which sustain the 
 most unfortunate, he threw off every restraint, and gave a loose 
 rein to sentiments always unprincipled, and to passions always 
 strong.* 
 
 One of the gravest facts proved against Burr, at his trial at 
 Richmond, Upon the evidence of General Wilkinson, was that the 
 prisoner, in a letter written to him in cipher, " avowed his design 
 of seizing upon Baton Rouge, as a preliminary measure, and, 
 afterwards, extending his conquests into the Spanish provinces." 
 Admitting this to be true, it did not prove that he intended to 
 dismember the Union- Our readers have already seen that the 
 Federal Government, and the people of the Southwest, desired 
 the expulsion of the Spaniards from the Baton Rouge district, , 
 which was a part of the purchase from Napoleon, when he sold 
 us Louisiana ; and hereafter, it will be seen that these Spaniards 
 were driven from the Baton Rouge district only three years after 
 Burr's trial, when the governor of it, Colonel Grandpre, was 
 killed. In the citizens of the Southwest, who accomplished this 
 end, it was not held to be treason — but Burr, for merely contem- 
 plating it, was tried for that crime. It was not considered 
 treason, when President Jackson allowed hundreds of people of 
 the Southwest to be shipped from Mobile and New Orleans, 
 with arms in their hands, who presently landed upon the coast 
 •of Texas, and took that country from the Spaniards — but, for 
 similar designs, Aaron, Burr was hunted down, thrown into 
 prison, and tried for treason. The impartial reader must arrive at 
 the conclusion that the faults of Burr, in a political and public 
 
 * In relation to Burr's arrest in Alabama, and his journey through the wilderness, 1 
 conyersed with Mr. Thomas Malone, one of his guard; with Mrs. Hinson, now Mrs. 
 Sturderant, at whose house Burr passed the night when he was discovered: with Mr. 
 George S. G-aines, who was at Fort Stoddart when he was brought there ; ancl with Mrs. 
 Howse, who saw him when they were conducting him up Lake Tensaw. 1 also corres- 
 ponded with Major-General Gaines, and have his testimony. All these witnesses are 
 reputable, and as respectable as any persons in Alabama. 
 
 On the subject of Ejurr's early lite, and of his operations in the Western country, I 
 consulted Memoirs of Aaron Burr, by M. L. Davis ; the various American State Papers ; 
 Clarke's Proofs of the Corruption of Wilkinson ; Memoirs of Wilkinson, by himself ; 
 Familiar Letters upon Public Characters, and many other works. 
 
502 HISTORY or ALABAMA. 
 
 Capacity, were not such as ought really to have placed that 
 odium upon him which still attaches to his name. One of the 
 great secrets of his political misfortuties lay in the prejudices 
 and malevolence of politicians and fanatics. Somebody heard 
 General Washington say that " Burr was a dangerous man ; " 
 thereupon the world set him down as a "dangerous man." He 
 killed Hamilton in a duel, because Hamilton abused him ; there- 
 upon the world said he was a "murderer." He was a formidable 
 rival of Jefferson in the contest for the Presidency; thereupon a 
 majority of the republican party said he was a political scoun- 
 drel. He had always opposed the federal party ; for that reason 
 the federal party hated him with exceeding bitterness. A blun- 
 dering, extravagant man, named Herman Blannerhassett, sought 
 Burr while he was in the West, eagerly enlisted in his schemes, 
 and invited him to his house ; thereupon William Wirt said, in 
 his prosecuting speech, that Burr " was the serpent who entered 
 the garden of Eden." 
 
 We do not wish to be considered as the defender of Aaron 
 Burr. We do not admire his character, or that of many of his 
 distinguished contemporaries who assailed him. But, as a histo- 
 rian, we are expected to write the truth, even if that truth is 
 unpalatable to the prejudices of the age. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 St. Stephens — Huntsvillb^ — Indian Commerce — Kempek Ex- 
 peditions. 
 
 The military movements of Burr increased the population 
 and wealth of the Mississippi Territory, for hundreds of his fol- 
 lowers became permanent citizens. About this time the cultiva- 
 tion of indigo was much abandoned for that of cotton, and some 
 salutary laws were enacted in relation to the toll for ginning the 
 latter staple. The cotton receipts obtained from the owner of a 
 gin were also made a legal tender, and passed as domestic bills 
 of exchange. St. Stephens was laid oft" into town lots. 
 A road was cut out from thence to the city of Natchez. 1807 
 Notwithstanding the revenue exactions upon the set- Dec. 7 
 tiers, which now subjected them, by means of the Span- 
 ish custom-house at Mobile and the American at Fort Stoddart, 
 to a duty of from forty-two to forty-seven per cent, ad valorem 
 for articles essential to family comfort, while at the same time 
 their fellow-citizens about Natchez were entirely free from such 
 exactions, paying only four dollars per barrel for Kentucky flour, 
 when the Tombigby planter paid sixteen — yet they remained 
 loyal to the Federal Government ; and both whigs and 
 tories participated in an animated public meeting at 1807 
 Wakefield, pledging their support to the United States Sept.,8 
 to avenge the wanton attack of the British upon the 
 American ship Chesapeake, in a string of eloquent and patriotic 
 resolutions, drafted by James McGoffln. 
 
 The little town of Huntsville, north of the Tennessee, con- 
 tinued to receive around it many wealthy emigrants from several 
 
 603 
 
BATTLE or 
 
 CHOLOCCO LITABIXEE; 
 
 THE HOESE-SHOE. 
 
 % 
 
 REFERENCES, 
 A — Hill from which the 
 
 cannon plajred. 
 B B B B— High broKB 
 
 ridge. 
 C C — Indian huts. 
 DDDDppppppp— 
 Men formed in battle. 
 
ST. STEPHENS AND HXJNTSVILLE. 505 
 
 of the Atlantic and Western States. Governor Williams 
 issued a proclamation, forming a county, of which, this 1808 
 became the courthouse. The new county of Madison, Dec. 13 
 where it joined the Tennessee line, was about twenty- 
 flve miles wide, and approached the Tennessee river in the shape 
 of a triangle, not exceeding three miles wide at Ditto's Landing. 
 It embraced all the territory that fell within Alabama, to which 
 the Indian title was extinguished by the treaty with the Chicka- 
 sawsjn 1805. 
 
 'he Mississippi Territory continued to improve. The forests 
 %an to be extensively felled ; houses were reared as if by magic ; 
 the preacher was zealous in the discharge of his divine mission ; 
 the "schoolmaster was abroad;" the medical and legal 
 professions flourished ; the merchants drove a good busi- 1809 
 ness ; the mechanics received constant employment and Dec. 23 
 high wages — while the farmer worked for them all, and 
 received his due reward. These remarks apply more particularly 
 to the section upon the Mississippi. A stock bank, with a capital 
 of five hundred thousand dollars, was established at Natchez. 
 
 The factory of the United States, located at St. Stephens, 
 continued to be managed with advantage, so far as the friend- 
 ship of the Choctaws depended, which was the chief aim of the 
 government. When quite a young man, Mr. George S. Gaines, a 
 native of Virginia, and then a resident of Gallatin, Tennessee, 
 received the appointment of assistant factor, and arrived at St. 
 Stephens in the spring of 1805. Theparsonage of the old Spanish 
 church was used as a skin-house, and the old block-house served 
 the purpose of the government store. In 1807 Gaines was made 
 principal factor. He received a good salary, as also did the as- 
 sistant clerk, the skinsman and the interpreter. To this estab- 
 lishment the Indians — principally Choctaws — and sometimes the 
 American settlers, brought bear's oil, honey in kegs, beeswax, 
 bacon, groundnuts, tobacco in kegs, and all kinds of skins and 
 peltries. To pay for which, the Federal Government usually 
 
506 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 kept a stock of coarse Indian merchandise, besides all kinds of 
 iron tools, ploughs, arms and ammunition. In the summer the 
 furs and hides, often overhauled by the skinsman for the pur- 
 pose of keeping out the worms, were assorted. In the fall they 
 were packed up in bales and shipped to the Indian Agent at 
 Philadelphia. Mr. Gaines at first came often in collision with 
 the revenue authorities of Mobile, who exacted duties — de- 
 layed his vessels — and, upon one occasion, came near putting 
 him in the calaboose of that place . for venturing to remon- 
 strate. The Federal Government, to avoid the payment of these 
 duties, and to prevent delays, instructed the factor to obtain 
 the consent of the Chickasaws for a road from Colbert's Ferry 
 to St. Stephens. The government resolved to send supplies 
 down the Ohio and up the Tennessee, to the former point. The 
 faithful and enterprising Gaines was unable to procure the privi- 
 lege of a road, but was allowed the use of a horse path. Upon 
 the backs of horses he was accustomed to transport goods, hard- 
 ware, and even lead, from Colbert's Ferry to Peachland^'s, upon 
 the Tombigby. There, boats being constructed, the mer- 
 1810 chandise was floated down to St. Stephens. It is singu- 
 lar that our ministers, in forming the treaty with Spain 
 in 1795, by which we acquired all of West Florida above the 
 line of 31°, and the right of free navigation of the Mississippi, 
 neglected ^o insert an article for the free navigation of the bays 
 and rivers of Mobile and Pearl.* 
 
 The Spaniards continued to occupy the Baton Rouge district 
 and that of Mobile, and the daring Kempers, who had received 
 such cruel treatment at their hands, together with many other 
 persons, impatient at the irresolution of the Federal Government, 
 resolved to expel them. They were assisted by the people of 
 Bayou Sara, and others below Ellicott's line. Organ- 
 August izing at St. Francisville, the patriots, as they styled 
 themselves, marched upon Baton Rouge — took it by 
 
 * Conversations with Mr. George S. Oaines, 
 
ST. STEPHENS AND HnNTSVILLE. 507 
 
 surprise, after a small skirmish, in which Governor Grandpre 
 was killed. The town and other .posts fell into their hands, and 
 the Spaniards retired to Pensacola. As the Americans at this 
 period, and for a long time previous, were fruitful in plans to 
 form governments independent of the Union, so the patriots, 
 many of whom were old Spanish subjects, now resolved to have 
 one of their own. A convention assembled, which adopted a de- 
 claration of independence, very similar in tone and sen- 
 timent to that drawn up by Jefferson. They declared 1810 
 their right and intention to form treaties, and to estab- Sept. 26 
 lish commerce' with foreign nations. Afterwards, how- 
 ever, this new republic was annexed to Louisiana with Oct. 27 
 the approbation of the inhabitants. 
 
 The Kempers, apart from mercenary motives for engaging 
 in this rebellion, desired to gratify a feeling of revenge. Reuben 
 and Samuel captured Kneeland, one of the kidnappers, and in- 
 flicted upon his naked back one hundred lashes, then one hun- 
 dred more for their brother Nathan, who was absent, cut off his 
 ears with a dull knife and permitted him to retire; These 
 trophies of resentment were long preserved in spirits of wine, 
 and hung up in one of the Kemper's parlor. Reuben caught an- 
 other of these wretches named Horton, and chastised him as long 
 as the latter could receive it, and live. Barker, seized by the 
 Kempers at the court house at Fort Adams, under the nose of 
 the Judge, was dragged forth, and flayed till they were content. 
 Captain Alston, who received the Kempers at the line, with a 
 Spanish guard and conducted them to Bayou Tunica, died of the 
 dropsy contracted in lying in an open boat at anchor every night 
 to avoid the attacks of the injured brothers.* 
 
 However, before the new republic was annexed to Louisiana 
 the convention despatched its colonel, Reuben Kemper, to the 
 Tombigby river to enlist an army for the purpose of expelling 
 
 * MS. notes in the possession of Mr. B.T. Wood, of Mobile. Monette, vol. 2, pp. 486- 
 490. American State Papers, Boston edition, vol. 7,^ pp. 482-484-479. 
 
508 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 the Spaniards from the Mobile district. The hatred of all these 
 people for the Spaniards facilitated the movements of Kemper, 
 who operated in conjunction with Colonel James Caller, a man oi 
 wealth and considerable frontier influence, at whose house he 
 lodged. Troops were secretly raised. Flat-boats, with provis- 
 ions, were despatched down the Tensaw river to Smith's planta- 
 tion. Major Kennedy and Colonel Kemper crossed over to the 
 Boat Yard, where they were joined by Dr. Thomas G. 
 1810 Holmes and other fearless and ardent spirits, together 
 Nov. with a company of horse under Captain Bernard. Ar- 
 riving at the White House, one mile above the present 
 Blakeley, Kemper despatched young Cyrus Sibley with a letter to 
 Governor Folch, who had just taken command of Mobile, 
 demanding the surrender of that place. A party under Dr. 
 Holmes was also despatched to scour the surrounding country 
 for arms, ammunition and provisions, which the inhabitants gen- 
 erally secreted and withheld, because, being Spanish subjects, 
 they were not dissatisfied with that government, which exacted 
 no onerous duties of them. The command dropped down to the 
 old fields of Minette Bay, opposite Mobile, where they appro- 
 priated to themselves without scruple forage and provisions, the 
 property of Charles Conway, Sr. Captain Goss arrived with a 
 keel-boat laden with whiskey, corn, flour and bacon, which had 
 been sent by the Baton Rouge Convention down the Mississippi 
 through the lakes. The whiskey put the whole expedition in 
 good spirits. Glowing speeches were made by Kennedy, who 
 pointed them to the ancient Mobile, which, he said, they would 
 shortly capture. But cold, rainy weather, which the troops were 
 forced to encounter without tents or covering of any kind, now 
 sat in. This circumstance, together with a personal difficulty 
 which arose between Dr. Holmes and Dr. Pollard, in which the 
 former was compelled, in self defence, to severely wound the lat- 
 ter with a pistol, influenced Kemper to conduct the campaign on 
 the other side of the bay. With a portion of the party, Major 
 
ST. STEPHENS AMD HUNTSVILLE. 509 
 
 Hargfrove proceeded in the boat to Saw-mill creek, on the west 
 side of Mobile river, twelve miles above the town. With an 
 abundance of whiskey and several fiddlers, a frolic was there 
 kept up, which was intended to last until Kemper and the horse 
 company could go round by the Cut-Off and join them. An evil 
 old man in the neighborhood, who often drank with them, went 
 one night to Mobile and assured Governor Folch how easily they 
 might be captured. The latter sent Parades, with two hundred 
 regulars and citizens in boats, up the river late one evening, who 
 entered Saw-mill creek, ascended it to the American camp, and 
 while the poor fellows were dancing and shouting, at 11 o'clock 
 at night, fired upon them. Many of them fled in all di- 
 rections. Four were killed and others were wounded. 1810 
 Major Hargrove rallied a few of his men and fought, but Nov. 
 was overpowered. He and nine more were loaded with 
 irons, carried to Mobile, thrown into the calaboose, and from 
 thence conveyed to Havana and immured in the dungeons of 
 Moro Castle. Cyrus Sibley, afterwards recognized as the bearer 
 of the despatch to Folch from Kemper, was seized, and also sent 
 to Moro Castle. These men remained Spanish prisoners in the 
 Castle for five tears.* This affair broke up the " Kemp- 
 per expedition," which was further embarassed by op- 1811 
 position from the Federal authorities about Fort Stod- Nov. 
 dart. Subsequently, Wilkinson despatched Colonel 
 Cashing, with some troops, to Mobile, for the protection of the 
 Spaniards from the designs of the patriots. They en- 
 camped three weeks at the Orange Grove. Cushing Dec. 
 then marched up to Fort Stoddart, and built a canton- 
 ment at Mount Vernon .f 
 
 * MS. notes in the possession of Mr. E. T. Wood, of Mobile. Also, conrersacions with 
 Dr. Thomas G. Holmes, of Baldwin county, Alabama. 
 
 t Conversations T^lth Major Reuben Chamberlain, of Mobile, who came with Colonel 
 Cushing. 
 
CHAPTEE XXXV. 
 
 Tbcumsbh — Civil War Among the Ckkeks. 
 
 The United States and Great Britain were upon the verge 
 of war. British agents, in Canada and Florida, sought to pro- 
 cure the co-operation of the whole southwestern Indian force. 
 The Creeks, more powerful in numbers than the others, were 
 particularly urged to join the English. Colonel Hawkins had 
 managed them, with much wisdom and policy, for several years, 
 but they always remained dissatisfied, and were particularly so 
 now, in consequence of a portion of their Chiefs having 
 1811 granted a public road through the heart of their coun- 
 try, which had been cut out by Lieutenant Luckett and 
 a party of soldiers. This thoroughfare, called the " Federal 
 Road," and which run from Mims' J'erry, upon the Alabama, 
 to the Chattahoochie, was filled, from one end to the other, 
 with emigrants for the western part of the territory. The 
 Creeks, with their usual sagacity, foresaw that they should 
 soon be hemmed in by the Georgians on one side, and the 
 Tombigby people on the other, and many of them contem- 
 plated the expulsion of the latter, at some day not very dis- 
 tant. The Spaniards also hated the emigrants, who had 
 continued to drive them, inch by inch, from the soil which they 
 claimed. With both them and the Indians the British agents 
 began to operate, to make secret allies of the one and open ones 
 of the other. But the most powerful British incendiary was Te- 
 cumseh. His father and mother, of the Shawnee family, were 
 born and bred at Souvanogee,* upon the Tallapoosa, in Alabama. 
 
 * Old Augusta, now the property of Henry Lucas, on the railroad, where there are 
 some mounds. 
 
 510 
 
TECUMSEH CIVIL WAR AMONG THE CHEEKS. 511 
 
 With several children, they removed to the forest of Ohio, where 
 Tecumseh was born, in 1768. He had five brothers, who were 
 all celebrated for the human blood which they spilt and for their 
 indomitable courage. His only sister, Tecumapease, a woman of 
 great sense and strong character, he devotedly loved, and was 
 much influenced by her. In 1787 he visited the Cherokees and 
 Oreeks, with whom he remained' two years, engaging in their 
 hunts, festivals and frontier wars. Returning to the Ohio, he 
 fought a battle with a party of whites, near Big Eock, and an- 
 other, with the Kentuckians, on the Little Miami, and still an- 
 other, at Paint Rock, in 1793. He then engaged in the attack 
 upon Port Recovery, in 1794, and participated in the battle of 
 Maumee Rapids in the same year. From that period until that 
 in which we propose to connect him with Alabama history, Te- 
 cumseh was engaged in British intrigues, in hunts and in skir- 
 mishes. Wherever he appeared, devastation and havoc ensued. 
 He possessed a fine form, a commanding appearance, and had the 
 endurance common to all Indians, together with a high degree of 
 sagacity. He entertained the most relentless hatred of the 
 Americans. 
 
 After many conferences with the British, at Detroij;, Tecum- 
 seh left that country with a party of thirty warriors 
 mounted upon horses, and shaped his course to the Spring 
 south. Passing through the Chickasaw and Choctaw of 
 
 country, he was unsuccessful in arraying these tribes 1812 
 against the Americans. He went down to Florida, and 
 met with complete success with the Seminoles. In the month of 
 October he came up to the Alabama, crossed that river 
 at Autauga, where he, for the first time, appealed to the Oct. 
 the Creeks, in a long speech. Continuing to Coosawda, 
 he had by this time, collected many followers, who went with 
 him to the Hickory Ground. Having from their boyhood heard 
 of his feats in the buffalo chase, the bloody wars which he had 
 conducted, and of his fierce and transcendent eloquence, the war- 
 
512 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 riors flocked to see him. He went to Tookabatcha, where Colonel 
 Hawkins was then holding his grand council with the Indians. 
 This ancient capital never looked so gay and populous. An au- 
 tumnal sun glittered upon the yellow faces of five thousand na- 
 tives, besides whites and negroes, who mingled with them. At 
 the conclusion of the agent's first day's address, Tecumseh, at 
 the head of his Ohio party, 'marched into the square. They 
 were entirely naked, except their flaps and ornaments. Their 
 faces were painted black, and their heads adorned with eagle 
 plumes, while buffalo tails dragged from behind, suspended 
 by bands which went around their waists. Buffalo tails were 
 also attached to their arms, and made to stand out, by means 
 of bands. Their appearance was hideous, and their bearing pom- 
 pous and ceremonious. They marched round and round in the 
 square ; then, approaching the Chiefs, they cordially shook them 
 with the whole length of the arm, and exchanged tobacco, a com- 
 mon ceremony with the Indians, denoting friendship, as we have 
 already seen. Captain Isaacs, Chief of Coosawda, was the only 
 one who refused to exchange tobacco. His head, adorned with 
 its usual costume — a pair of buffalo horns — was shaken in con- 
 tempt of .Tecumseh, wlio, he said, was a bad man, and no greater 
 than he was. 
 
 Every day Tecumseh appeared in the square to deliver his 
 " talk," and all ears were anxious to hear it ; but late in the even- 
 ing he would rise and say, "The sun has gone too far to-day — I 
 will make my talk to-morrow." At length Hawkins terminated 
 his business and departed for the Agency upon the Flint. That 
 night a grand council was held in the great round-house. Te- 
 cumseh, presenting his graceful and majestic form above the 
 heads of hundreds, made known his missipn in a long speech, 
 full of fire and vengeance. He exhorted them to retui-n to their 
 primitive customs; to throw aside the plough and the loom, and 
 to abandon an agricultural life, which was unbecoming Indian 
 warriors. He told them that after the whites had possessed the 
 
TECUMSEH CIVIL WAR AMONG THE CREEKS. 513 
 
 greater part of their country, turned its ■ beautiful forests into 
 large fields and stained their clear rivers with the washings of 
 the soil, they would then subject them to African servitude. He 
 exhorted them to assimilate in no way with the grasping, unprin- 
 cipled race ; to use none of their arms and wear none of their 
 clothes, but dress in the skins of beasts, which the Great Spirit 
 had given his red children for food and raiment, and to use the 
 war-club, the scalping-knife and the bow. He concluded by 
 announcing that the British, their former friends, had sent him 
 from the Big Lakes to procure their services in expelling the 
 Americans from all Indian soil; that the King of England was 
 ready handsomely to reward all who would fight for his cause. 
 
 A prophet, who composed one of the party of Tecumseh, 
 next spoke. He said that he frequently communed, with the 
 G-reat Spirit, who had sent Tecumseh to their country 
 upon this mission, the character of which that great 1812 
 Chief had described. He declared that those who would Oct. 
 join the war party should be shielded from all harm — 
 none w;ould be killed in battle ; that the Great Spirit would sur- 
 round them with quagmires, which would swallow up the Amer- 
 icans as they approached ; that they would finally expel every 
 Georgian from the soil as far as the Savannah ; that they would 
 see the arms of Tecumseh stretched out in the heavens at a cer- 
 tain time, and then they would know when to begin the war.* 
 
 A short time before daylight the council adjourned, and 
 more than half the audience had already resolved to go to 
 war against the Americans. Tecumseh visited all the impor- 
 tant Creek towns, enlisting all whom he could on the side of 
 England. He had much to overcome, in the obstinacy of many 
 of the prominent Chiefs, who had become attached to the Fed- 
 eral Government, which had lavished upon them munificent 
 presents. Yet he was, in a great measure, successful. He made 
 
 * The British officers in Canada had told him when a comet would appear^ and that he 
 might use that as a sign to delude the Southern Indians. 
 
 33 
 
514 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 use of gifted and cunning Indians, to carry out his plans, after 
 he should have left the country. One of these was Josiah Fran- 
 cis, the son of a Creek woman, by a trader of Scotch and Irish 
 descent, named David Francis.* The Shawnee prophet, it was 
 said, inspired him. He placed him in a cabin by himself, around 
 which he danced and howled for ten days. He said that Francis 
 was then blind, but that he would again see, and would then know 
 all things which were to happen in future. When the ten days 
 expired the prophet led him forth, and attended him all day, for 
 Francis stepped high and irregular, like a blind man. Towards 
 night the vision of Francis suddenly came to him, and after that 
 he was the greatest prophet in the whole Creek nation, and was 
 empowered to make many subordinate prophets. Tecumseh 
 having made numerous proselytes, once more visited the Big 
 Warrior at Tookabatcha, whom he was particularly desirous to 
 enlist in his schemes, but whom he had hitherto entreated to no 
 effect, although his house was his headquarters. The Big War- 
 rior still remained true to the United States, more from fear of 
 the consequences of a war than any love he entertained for the 
 Americans. Tecumseh, after talking with him for some time to 
 no purpose pointed his finger in his face and emphatically said : 
 " Tustinuggee Thlucco, your blood is white. You have taken 
 my red sticks and my talk, but you do not mean to fight. I 
 know the reason. You do not believe the Great Spirit has sent 
 me. You shall believe it. I will leave directly, and go straight to 
 Detroit. When I get there I will stamp my foot upon the ground 
 and shake down every house in Tookabatcha." The Big 
 1812 Warrior said nothing, but puffed his pipe and enveloped 
 Nov. himself |in clouds of smoke. Afterwards he thought 
 much upon this remarkable speech. 
 
 The common Indians believed every word of Tecumseh's 
 
 * This David Francis lived for many years in tlie Autauga town, vfhere he had a 
 trading establishment. He was also a silversmith, and made buckles, ornaments and 
 spurs of silver for the Indians. Josiah, his son. also learned the trade. David Francis 
 was a great uncle to Dr. Pranois, an intelligent and highly respectable gentleman of 
 Benton county, Alabama. 
 
TECUMSBH — CIVIL WAR AMOIS^G THE CREEKS. 515 
 
 last speech, which was intended solely to intimidate the Big 
 Warrior, and they began to count up the time it would . 
 take the Shawnee Chief to reach Detroit, when he would 1812 
 stamp his foot, as he had declared. One day a mighty Dec. 
 rumbling was heard in the earth; the houses of Tooka- 
 batcha reeled and tottered, and reeled again. The people ran 
 out, vociferating, " Tecumseh has got to Detroit ! We feel the 
 shake of his foot !" 
 
 Josiah Francis made many prophets, and, among others, 
 High-Head Jim, of Auttose. The Indians began to dance " the 
 war-dance of the lakes," which Tecumseh had taught them. In 
 the meantime, that Chief had reached Canada, having carried 
 with him the Little Warrior, of the Creek nation, with thirty of 
 his warriors. The British agents sent back by them letters to 
 their agents in Florida, with orders to allow the Creeks extensive 
 supplies of arms and ammunition. The Little Warrior, 
 in returning, by way of the mouth of the Ohio, attacked 1813 
 seven families, living near each other, and murdered Feb. 
 them in the most cruel manner. They dragged Mrs. 
 Crawley from the bodies of her bleeding children, and brought 
 her, a prisoner, to the Tuscaloosa Falls. Being made acquainted 
 with these outrages by General Robertson, the Chickasaw agent, 
 Hawkins, demanded the punishment of the guilty war- 
 riors. A council, at Tookabatcha, secretly despatched Apr. 16 
 a party of warriors, headed by Mcintosh, of Coweta, 
 who marched to tbe Hickory Ground, where they separated into 
 smaller parties. One of these went to the lied Warrior's Bluff, 
 upon the Tallapoosa, now Grey's Ferry, and there surrounded a 
 house, and began to shoot at five of the Little Warrior's party. 
 They defended themselves with bravery, all the time-dancing the 
 dance of the lakes. Finally, they were all killed and burnt Up. 
 
 * This was an earthquake well knoTrn to tbe old settlers. In relation to the visit of Te- 
 cumseh to Alabama, 1 have consulted General Ferdinand h Claiborne's MS. Fapers and 
 Drake's Life of Tecumseh ; I have also converged with Lachlan Dnrant, Mrs. Sophia 
 McComb, Peter Randon, James Aioore and others who were at Tookabatcha when Te- 
 cumseh arrived there. 
 
516 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 A party, headed by Captain Isaacs, pursued the Little Warrior 
 into a swamp, above Wetumpka, and killed him. Others were 
 killed at Hoithlewaule. Although the Chiefs, friendly to the 
 United States, acted with so much justice upon this occasion, it 
 did not prevent the commission of other murders, more immedi- 
 ately at honie. An old Chief, named Mormouth, killed Thomas 
 Merideth, an emigrant, at Catoma Creek, and wounded others.* 
 
 Having engaged in a war with England, the Federal Gov- 
 ernment, fearing to leave the port of Mobile longer in the hands 
 of the Spaniards, who were the secret allies of Great Britain, re- 
 solved to occupy the whole of the district lying between Pearl 
 and the Perdido rivers, and below the line of 31°, which we had 
 claimed since the treaty with Bonaparte, who ceded to us Louisi- 
 ana, of which this was a part, as was contended. Accordingly, 
 General Wilkinson, with six hundred men, of the third and 
 seventh regiments, sailing from New Orleans in transport ves- 
 sels, commanded by (^Jommodbre Shaw, provided with scaling 
 
 ladders, and every necessary equipment, landed opposite 
 
 1813 the Pavilion, on the bay of Mobile. He marched up 
 
 Apr. 13 to the town, and took a position in the rear of Foit 
 
 Charlotte. After some correspondence, the Spanish 
 commandant, Capt&,in Cayetano Perez, capitulated,' surren- 
 dered the fort, and all the cannon and military stores, the 
 latter of which Wilkinson agreed the United States should 
 pay for. The Spanish garrison retired to Pensacola, and 
 the stars and stripes ' were hoisted upon ■ the ramparts of 
 Fort Charlotte, which was built of brick, with casements 
 for five hundred men and with four bastions. It was quite an 
 acquisition to the United States at the present time. General 
 Wilkinson sfent nine pieces of artillery to Mobile Point, which were 
 there placed in battery. He then marched to the Perdido, and 
 on its western, bank, on the main road to Pensacola, began the 
 construction of a strong stockade under the superintendence of 
 
 * Inaian Affairs, vol. I, pp. 843-846. 
 
TECUMSBH CIVIL WAR AMONG THE CREEKS. 517 
 
 Colonel John Bowyer, which was afterwards abandoned; March- 
 ing back to Mobile, he despatched Captain Chamberlain with 
 soldiers to Mobile Point, who began and in two years completed 
 Fort Bowyer.* Thus the long period had arrived when no Span- 
 ish government was found to exist upon afoot of tJie soil of Ala- 
 bama or Mississippi. 
 
 The effects of Tecumseh's visit began to be realized in every 
 corner of the Creek confederacy. Even at the Falls of Tusca- 
 loosa, where a Creek town had for several years been established, 
 the inhabitants were extremely belligerent. The Chief, Ocheoce 
 Emarthla, with a few warriors, dropped down the Warrior river 
 in canoes, paid Mr. Gaines a visit, and were insulting in their 
 bearing and importunate in their demands for goods upon a.credit. 
 They disclosed to Tandy Walker, an honest white man, formerly 
 a government blacksmith, their intention shortly to attack the 
 settlers and seize upon the factory. In an eastward direction 
 the Alabamas were furious advocates of American extermination. 
 The Indian executions, to which allusion has just been made, 
 connected with the occasional shocks of the earthquake, filled 
 the Indian world with excitement and fanaticism. 
 
 Peter McQueen, a half-breed of Tallase, the venerable Ho- 
 bothle Micco, and other prominent men, who had inclined to the 
 talks of Tecumseh, now assumed decided attitudes. The 
 hostile spirit increased fearfully, and the whole nation 1813 
 was soon agitated with quarrels, fights, murders and May 
 robberies, and everything foreboded a direful civil war. 
 The prophets practised their incantations in towns, fields, and in 
 the woods, wherever they found Indians to influence. Alarmed 
 at this unusual state of things, the Chiefs friendly to the United 
 States frequently despatched runners to Hawkins, who urged them 
 in return to adhere to the cause of the Federal Government, and to 
 take all means to avert a civil war. The agent seems to have been 
 
 * Memoirs of Wilkinson, toI. 1, pp. 507-520. Conversations with Major Seuben Cham- 
 berlain. 
 
518 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 strangely benighted, slowly allowing his mind to be brought to 
 the conviction that anything serious would grow out of these 
 difficulties. The Big Warrior, on the contrary, was much alarmed. 
 He endeavored to assemblj the Chiefs of the neighboring towns, 
 but a majority refused to appear, and continued to give counte- 
 nance to the prophets. He despatched a runner to the Alabamas 
 with this talk : " You are but a few Alabama people. You say 
 that the Great Spirit visits you frequently ; that he comes in the 
 sun, and speaks to you ; that the sun comes down just above your 
 heads. Now we want to see and hear what you have seen 
 and heard. Let us have the same proof, then we will believe. 
 You have nothing to fear — the people who did the killing upon 
 the Ohio are put to death, and the law is satisfied." The messen- 
 ger was seized, killed and scalped at the junction of the Coosa 
 and Tallapoosa, where a portion of the war party were engaged 
 in "the dance of the lakes." They then paddled down to Coo- 
 sawda, pursued Captain Isaacs into the cane, across the river, and, 
 being unable to find him, returned, burnt up his houses, destroyed 
 his stock and murdered two of his chief warriors.* The Indians 
 also commenced hostilities upon the Americans. Between Burnt 
 Corn and the Escambia, Greggs, an American mail- 
 1813 rider, was seized, most severely beaten, and left upon 
 June the Federal Road, after being robbed of his mail bags 
 / and horse. Without anything to eat, save the berries 
 
 in the woods, the lacerated youth, after wandering ten days 
 through the forests, reached Montgomery Hill. The mail was 
 carried to Pensacola and rifled of its contents in a Spanish trad- 
 ing hoUse.f Gen. Wilkinson, with his lady, had reached 
 June 25 Sam McNac's, near the Catoma, with an escort, which 
 had attended him from Mims' Ferry. He wrote back 
 to Judge Toulmin, informing him of the dangers attendant upon 
 a trip through the Creek nation, but that he was resolved to go 
 
 • Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 846. 
 
 t Conversations with Mr. George S. Gaines, of Mobile, and Dr. Thomas G. Holmes, of 
 Baldwin county. 
 
TECUMSEH — CIVIL WAR AMONG THE CREEKS. 519 
 
 on to Georgia. In a short time McNac, who for some time lived 
 upon the Federal Road, for the purpose of accommodating trav- 
 ellers, was driven off, some of his negroes stolen, while his cattle 
 were driven to Pensacola for sale. Other half-breeds, suspected 
 of friendship for the Americans, were treated in the same man- 
 ner. Remaining concealed for some time upon his islandiin the 
 Alabama, McNac ventured to visit his place upon the road. Here 
 he suddenly encountered High- Head Jim, one of the prophets of 
 Auttose, who, after shaking him by the hands, began to tremble 
 all over, and to jerk in every part of his frame, convulsing the 
 calves of the legs, and, from the severe agitation, getting entirely 
 out of breath. This practice had been introduced by the prophet 
 Josiah Francis, the brother-in-law of McNac, who said he was 
 so instructed by the Great Spirit. Wishing to make terms for 
 the moment, McNac pretended that he was sorry for his former 
 friendship for the whites, and avowed his determination to join 
 the hostiles. High-Head Jim, led away by this artifice, disclosed 
 to him all their plans ; that they were soon to kill the Big War- 
 rior, Captain Isaacs, William Mcintosh, the Mad Dragon's Son, 
 the Little Prince, Spoke Kange, and Tallase Fixico, all promi- 
 nent Chiefs of the nation ; that, after the death of these traitors, 
 the Creeks were to unite, in a common cause, against the Amer- 
 icans; those upon the Coosa, Tallapoosa and Black 
 Warrior were to attack the settlements upon the Ten- 1813 
 saw and Tombigby ; those near the Cherokees, with June 
 the assistance of the latter, were to attack the Tennes- 
 seans; the Georgians were to fall by the fierce sallies of the 
 Lower Creeks and Seminoles ; while the Choctaws were to ex- 
 terminate the Mississippi population. 
 
 The most extravagant delusions prevailed upon the Coosa,- 
 at this period. Nearly all these people moved out of their towns, 
 into the woods, dancing and preparing for war. Letecau, a prophet 
 of eighteen years of age, a native of the town of Abaucooche, 
 went with eighteen subordinate prophets, to the old Coosa 
 
520 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 town, from whence they sent out runners, inviting all the un- 
 believers to come and witness their magical powers. A large as- 
 sembly of both sexes congregated upon the banks of the river, 
 and surrounded the prophets. Letecau, with his wand, drew a 
 circle in front, and he and his subordinates began " the dance of 
 the lakes." After powerful exertions for some time, the ^ivar- 
 whoop was given by Letecau, who fell, with his men, upon three 
 Chiefs, whom they killed. The other friendly Chiefs sprang 
 into thejriver, made their escape to their towns, and assembling 
 their warriors returned and killed Letecau and his prophets. 
 They proceeded to Little Ocfuske, where Tecumseh's talk had 
 been taken, and there put a number of his deluded followers to 
 death. 
 
 The hostiles destroyed the stock of the friendly Indians, at 
 the Hillabee towns, several of whom they killed. They carried 
 off seventy negroes belonging to Robert Graison, and 
 1813 committed many other depredations. The town of 
 June Kialigee was burned down, and several of the inhabi- 
 tants shot. These things overwhelmed the Big "Warrior 
 with fear, and he entreated Hawkins to relieve him with the 
 federal troops, He had collected a large supply of corn at 
 Tookabatcha, where he built a fort. Hawkins prevailed upon 
 two hundred warriors of Coweta and Cussetta, to march to 
 Tookabatcha, where they soon arrived, and, after some annoy- 
 ance from the attacks of a few of the war party, succeeded in 
 carrying off the Big Warrior, and those who adhered, to him, in 
 safety over to the Chattahoochie.* 
 
 * Upon the civil war among the Creeks, see Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 849-861. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 Battle of Buent Coen — Abkival of General Claiborne's 
 
 Army. 
 
 Peter McQueen, at the head of the Tallase warriors ; High- 
 Head Jim, with the Autaugas; and Josiah Francis, with the 
 Alabamas, numbering in all three hundred and fifty, departed 
 for Pensacola with many pack-horses. On their way they beat 
 and drove off all the Indians who would not take the 
 war talk. The brutal McQueen beat an unoffending 1813 
 white trader within an inch of his life, and carried the July 10 
 wife of C'urnells, the government interpreter, a prisoner 
 to Pensacola. The village of Hatohechubba was reduced to 
 ashes. 
 
 The inhabitants of the Tombigby and the Tensaw had con- 
 stantly petitioned the governor for an army to repel the Creeks, 
 whose attacks they hourly expected. But General Flournoy, 
 who had succeeded Wilkinson in command, refused to send any 
 of the regular or volunteer troops. The British fleet was seen 
 off the coast, from which supplies, arms, ammunition and Indian 
 emissaries were sent to Pensacola and other Spanish ports in 
 Florida. Everything foreboded the extermination of the Ameri- 
 cans in Alabama, who were the most isolated and defenceless 
 people imaginable. Determined, however, to protect themselves 
 to the best of their means and abilities, they first sent spies to 
 Pensacola to watch the movements of the Indians there under 
 McQueen, who returned with the report that the British agents 
 were distributing to them ample munitions of war. Colonel 
 James Caller ordered out the militia, some of whom soon rallied 
 
 621 
 
522 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 to ,his standard in the character of minute volunteers. He 
 marched across the Tombigby, passed through the town of Jack- 
 son, and by the new fort upon the eastern line of Clarke, and 
 from thence to Sisemore's Ferry, upon the Alabama, where, on 
 the western bank, he bivouacked for the night. 'The object of 
 the expedition was to attack the Indians as they were returning 
 from Pensaeola. The next morning Caller began the crossing 
 of the river to the east side, which was effected by swimming 
 
 the horses by the side of the canoes. It occupied much 
 
 1813 of the early part of the day. When all were over the 
 
 July 26 march was resumed in a southeastern direction to the 
 
 cow-pens of David Tait, where a halt was made. Here 
 Caller was reinforced by a company from Ten saw Lake and 
 Little River, under the command of Dixon Bailey, a half-breed 
 Creek, a native of the town of Auttose, who had been edu- 
 cated at Philadelphia under the provisions of the treaty of 
 New York of 1790. Bailey was a man of fine appearance, 
 unimpeachable integrity, and a strong mind. His courage 
 and energy were not surpassed by those of any other man. 
 The whole expedition under Caller now consisted of one hun- 
 dred and eighty men, in small companies. Two of these were 
 from St. Stephens, one of which was commanded by Captain 
 Bailey Heard, and the other by Captain Benjamin Smoot and 
 Lieutenant Patrick May. A company, from the county of Wash- 
 ington, was commanded by Captain David Cartwright. In pass- 
 ing through Clarke county. Caller had been re-inforced by a 
 company under Captain Samuel Dale and Lieutenant Girard W. 
 Creagh. Some men had also joined him, commanded by William 
 McGrew, Robert Caller, and William Bradberry. The troops of 
 the little party were mounted upon good frontier horses, and pro- 
 vided with rifles and shot-guns, of various sizes and descriptions. 
 Leaving the cow-pens, Caller marched until he reached the wolf- 
 trail, where he bivouacked for the last night. The main route to 
 Pensaeola was now before them. 
 
BATTLE OF BURNT CORN. 523 
 
 In the morning, the command was re-organized, by the elec- 
 tion of Zachariah Philips, McFarlin, Wood, and Jourdan, to the 
 rank of major, and "William McGrew, lieutenant-colonel. 
 This unusual number of field ofiBcers was made to satisfy 1813 
 military aspirations. While on the march, the spy com- July 27 
 pany returned rapidly, about 11 o'clock in the forenoon, 
 and reported that McQueen's party were encamped a few miles 
 in advance, and were engaged in cooking and eating. A consul- 
 tation of officeTS terminated in the decision to attack the Indians 
 by surprise. The command was thrown into three divisions — 
 Captain Smoot in front of the right. Captain Bailey in front of 
 the centre, and Captain Dale in front of the left. The Indians 
 occupied a penihsula of low pine barren, formed by the windings 
 of Burnt Corn Creek. Some gently rising heights overlooked 
 this tongue of land, down which Caller charged upon them. Al- 
 though taken by surprise, the Indians repelled the assault for a 
 few minutes, and then gave way, retreating to the creek. A por- 
 tion of the Americans bravely pursued them to the water, while 
 others remained behind, engaged in the less laudable enterprise 
 of eapturing the Indian pack-horses. Caller acted with bravery, 
 but, unfortunately, ordered a retreat to the high lands, where he 
 intended to take a strong position. Seeing those in advance re- 
 treating from the swamp, about one hundred of the command, 
 who had been occupied, as we have stated, in securing Indian 
 effects, now precipitately fled, in great confusion and terror, but, 
 in the midst of their dismay, held on to the plunder, driving the 
 horses before them. Colonel Caller, Captain Bailey, and other 
 officers, endeavored to rally them in vain. The Indians rushed 
 forth from the swamp, with exulting yells, and attacked about 
 eighty Americans, who remained at the foot of the 
 hill. A severe fight ensued, and the whites, now com- 1813 
 manded by Captains Dale, Bailey and Smoot, fought July 27 
 with laudable courage, exposed to a galling fire, in 
 open woods, while McQueen and his warriors were protected 
 
524 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 by thick reeds. The latter, however, discharged their pieces 
 very un skillfully. Captain Dale received a large ball in the 
 breast, which, glancing around a rib, came out at his back. 
 He continued to fight as long as the battle lasted. At length, 
 abandoned by two-thirds of the command, while the enemy 
 had the advantage of position, the Americans resolved to 
 retreat, which they did in great disorder. Many had lost 
 their horses, for they had dismounted when the attack was made, 
 and now ran in all directions to secure them or get up behind 
 others. Many actually ran off on foot. After all these had left 
 the field three young men were found still fighting by them- 
 selves on one side of the peninsula, and keeping at bay some sav- 
 ages who were concealed in the cane. They were Lieuteng,nt 
 Patrick May, of North Carolina, now of Greene county, Alabama, 
 a descendant of a brave revolutionary family ; a private named 
 Ambrose Miles and Lieutenant Girard W. Creagh, of South Car- 
 olina. A warrior presented his tall form. May and the savage 
 discharged their guns at each other. The Indian fell dead in the 
 cane ; his fire, however, had shattered the lieutenant's piece near 
 the lock. Resolving also to retreat, these intrepid young men 
 made a rush for their horses, when Creagh, brought to the ground 
 by the effects of a wound which he received in the hip, cried' out, 
 " Save me, lieutenant, or I am gone! " May instantly raised him 
 up, bore him off on his back and placed him in the saddle, while 
 Miles held the bridle reins. A rapid retreat saved their lives. 
 Reaching the top of the hill they saw Lieutenant Bradberry, a 
 young lawyer of North Carolina, bleedmg with his wounds, and 
 endeavoring to rally some of his men. The Indians, 
 1813 reaching the body of poor Ballad, took off his scalp in 
 July 27 full view, which so incensed his friend Glass that he ad- 
 vanced and fired the last gun upon them. 
 The retreat was continued all night in the most irregular 
 manner, and the trail was lined, from one end to the other, with 
 small squads, and sometimes one man by himself. The wounded 
 
BATTLE OF BUENT COBN. 525 
 
 traveled slowly, and often stopped to rest. It was afterwards 
 ascertained that only two Americans were killed and fifteen 
 wounded. Such was the battle of Burnt Corn, the first that was 
 fought in the long and bloody Creek war. The Indians retraced 
 their steps to Pensacola for more military supplies. Their num- 
 ber of killed is unknown. Caller's command never got together 
 again, but mustered themselves out of service, returning to their 
 homes by various routes, after many amusing adventures. Col- 
 onel Caller and Major Wood became lost, and wandered on foot 
 in the forest, causing great uneasiness to their friends. When 
 General Claiborne arrived in the country he wrote to Bailey, Tait 
 and McNac, respectable half-breeds, urging them to hunt for 
 these unfortunate men. They were afterwards found, starved 
 almost to death and bereft of their senses. They had been miss- 
 ing fifteen days.* 
 
 General Ferdinand Leigh Claiborne, the brother of the 
 ex-Governor of the Mississippi Territory, was born in Sussex 
 county, Virginia, of a family distinguished in that common- 
 wealth from the time of Charles I. On the 21st November, 
 1793, in his twentieth year, he was appointed an ensign in 
 Wayne's army on the Northwestern frontier. He was in the 
 great battle in which that able commander soon after defeated 
 the Indians, and for his good conduct, was promoted to a lieu- 
 tenancy. At the close of the war he was stationed at Richmond 
 and Norfolk, in the recruiting service, and subsequently was or- 
 dered to Pittsburg, Forts Washington, Greenville and Detroit, 
 where he remained with the rank of captain, and acting adjutant- 
 general until 1805, when he resigned and removed to Natchez. 
 He was soon afterwards a member of the Territorial legislature, 
 and presided over its deliberations. We have already seen how 
 active he was in arresting Aaron Burr, upon the Mississippi 
 7'iver, at the head of infantry and cavalry. On the 8th March, 
 
 • Conversations with Dr. Thomas G. Holmes, of Baldwin county, Alabama, the late 
 Colonel Girard W. Cfeagh, of Clarke, and General Patrick May, of Greene, who were in 
 the Burnt Corn expedition. ■ ' ^ 
 
526 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 1813, Colonel Claiborne was appointed brigadier-general of vol- 
 unteers, and was ordered by General Wilkinson to take com- 
 mand of the post of Baton- Rouge. In the latter part of July he 
 was ordered by General Flournoy to march with his. whole com- 
 mand to Fort Stoddart, and instructed to direct his principal at- 
 tention to « the defence of Mobile." 
 
 On the 30th July, General Claiborne reached Mount Vernon 
 
 near the Mobile river with the rear guard of his army, 
 
 1818 consisting of seven hundred men, whom he had chiefly 
 
 July 30 sustained by supplies raised by mortgages upon his 
 
 own estate.* The quartermaster at Baton Rouge had 
 only provided him with the small sum of two hundred dollars. 
 He obtained, from the most reliable characters upon the eastern 
 frontier, accurate information in regard to the threatened in- 
 vasion of the Indians, an account of the unfortunate result of the 
 Burnt Corn expedition, and a written opinion of Judge Toulmin, 
 respecting the critical condition of the country generally. It 
 was found that alarm pervaded the populace. Rumors of the 
 advance of the Indians were rife, and were believed. In Clarke 
 county — in the tork of the rivers — a chain of rude defences had 
 hastily been constructed by the citizens, and were filled to over- 
 flowing with white people and negroes. One Of these was at 
 Gullett's Bluff, upon the Tombigby, another at Easley's station, 
 and the others at the residences of Sinquefleld, Glass, White and 
 Lavier. They were all called forts. Two block -houses were also 
 in a state of completion, at St. Stephens. 
 
 The first step taken by Claiborne was the distribution of his 
 
 troops, so as to afford the greatest protection to the in- 
 
 1818 habitants. He despatched Colonel Carson, with two 
 
 Aug. 10 hundred men, to the Fork, who arrived at Fort Glass 
 
 without accident. A few hundred yards from that rude 
 
 * Upon the conclusion of tbe Creek war General Claiborne returned to Soldier's Re- 
 treat, his home, near Natchez, shattered in constitution, from the exposure and hard- 
 ships of the campaigns and died suddenly at the close of 1815. The vouchers for tbe 
 liberal expenditures which he made were lost and his property was soUl, 
 
BATTLE OF BUENT CORN. 527 
 
 structure he began the construction of Fort Madison. He sent 
 Captain Scott to St. Stephens with a company, which immediate- 
 ly occupied the old Spanish block-house. He employed Major 
 Hinds, with the mounted dragoons, in scouring the coun- 
 try, while he distributed some of the militia of Wash- 1813, 
 ington county for the defence of the stockade. Captain Aug. 22 
 Dent was despatched to Oaktupa, where he assumed 
 the command of a fort with' two block-houses within a mile of 
 the Choctaw line.* 
 
 * MS. papers of 'General F. L. Claiborne. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 Teeeible Massacre at Foet Mims. 
 
 In the meantime, the wealthy half-bloods about Little river 
 had dropped down the Alabama, in their boats, and had secreted 
 themselves in the swamp about Lake Tenstiw. Uniting with the 
 whites, they soon began the construction of a fort around the 
 residence of Samuel Mims, a wealthy Indian countryman, to 
 whom we have often alluded, and who, originally, was one of the 
 pack-horsemen of the Honorable George Galphin. 
 
 Being about to relate a horrible affair, in which people of 
 all ages and both sexes were subjected to savage butchery, a par- 
 ticular description of the place where it occurred is deemed nec- 
 essary. Mims lived within four hundred yards of the Boat Yard, 
 upon Lake Tensaw, a mile east of the Alabama river, and two 
 miles below the Cut-Off. His house was a large frame building 
 of one story, with spacious shed-rooms. Around it pickets were 
 driven, between which fence rails were placed. Five hundred 
 port-holes were made, three and a half feet only from the ground. 
 The stockading enclosed an acre of ground, in a square form, and 
 was entered by two ponderous but rude gates, one on the east 
 and the other on the west. Within the enclosure, besides the 
 main building, were various out-houses, rows of bee-gums, to- 
 gether with cabins and board shelters, recently erected by the 
 settlers, wherever a vacant spot appeared. At the southwest 
 corner a block-house was begun, but never finished. This de- 
 fence was situated on a very slight elevation. A large potato 
 field lay adjoining on the south, in which were a row of negro 
 houses. Woods intervened between the picketing and the lake, 
 
TEEEIBLE MASSACRE AT FOET MIMS. 529 
 
 while in a northern direction cane swamps, which grew denser 
 as they approached the river, were hard by. On the east the flat 
 lands continued for several miles, interspersed with cane marshes 
 and some ravines. It was altogether a most ill-chosen place for 
 a fort, as it ultimately proved.* 
 
 No sooner was Fort Mims partially finished than the citizens 
 poured in, with their provisions and effects. Colonel 
 Carson, who bad reached Mount Vernon in advance of 1813 
 Claiborne, sent oyer Lieutenant Osborne, with sixteen July 28 
 men. Afterwardjs Claiborne despatched one hundred 
 and seventy-five more volunteers to Fort Mims under the com- 
 mand of Major Daniel Beasley, with Captains Jack, Batchelor 
 and Middleton. He found seventy militia upon duty, 
 commanded, for the present, by Dunn and Plummer, Aug. 6 
 two inexperienced oifioers. Permitting them to elect 
 their offlceps, the brave Dixon Bailey was unanimously chosen 
 
 for the post of captain, and Crawford for ensign.'' 
 
 The next day General Claiborne, arriving at Fort Mims Aug. 7 
 and inspecting the works, addressed a general order of 
 instruction to Beasley, charging him " to strengthen the picket- 
 ing, build two more block-houses, respect the enemy, to send out 
 scouts frequently, and allow the suffering people provisions, 
 whether whites or friendly Indians." Returning to his headquar- 
 ters, at Mount Vernon, he, for the moment, directed his attention 
 to other portions of the frontiers.! ^^ tlie meantime. Major 
 Beasley had extended the picketing on the east side sixty feet 
 deep j forming a . separate apartment for the accommodation of 
 the ofBcers and their baggage. He greatly weakened his com- 
 mand by sending small detachments to Forts Madison, Easley, 
 Pierce, and Joshua Kennedy's saw-miU, where citizens had col- 
 lected, and asked for assistance.^ At this mill the government 
 had a large contract for lumber to put Fort Charlotte^ of Mobile, 
 
 * Conversations with Dr. Thomas G . Holmes, of Baldwin. ■■ j 
 
 t Claiborne's MS. papers. X ConTersations with Dr. Thomas G-. Holmes. 
 
 34 
 
530 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 in repair, and build a fort at Mobile Point, and it was deemed 
 necessary to strengthen it with troops to prevent the Indians 
 from burning it down.* 
 
 The whole population of Fort Mims, consisting of whites, 
 Indians, soldiers, oflBcers and negroes, now amounted to five hun- 
 dred and fifty-three souls. Crowded together in an Alabama 
 swamp, in the month of August, much sickness prevailed. f In 
 the meantime, Crawford was dismissed from the post of 
 1813 ensign for having deserted from the regular army, and 
 Aug. 14 l-'eter Randon, a half-breed, was appointed in his place. 
 Beasley kept up a correspondence with Claiborne, sev- 
 eral times acquainting him with alarms, which turned out to be 
 false.; 
 
 The Creeks, whom we left returning to Pensacola from the 
 battle ground of Burnt Corn, were again liberally supplied with 
 arms and ammunition. Making their way back to the Talla- 
 poosa without molestation, active preparations were made by them 
 for immediate war. Warriors from the towns of Hoithlewale, 
 Fooshatche, Coolootije, Ecunhutke, Souvanoga, Mooklausa, Ala- 
 bama, Oakohoi«'ooche, Pockuschatche, Ochebofa, Puckuntalla- 
 hasse, Wewocoe and Woccocoie marched in a southern direc- 
 tion, while others, from Tallase, Auttose and Ocfuske, formed a 
 front of observation towards Coweta to conceal the movement.§ 
 
 Associated with McQueen and Francis was William Weath- 
 erford, the son of Charles Weatherford, a Georgian, who had 
 lived almost a life-time in the Creek nation. His mother, Sehoy, 
 was the half-sister of General McGillivray, and a native of Hick- 
 ory Ground. William was uneducated, but was a man of great 
 native intellect, fine form and commandingperson. His bearing 
 was gentlemanly and dignified, and was coupled with an intelli- 
 
 * Claiborne's MS. papers. 
 
 t Conversations with Dr. Thomas G. Holmes. t Claiborne's MS. papers. 
 
 § Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p 8)8. The Spaniards and the British agents charged McQueen's 
 party to " flght the Americans. If they prove too hard for you, send your women and 
 children to Pensacola, and we will send them to Havana ; and if yon should be compelled, 
 to fly yourselves, and the Americans should prove too hard for both of us, there are ves- 
 sels enough to take us all off together." — Ibid. 
 
TEEKIBLE MASSACHK AT FORT MIMS. 531 
 
 gent expression, which led strangers to suppose that they were 
 in the presence of no ordinary man. His eyes were large, dark, 
 brilliant and flashing. He was one of " nature's noblemen " — a 
 man of strict honor and unsurpassed courage. He was now with 
 the large Indian army, conducting them down to attack the Ten- 
 saw settlers, among whom were his brother and several sisters, 
 and also his half-brother, David Tait.* How unhappily were 
 these people divided ! His sister, Hannah McNac, with all her 
 sons, belonged to the war party, while the husband was a true 
 friend of the Americans, and had fled to them for pro- 
 tection. Weatherford led his army to the plantation 1818 
 of Zachariah McGirth, a little below the present Clai- Aug. 20 
 borne, where, capturing several negroes, among whom 
 was an intelligent fellow named Joe, from whom they learned 
 the condition of Fort Mims, and the proper time to attack it, he 
 halted for several days to deliberate. One of the negroes 
 escaped, and conveyed intelligence to the fort of the approach 
 of the Indians. Major Beasley had continued to send out scouts 
 daily, who were unable to discover traces of the enemy. The 
 inmates had become inactive, free from alarm, and aban- 
 doned themselves to fun and frolic. The negro runner from 
 McGirth's plantation now aroused them for a time, and Fort 
 Mims was turther strengthened. But the Indians not appearing 
 the negro was pronounced to be a liar, and -the activity of the 
 garrison again abated. At length two young negro men 
 were sent out to mind some beef cattle that grazed upon 1813 
 the luxuriant grass within a few miles of the fort. Sud- Aug. 29 
 denly they came rushing through the gate out of breath, 
 and reported that tbey had counted twenty-four painted war- 
 riors. Captain Middleton, with a detachment of horse, was im- 
 mediately despatched with the negroes to the place, but being 
 unable to discover the least sign of the enemy, returned about 
 
 * David Tait was the son of Colonel Tait, a British officer, who was stationed at the 
 Hickory Ground, upon the Coosa, In 1778, as we hare seen. 
 
532 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 sunset, when one of the negroes, belonging to John Randon, was 
 tied up and severely flogged for alarming the garrison, with what 
 Major Beasley deemed a sheer fabrication. Fletcher, the owner 
 of the other, refused to permit him to be punished, because he 
 believed his statement, which so incensed the major that he or- 
 dered him, with his large family, to depart from the fort by J 
 o'clock the next day. The next morning Eandon's negro 
 Aug. 30 was again sent out to attend the cattle, but seeing a 
 large body of Indians fled to Fort Pierce, being afraid to 
 communicate the intelligence to those who had whipped him. In 
 the meantime Fletcher's negro, by the reluctant consent of his 
 master, was tied up and the lash about to be applied to his back ; 
 the oflBcers were preparing to dine; the soldiers were reposing on 
 the ground ; some of the settlers were playing cards ; the girls 
 and young men were dancing, while a hundred thoughtless and 
 happy children sported from door to door, and from tent to tent. 
 
 At that awful moment one thousand Creek warriors, extended 
 flat upon the ground in a thick ravine, four hundred yards from 
 the eastern gate, thirsted for American blood. No eyes saw them 
 but those of the chirping and innocent birds in tbe limbs above 
 them. The mid-day sun sometimes flashed through the thick 
 foilage, and glanced upon their yellow skins, but quickly with- 
 drew, as if afraid longer to contemplate the murderous horde. 
 There lay the prophets, covered with feathers, with black faces, 
 resembling those monsters which partake of both beast and bird. 
 Besidie them lay curious medicine bags and rods of magic. The 
 whole ravine was covered with painted and naked savages, com- 
 pletely armed. 
 
 The hour of 12 o'clock arrived, and the drum beat the ofiBcers 
 
 and the soldiers of the garrison to dinner. Then, by one 
 
 1813 simultaneous bound, the ravine was relieved of its sav- 
 
 Aug. 30 age burden, and soon the fleld resounded with the rapid 
 
 tread of the bloody warriors. The sand had washed 
 
 against the eastern gate, which now lay open: Major Beasley 
 
TEEEIBLK MASSACRE AT POET MIMS. 533 
 
 rushed, sword in hand, and essayed in vain to shut it. The In- 
 dians felled him to the earth with their clubs and tomahawks, 
 and rushing over his body into the additional part of the fort, 
 left him a chance to crawl behind the gate, where he shortly 
 after expired. To the last he called upon the men to make 
 a resolute resistance.. The eastern part of the picketing was 
 soon full of Indians, headed by five prophets, whom the 
 Americans immediately shot down, while engaged in dancing 
 and incantations. This greatly abated the ardor of the enemy, 
 many of whom retreated through the gate for the moment. 
 They had been assured that American bullets would split upon 
 the sacred persons of the prophets, and pass off harmless. The 
 unhappy inmates of Fort Mims now made all efforts to defend 
 the place, but their attempts were confused and ineffective. The 
 assailants, from the old line of picketing, in the additional part 
 of the fort, and from the outside stockading, commenced a general 
 Are upon the Americans. Soldiers, negroes, women and children 
 fell. Captain Middleton, in charge of the eastern section, was 
 soon despatched, together with all his men. Captain Jack, on 
 the south wing, with a company of riflemen, defended his posi- 
 tion with great bravery. Lieutenant Rand on fought from the 
 guard-house, on the west, while Captain Dixon Bailey repulsed 
 the enemy, to the best of his ability, on the northern line of 
 pickets, against which much the largest number of Indians oper- 
 ated. The number of savages was so great that they 
 apparently covered the whole field, and they now rent 1813 
 the air with their exulting shouts. Many of the younger Aug. 30 
 prophets surrounded the main building, which was full 
 of women and children, and danced around it, distorting their 
 faces, and sending up the most unearthly screams. The pickets 
 .and houses afforded the Americans some protection, where the 
 young men, the aged, and even the boys, fought with despera- 
 tion. Captain Bailey was the man to whom the eyes of all the 
 settlers were turned at this critical moment. He maintained his 
 
534 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 position, and was the only officer who gained the port-holes be- 
 fore they were occupied by the enemy. His repeated discharges 
 made lanes through the savage ranks. Fresh numbers renewed 
 their efforts against him, and often an Indian and an American 
 would plant their guns across the same port-hole to shoot at each 
 other. Bailey encouraged the whole population in the fort to 
 flght, assuring them tha't Indians seldom fought long at one 
 time, and, by holding out for a little while longer, many would 
 be saved. Failing in his entreaties to prevail upon several to 
 rush through the enemy to Fort Pierce, only two miles distant, 
 there procure reinforcements, and attack the assailants in the 
 rear, he resolved to go himself, and began to climb over the 
 pickets for that purpose ; but his neighbors, who loved him 
 dearly, pulled him back. 
 
 About three o'clock, the Indians, becoming tired of the con- 
 test, plundered the additional part of the fort, and began to carry 
 off the effects to the house of Mrs. O'Neil, which lay three hun- 
 dred yards distant, on the road to the ferry. Weatherford over- 
 took them, on a fine black horse, and brought them back to the 
 
 scene of action, after having impressed them by an ani- 
 
 1813 mated address. About this time. Dr. Osborne, the sur- 
 
 Aug. 30 geon, was shot through the body, and carried into 
 
 Patrick's loom-house, where he expired in great agony. 
 , The women now animated the men to defend them, by assist- 
 ing in loading the guns and bringing water from the well. 
 The most prominent among these was Mrs. Daniel Bailey, 
 who, provoked at the cowardice of Sergeant Mathews, severely 
 punctured him with a bayonet as he lay trembling against 
 the wall. Many instances of unrivalled courage could be 
 enumerated, if our space permitted it. One of Jack's sol- 
 diers retreated to the half-finished block-house, after his com- 
 mander and all his brothers-in-arms had fallen, and from that 
 point, discharged his gun at intervals, until he had killed over 
 a dozen warriors. James and Daniel Bailey, the brothers of the 
 
TERRIBLE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 535 
 
 gallant Captain, with other men, ascended to the roof of Mims' 
 dwelling, knocked off some shingles for port-holes, where they 
 continued to shoot the lusty warriors on the outside of the pick- 
 eting. But the superior force of the assailants enabled them 
 constantly to bring fresh warriors into the action. They now 
 set fire to the main building, and many of the out-houses. The 
 shrieks of the women and children went up to high heaven. 
 
 To Patrick's loom-house had been attached some extra pick- 
 eting, forming what was improperly termed a bastion. Hither 
 Captain Bailey, and those of his command who survived, en- 
 tered and continued to pour upon the savages a most deadly fire. 
 Many citizens attempted to reach that spot, now the only one of 
 the least security. The venerable David Mims, attempting to 
 pass to the bastion, received a large ball in the neck ; the blood 
 gushed out ; he exclaimed : " Oh, God, I am a dead man !" 
 and fell upon his face. A cruel warrior cut around his head, 
 and waved his hoary scalp exultiiigly in the air. Some poor 
 Spaniards, who had deserted from the Pensaccla garrison, 
 kneeled around the well and crossed themselves, and, while in- 
 terceding with the Most High,, were despatched with toma- 
 hawks. "To THE bastion! to the bastion!" was now 
 the fearful cry of the survivors. Soon it was full to 1813 
 overflowing. The weak, wounded and feeble, were Aug. 30 
 pressed to death and trodden under foot. The spot pre- 
 sented the appearance of one immense mass of human beings, 
 herded together too close to defend themselves, and, like beeves 
 in the slaughter-pen of the butcher, a prey to those who flred 
 upon them. The large building had fallen, carrying with it the 
 scorched bodies of the Baileys and others on the roof, and the 
 large number of women and children in the lower story. The 
 flames began to reach the people in the bastion. Dr. Thomas G. 
 Holmes, an assistant surgeon in the garrison, seized an axe, cut 
 some pickets in two, but did not take them down, suffering them 
 to remain until a suitable opportunity offered to escape. The 
 
536 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 brave Dixon Bailey now cried aloud that all was lost, that his 
 family were to be butchered, and begged all to make their es- 
 cape, if possible. His negro man, Tom, (still living, at Sise- 
 more's plantation) took up his favorite son, who was thirteen 
 years of age, but feeble with the fever, and bore him through the 
 pickets, which Holmes now threw down, and gained the woods 
 in safety. But, strange to say, the infatuated negro presently 
 brought back the poor boy to a squad of hostiles, who dashed 
 out his brains with war-clubs. Little Ralph cried out, " Father, 
 father, save me !" Of his HsAVBjirLT Fathee the poor little 
 heathen had probably never heard. 
 
 In front of the northern line of picketing was a fence, fifty 
 yards distant, in every lock of which many warriors had 
 placed themselves, to cut off all retreat ; besides which, others 
 stationed themselves at various points to shoot those who 
 should run. Dr. Holmes, Captain Bailey, and a negro wo- 
 man named Hester, the property of Benjamin Steadham, 
 were the first to escape through the aperture. Holmes, receiv- 
 ing in his flight several balls through his clothes, but no wounds, 
 strangely made his way over the fence, gained the swamp, 
 and concealed himself in a clay hole, formed by the 
 1813 prostration of an immense tree. Bailey reached the 
 Aug. 30 swamp, but, being badly wounded, died lay the side of 
 a cypress stump. Hester received a severe wound in 
 the breast, but reached a canoe in the lake, paddled to Fort Stod- 
 dart that night, and was the first to give intelligence to General 
 Claiborne of the horrible affair. 
 
 Returning again to the fatal spot, every house was seen to 
 be in flames. The bastion was broken down, the helpless inmates 
 were butchered in the quickest manner, and blood and brains be- 
 spattered tbe whole earth. The children were seized by the legs 
 and killed by beating their heads against the stockading. The 
 women were scalped, and those who were pregnant were opened, 
 while they were alive, and the embryo infants let out of the 
 
TEEKIBLE MASSACRE AT FOET MIMS. 537 
 
 womb. Weatherford had some time previous left the horrid 
 scene. He had implored the warriors to spare the women and 
 children, and reproached them for their barbarity ; but his own 
 life was threatened for interposing, many clubs were raised over 
 his head, and he was forced to retire. In after years he never 
 thought of that bloody occasion without the most painful emo- 
 tions. He had raised the storm, but he could not control it. 
 
 The British agents at Pensacola had offered a reward of five 
 dollars for every American scalp. The Indians jerked the skin 
 from the whole head, and, collecting all the effects 
 which the jlre had not consumed, retired to the east, 1813 
 one mile from the ruins, to spend the night, where Aug. 30 
 they smoked their pipes and trimmed and dried their 
 scalps. The battle had lasted from twelve to five o'clock. 
 
 Of the large number in the fort, all were killed or burned up 
 except a few half-bloods, who were made prisoners ; some ne- 
 groes, reserved for slaves ; and the following persons, who made 
 their escape and lived : Dr. Thomas G. Holmes ; Hester, a negro 
 woman : Socca, a friendly Indian ; Peter Randon, lieutenant of 
 Citizens' company; Josiah Fletcher; Sergeant Mathews, the 
 
 coward; Martin Rigdon ; Samuel Smith, a half-breed; 
 
 Mourrice, Joseph Perry, Mississippi volunteers ; Jesse Steadham ; 
 
 Edward Steadham; John Hoven; Jones; and Lieutenant 
 
 W. R. Chambliss, of the Mississippi volunteers. 
 
 Dr. Holmes lay concealed in the clay hole until nine o'clock 
 at night. The Gin-House at the Boat Yard had been -fired, and 
 the conflagration threw a light over the surrounding country in 
 addition to that still afforded by the ruins of Fort Mims. Hence, 
 he was forced to resume his position, until twelve o'clock, when 
 the flames died away. Remembering that he had never learned 
 to swim, he abandoned the idea which he flrst entertained, of 
 crossing the Alabama and making his way to Mount Vernon. 
 He therefore bent his course towards the high lands. He 
 frequently came upon small Indian fires, around which the 
 
538 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 bloody warriors lay in profound sleep. Bewildered and shocked 
 in every direction in which he turned by unwelcome and 
 fearful sights like these, he at length, after a great deal of 
 winding and turning, fell back into the river swamp, hid in a 
 clump of thick canes, and there subsisted upon water, mutton 
 reed and roots. All this time he was in the immediate neigh- 
 borhood of the scene of the tragical events we have described, 
 and heard distinctly the Indians killing the stock of the citizens. 
 When silence ensued, after the fifth day, he made his way to the 
 Race- Track, and from thence to Pine-Log Creek, where he spent 
 the night. Reaching Buford's Island the next day, and seeing 
 the tracks of people and horses, he determined to fall in with 
 them, although they should prove to be hostile Indians, so desper- 
 ate had he become from starvation. At the Ten saw Lake, Holmes 
 found the horses tied, and, rejoicing to find that they belonged 
 to his friends, fired off his gun. John Buford and his party, 
 supposing the discharge proceeded from the war party, fled up 
 into a bayou in a boat, where they remained two days. The dis- 
 appointed Holmes went to the abandoned house of Buford, where 
 he fortunately obtained some poultry, which he devoured without 
 cooking. Three days afterwards he was discovered by Captain 
 Buford and conveyed to Mount Vernon, where the other four- 
 teen who escaped had arrived and reported him among the slain. 
 
 Martin Rigdon, Samuel Smith, Joseph Perry, Mourrice 
 
 and Jesse Steadham escaped through the picketing together. 
 The latter was shot through the thigh early in the action, and 
 Mourrice in the shoulder. Leaping the fence in front of the bas- 
 tion, over the heads of the squatting Indians, they reached the 
 swamp, where they remained three days, when, finding an old 
 canoe below the Boat Yard, they made their escape to Mount 
 Vernon. Edward Steadham, who was wounded in the hand 
 while flying from the bastion, entered the swamp, swam the 
 Alabama above the Cut-Olf, and arrived at Mount Vernon four 
 days after the massacre. All the others who escaped so miracu- 
 
TERRIBLE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 539 
 
 lously made their way with success through the Indian ranks, 
 and had many similar adventures, reaching the American head- 
 quarters at the most imminent peril. Lieutenant Chambliss had 
 received two severe wounds in the fort, and in running across 
 the field received another. Reaching the woods, he crept into a 
 log-heap. At night a party of warriors set fire to it, for the pur- 
 pose of smoking their pipes, and when the heat was becoming 
 intolerable, and he would soon have been forced to discover him- 
 self, they fortunately were called off to another camp-flre. He 
 left that place immediately, wandered about, and for a long time 
 was supposed to be dead. He made his way, however, to Mount 
 Vernon, and from thence went to Soldiers' Retreat, the residence 
 of General Claiborne, near Natchez, where Dr. John Coxe, an 
 eminent surgeon, extracted two arrow-heads and a ball from his 
 body.* 
 
 The day after the fall of Fort Mims the Indians began to 
 bury their dead, by laying their bodies between the potatoe- 
 rows and drawing dirt and vines over them; but, from the 
 great number of the dead, it was abandoned. Many were 
 also wounded, who were put in canoes and conveyed up the river. 
 Others wounded started home on foot, and died at Burnt Corn 
 Spring. Most of those who were unhurt remained in the neigh- 
 borhood to kill and plunder, while another party went to Pensa- 
 cola with the scalps suspended upon poles.t 
 
 Zachariah McGirth was the son of James McGirth, who was, 
 as we have seen, an unprincipled but brave man, and a captain 
 of a company of tories during the revolutionary war, called the 
 " Florida Rangers," forming a part of a battalion commanded by 
 his brother. Colonel Daniel McGirth. When the war terminated 
 Captain James McGirth fled to the Creek nation, with his chil- 
 
 * Claiborne's MS. papers. 
 
 1 1 am indebted to Dr. Thomas G. Holmes, of Baldwin county, Alabama, for tbe prom- 
 inent facts in tbe foregoing narrative of tlie fall of Fort Mims. He made notes of the 
 horrible affair a few years after the massacre took place, while the facts were fresh in 
 his memory. 1 also conversed with Jesse Steadham, of Baldwin, and Lieutenant Peter 
 Randon, the latter of whom I found in New Orleans, who also escaped. 
 
540 HISTORY OF. ALABAMA. 
 
 dren, among whom was Zachariah. The latter married a half- 
 breed Creek woman, named Vicey Curnells, had become wealthy, 
 and was now an Inmate of Fort Mims with his wife and eight 
 children. About ten o'clock on the day of the massacre McGirth 
 entered a boat with two of his negroes, and went out of Lake 
 
 Tensaw into the Alabama, with the view of ascending 
 
 1813 that river to his plantation, which was situated below 
 
 Aug. 30 Claiborne, for some provisions. Reaching the Cut-Off 
 
 he heard a heavy discharge of guns at Fort Mims. With 
 pain and anxiety he continued to listen to the firing, and running 
 his boat a mile down the river, in a small bayou, resolved to re- 
 main there, being firmly impressed with the belief that the In- 
 dians had attacked the fort. Late in the evening the firing 
 ceased, and presently he saw clouds of black smoke rise above 
 the forest trees, which was succeeded by flames. The unhappy 
 McGrirth now well knew that all was lost, and that in all proba- 
 bility his family had perished in the flames. Being a bold man, 
 like his father, he resolved to go through the swamp with his 
 negroes to the fatal spot. When he came within a quarter of a 
 mile of the fort he placed the negroes in a concealed place, and 
 approached alone. All was gloomy and horrible. Dogs in great 
 numbers ran all over the woods, terrified beyond measure. See- 
 ing that the savages had left the ruins, he returned for his negroes, 
 and a little after twilight cautiously advanced. McGirth stood 
 aghast at the horrible spectacle. Bodies lay in piles, in the sleep 
 of death, bleeding, scalped, mutilated. His eyes everywhere fell 
 
 upon forms half burned up, but still cracking and frying 
 
 1813 upon the glowing coals. In vain did he and his faithful 
 
 Aug. 30 slaves seek for the bodies of his family. Pile after pile 
 
 was turned over, but no discovery could be made, for 
 the features of but few could be recognized. He turned his back 
 upon the bloody place, crossed the swamp to his boat, and pad- 
 dled down the Alabama to Mount Vernon with a sad and heavy 
 heart. 
 
' TEEHIBLE MASSACRE AT POET MIMS. 541 
 
 McGirth, now alone in the world, became a desperate man, 
 ready to brave the greatest dangers for the sake of rcYenge. 
 During the Creek war he was often employed in riding ex- 
 presses from the Tombigby to Georgia, when no one else 
 could be found daring enough to go through the heart of the 
 enemy's country. After a long service amid such dangers, a 
 . friend accosted him one day in Mobile, and told him some people 
 desired to see him at the wharf. Repairing there, he saw — a 
 common sight in those days^-some wretched Indians, who had 
 been captured. He was asked if he knew them. Hesitating, 
 his wife and seven children advanced and embraced him. A tor- 
 rent of joy and profound astonishment overwhelmed him. He 
 trembled like a leaf, and was, for some minutes, speechless. 
 
 Many years before the dreadful massacre at Fort Mims, a 
 little hungry Indian boy, named Sanota — an orphan, houseless 
 and friendless — stopped at the house of Vicey McGirth. She fed 
 and clothed him, and he grew to athletic manhood. He joined 
 the war party, and formed one of the expedition against Fort 
 Mims. Like the other warriors, he was engaged in hewing and 
 hacking the females to pieces, towards the close of the massacre, 
 when he suddenly came upon Mrs. McGirth and his foster-sisters. 
 Pity and gratitude taking possession of his heart, he thrust them 
 in a corner, and nobly made his broad savage breast a rampart 
 for their protection. The next day he carried them off upon 
 horses, towards the Coosa, under the pretence that he had re- 
 served them from death for his slaves. Arriving at his home, 
 he sheltered them, hunted for them, and protected them from 
 Indian brutality. One day he told his adopted mother that he 
 was going to fight Jackson, at the Horse-Shoe, and that, if 
 he should be, killed, she must endeavor to reach, her friends be- 
 low. Sure enough, the noble Sanota soon lay among the slain at 
 Cholocco Litebixee. .Mrs. McGirth, now being without a pro- 
 tector, and in a hostile region, started oft' on foot, with her chil- 
 dren, for Fort Claiborne. After much suffering, they reached 
 
642 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 their deserted farm, below Claiborne, where Major Blue, at the 
 head of a company of horse, discovered these miserable objectis, 
 and carried them to Mobile, where the interview just related took 
 place with the astonished husband, who imagined that he had 
 some months before surveyed their half-burnt bodies upon the 
 field of Fort Mims. His son was the only member of his family 
 who had perished upon that bloody occasion.* 
 
 General Claiborne despatched Major Joseph P. Kennedy, 
 with a strong detachment, to Fort Mims, from his headquarters 
 at Mount Vernon, for the purpose of interring the dead. 
 1813 Upon arriving there, Kennedy found the air darkened 
 Sept. 9 with buzzards, and hundreds of dogs, which had run wild, 
 gnawing upon the human carcasses. The troops, with 
 heavy hearts, succeeded in interring many bodies in two 
 large pits, which they dug. " Indians, negroes, white men, wo- 
 tten and children, lay in one promiscuous ruin. All were scalped, 
 and the females, of every age, were butchered in a manner 
 which neither decency nor language will permit me to describe. 
 The main building was burned to ashes, which were filled with 
 bones. The plains and the woods around were covered with 
 dead bodies. All the houses were consumed by fire, except the 
 block-house, and a part of the pickets. The soldiers and officers, 
 with one voice, called on Divine Providence to revenge the death 
 of our murdered friends."t 
 
 In drawing our account of this sanguinary affair to a con- 
 clusion, it is proper to observe that General Claiborne was in no 
 way to blame for the unfortunate result. He corresponded with 
 Beasiey, heard from him almost every day, and in his despatches 
 constantly urged him to be prepared to meet the enemy. Clai. 
 borne, from every quarter, received distressing messages implor- 
 ing assistance, and we have already seen how judiciously he djs- 
 
 * Conversations with Colonel Robert James, of Clarke county, Alabama, who often 
 lieard McGirth relate these particulars. McGirth, in 1834, made the same statements 
 tome. 
 
 t Major Kennedy's MS. report to General Claiborne. 
 
TEBBIBLK MASSACRE AT FOET MlMS. 543 
 
 tributed his forces, as far as it lay in his power, for their 
 protection, contrary to the instructions of Flournoy, who en- 
 deavored to confine his operations chiefly to the defence of Mobile 
 and the country below Ellicott's line. Just before the at- 
 tack upon Fort Mims, he headed a large detachment of 1813 
 horse, and rushed to the defence of the people at Easley's Aug. 24 
 station, upon the Tombigby near the Choctaw line, whom 
 he was induced to believe a large party of Choctaws and Creeks 
 intended shortly to attack. They, however, did not appear, 
 and, leaving a strong guard for the defence of that fort, he has- 
 tened back to Mount Vernon, and arrived there at twelve o'clock 
 at night, after a march of seventy miles that day. He was there 
 shocked to learn the fate of the garrison of Fort Mims. Sup- 
 posing that he had already returned to Mount Vernon, Beasley 
 addressed him a letter two hours only before the Indians entered 
 the gate, declaring his ability to maintain the post against any 
 number of the enemy.* The major was as brave a man as ever 
 lived, but neither he nor his officers, attached to the Mississippi 
 division, believed that the enemy were at hand; so often had re- 
 ports reached them, which they pronounced untrue, because they 
 were not immediately realized, as in the case of the negro who 
 was whipped, and of the other who was killed by the Indians 
 while tied up, ready to receive the lash.f 
 
 » Beasley's letter, found among Claiborne's MS. papers. 
 
 t The people at Fort fierce, wnen tbe attack was made at Fort Mims, made tlieir way, 
 under Lieutenant Montgomery to Mobile, where tliey safely arrived. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 Daring of Heaton — Bloody Scenes — Gaines and the 
 Chootaws. 
 
 While the larger body of Creeks were destroying the people 
 at Fort Mims, Francis, the prophet, at the head of a hundred 
 warriors, was, spreading his depredations in the fork of the Ala- 
 bama and Tombigby. Abuer James and Ransom Kemball, with 
 their large families, being inmates of Fort Sinquefleld, and be- 
 coming dissatisfied at remaining among so many people, repaired 
 to the house of Kemball, situated two miles from the fort. Here 
 they were living when Francis suddenly surrounded the house, 
 
 about three o'clock in the evening. Abner James, his 
 
 1813 son Thomas, then fourteen years of age, and his daugh- 
 
 Sept. 1, ter Mary escaped, and fled to the fort. Isam Kemball, 
 
 then sixteen years of age, also safely reached Sinquefleld, 
 and is now the clerk of the Circuit Court of Clarke county. All 
 the others were despatched with war-clubs and scalped. After 
 killing the stock and robbing the house the Indians retired to the 
 swamps. In the early part of the night a slight rain commenced, 
 which, it is believed, revived Sarah Merrill, the married daughter 
 of James, whom the Indians had supposed to be dead. She felt 
 among the bodies, which lay thick around her, and found her lit- 
 tle boy, twelve months old, who also fortunately was alive. Some 
 warm milk from her breast revived him more and more. Taking 
 him in her arms, she with difficulty got upon her feet, and slowly 
 walked towards the fort. Arriving within a half mile of that 
 place, her bleeding wounds, weakening her at every step, forced 
 her to place the babe by the side of a log, while she went on and 
 
 544 
 
DAEING OF HEATON BLOODY SCENES. 545 
 
 communicated his hiding place to the anxious garrison. Some 
 generous men boldly sallied out, found the boy, and brought him 
 to the fort. They are both now alive. The young woman was 
 severely beaten with large clubs, and the scalp of the entire top 
 of her head was taken off. The savages slung the little fellow 
 against the side of the house, and cut around his head, but his 
 hair being too short they did not pull off his scalp. 
 
 Hearing of the murders. Colonel Carson despatched from 
 Fort Montgomery Lieutenant Bailey with seven dragoons, 
 and three men employed as spies, to bury the dead and ascer- 
 tain if the Indians were numerous. Twelve bodies were con- 
 veyed to Fort Sinquefield in an ox-cart, and thrown into a 
 pit dug fifty yards from the gate. About the time that the 
 funeral ceremonies were closing, and while nearly the whole 
 garrison were engaged therein, Francis suddenly rushed with 
 a hundred warriors down a hill towards them. The men 
 snatched up the children, and every one of them reached the 
 gate in time, except about ten women at the spring, who 
 were engaged in washing. The Indians, failing to cut off the 
 retreat of the main party, perceived with delight the helpless 
 condition of these females, and rushed in that direction to securfe 
 them. Just at that moment Isaac Heaton, who had been out 
 cow-hunting, riding up, with his long whip and large pack of 
 dogs, gave a tremendous crack, and, encouraging his 
 canine army, charged upon the India,ns. Such was the 1813 
 fury of the dogs, that the Creeks were forced to halt Sept. 3 
 and fight them, which enabled Heaton to cover the re- 
 treat of the women until they arrived safely in the fort. His 
 horse fell under him from the wound of an Indian gun, but rose 
 again, and followed into the fort his heroic master, who had re- 
 ceived no other injury than the riddling of his coat with rifle- 
 balls. Only one poor woman — a Mrs. Philips, who was in an ad- 
 vanced state of pregnancy — was overtaken and scalped, 
 
 Heaton deserves to be reinembered for this achievement — 
 
 86 
 
546 HISTORY OF AiABAMA. 
 
 an eminent exempliflcation of bravery and presence of mind. 
 The Indian's now attacked the little stockade, but a brave resist- 
 ance repelled them, with the loss of eleven warriors; , Then, se- 
 curing the dragoon horses, which had been tethered outside the 
 walls, the savages rapidly retired. The Americans, 
 Sept. 4 having lost only one of their number, besides the un- 
 fortunate Mrs. Phillips, the next day evacuated Sinque- 
 fleld's fort, and marched to Fort Madison for better security, 
 where the inmates of Forts Glass and Lavier had alsoflocked, 
 swelling the population to over one thousand souls, including the 
 command of Colonel Carson of two hundred and twenty men. 
 
 Occasionally the farmers were accustomed to leave Fort 
 Madison for a few hours to procure from their fields provisions 
 for immediate use. A man named Fisher, with three of his sons, 
 set out for that purpose, and, arriving at the farm, one of the 
 boys was shot in the back while shelling some peas in the yard. 
 Instantly rising up, he m'ade his escape to the woods. His father, 
 then in the cane, running out to learn the cause of the firing, was 
 also severely wounded in the back, but likewise made his way to 
 the forest. The other two sons, being in a different 
 ■ 1813 part of the field, fled to the fort, and reported the 
 Sept. 6 death of their brother and father. The next day, how- 
 ever, they came in, bleeding from their wounds, and 
 happily recovered.* 
 
 These things, following so closely upon the fall of Fort Mims, 
 filled the whole population of the eastern section of the Missis- 
 sippi Territory with the greatest panic imaginable, and every soul 
 went into some kind of defensive work. Fort HawUj at Gullett's 
 Bluff, contained a mixed population of three hundred and ninety- 
 one souls, including sixty men under Captain James Powell of 
 the eighth regiment of Mississippi militia. At Mount Vernon 
 were two forts literally packed with people. Rankin's fort con- 
 
 * Conversations with the late Colonel Girard W. Creagh, of Clarke county; Colonel 
 Jere Austin, ot Mobile, and others. See also Claiborne's MS. papers. 
 
DAEING OF HEATON BLOODY SCENES. 54Y 
 
 tained five hundred and thirty persons — of whom only eighty- 
 seven were capable of bearing arms, in consequence of the sickness 
 which everywhere prevailed in these" filthy stockades. Fort 
 Charlotte, of Mobile, was also daily receiving families. To this 
 ■place Judge Toulmin and a number of his neighbors had 
 repaired. Perhaps greater inquietude existed at St. Stephens 
 than at any other point, if, indeed, any line of distinction can be 
 drawn. Claiborne all the time was harassed by distressing mes- 
 sages, which hourly reached him, and his generous heart was 
 racked day and night in revolving plans to assist them all ; but 
 he was unable to do more than he had already accomplished, on 
 account of the smallness of his army and the restrictions put 
 upon him by the commander-in-chief. 
 
 The enemy continued to spread their depredations, distrib- 
 uting themselves in all directions, burning the abandoned houses, 
 driving off the cattle, and herding the hogs in the corn-fields to 
 fatten, that their flesh might be in good order for their feastings. 
 Colonel Carson's condition was unknown to Claiborne, and from 
 the continued reports which he received, that a combined attack 
 was soon to be made upon Fort Madison, the general transmitted 
 him an order to abandon his post and march to St. Stephens, 
 which was deemed a more important point to defend. 
 The order was discretionary, however, but Carson and 1813 
 his officers viewed it as rather peremptory. He started Sept.. 8 
 with all his force to St. Stephens, accompanied by five 
 hundred settlers, of all ages and sexes. This created great con- 
 sternation in the Fork, and Claiborne was unjustly denounced 
 for having abandoned the whole population of Clarke county. 
 But if Carson had chosen to remain it would have fully accorded 
 with the views of the general. The movement was unnecessary, 
 and served to embolden the savages. When the evacution took 
 place, eighty citizens enrolled themselves under Captain Evan 
 Austin and Captain Sam Dale (the latter still suffering from the 
 desperate wound which he received at Burnt Corn), all of whom 
 
548 HISTOBT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 determined to stay within Fort Madison to protect a number of 
 citizens wlio preferred to remain. A despatch from Claiborne, 
 dated the 8th of September, urging Carson " not to abandon the 
 fort, unless it was clear that he could not maintain it," arrived 
 too late, as that officer was already in the neighborhood of St. 
 Stephens.* 
 
 The British were hovering along the coast to give their red 
 friends countenance and aid. A British war schooner had an- 
 chored at Pensacola with a large supply of munitions of 
 1813 war. Afterwards, Mexco Gonzales Manique, the Gov- 
 Sept. 29 eruor of Pensacola, addressed a letter to Weatherford 
 and the Chiefs, congratulating them on their late vic- 
 tory at Fort Mims, assuring them of his constant aid, but dis- 
 suading them from setting fire to Mobile, as that place properly 
 belonged to the King of Spain, which his majesty would shortly 
 re-occupy -t 
 
 While all was doubt and uncertainty as to the position 
 which the Choctaws would assume at this critical juncture. 
 Pushmatahaw, the most enlightenel and influential Chief of 
 that nation, rode to St. Stephens and proposed to Mr. George 
 S. Gaines to enlist several companies of his warriors in the 
 American cause. Gratified at the proposition, the latter has- 
 tened with the Chief to Mobile, and had an interview with Gen- 
 eral Flournoy in Fort Charlotte, who strangely declined to 
 receive the Choctaws as United States soldiers. With deep mor- 
 tification Gaines and the Chief returned to St. Stephens, and 
 while the citizens, who had surrounded them when they rode up, 
 were cursing Flournoy for his folly, a horse was seen at a dis- 
 tance, bearing a rider with great speed. Flournoy had reconsid- 
 ered the matter, and had sent a messenger authorizing Gaines to 
 go into the Choctaw nation to raise troops. The people gave a 
 
 * Claiborne's MS. papers. 
 
 t This letter was found in Weatherford's house, at the Holy Ground, several months 
 afterwards, and is yet among the MS. papers of General Claiborne. All these papers 
 furnish the most indubitable evidence of the coalition between the Spaniards and Eng- 
 lish to exterihinate the population of the Mississippi Territory. 
 
DAEING OF HEATON — BLOODY SCENES. 549 
 
 shout, and all hearts were made glad. Every one had feared 
 that the Choctaws would join the Creeks, and now, through the 
 influence of Pushmatahaw, it was believed they would actually 
 assist the Americans. In company with Col. Flood McGrew and 
 the Chief, Gaines departed immediately for the Choctaw coun- 
 try, with no other provisions than some jerked beef. Colonel 
 John McKee, agent of the Chickasaws, met them at Peachland's, 
 where they held a consultation, while Pushmatahaw went home 
 to assemble his people in council. They were living under three 
 distinct governments ;' the eastern district was governed by 
 Pushmatahaw, the western by Puckshenubbee, and the north- 
 western by Mushelatubba. In a few days Gaines reached the 
 council-ground, where over five thousand Choctaws were en- 
 camped. Pushmatahaw harangued them in a long speech, full 
 of eloquence and ingenuity, in which he said, among many other 
 things : " You know Tecumseh. He is a bad man. He came 
 through our nation, but did not turn our heads. He.went among 
 the Muscogees and got many of them to join him. You know 
 the Tensaw people. They were our friends. They played ball 
 with us. They sheltered and fed us, whenever we went to Pen- 
 sacola. Where are they now ? Their bodies rot at Sam Mims' place. 
 The people at St. Stephens are our friends. The Muscogees 
 intend to kill them too. They want soldiers to defend them." 
 (He here drew out his sword, and flourishing it, added :) " You 
 can all do as you please. You are all freemen. I dictate to none of 
 you. But I shall join the St, Stephens people. If you have a 
 mind to follow me, I will lead you to glory and to victory !" A 
 warrior rose up, slapped his hand upon his breast, and said : "I 
 am a man ! I am a man ! I will follow you !" All of them now 
 slapped their breasts, a general shout went up, and Gaines was 
 filled with joy at the result. 
 
 In the meantime Colonel McKee was equally successful with 
 the Chickasaws, being greatly aided in his efforts by the 
 influence of John Peachland. McKee, at the head of a large 
 
PLAN 
 
 BATTLE OF 
 
 TALLADEGA. 
 
 Order of MardbL 
 
 Ca mirv lkMiuTilei M flem en 
 
 — i^ IIIII^ 
 
 If 11 g. 
 
 J'ZflwA'gw. 
 
 REFERENCES. 
 
 1 Jackson's position. 
 
 2 Friendly Indians. 
 
 3 Hostile Indians en- 
 
 camped around tbe 
 Spring. 
 
 4 Advance under Col. 
 
 Carroll, sent forwaid 
 to bring on the en- 
 . gagement. 
 6 Gap between the Ca- 
 valry and Infantry, 
 through which many 
 Indians escaped. 
 
 FJtsnhrg 
 
 Order of BfllHe. 
 
DAEING OF HEATON BLOODY SCENES. 551 
 
 force of Chickasaws, marched to the Tuskaloosa Falls, 
 to attack the Creek town at that place, but found it re- 1813 
 duced to ashes. The inhabitants had fled. Return- Oct. 
 ing to Peachland's, at the mouth of the Octibaha, the 
 force separated, one party going to their homes and the other to 
 St. Stephens, to join General Claiborne, who had laudably ex- 
 erted himself to procure the aid of these powerful tribes.* ' 
 
 * Conversations witB Mr. George S. Gaines. See Claiborne's MS. papers. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Battles of Tallasehatche, Talladega and Auttose. 
 
 The arrival of an express at Nashville, with letters from 
 Mr. George S. Gaines to General Jackson and the gov- 
 ernor, conveying the distressing intelligence of the massacre 
 at Fort Mims, and imploring their assistance, created great 
 excitement, and the Tennesseans volunteered their services to 
 avenge the outrage. General Jackson, at the head 
 of a large force, passed through Huntsville, crossed 1813 
 the Tennessee at Ditto's Landing, and joined Colonel Oct. 11 
 Coffee, who had been despatched in advance, and who 
 had encamped opposite the upper end of an island on the south 
 side of the river, three miles above the landing. Remaining here 
 a short time, the army advanced higher up, to Thompson's 
 Creek, to meet supplies, which had been ordered down from East 
 Tennessee. In the meantime. Colonel Coffee marched, with six 
 hundred horse, to Black Warrior's town, upon the river of that 
 name, a hundred miles distant, which he destroyed by fire, hav- 
 ing found it abandoned. Collecting about three hundred bushels 
 of corn, he rejoined the main army at Thompson's Creek, with- 
 out having seen an Indian. Establishing a defensive depot at 
 this place, called Fort Deposite, Jackson, with great 
 difficulty, cut his way over the mountains to Wills' 1813 
 Creek, where, being out of bread, he encamped several Oct. 28 
 days, to allow his foraging parties to collect provisions. 
 The contractors had entirely failed to meet their engagements, 
 and his army had for some days been in a perishing condition. 
 
 Jackson despatched Colonel Dyer, with two hundred cav- 
 
TALLASEHATCHE, TALLADEGA AND AUTTOSE. 553 
 
 airy, to attack the village of Littefutchee, situated at the head of 
 
 Canoe Creek, twenty miles distant. They arrived there 
 
 at four o'clock in the morning, burned down the town, Oct. 29 
 
 and returned with twenty-nine prisoners, consisting of 
 
 men, women and children. Another detachment, sent out to 
 
 bring in beeves and corn, returned with two negroes and four 
 
 Indians, of the war party. These prisoners, together with two 
 
 others brought in by Old Chinnobe and his son, were sent to 
 
 Huntsville. 
 
 The Creeks having assembled at the town of Tallasehatche, 
 thirteen miles from the camp, the commander-in-chief des- 
 patched Coffee, now promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, 
 with one thousand men, with one-half of whom he was directed 
 to attack the enemy, and with the other half to scour the coun- 
 try near the Ten Islands, for the purpose of covering his ope- 
 rations. Richard Brown, with a company of Creeks and Chero- 
 kees, wearing on their heads distinguishing badges of white 
 fedthers and deer's tails, accompanied the expedition. Fording 
 the Coosa at the Fish Dam, four miles above the islands, 
 Coffee advanced to Tallasehatche, surrounded it at the rising 
 of the sun, and was fiercely met by the savages with whoops and 
 the sounding of drums — the prophets being in advance. Attack- 
 ing the decoy companies they were soon surrounded by the 
 troops, who charged them with great slaughter. After a short 
 but terrible action, eighty-four women and children were made 
 prisoners, while the bodies of one hundred and eighty- 
 six warriors were counted upon the field, where unavoid- 1813 
 ably some women also perished. Many other bodies lay Nov. 3 
 concealed in the weeds. Five Americans were killed and 
 eighteen wounded. Late in the evening of the same day Coffee 
 re-crossed the Coosa and reached headquarters. Not a solitary 
 warrior begged for his life, and it is believed none escaped to the 
 woods. Thes6 prisoners were also sent to Huntsville. General 
 Jackson, now forcing his way over the Coosa mountain, arrived 
 
554 HI8T0BT OP ALABAMA. 
 
 at the Ten Islands, where he began to erect a second depot for 
 supplies, which was protected by strong picketing .and block- 
 houses, and which received the name of Fort Strother. 
 
 In Lashley's fort in the Talladega town many friendlj^ Creeks 
 had taken refuge. The war party, in strong force, had surrounded 
 them so effectually that not a solitary warrior could escape from 
 the fort unseen to convey to the American camp intelligence of 
 their critical condition. One night a prominent Indian, who be- 
 longed to the Hickory Ground town, resolved to escape to the lines 
 of Jackson by Indian stratagem. He threw over him the skin of 
 a large hog, with the head and legs attached, and placing himself 
 in a stooping position, went out of the fort and crawled about be- 
 fore the camps of the hostiles, grunting and apparently rooting, 
 until he slowly got beyond the reach of their arrows. Then, dis- 
 carding his swinish mantle, he fled with the speed of lightning 
 to Jackson, who resolved immediately to relieve these people. 
 The commander-in-chief, leaving a small guard to pro- 
 1813 tact his camp and sick, put his troops in motion at the 
 Nov. 8 hour of midnight, and forded the Coosa, here six hun- 
 dred yards wide, with a rocky, uneven bottom. Each 
 horseman carried behind him a footman until the whole army 
 was over. Late that evening he encamped within six 
 Nov. 9 miles of 'Talladega. At four o'clock next morning Jack- 
 son surrounded the enemy, making a wide circuit, with 
 twelve hundred infantry and eight hundred cavalry. The hos- 
 tiles, to the number of one thousand and eighty, were concealed in 
 a thick shrubbery that covered the margin of a small rivulet, and 
 at eight o'clock they received a heavy Are from the advance guard 
 under Colonel Carroll. Screaming and yelling most horribly, 
 the enemy rushed forth in the direction of General Roberts' 
 brigade, a few companies of which gave way at the first flre. 
 Jackson directed Colonel Bradley to fill the chasm with his regi- 
 ment, which had not advanced in a line with the others ; but 
 that officer failing to obey the order, Colonel Dyer's reserve 
 
TALLASEHATCHE, TALLADEGA AND AUTTOSB. 555 
 
 dismounted, and met the approaching enemy with great firm- 
 ness. The retreating militia, mortified at seeing their places 
 so promptly filled recovered their former position, and dis- 
 played much bravery. The action now became general along 
 the whole line, while the Indians, who had at first fought 
 courageously, were now seen flying in all directions. But 
 owing to the halt of Bradley's regiment, and the cavalry under 
 Alcorn having taken too wide a circuit, many escaped to the 
 mountains. A general charge was made, and the wood for miles 
 was covered with dead savages. Their loss was very great, and 
 could not be ascertained. However, two hundred and ninety- 
 nine bodies were counted on the main field. Fifteen Americans 
 were killed and eighty-five wounded. The latter were conveyed 
 to Fort Strother in litters made of raw hides. The fort 
 contained one hundred and sixty friendly warriors, 1813 
 with their wives and children, who were all to have Nov. 9 
 been butchered the very morning that Jackson at- 
 tacked their assailants. Never was a party of poor devils more 
 rejoiced at being relieved. General Pillow, of the infantry; 
 Colonel Lauderdale, of the cavalry ; Major Boyd, of the mounted 
 riflemen ; and Lieutenant Barton were wounded — the last named 
 mortally. Colonel Bradley was arrested for disobe- 
 dience of orders, but was released without a trial. Jack- Nov. 11 
 son buried his dead and marched back to Fort Strother 
 as rapidly as possible, for he was out of provisions. Arriving 
 there, he was mortified to find none at that point for him.* 
 
 About the time that the Middle and West Tennessee volun- 
 teers flocked to the standard of Jackson, a large body of volun- 
 teers from East Tennessee rendezvoused to march to the 
 seat of war under Major-General John Cocke. Shortly after- 
 
 • A portion of the Talladega battlefield is now (1851) embraced within the limits of the 
 beautiful and flourishing American town of that name, which 'contains a population of 
 near two thousand, and is situated in a delightful valley, with magnificent mountain 
 scenery in view. 
 
556 HISTOEY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 1813 wards, General White, commanding a detachment of 
 Nov. 5 one thousand men belonging to Cocke's force, advanced 
 to Turkey Town. From this place he reported to Jack- 
 son that he would the next day, march in the direction of head- 
 quarters, and should, in the meantime, be glad to receive his or- 
 ders. The latter ordered him to march to Fort Strother, 
 Nov. 7 and protect that place during his absence to Talladega, 
 where, he informed him, he intended immediately to 
 march to the relief of the garrison of Lashley's fort. While 
 White was on the march to Fort Strother to comply with this 
 requisition, he received a despatch from General Cocke ordering 
 him to alter his route, and form a junction with him at the 
 mouth of the Chattooga. This order he obeyed, preferring to 
 comply with the commands of Cocke rather than those of Jack- 
 son, although the latter was generally considered the commander- 
 in-chief of all the troops from Tennessee. Jackson was shocked 
 at receiving an account of the retrograde march of White, and 
 that, too, at a late hour of night, previous to the battle of Talla- 
 dega ; and it determined him to attack the Indians forthwith, 
 and rush back to Fort Strother, now left with a very feeble pro- 
 tection. 
 
 However, before General White had reached Turkey Town, 
 his advance-guard, consisting of four hundred Cherokees and a 
 few whites under Colonel Gideon Morgan and John Lowrey, ad- 
 vanced upon the town of Tallasehatche on the evening of the 3d 
 November, and found that it had that morning been destroyed by 
 Coffee. Collecting twenty of the wounded Indians, they returned 
 with them to Turkey Town. 
 
 The mischiefs of a want of concert between the East and 
 West Tennessee troops — growing out of a jealousy of the former 
 and a strong desire to share some of the glory which the latter 
 had already acquired in the few battles they had fought — were 
 in a very few days made quite apparent. Through Robert Grai- 
 son, an aged Scotchman, the Hillabees (a portion of whom fought 
 
TALLASEHATCHE, TALLADEGA AND AUTT08E. 557 
 
 Jackson at Talladega) made offers of peace, to which the general 
 immediately and willingly acceded. At that very tim§, and 
 when Graison had hastened back with the favorable reply of 
 Jackson, General White surrounded the Hillabee town early in 
 the morning and effected a complete surprise, killing 
 sixty warriors and taking two hundred and fifty pris- 1813 
 oners. The Hillabees, it is asserted, made not the Nov. 18 
 slightest resistance. At all events, not a drop of Ten- . 
 nessee blood was spilt. The other Hillabee towns, viewing this 
 as flagrant treachery on the part of Jackson, became the most, 
 relentless enemies of the Americans, and afterwards fought them- 
 with fiendish desperation. The destruction of this town was in 
 pursuance of the orders of General Cocke. White, in marching 
 down, had already destroyed Little Ocfuske and Ge- 
 nalga, both of which had been abandoned by the inhab- Nov. 13 
 itants, with the exception of five warriors, who were 
 captured at the former. 
 
 General Cocke, having given up the ambition of achieving 
 separate victories, was now prepared to co-operate with 
 Jackson, and for that purpose joined him at Fort Stro- 1813 
 ther with fourteen hundred men. He was sent by the Deo. 12 
 commander-in-chief back to East Tennessee with a por- 
 tion of his command, whose term of service had nearly expired, 
 with orders to raise fifteen hundred men and rejoin him in the 
 Creek nation. 
 
 Georgia, no less patriotic than Tennessee, soon came to the 
 relief of her brethren of the Mississippi Territory. Brigadier- 
 General John Floyd crossed the Ockmulgee, Flint and 
 Chattahooehie, and advanced near the Tallapoosa with Nov. 29 
 an army of nine hundred and fifty militia and four hun- 
 dred friendly Indians, piloted by Abram Mordecai, the Jew 
 trader of whom we have so often had occasion to speak. Before 
 sunrise, on a cold frosty morning, Floyd attacked the Creeks, who 
 were assembled in great force at the town of Auttose, which was 
 
558 
 
 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 situated on the east bank of the Tallapoosa, at the mouth of the 
 Calebee Creek. Booth's battalion, which composed the right 
 column, marched from the centre; Watson's composed the 
 left, and marched from its right. Upon the flanks were 
 the rifle companies of Adams and Merriweather, the latter 
 commanded by Lieutenant Hendon. The artillery, under Cap- 
 tain Thomas, advanced in the road in front of the right 
 column. General Floyd intended to surround the town by 
 throwing the right wing on Calebee Creek, at the mouth of 
 which he was informed the town stood, and resting the left 
 on th€ river bank below it; but the dawn of day exhibited, 
 to his surprise, a second town, about five hundreds yards 
 below. It was now necessary to change the plan of attack, 
 by advancing three companies of infantry to the lower town, ac- 
 companied by Merriweather's rifles, and two troops of light 
 dragoons commanded by Captains Irwin and Steele. The re- 
 mainder of the army marched upon the upper town, and soon 
 the battle became general. The Indians at first advanced, and 
 fought with great resolution, but the fire from the artillery, with 
 the charge of the bayonets, drove them into the out-houses and 
 
 thickets, in rear of the town. Many concealed them- 
 
 1813 selves in caves cut in the bluff of the river, here thickly 
 
 Nov. 29 covered with cane. The admirable plans of General 
 
 Floyd for the extermination of the foe were not prop- 
 erly executed, owing to the failure of the friendly Indians to 
 cross the Tallapoosa to the west side, and there cut off all re- 
 treat. The difficulty of the ford and the coolness of the morn- 
 ing deterred tbem, as they stated ; but fear, in all probability, 
 was the prime cause. They now irregularly fell back to the rear 
 of the army. However, the Cowetas, under Mcintosh, and the 
 Tookabatchas, under the Mad Dragon's Son, fell into the ranks, 
 and fought with great bravery. The hour of nine o'clock wit- 
 nessed the abandonment of the ground by the enemy, and the 
 conflagration of the houses. From the number of bodies scat- 
 tered over the field, together with those burnt in the houses and 
 
TALLASEHATCHB, TALLADEGA AND AUTTOSE. 559 
 
 slain on the bluff, it is believed that two hundred must have per- 
 ished, among whom were the Kings of Tallase and Auttose. The 
 number of buildings burned, some of which were of fine Indian 
 architecture and filled with valuable articles, amounted to about 
 four hundred. The Americans had eleven men killed and fifty- 
 four wounded. The friendly Indians had several killed and 
 wounded. Important services were rendered by Adjutant- 
 General Newnan, the aids Majors Crawford and Pace, and the 
 surgeons Williamson and Clopton. Major Freeman, at the head 
 of Irwin's cavalry and part of Steele's, made bold charges upon 
 the Indians, completely routing them. The companies led on by 
 Captains Thomas, Adams, Barton, Myrick, Little, King, Broad- 
 nax, Cleveland, Cunningham, Lee and Lieutenant Hendon, fought 
 with gallantry. Brigadier-General Shackleford performed effi- 
 cient services in successfully bringing the troops into action, and 
 Adjutants Montgomery and Broadnax exhibited activity and 
 courage. The battalion of Major Booth was properly brought 
 into action, and that of Major Watson fought with commendable 
 spirit. The cavalry under Irwin, Patterson and Steele, charged 
 with success when opportunities were afforded. Great hei:oism 
 was displayed by Quartermaster Terrill, who, though badly 
 wounded, escaped aftei his horse was shot under him. The 
 horse of Lieutenant Strong was shot under him, and he made a 
 narrow escape. In seven days the troops had marched one hun- 
 dred and twenty miles, and fought this battle. Being now sixty 
 miles from the depot of provisions, and the rations of the troops 
 being nearly exhausted, Floyd, after the dead had been 
 interred and the wounded properly attended, began the 1813 
 retrograde march to Fort Mitchell, upon the Chatta- Nov. 29 
 hoochie. On ascending Heydon's Hill, a mile east of 
 the battle-ground, many of the Creeks rallied and fiercely at- 
 tacked his rear, but after a few rounds they were dispersed.* 
 
 * Upon the campaigns of the Tennesseans, under Jackson and Cocke, and the Georgi- 
 ans, under Floyd, I have consulted the various works and public documents upon the 
 late war, such as the lives of Jackson by Kendall, Cobbett, Eaton and Waldo; Russell's 
 " History of the War," Breckenridge's History of the Late War, and the various Ameri- 
 can State Papers. 
 
CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Remaekable Canoe ' Fight — Battle of Holt Ground — Makch 
 TO Cahaba Old Towns. 
 
 Returning again to the seat of war,- in the fork of the Tom- 
 bigby and Alabama, it will be seen that Colonel William McG-rew 
 
 advanced in pursuit of a party of the enemy, with 
 
 1813 twenty-five mounted militia. Coming upon them at Tal- 
 
 Oot. 4 lahatta, or Barshi Creek, a spirited action ensued. Colonel 
 
 McGrew was killed, together with three of his company — 
 the two Griffins and Edmund Miles — which put the remainder of 
 the Americans to flight. 
 
 General Flournoy, who had restricted the operations of Clai- 
 borne to those of a defensive character, now ordered the latter to 
 
 advance with his army, for the purpose of defending the 
 Oct. 12 citizens while employed in gathering their crops; to 
 
 drive the enemy from the frontiers, to follow them up 
 to their contiguous towns, and to "kill, burn and destroy all 
 their negroes, horses, cattle, and other property that cannot con- 
 veniently be brought to the depots." General Flournoy, admit- 
 ted, in the same order, that such usage was contrary to that of 
 civilized nations, but stated that the conduct of Great Britain 
 and the acts of her Indian allies fully justified it. On the 
 same day that these instructions were received, Claiboine, at the 
 head of Major Hind's Mississippi dragoons, a part of the twelve 
 month's volunteers, and some companies of militia, maiched from 
 St. Stephens, crossed the Tombigby, and proceeded, by an indirect 
 route, to the northern boundary, where Colonel McGrew had 
 
 560 
 
CANOE TIGHT, BATTLE OF HOLY GROUND, ETC. 561 
 
 fallen. He found the body of that officer, and those 1813 
 of the privates, and interred them with military honors. Oct. 16 
 On the march small bodies of the enemy hovered around, 
 but could not be brought into action. A picket of infantry was 
 attacked from an ambuscade, and three of them wounded ; but 
 before Major. Hinds, who was a little in the rear, could come up 
 the assailafits leaped down a precipice, and escaped the pursuit 
 of Captain Foster?s detachment. Remaining two days at Fort 
 Easley, upon Balker's BlufE, Claiborne scoured the whole country 
 with detachments. In these expeditions he had five of his men 
 severely wounded, among whom was Capt. William Brad berry, 
 who had acted so bravely at Burnt Corn. He was carried back 
 to St. Stephens, and there died in great agony. Failing to bring 
 the Indians to action, being convinced that they were in very in- 
 considerable force, and becoming destitute of subsistence, Clai- 
 borne marched to "Pine Levels," in the neighborhood of some 
 good farms, a mile east of the Tombigby. Fr.om this 
 point he sent spies to the Alabama. He also sent a des- Oct. 20 
 patch to Flournoy, requesting him to suffer all the dis- 
 posable force to march immediately to the Creek country.* 
 
 The Indians were everywhere committing depredations, in 
 small p,arties, and occasionally some of the settlers were killed. 
 Tandy Walker, Benjamin Foster and Evans, a colored man, had 
 been despatched by the citizens of Fort Madison across the Ala- 
 bama, in an eastern direction, as spies. Approaching the late 
 battle ground at Burnt Cornthey came upon a small camp of the 
 enemy, upon whom they fired . from a concealed position. The 
 Indians fled with great precipitancy, while the spies seized some 
 horses, plundered the camp, and retreated to Sisemore's Ferry. 
 Here, late at night, while reposing in the cane, guns 
 were fired upon them, and Evans was instantly killed. 1813 
 Walker escaped with a wound in the side and a broken Nov. 5 
 arm, but the next day. crossed the Alabama upon a cane 
 
 * Claiborne' s MS . papers . 
 
 . 36 
 
562 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 ruft and reached -Fort Madison, where Foster, having already ar- 
 rived, had reported his death* 
 
 Captain Samuel Dale, having now suflQciently recovered from 
 his wounds, obtained the consent of Colonel Carson, who had re- 
 turned to Fort Madison, to drive these small parties of the enemy 
 from the frontiers. Dale was joined by a detachment of thirty 
 of Captain Jones' Mississippi volunteers, undBi Lieutenant 
 Montgomery, and forty Clarke county militia. Girard W. Creagh, 
 the same who was attached to his company at Burnt Corn, 
 was his lieutenant upon this occasion. This expedition 
 marched in a northern direction, visiting the abandoned plan- 
 tations, and frequently discovering old traces of Indians. 
 
 Dale returned to the fort, and the next day marched 
 Nov. 11 southeastwardly towards Brazier's Landing, now 
 
 French's, where an Indian negro, named Csesar, who 
 was in company, had two canoes concealed in the cane. In these 
 they crossed the Alabama at the close of the day, and bivouacked 
 on the eastern bank. They were thinly clad, and the frost was 
 
 severe. When the sun first made its appearance over 
 
 1813 the tall canes, Captain Dale put his command in mo- 
 
 Nov. 12 tion and marched up the eastern bank, after having 
 
 placed the canoes in charge of Jeremiah Austill, with 
 six men, with orders to keep the boats parallel with those who 
 marched on foot. Arriving opposite the farm of the late Dixon 
 Baileyi who had heroically fallen at Fort Mims, as we have seen, 
 Dale entered the boats, went over to the place, and discovered 
 fresh signs of the mysterious foe, with whose habits he was so 
 well acquainted. No sooner had he returned to his command on 
 the eastern side than Austill discovered a canoe, occupied by In- 
 dians, descending the river, whom he immediately approached. 
 They tacked about, paddled up the river, and disappeared in the 
 thick cane, near the mouth of Randon's Creek. A few minutes 
 only elapsed before a~ heavy firing ensued, up the creek, where 
 
 * Conversations witli old settlers. 
 
CANOE FIGHT, BATTLE OE HOLY GROUND, ETC. 563 
 
 the expedition bad encountered some savages on horseback — 
 Captain Dale's rifle, which unhorsed one of these Indians, hav- 
 ing given the alarm. The yell was raised, and they made 
 an attempt to charge ; but the hot fire of the Americans com- 
 pelled them to make a precipitate retreat, with one of their num- 
 ber killed and several severely wounded. 
 
 In the meantime, Austill had reached Randon's plantation, 
 with the canoes, a quarter of an hour in advance of the main 
 party.* When they came up Dale ordered them to cross to the 
 western side, as it was found impracticable to continue the route 
 on the eastern, on account of the cane and thick vines. While 
 the company of Captain Jones or Lieutenant Montgomery was 
 being ferried over, Captain Dale, Jere Austill, Lieutenant Creagh, 
 James Smith, John Elliott, a half-breed, Brady and six others 
 occupied a position in a small field, between a sand bluff and the 
 river, where, kindling a fire, they began to boil some beef and 
 roast a few potatoes for their morning repast. When all the 
 command had passed the river except these men, and immedi- 
 ately after the negro, Csesar, had returned, with the smaller 
 canoe, the men from the western side gave the alarm that the 
 Indians were rapidly descending upon those who occupied the 
 little field. They sprang up from their hasty meal, retreated to 
 the river side, and were partially screened from the enemy's fire 
 by a small bank. While in this perilous situation, hemmed in 
 by the Indians and the river, their attention was directed to a 
 large flat-bottomed canoe, containing eleven warriors. Naked, and 
 painted in a variety of fantastic colors, while a panther-skin en- 
 circled the head of the Chief, and extended down his back, these 
 Indians presented a picturesque and imposing appear- 
 ance. For some reason, those in the rear now retired, ISIS 
 leaving Dale and his little party free to attack those in Nov. 12 
 the canoe. The red voyagers, apparently unapprised of 
 their danger, glided gently down the river, sitting erect, with 
 
 * Randon was a wealthy ^ndian countryman, who was massacred at Port Mims. 
 
564 HISTOBT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 their guns before them. Dale and his party immediately opened 
 a Are upon them, which they promptly returned. Several rounds 
 were afterwards exchanged, resulting, however, in but little 
 injury, as the Indians now lay flat in the canoe, exposing nothing 
 but their heads. At length, two of the latter, cautiously getting 
 into the water, swam for the shore, above the field, holding their 
 guns dry above their heads. They swam near the land, above 
 the mouth of a stream, over whose muddy bottom Austill and 
 Smith crossed with difllculty to pursue them. When near the 
 Indians, the buckskin leggins of Austill, suspended by a band 
 around his waist, fell about his feefc from the weight of water in 
 them, causing him to slip and be precipitated down the bluff. At 
 that moment, a ball from Smith's unemng rifle perforated the 
 head of one of the Indians, who immediately turned over upon 
 his back and then sunk. The other gained the bank and ascended 
 it, keeping Smith off with his gun, which he pretended was 
 charged. Austill, who had now gained the top of the bluff, pur- 
 sued the Indian up the stream, when a gun was fired, the con- 
 tents of which passed just over his head. Imagining himself 
 among the enemy, and hesitatmg for a moment, the savage 
 escaped. The fire proved to be from Lieutenant Creagh's gun. 
 who, in the thick cane, supposed Austill to be the warrior, in 
 whose pursuit he was likewise engaged. While these things were 
 rapidly transpiring. Dale ordered the > large canoe to be manned 
 on the opposite shore, and to be brought over to capture the In- 
 dians who were still in their canoe. Eight men sprang into it, 
 but having approached near enough to see the number of fierce 
 warriors still alive and ready to defend themselves to desperation, 
 this cautious party rapidly paddled back to the western side. 
 The exasperated Dale now proposed that some of his men should 
 follow him in the small canoe, which was immediately acquiesced 
 in. Dale leaped down the bank into the boat, and was followed 
 by Smith and Austill. All the others were anxious to go, but 
 it afforded ,room for. no more. The noble Csesar paddled 
 
CANOE FIGHT, BATTLE OP HOLY GEOUND, ETC. 565 
 
 towards the Indians' canoe, and, when within twenty 1813 
 yards of it, the three resolute Americans rose to give Nov. 12 
 them a broadside ; but only the gun of Smith fired, for 
 the other two had unfortunately wet their priming. Caesar was 
 ordered to paddle up, and to place his boat side by side with that 
 of the warriors. Approaching within ten feet, the Chief, recog- 
 nizing Dale, exclaimed, " Now foe it. Big Sam!"* At the same 
 instant, he presented his gun at Austin's breast. That brave 
 youth struck at him with an oar, which he dodged, and in return 
 he brought down his rifle upon Austin's head, just as the canoes 
 came together. At that moment, the powerful arms of Smith .and 
 Dale raised their long rifles, which came down with deadly 
 force, and felled the Chief to the bottom of the canoe — his 
 blood and brains bespattering its sides. Such was the force of 
 the blow inflicted by Dal 3, that his gun was broken near the 
 look. Seizing the heavy barrel, still left, he did great execution 
 with it to the end of the combat. Austin, in a moment, engaged 
 with the second warrior, and then with a third, both of whom he 
 despatched with his clubbed rifle. Smith, too, was equally act- 
 ive, having knocked down two Indians. Caesar had by this time 
 got the canoes close together, and held them with a mighty 
 grasp, which enabled Dale, who was in the advance, and the 
 others to maintain a firm footing by keeping their feet in both 
 canoes. These brave men now mowed down the savages, amid 
 the encouraging shouts of the men on both sides of the river, who 
 had a full view of the deadly confiict. In the midst of this un- 
 paralleled strife, a lusty Indian struck Austill with a war-club, 
 which felled him across the sides of the two boats, and, while 
 prostrate, another had raised his club to dash out his brains, 
 when Dale, by a timely blow, buried his heavy rifle barrel deep 
 in the warrior's skull. In the meantime, Austill recovered his 
 feet, and, in a desperate scuffle with another savage, knocked him 
 
 * Dale had long been a trader among the Indians, and, on account of his prowess and 
 large frame, was familiarly called by them " Big Sam." 
 
566 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 into the river with the club which he had wrested from him. 
 The only word spoken during the flght was the exclamation of 
 the/Chief upon recognizing Dale, and the request of Caesar for 
 Dale to make use of his bayonet and musket, which he hdndedto 
 him. Having laid all the warriors low, these undaunted Ameri- 
 cans began' to cast them into the bright waters of the Alabama, 
 
 their native stream, now to be their grave. Every time 
 
 1813 a savage was raised up from the bottom of the canoe 
 
 Nov. 12 by the head and heels and slung into the water, the 
 
 Americans upon the banks . sent up shouts," loud and 
 long, as some slight revenge for the tragedy of Fort Mims. Just 
 as the last body found its watery grave, a ball, shot by the In- 
 dians from the eastern side, struck one of the canoes, and was 
 followed by other discharges, but without effect. After the flght 
 had ended, eight athletic Indians were thrown out of the canoe. 
 It will be recollected that there were eleven in the boat when 
 first seen, and that two of them had swum ashore, and the other 
 one Austin had knocked out before the conflict ended. 
 
 The Indian canoe presented a sight unusually revolting — 
 several inches deep in savage blood, thickened with clods of 
 brains and bunches of hair. In this sanguinary bark, and the 
 one paddled by Csesar, the nine Americans who had been left on 
 the eastern side were now conveyed across to the opposite bank, 
 where the heroes received the warm congratulations of their com- 
 panions, who exultingly surrounded them. 
 
 The expedition then marched up to Curnell's Ferry, two 
 
 miles distant, and, seeing no more of the enemy, and 
 1813 being out of provisions, returned that night to Fort 
 ifov. 12 Madison. It is remarkable that no one received the 
 least injury, except Austill, whose head and arms were 
 severely bruised.* 
 
 * ConversationB with Colonel Glrard W. Creagh, who witnessed the canoe fight, while 
 standing in lull view upon the eastern bank of the Alabama, and Colonel Jeremiah Aus- 
 till, of iVjobile, one of the heroes. Among the MS. papers of General Claiborne I also 
 found the report of Captain R. Jones, of the first regiment of iVlississippi Volunteers, 
 e " canoe fight," which fixes the date of that aflair. 
 
CANOE FIGHT, BATTLE OE HOLY GKOUND, ETC. 667 
 
 A short biographical sketch of these heroes may not, be un- 
 interesting, after a recital of their unsurpassed "hand-to-hand " 
 fight, in the unsteady canoes, on the deep Alabama. 
 
 Jeremiah Austill was born near the Oconee Station, in Pen- 
 dleton District, South Carolina, on the 10th August, 1794. His 
 father, Captain Evan Austill, has already been mentioned, as 
 .one of those who boldly remained to defend Fort Madison, after 
 it had been evacuated by Colonel Carson. His mother was the 
 only sister of Colonel David Files, who died in this State in 1820. 
 At the time of the canoe expedition Jere Austill was nineteen 
 years of age, and weighed one hundred and seventy-flve pounds,, 
 without any surplus flesh. He was bold, active and strong, and 
 had been raised upon the Indian frontiers, having lived some 
 time at the Agency, in the Cherokee nation. He is still a resi- 
 dent of Mobile, and is regarded as a respectable gentleman. Since 
 the canoe flght, he has filled several important offices, and rep- 
 resented the people of Mobile in the legislature. His counten- 
 ance is open and manly, his eyes keen and piercing, of a dark 
 brown color, his form is erect, and his step elastic. Even now, 
 at the age of fifty-six Colonel Austill is capable of being a very 
 troublesome adversary in a desperate encounter, although one of 
 the most peaceable and amiable men in the country, in the ordi- 
 nary pursuits of life. 
 
 James Smith was a native of Georgia, of low stature, well 
 set, weighed one hundred and sixty-five pounds, and was twenty- 
 five years, of age at the period of the .canoe flght. He was a 
 brave, daring, frontier man, and died in East Mississippi several 
 years ago. He was a man of great prowess, and had killed 
 several Indians in frontier expeditions. He was admired by 
 every one for his courage, honesty, and wiUingness to defend his 
 country, at all times and under all circumstances. 
 
 Captain Samuel Dale, of Irish extraction, was born in Eock- 
 bridge county, Virginia, in 1772. In 1775, his father moved to 
 Glade Hollow, on the Clinch river, in the county of Washington, 
 
568 HISTOEY OB" ALABAMA. 
 
 Virginia, and was actively engaged in the border warfare of that 
 day.. In 1784, he removed, with his family, to the vicinity of 
 Greensborough, Georgia, where he purcha;sed a farm, but, in a 
 short time was compelled to take refuge in Carmichael's Station, 
 in consequence of the inroads of the Indians. Several desperate 
 attempts were made to burn this fort, in one of which Captain 
 Autcry was slain. About this time Mr. Dale and his wife died,' 
 leaving eight children. Samuel, the subject of this memoir, who 
 was the oldest, placed the children upon the farm, and joined a 
 company of troopers, raised by Captain Fosh, to watch the 
 movements of the Creeks, which was soon after mustered into 
 the federal service, and quartered on the Oconee, at a place 
 called Fort Mathews. Towards the close of 1794, this troop 
 had several engagements with the savages, in which Dale dis- 
 played those traits which so distinguished his subsequent ca- 
 reer — vigilance, perseverance, energy, and dauntless courage. 
 At Ocfuske, on the Chattahoochie, . he slew two Indians. 
 Soon after, having been elected colonel, and stationed at the 
 head of a separate command at Fort Kepublic on the Apa- 
 lache river in Georgia, he rendered efficient services, until the 
 troops were disbanded. Then he became a trader among the 
 Creeks and Cherokees, purchasing his goods in Savannah and ex- 
 changing them for cattle and ponies. He also acted in the 
 capacity of guide to many parties emigrating to the Mississippi 
 Territory. He finally established a trading-house in copartner- 
 ship with a half-breed in what is now known as Jones county, 
 Georgia, where he remained for some time. He was at Tooka- 
 batcha when Tecumseh appeared there, and assured Colonel 
 Hawkins that the mission of that man would result in great evil 
 unless his efforts were immediately counteracted ; but the agent 
 did not concur with him in that opinion. His bravery has been 
 seen at Burnt Corn, and in the canoe fight. At the time of the 
 latter Captain Dale weighed one hundred and ninety pounds, was 
 over six feet high, possessed a large muscular frame, without any 
 
CANOE FIGHT, BATTLE OF HOLY GROUND, ETC, 569 
 
 surplus flesh, and was in the prime of life. Although helwill be 
 mentioned hereafter, in connection with the Indian wars, vf-e deem 
 it proper, in further illustration of his character, to insert the fol- 
 lowing well- written obituary, published in the " Natchez 
 Free Trader," from the pen of John H. F. Claiborne, for- 1841 
 merly a member of Congress from Mississippi, and the June 15 
 son of the general of that name, whose military services 
 are now under review : 
 
 "I have not observed in your paper any notice of the death . 
 of our veteran friend, General Samuel Dale. He died at his 
 residence, Daleville, Lauderdale county, on the 23d ult., with the 
 fortitude of a soldier and the resignation of a Christian. On his 
 dying bed he repeated, as I am informed, a request which he 
 made last summer, that I should make a memoir of his life, most 
 of the particulars of which I wrote down from his lips. I 
 design visiting Lauderdale in a few weeks to obtain all the mate- 
 rials that remain. Few men have run a career so full of benevo- 
 lent actions and of romantic adventure, and no man was ever 
 better adapted to the country and the period in which he lived — 
 that country the frontiers of Georgia, Florida and the (then) Mis- 
 sissippi Territory, embracing all the present State of Alabama — 
 the period including nearly all that bloody interval between the 
 close of the revolution and the termination of the last war. With 
 the story of these times, the dreadful massacre at Fort Mims, the 
 battle of the Holy Ground, General Jackson's Seminole campaigns, 
 and the earlier events of the Georgia frontier. General Dale was 
 closely connected. The most affecting of those scenes of murder 
 and conflagration are as yet unwritten, and live only in the fad- 
 ing memorials of border tradition. In preparing the life of .Gen- 
 eral Dale, I shall seek to put many of them on record. As a 
 scout, a pilot to the emigrants who blazed the first path through 
 the Creek nation, from GeoBgia to the Tombigby, with arms in 
 their hands, and subsequently as a spy among the Spaniards, at 
 Pensacola, and as a partisan officer during the most sangui- 
 
570 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 nary epochs of the late war, present at every butchery, re- 
 markable for " hair-breadth 'scapes," for caution and coolness 
 in desperate emergencies, for exhibitions of gigantic personal 
 strength and great moral courage, his story is studded over 
 vrith spirit-stirring incidents, unsurpassed by anything in 
 legend or history. His celebrated ' canoe fight," where, in the 
 Alabama river, he, with Smith and Austill, fought nine warriors 
 with clubbed rifles, killed them all, and rowed to shore, would be 
 thought fabulous if it had not been witnessed by many soldiers 
 standing upon the banks, who could render them no assistance. 
 Some years before, he was attacked by two warriors, who shouted 
 their war-rwhoop as he was kneeling down to drink and rushed 
 upon him with their tomahawks. He knifed them both, and, 
 though bleeding from five wounds, he retraced their trail nine 
 miles, crept stealthily to their camp, brained three sleeping war- 
 riors and cut the thongs of a female prisoner who lay by their 
 side. While in this act, however, a fourth sprang upon him from 
 behind a log. Taken at such a disadvantage and exhausted by 
 the loss of blood, he sank under the serpent-grasp of the savage, 
 who, with a yell of triumph, drew his knife and in a few moments 
 would have closed the contest. At that instant, however, the 
 woman drove a tomahawk deep into the head of the Indian, and 
 thus preserved the life of her deliverer. 
 
 " Shortly after the treaty of Dancing Rabbit, our deceased 
 friend settled in what is now known as Lauderdale county ; and 
 it is worthy of remark, that at the first election, (1836, 1 believe) 
 when he was chosen to the Legislature, but ten votes were cast. 
 Now the county could probably poll 750, and in every direction 
 its fleecy fields, its fine flour-mills, its school-houses and churches 
 indicate a thriving, enlightened and moral population. 
 
 'fOne anecdote of the old general is so similar to an event in 
 Roman history that I cannot forbear relating it. The Consul 
 Acquilius, returning from a campaign, was allowed a triumph, 
 but shortly afterwards was arraigned for some misdemeanor 
 
CANOE FIGHT, BATTLE OP HOLY GROUND, ETC. 571 
 
 committed during his foreign service. He called no exculpatory 
 evidence, nor deigned to court the favor of his judges, but when 
 about to receive sentence he tore open his vest and displayed the 
 wounds he had received in the service of his country. A sudden 
 emotion of pity seized the court, and unfixed the resolution which 
 a few momeats before they had taken to condemn the accused. 
 Some time ago General Dale, being in Mobile, was held to bail as 
 endorser upon a note. The debt was in the hands of a stranger. 
 Accompanied' by an officer, he sought the creditor, and found him 
 in the saloon of CuUum's far-famed hotel. ' Sir,' said the general, 
 ' I have no money to pay this debt. The principal has property — 
 make him pay it, or let me go home and work it out.' The Shy- 
 lock hesitated. ' Very well^ said the veteran, in tones that rang 
 indignantly through the apartment, ' Very well, sir ! JLooJc at my 
 scars J I will march to jail down Main stkeet, awe? all Mobile 
 shall witness the treatment of an old soldier ! ' These simple words , 
 fell like electrio-ity upon that high-toned people. In half an hour, 
 a dozen of the brightest names of the city were on the bond, 
 and before morning the debt was paid, and a full discharge 
 handed to the general. I have seen the manly tears chasing 
 down his cheek, as the aged warrior dwelt on these recollections 
 of the generous citizens. In person, General Dale was tall, 
 erect, raw-boned and muscular. In many respects, physical and 
 moral, he resembled his antagonists of the woods. He had the 
 square forehead, the high cheek-bones, the compressed lips, and, 
 in fact, the physiognomy of an Indian, relieved, however, by a 
 fine, benevolent Saxon eye. Like the red man, too, his foot fell 
 lightly upon the ground, and turned neither to the right or left; 
 he was habitually taciturn ; his face grave ; he spoke slowly and 
 in low tones, and seldom laughed. I observed of him what I 
 have often noted as peculiar to border men of high attributes : 
 he entertained the strongest attachment for the Indians, extolled 
 their courage, their love of country, and many of their domestic 
 qualities, and I have often seen the wretched remnant of the 
 
572 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Choctaws camped around his plantation and subsisting on his 
 crops. In peace, they felt for him the strongest veneration — he 
 had been the friend both of Teoumseh and Weatherford — and in 
 war the name of ' £ig Sam ' fell on the ear of the Seminole like 
 that of Marius on the hordes of the Cimbri." 
 
 Captain Dale, with a scouting party, had effectually scoured 
 the swamps of Bassett's Creek, and Major Hinds' horse had routed 
 a small body of the enemy near Weatherford's Bluff, killing ten 
 
 of their number, when an order from Flourhoy permitted 
 
 1813 Claiborne to advance with the Southern army to the Al- 
 
 Nov. 10 abama. ' His instructions confined him still to defensive 
 
 operations, requiring him to establish a depot at 
 Weatherford's Bluff, and not to advance further into the Creek 
 nation until he was joined by the Georgia and Tennessee 
 troops. Claiborne accordingly broke up his camp at Pine Levels, 
 marched across Clarke county with three hundred volunteers, 
 the dragoons and some militia, flanked by detachments under 
 Captains Kennedy and Bates and Lieutenant Osborne, and party 
 
 of Choctaws, under Pushmatahaw and Mushullatubba. 
 
 1818 Arriving at the Alabama, the army encamped for the 
 
 Nov. 17 night upon the western bank, and the next day at 12 
 
 o'clock had gained the other side by means of rafts. 
 Colonel Gilbert C. Russell, an accomplished and gallant com- 
 mander in the regular army, marched the third regiment of fed- 
 eral troops from Mount Vernon, through Nannahubba Island, 
 
 by Mims' Ferry, to the head of Little river, and thence 
 Nov. 28 to the encampment of Claiborne, with whom he had 
 
 been instructed by General Flournoy to co-operate. In 
 the meantime, Claiborne had made rapid progress in the construc- 
 tion of a strong stockade, two hundred feet square, defended by 
 three block-houses and a half-moon battery, which commanded the 
 river. Before the close of November it was completed, and re- 
 ceived the name of Fort Claiborne, in honor of the commander. 
 The town where it stood still bears his name. The general 
 
CANOE FIGHT, BATTLE OF HOLT GEOUND, ETC. 573 
 
 wrote to Jackson congratulating him upon his victories, and giv- 
 ing him an account of the operations in the southern seat of war, 
 and acquainting him with the fact that an abundance of 
 corn and other provisions were to be obtained in the Dec. 5 
 neighborhood of Fort Claiborne. He also wrote to 
 Governor Blount, apprising him of the arrival of more English 
 vessels in Pensacola, and added that he wished " to God that he 
 was authorized to take that sink of iniquity, the depot of tories 
 and instigators of disturbances on the southern frontier." He 
 had a few days before despatched Major Kennedy and others to 
 Mobile, to learn from Colonel Bowyer the particulars of the ar- 
 rival of the British at Pensacola. They reported, giving satis- 
 factory assurances that a large quantity of Indian supplies and 
 many soldiers had arrived there; and, in addition, that the In- 
 dians were committing depredations in Baldwin county, having 
 recently burned down Kennedy's and Byrne's mills. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel George Henry Nixon had suc- 
 ceeded Russell in the command at Mount Vernon. At 1812 
 his request, . Claiborne permitted him, also, to man Dec. 13 
 Fort Pierce, in the neighborhood of the disturbances.* 
 
 Claiborne, having determined to advance to the enemy's 
 strong-hold, the line of march was taken up by an army 
 consisting of Colonel Russell's third regiment. Major Dec. 13 
 Cassels' battalion of horse, a battalion of militia, under 
 Major Benjamin Smoot — Patrick May being adjutant, Dale and 
 Heard captains, and Girard W. Creagh one of the lieutenants — 
 the twelve months' Mississippi Volunteers, under Colonel Car- 
 
 * Colonel Nixon was born in Virginia, and, Hying some years in South Carolina, re- 
 moved from thence in 1809, to the Mississippi Territory. He was among the first to 
 offer his services in defence of his country. During the Creek war. Colonel Nixon, at 
 the head of a considerable force, scoured the swamps of the Perdido and other streams, 
 and frequently kilJed and captured Indians. After he had accomplished all he could, 
 he marched to the head of the Perdido, where he divided his command, sending Major 
 William Peacock, with the troops of the 39th, to the Boat Yard, on Lake Tensaw, while 
 he marched the remainder of his command 'to Fort Claiborne. He was an excellent 
 ofidcer, and served in the war until its final conclusion. He was a member of the con- 
 yention that formed the constitution of the' State of Mississippi, and was, afterwards, 
 frequently a State Senator. He died in Perlington, Mississippi, in 1824. He was a large 
 and fine-looking man, with fair complexion, and was very popular. 
 
574 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 son, and one hundred and fifty Choctaws, under Pushmatahaw 
 numbering, in the aggregate, near one thousand men. A few 
 days before, nine captains, eight lieutenants, and five ensigns, 
 'signed a remonstrance, in respectful language, against the march 
 to the nation, and presented it to the general. They set forth 
 that the time of service of many would soon expire, that the 
 weather was cold, that they were too scantily supplied with cloth- 
 ing and food for such a campaign, and, that the route to the 
 enemy's towns was entirely a pathless one; but they stated 
 their willingness to obey, if Claiborne should resolve to pro- 
 ceed. 
 
 Claiborne moved in a northeastern direction, until 
 1813 he reached the high lands south of Double Swamp, at 
 Dec. the distance of eighty miles, where he built a depot, 
 called Fort Deposite, situated in the present county of 
 Butler, and where he left the wagons, cannon, baggage and the 
 sick, with one hundred men, as a guard. Thirty miles further 
 brought him into the immediate neighborhood of the Holy 
 Ground, which had been reached without the aid of a single 
 path. The pork being exhausted, the troops were in a suffering 
 condition, for they ha,d only drawn, when leaving Fort Deposite, 
 three days' allowance of iiour. Econachaca (Holy Ground) had 
 recently been erected by Weatherford, the prophets having 
 assured the Indians that here no white man could approach 
 without instant destruction. It was strongly fortified in the 
 Indian manner, and had for some months formed a point to which 
 those who had been routed in battle retreated, and where a great 
 amount of plunder had been stored. It was situated upon a bluff, 
 on the eastern side of the Alabama river, just below the present 
 Powell's Ferry, in the county of Lowndes. Here many of the 
 white prisoners and friendly Indians were burned to death, by 
 order of the prophets, and when Claiborne was almost within 
 sight of the town with his advancing army, Mrs. Sophia Durant 
 
CANOE FIGHT, BATTLp OF HOLT GBOUND, ETC. 575 
 
 and many other friendly half-breeds were mustered in the square 
 and surrounded by lightwood fires, designed to consume them. 
 
 The troops advanced toward the town in three col- 
 umns, the centre commanded by Colonel Russell, at the 1813 
 head of which was Claiborne himself, Lester's guards Dec. 23 
 and Wells' dragoons acting as a corps of reserve. 
 
 At noon Carson's right column came in view of the town, and 
 was vigorously attacked by the enemy, who had chosen their 
 field of action. The town was nearly surrounded with swamps 
 and deep ravines, so that the enemy, who afterwards retreated, 
 could not be successfully pursued. Major Cassels, who had been 
 directed to form his battalion of horse on the river bank, west of 
 the town, failing to eft'ect such a movement, fell back on the head 
 of Carson's regiment, who, however, advanced and took his posi- 
 tion. The third regiment, coming up in gallant style, did its 
 duty. Major Smoot assumed his position in a proper manner, 
 and all would have been right if Cassels' cavalry had not failed 
 to obey orders, thereby permitting hundreds of the enemy to es- 
 cape along the Alabama river, by the western border of the town. 
 The Indians, headed by Weatherford, for a short time fought with 
 considerable fury, but afterwards fled with great rapidity. The 
 short engagement resulted in the death of thirty Indians and 
 negroes, whose bodies were afterwards counted upon the field. 
 Many must have been severely wounded. Lucket, an American 
 ensign, was killed, and twenty men were wounded. 
 
 Several hours before the battle began the Indian women and 
 children had been conveyed across the river, and were securely 
 lodged in the thick forests of ,the region now familiarly known as 
 the Dutch Bend of Autauga county. Here -the retreat- 
 ing warriors, some of whom came Over in boats, while 1813 
 others swam, joined them. "Weatherford, seeing that Dec. 28 
 his forces had deserted him, now pushed hard for his 
 own safety; Coursing with great rapidity along the banks of the 
 Alabama, below the town, on a gray steed of unsurpassed 
 
576 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 strength and fleetness — which he had purchased a short time 
 before the commencement of hostilities of Benjamin Baldwin, late 
 of Macon county — came at length to the termination of a kind of 
 ravine, where there was a perdendicular bluflE ten or fifteen feet 
 above the surface of the river. Over this, with a mighty bound, 
 tMe horse pitched with the gallant Chief, and both went out of 
 sight beneath the waves. Presently they rose again, the rider 
 having hold of the mane with one hand and his rifle firmly 
 grasped, in the other. Regaining his saddle the noble animal 
 swam with him to the Autauga side.* 
 
 Claiborne reduced the town of the Holy Ground to ashes. 
 He then despatched the cavalry to Ward's place up the 
 
 1813 river, who, before reaching there, fell in with three 
 Dec. 24 Shawnees of distinction, retreating from the battle, 
 
 whom they killed. The firing being heard at the camp, 
 Claiborne struck his tents and marched in that direction during 
 the night. Encamping at Wgatherford's place in an open field, 
 the cold rains descended in torrents upon the troops, and Christ- 
 mas morning found them engaged in parching corn for breakfast, 
 which was the only thing left to eat. After destroying some 
 
 houses and farms, the army marched back tp Fort De- 
 Dec. 26 posite, and from thence to Fort Claiborne, where, the 
 
 term of service of Carson's Mississippi volunteers and 
 cavalry having expired, they were mustered out of service. 
 
 Colonel Russell, now left in sole command, of Fort Claiborne, 
 preferred charges against Major Cassels for disobedience of orders 
 
 at the Holy Ground, and a court of inquiry, composed of 
 
 1814 Captain Woodruff, president, (Japtain J. E.Denkins and 
 Jan. 1 Lieutenant .H. Chotard, decided that Sam McNac, the 
 
 guide, was chiefly to blame for the failure of Cassels to 
 occupy the position which had been assigned him. Another 
 
 * Extravagant tales liave often been told of Weatherford's leap, and a-bluff at or near 
 the site of tfie Holy Ground town, which is probably eighty or a hundred feet high, is 
 often pointed out as the one over which he charged. The account 1 have given is 
 Weatherford's own statement of the affair. 
 
CANOE FIGHT, BATTLE OF HOLY GROUND, ETC. '577 
 
 court of inquiry, composed of Colonel Carson and Lieutenant 
 Wilcox, decided that the contractor of the army was solely to 
 blame for the perishing condition of the expedition, as General 
 Claiborne had given him ample instructions to furnish abundant 
 supplies. The command had been entirely without meat for 
 nine days. 
 
 General Claiborne wrote to the Secretary of War, from Mount 
 Vernon, tha;t he had been left with but sixty men, whose 
 time lacked only a month of expiring; that his other Jan. 24 
 volunteers, who hB,d been disbanded, had gone home 
 naked and without shoes, with eight months pay due them ; and 
 that his army, being thus broken up, he intended to return home 
 as soon as he received permission from General Flournoy.* 
 
 Having planned an expedition against the enemy, Colonel 
 Russell despatched Captain Denkins up the Alabama from Fort 
 Claiborne in command of a barge, laden with provisions, 
 and defended by a piece of artillery, with instructions Feb. 1 
 to enter the Cahawba river, and to ascend it to the 
 " Old Towns," where his "army would shortly join him. After- 
 wards, marching the larger portion of his regiment to the 
 cross-roads, in Clarke county, four miles north of the present 
 Sugsville,' he was there joined by a company commanded by 
 Captain Evan AustUl and Lieutenant G. W. Creagh, and Captain 
 Foster's horse company, both under the command of Major Sam- 
 uel Dale. Leaving this place, with six days rations. Colonel Rus- 
 sell reached the Cahawba Old Towns, where he was mortified to 
 find that Captain Denkins had not arrived — nor had he encoun- 
 tered, on the waly, a solitary Indian. Despatching Lieutenant 
 Wilcox in a canoe, with five men, with directions to find -Den- 
 kins and hasten him on, that officer proceeded down the Ca- 
 hawba, upset his boat the first night, wet his ammunition, and 
 lost two of his guns. Recovering the canoe, however, and pro- 
 
 * Claiborne's MS. papers. Conversations with tbe late Colonel Creagh, General 
 Patrick May, of Greene, and others. 
 
 37 
 
578 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 ceeding down the river, lying by in the cane in the day time, he 
 was, in the evening of the second day, fired upon by a party of 
 Indians. The two Wilsons, who belonged to this expedition, 
 made their escape, and reached the lower settlements many days 
 after, in a starving condition. One of them, Mathew, was found 
 by Hais Rodgers, on the ridge road of Clarke. Lieutenant Wil- 
 cox and the other three were made prisoners by the Indians, who 
 proceeded with them down the Cahawba, into the Alabama. In 
 the meantime, Denkius, unfortunately passing the mouth of the 
 Cahawba by mistake, had ascended some distance up the Ala- 
 bama, and was now returning to Fort Claiborne, knowing that 
 the army could not wait for him, but would return to that place 
 likewise. The Indians, going down the river also, descried the 
 barge, and fearing to lose their prisoners, tomahawked and 
 scalped Wilcox and his three companions, leaving them in their 
 canoe. When the canoe and the barge came together Wilcox was 
 still alive, but too far gone to give any account of the particulars 
 of his capture, or of Russell's expedition. The body of this gal- 
 lant young officer, being found upon the Alabama, where it 
 meanders through the region between Canton and Prairie Bluff, 
 the legislature appropriately preserved his memory, by giving 
 the county his name. 
 
 Colonel Russell remained two days at the Cahawba Old 
 Towns, in which time one of his men was killed by some skulk- 
 ing savages. Despairing of the arrival of the barge, he 
 1814 began the return march, without any provisions ; and 
 Feb. setting the example himself, in having his best , horse 
 killed for subsistence, twelve animals of that kind were 
 devoured by the perishing troops. At Bradford's Pond they 
 were timely relieved by wagons, laden, with abundant provisions, 
 and arriving again at the cross-roads, were disbanded, the regu- 
 lars marching to Fort Claiborne.* 
 
 * ConTersatioQS with Colonel Girard W. Greagh, late of Clarke county. 
 
CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 Battles of EmucefatT) Enitachopco and Calebee. 
 
 Since the battle of Talladega, Jackson had encountered innum- 
 erable diflBculties and mortifications, owing to the failure of con- 
 tractors and the mutiny of his troops, who were finally reduced 
 to one hundred men by the expiration of their time of service. 
 He was now compelled to employ Cherokees to garrison Fort 
 Armstrong, upon the Coosahatchie, and protect the stores at 
 Ross's. Almost alone, in a savage land, he yet constantly rode 
 between Fort Strother and Ditto's Landing to hasten supplies 
 for the new army, which he had employed Governor Blount to 
 raise for him. At last two regiments, one of them commanded 
 by Colonel Perkins and the other by Colonel Higgins, numbering 
 together eight hundred and fifty men, who had only en- 
 listed for sixty days, reached Port Strother. Well un- 1814 
 derstanding the character of minute men like these, who Jan. 14 
 n^ust be constantly employed, Jackson immediately 
 marched them across the Coosa to the late battle ground of Tal- 
 ladega, where he was joined by two hundred Cherokees 
 and Creeks, who evinced great alarm at the weakness Jan. 16 
 which the command presented. Continuing the march 
 towards the Tallapoosa, the army encamped at Enitachopco, a 
 Hillabee village, and the next day fell into many fresh 
 beaten trails, indicating the proximity of a. large force. 1814 
 Here Jackson determiijed to halt for the purpose of, re- Jan. 21 
 connoitre. Before dark his encampment was formed, 
 his army thrown into a hollow square, his pickets and spies sent 
 out, his sentinels doubled, and his fires lighted some distance, out- 
 
 679 
 
580 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 side of the lines. About ten o'clocli: at night one of the pickets fir- 
 ing upon three of the enemy succeeded in killing one, and at the 
 hour of eleven the spies reported a large encampment three miles 
 distant, where the savages were whooping and dancing, and, be- 
 ing apprised of the approach of the Americans, were sending off 
 
 their women and children. ' 
 Jan. 22 About six o'clock in the' morning the Indians sud- 
 
 denly fell upon Jackson's flank, and upon the left of his 
 rear, maintaining a vigorous attack for a half hour. General 
 Coffee, Adjutant-General Sitler, and Inspector-General Carroll 
 rode rapidly to the scene of action as soon as the firing com- 
 menced, animating the men, who firmly kept the assailants at 
 bay. Morning shed its light upon the exciting scene, enabling 
 Captain Terrill's infantry to reinforce the left flank, when the 
 whole line was led to the charge by General Coffee, supported by 
 Colonels Higgins and Carroll and the friendly Indians, which 
 forced tbe savages to abandon the' ground in a rapid manner. 
 They were pursued with slaughter for two miles. Coffee being 
 then ordered, with four hundred men and the friendly Indians, 
 to burn up their encampment, advanced, and, finding it strongly 
 fortified, returned for the artillery. ' Shortly afterwards, a body 
 of the enemy boldly advanced and attacked the right wing of 
 Jackson's encampment. Coffee again charged, but, through mis- 
 take, only forty-five men followed him, composing his own com- 
 pany of volunteer ofBcers ; but the friendly Indians were sent by 
 Jackson to his support. Dismounting his men, he now pursued 
 the " Red Sticks" to the swamp of a creek.* 
 
 Jackson had ordered his left fianik to remain firm, and now 
 the Indians came rushing with yells against it. Repairing to 
 that point, and ordering up Captain Terrill to his support, the 
 whole line received the enemy with intrepidity, and, after a few 
 fires, advanced to the charge nnder the impetuous Carroll. Again 
 
 * The Indian war,party -were of ten called She " Red Sticks," because their war-clubft 
 were invariaWy painted red. 
 
EMUCKFAU, ENITACHOPCO AND CALEBEE. 581 
 
 the Red Sticks fled before the bayonet, the Americans pursuing 
 some distance, and marking their trails with blood. In the 
 meantime, Coffee kept the enemy, who had now returned upon 
 him from the swamp, at bay until Jackson strengthened him 
 with a reinforcement of a hundred friendly warriors, at the head 
 of whoni was Jim Fife. Coffee again charged, when the Red 
 Sticks once more gave way, and the pursuit was continued for 
 three miles, with the loss of forty-five savages. 
 
 The brave, Creeks had now been repulsed in every attempt, 
 but they exhibited a ferocity and courage which commanded the 
 serious consideration of Jackson, whose force was weaker than 
 he desired. The horses had been without cane and without corn 
 for two days, and but few rations remained for the men. The 
 wounded were numerous, and the enemy would doubtless soon 
 be reinforced. Jackson determined to return to Fort Strother 
 with all possible despatch. The remainder of the day was em- 
 ployed in collecting and burying the dead, dressing the wounded 
 and fortifying the camp; but the morning dawned without an- 
 other attack.* 
 
 The army began the retrograde march about ten o'clock a. m., 
 bearing the wounded, among whom was Coffee, in litters, con- 
 structed of the hides of the slain horses. Jackson reached Enita- 
 chopco before night without molestation, and fortified himself at 
 a place a quarter of a mile from the creek, around which 
 the Red Sticks prowled, but refrained from attack. 1814 
 Dreading an onset at the ford of the creek, by which his Jan. 2-3 
 army had passed a few days before, and which afforded 
 great facilities for Indian ambuscades, the commander despatched 
 spies in search of a less exposed crossing place. Six hundred 
 yards lower down was selected, and thither he advanced 
 his troops in the morning. Carroll commanded the Jan. 24 
 rear guard. Colonel Perkins the right column, and 
 
 * Tbe battle of Emuckfau was fought near a creek of that name, which runs south into 
 the Tallapoosa river, in Tallapoosa county, Alabama. 
 
582 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Colonel stump the left. In case of attack, Carroll was to face 
 about, display and inaintain his position, while the other two 
 colonels were to face outward, wheel back on their pivots, and 
 attack the Red Sticks on both flanks. 
 
 The wounded and the front guard had passed the creek, and 
 as Jackson was upon the eastern bank, superintending the cross- 
 ing of the army, an alarm gun was heard, which was succeeded 
 by a fierce attack of the savages upon the rear -guard of Captain 
 Russell's spies. Colonel Carroll ordered the fear-guard to halt 
 and form, when the right and left columns, seized by a sudden 
 panic, fled without firing a gun, drawing after them most of the 
 centre, with their officers foremost in the flight, at the head of 
 whom was Colonel Stump, who came plunging down the bank, 
 near the exasperated commander-in-chief, who made an unsuc- 
 cessful effort to cut him down with his sword. With only twenty- 
 five men, under Captain Quarles, Carroll gallantly checked the 
 advance of the Red Sticks. The artillery was under the com- 
 mand of Lieutenant Armstrong, in the absence of Captain Dead- 
 rick, who now ordered -his company, armed with muskets, to 
 advance to the top of the hill, while he, with Constantine Perkins 
 and a few others, dragged up the six-pounder from the middle of 
 the creek. Instantly in their position, they maintained it against 
 ten times their number, until Armstrong reached them with his 
 piece. Discovering that, in the hurry of separating the gun from 
 the limbers, the rammer and pricker had been left tied 
 1814 to the latter, with wonderful presence of mind, and while 
 Jan. 24 Indian bullets rattled like hail around them, Constan- 
 tine Perkins and Craven Jackson, two of the gunners, 
 supplied the , deficiency. Perkins took off his bayonet, and 
 rammed the cartridge home with his musket, and Jackson, 
 drawing his ramrod, employed it as a pricker, priming with a 
 musket cartridge.* The six-pounder was thus twice charged, 
 
 * Constantine Ferkins was born in Knox county, Tennessee, tbe 17th August, 1792. 
 He graduated at Cumberland College in 1813, and was with Jackson at the battle of 
 Talladega in Carroll's advance guard, where he greatly distinguished himself. Refusing 
 
HMUCKPAtr, ENITACHOPCO AND CALBBBE. 583 
 
 pouring grape among the savages, then only a few yards distant. 
 Several comrades of these men fell around them, and, after the 
 second Are, the little artillery company furiously charged on the 
 assailants, who became more cautious in their approaches. Cap- 
 tain Gordon's spies, in front of the army when the alarm was 
 given, made a circuit and attacked the left flank of the Indians. 
 At the same time, a number of the rear-guard and flankers, 
 rallied by Jackson, re-crossed the creek and joined in the tight. 
 The savages, finding that the whole army was now brought 
 against them, fled, throwing away their packs and leaving upon 
 the field the bodies of twenty -six warriors. 
 
 One hundred and eighty-nine bodies of the enemy were 
 counted upon the fields of Emuckfau and Enitachopco. The loss of 
 the Americans was twenty killed and seventy-five wounded, 
 several of whom afterwards died. Major A. Donaldson was 
 killed at Emuckfau. Captain Hamilton, Lieutenant Armstrong, 
 Bird Evans, Hiram Bradford and Jacob McGivock were severely 
 wounded. The first named afterwards died. Jackson, in his re- 
 port, spoke in the highest terms of the bravery of these men, and 
 also of that of Captains Sitler, Quarles, Elliott and Pipkin, and 
 Colonel Higgins. He also mentioned the gallantry of the ven- 
 erable Judge Cocke, who, at the age of ^ sixty-five, was in the 
 midst of these battles. 
 
 The army continued its march to Fort Strother, where Jack- 
 son ordered the sixty day volunteers to march to Huntsville for 
 honorable discharge, at the same time granting to Coffee and his 
 officers the privilege of returning home, until the government 
 again demanded their services, to all of whom he ad- 
 dressed a kind letter, commending their patriotism and 1814 
 bravery. A court martial acquitted Colonel Perkins of Jan. 28 
 
 to abandon Jackson in a hostile land, he remained with the small number who adhered 
 to him In the 'two battles at Emuckfau, he fought side by side with the bravest. 
 When the Creek war was at an end, he studied law at Nashville. He was elected solici- 
 tor of one of the Tennessee circuits, but, removing to Alabama in 1819, was elected 
 solicitor of the third circuit, which office he held until 1826, when he was elected attor- 
 neyrgeneral. In 1834, the people of Tuscaloosa county placed him in the State Senate, 
 of which he was a member until the 17th September, 1836, when he died. 
 
584 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 the charge of cowardice, at the battle of Enitachopoo ; but Colonel 
 Stump was found guilty, and cashiered.* 
 
 Such is the -American account of these engagements. The 
 brave natives of Alabama bad no writers among them to record 
 their achievements. Several Chiefs and leading warriors, who 
 were in the battles of Emuckfau and EnitachopcOj have stated to 
 us that they " whipped Captain Jackson, and run him to the 
 Coosa river." The authors who have written upon these cam- 
 paigns speak, of the weakness of the American force. It con- 
 sisted of seven hundred and sixty-seven men, with two hundred 
 friendly Indians. We are enabled to state, with confidence, that 
 the force of the Red Sticks, in these battles, did not exceed five 
 hundred warriors, for the larger body had assembled below, to 
 attack Floyd, while others were fortifying the Horse-Shoe,, and 
 various other places. 
 
 It has been seen that the Georgia army, after the battle of 
 Auttose, retired to the Chattahoochie. There, for more than six 
 weeks, it had reposed, for the want of expected supplies. When 
 General Floyd recovered from his wound, he again marched tb 
 the seat of war, with a force of twelve hundred and twenty- 
 seven, rank and file, besides a company of cavalry and four hun- 
 dred friendly Indians. His destination being the town of 
 Tookabatcha, he established posts upon the route, for the pur- 
 pose of keeping up a communication and facilitating the trans- 
 portation of supplies. . Marching from post to post, as they were 
 established, he at length encamped on the Calebee Creek, upon 
 the high lands bordering its swamp.t 
 
 At twenty minutes past five o'clock in the morning, the Red 
 
 Sticks, who had secreted themselves in the swamp during 
 
 1814 the latter part of the night, sprung upon the Georgians 
 
 Jan. 27 like tigers, driving in their sentinels, and taking the 
 
 whole army by surprise. In twenty minutes the action 
 
 * Kendall's Life of Jackson, pp. 252-264. Waldo, Eaton, etc. 
 
 t Tliis creek runs in a northwestern direction, throngh Macon county, Alabama. ' 
 
EMUCKFAU, BNITACHOPCO AND CALEBEE. 585 
 
 became general, and the front right and left flanks of the Ameri- 
 cans were closely pressed, but the enemy was met at every point. 
 The front line was preserved by the steady fire of the artillery, un- 
 der Captain Thomas, aided by the riflemen of Captain Adams. 
 These troops suffered severely, for the enemy rushed within thirty 
 yards of the cannon. Captain John Broadnax, who commanded 
 one of the picket guards, maintained his post, until a party of In- 
 dians had cut off his retreat to the main army. In this desperate 
 situation his resolute band cut their way through to their friends, 
 assisted by Timpoochy Barnard, a half-breed, at the head of some 
 Uchees. The, other friendly Indians, with a few exceptions, tak- 
 ing refuge within the lines, remained alarmed and inactive while 
 the battle lasted. When day appeared the battalions of Majors 
 Watson and Freeman were ordered to wheel up at right angles. 
 Those of Majors Booth and Cleavland, who formed the right 
 wing, received the same order, while Captain Hamilton's cavalry ' 
 was instructed to form in the rear of the right wing, to act as 
 circumstances required. A charge was now made, and the Red 
 Sticks gave way before the bayonet. The cavalry, falling upon 
 them, made considerable havoc, and followed by the friendly In- 
 dians and the rifle companies of Merriweather and Ford pursued 
 them through Calebee swamp. From the traces of blood and the 
 number of head-dresses and war-clubs found in various directions, 
 the loss of the enemy must have been considerable. In the com- 
 mencement of the action Colonel Newnan was wounded by three 
 balls, which deprived the commander of the services of that gal- 
 lant and useful officer. Adjutant-General Narden, whose horse 
 was wounded under him, performed important services, while the 
 aid-de-camp of Floyd also had his horse killed under him. His 
 additional aids, General Lee and Major Pace, acted in a manner 
 highly honorable to themselves and useful to the army. The loss 
 of the Ameripans was seventeen killed and one hundred and 
 thirty-two wounded, to which must be added the loss of the 
 friendly Indians, who had five killed and fifteen wounded. The 
 
586 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Georgians fought with great resolution ; but, assailed before day, 
 with no fortifications around them, the Indians, until the charge 
 was made, had the advantage, and made use of it.* The 
 large number of wounded Georgians, the proximity of the enemy, 
 who continued to hover around them, indicating a disposition to 
 renew the attack, were reasons deemed suflBcient by Floyd for 
 relinquishing the main object of the expedition, retracing his 
 
 steps, and awaiting further reinforcements. He accord- 
 
 1814 ingly marched from Calebee to Fort Hull, one of his 
 
 Feb. 2 newly erected posts, and the next night the Indians were 
 
 in possession of the battle field. Leaving at Fort Hull a 
 small garrison, he returned to Fort Mitchell, upon the Chatta- 
 hoochie, which he believed, from information, was soon to be 
 attacked. Although the Georgia army had gallantly maintained 
 their ground at the battle of Calebee, the Indians stopped their 
 further march into the nation, and caused them in a few days to 
 retreat.t 
 
 General Jackson had employed the few militia who remained 
 with him at Fort Strother, after the battles of Emuckfau and 
 Enitachopco, in constructing flat-boats to descend the Coosa with 
 stores for the use of the new army then being raised in Tennes- 
 see, which was to operate below. The Kialigee Chiefs, whose 
 
 neutrality Jackson had viewed with suspicion, becoming 
 
 1814 alarmed, paid him a visit, and disclosed that the Ufau- 
 
 Feb. J 5 las, New-Yaucas and Ocfuskes, the remnant of the Hil- 
 
 labees, the Fish Ponds, and many Red Sticks from 
 other towns, were then in a bend of the Tallapoosa, and on an 
 island near Emuckfau, where they had resolved to defend them- 
 selves to the last extremity. This information determined him 
 to march upon them. 
 
 When the army arrived at Fort Strother, he embarked the 
 
 *Zacliaria,h McGirth, bearing a deapatoli from General Claiborne to Floyd, passed 
 through the Calebee swamp late in the night, while it must hare been filled with the 
 enemy, and strangely reached the American camp in safety. 
 
 T Russell's History of the Late War, pp. 242-243. Waldo's Life of Jackson, pp. 124-126. 
 Kendall's Life of Jackson, p. 240. 
 
BMUCKFAU, BNITACHOPCO AND OALEBEE. 587 
 
 stores in the flat-boats, which were to proceed down the Coosa 
 in charge of the thirty-ninth regiment, and^ leaving a 
 garrison of four hundred and fifty men in Fort Strother, March 
 under the command of Colonel ' Steele, he began the 15-16 
 march, for the third time, toward the seat of war. 
 Within five days, Jackson reached the mouth of Cedar Creek, 
 having been retarded by the cutting out of thirty miles of the 
 road. The boats, in descending the river, meeting with some ob- 
 structions, finally reached this point also, where a fort 
 was immediately commenced, which Jackson called Fort Mar. 22 
 Williams, in honor of the commander of the thirty-ninth 
 regiment. A detachment returned to the camp, and reported 
 that they had burned two Indian towns, lower down, but had 
 seen no Red Sticks. 
 
CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 Battle of the Hoesk-Shqe — Wbathekfoed Sfeeendbrs Him- 
 self AT Foet Jackson. 
 
 Leaving a guard at Fort Williams, General Jackson put his 
 army, which consisted of two thousand men, upon the 
 1814 march. He opened a passage across the ridge which di- 
 March vides the Coosa and Tallapoosa, and, in three days ad- 
 24-27 vanced to the immediate neighborhood of the enemy. 
 Cholocco Litabixee — the Morse-Shoe — where the 
 Red Sticks had assembled to make a desperate defence, was ad- 
 mirably adapted by nature for security if well guarcjed, but 
 equally for destruction if not well defended. About one hundred 
 acres of land was bordered by the Tallapoosa river, forming a 
 peninsula. Across the neck of the bend, the Red Sticks had a 
 breast-work of logs, so arranged as to expose assailants to a 
 cross-fire. The houses of the village stood upon some low grounds 
 at the bottom of the bend, where hundreds of canoes were tied 
 to the banks of the river. The warriors of Hillabee, Ocfuske, 
 Oakchoie, Eufaulahatche, New-T"auca, Hickory Ground and Fish 
 Pond towns had concentrated upon the remarkable peninsula. 
 General Coffee, with a large body of mounted men, and the 
 friendly Indians, forded the Tallapoosa two miles below the 
 breast-work, and, having gained the eastern side, ex- 
 1814 tended his lines for a great distance, so as to encom- 
 Morning pass the bend. As soon as Jackson saw, from signals 
 of which were made, that Coffee had taken his oosition, 
 
 Mar. 27 he marched the remainder of his force towards the 
 breast-work, planted two pieces of artillery, eighty 
 
BATTLE OF THE HOESE-SHOB. 589 
 
 yards distant from the nearest part of the Indian defence, and, 
 at ten o'clock in the morning, began to open them upon the en- 
 emy. These pieces, accompanied by occasional discharges from 
 the muskets and rifles, effected but little. In the meanwhile, the 
 Cherokees, under Coffee, swimming the river, took possession of 
 the canoes, and returning with them to the opposite bank, they 
 were presently filled with friendly Indians and Americans, the 
 latter headed by Colonel Morgan and Captain Russell. They 
 reached the town and wrapped it in flames. Jackson then ordered 
 his troops to storm the breast- wo*rk, behind which all the warriors 
 had posted themselves. A short contest was maintained at the 
 port-holes, but presently the impetuous Americans mounted. the 
 breast- work, and, dyeing the huge logs with their blood and that 
 of the enemy, they finaRy, after a most desperate struggle, be- 
 came masters of the interior. The Red Sticks, now assailed 
 in front by Jackson, who had taken possession of their 
 breast-work, and attacked from behind by a portion of Cof- 
 fee's troops, who had just completed the conflagration of their 
 village, fought under great disadvantages. However, none of 
 them begged for quarter, but every one sold his life at the 
 dearest rate. After a long flght, many of them fled and at- 
 tempted to swim the river, but were killed on all sides by the 
 unerring rifles of the Tennesseans. Others screened themselves 
 behind tree-tops and thick piles of timber. Being desirous not to 
 destroy this brave race, Jackson sent a messenger towards them, 
 who assured theta of the clemency of the general, provided they 
 would surrender. They answered by discharges from their guns 
 and shouts of defiance. The artillery was then ineffectually 
 brought to bear upon them. The Americans then applied fire to 
 their retreat, which soon forced them to fly, and, as they ran, 
 they were killed by American guns. It was late in the 
 evening before the dreadful battle ended. The Red 1814 
 Sticks numbered about one thousand warriors, and, out Mar. 27 
 of that number, five hundred and fifty-seven were found 
 
590 HISTOBY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 dead on the peninsula.* As many were killed in the river, by 
 Coffee's troops, while they were endeavoring to swim over, it 
 may be safely stated that not more than two hundred survived. 
 Some of them long afterwards suflEered with the most grievous 
 wounds. Manowa, one of the bravest Chiefs that ever lived, was 
 literally shot to pieces. He fought as long as he could. He 
 saved himself by jumping into the river, where the water was 
 four feet deep. He held to a root, and thus kept himself beneath 
 the waves, breathing through the long joint of a cane, one end of 
 which he held in his mouth, and while the other end came above 
 the surface of the water. When night set in the brave Manowaf 
 rose from his watery bed, and made his way to the forest, bleed- 
 ing from many wounds. Many years after the war, we con- 
 versed with this Chief, and learned from him the particulars of 
 his remarkable escape. His face, limbs and body, at the time we 
 conversed with him, were marked with the scars of many horri- 
 ble wounds. Another Chief was shot down, among a number of 
 slain warriors, and, with admirable presence of mind, saved his 
 life, by drawing over him the bodies of two of them, under which 
 he lay, till the darkness of the night permitted him to leave the 
 horrible place. 
 
 The loss of the Americans was thirty-two killed and ninety- 
 nine wounded. The friendly Cherokees had eighteen killed and 
 thirty-six wounded. The tory Creeks had five killed and eleven 
 wounded. Among the slain were Major L. P. Montgomery and 
 Lieutenants Moulton and Somerville, who fell in the charge upon 
 the breast-works. 
 
 Major Lemuel Purnell Montgomery was born in Wythe 
 county, Virginia, in 1786. He was a relation, by consangui- 
 nity, of the gallant general of that name, who fell at the 
 storming of Quebec. His grandfather, Hugh Montgomery, 
 of North Carolina, a man of fortune and talents, commanded 
 
 * Kendall, Eaton, and Waldo's Lives of Jackson. 
 
 t Known by the American settlers as " Old Manorway." 
 
BATTLE or THE HORSE-SHOE. 591 
 
 a whig company during the revolution, which he equipped 
 and supported -at his own expense. With this company he 
 fought the British and tories with great success. He was a 
 member of the convention which formed the constitution of the 
 State of North Carolina, and not long afterwards one of the coun- 
 ties of that State was named in honor of him. The father of 
 Major Montgomery, also named Hugh, was a man of talents, and, 
 having removed to Virginia, was a member of the Senate of that 
 State. At Snow Hill, in Maryland, he married a lady, whose 
 maiden name was Purnell, which was the middle name of her 
 son, the brave major, who fell at the Horse-Shoe. The father 
 removed from Virginia to East Tennessee, near Knoxville. 
 
 Major Montgomery completed his education at Washington 
 College, Tennessee, studied law with Judge Trimble, of Knox- 
 ville, and established himself in that profession at Nashville, 
 where, in four years, his attainments, eloquence, zeal, fearless 
 independence and popular bearing, rendered him a formidable 
 rival of the able Felix Grundy. During this period, he was 
 frequently placed at the head of parties of armed horsemen ; and 
 with them he scoured the dark gorges of the Cumberland mount- 
 ains in pursuit of desperate banditti, who had long pillaged the 
 people in the valleys. At length he was appointed by Madison 
 first major of the thirty-ninth regiment, which he gal- 
 lantly led to the breast-works of the Indians at the 1814 
 Horse-Shoe. He was the first man that mounted the Mar. 27 
 breast-work, and, while waving his sword and animat- 
 ing his men, a large ball, shot from the rifle of a Red Stick, 
 entered his head and instantly killed him. When the battle was 
 ended, Jackson stood over his body and wept. He exclaimed, 
 " I have lost the flower of my army ! " 
 
 At the time of his death, Major Montgomery was only 
 twenty-eight years of age. His eyes were keen and black ; his 
 hair was of a dark auburn color ; his weight was one hundred 
 and seventy -five pounds; his height was six |eetand two inches ; 
 
592 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 his form was admirably proportioned, and he was, altogether, the 
 finest looking man in the army. 
 
 A diversity of opinion prevails among the soldiers of this 
 campaign as to the disposition of the body of Major Montgomery. 
 Some contend that Jackson caused it to be sunk in the Talla- 
 poosa river to protect it from Indian brutalities. We have in 
 our possession the affidavit of two soldiers, now living in Ten- 
 nessee — John Lovelady and Samuel Gearing — which states that 
 they assisted to bury the body of Montgomery, and bore off the 
 surplus dirt which remained about the grave upon the skin of a 
 beeve and threw it into the river. They then burnt brush over 
 the grave to conceal it from the keen eyes of the savages. Since 
 then, and only a few years ago,, the people of Tallapoosa county 
 took up these remains, conveyed them to their court-house and 
 deposited them in the ground with military honors. The county 
 of Montgomery, Alabama, was named in honor of Major Mont- 
 gomery, while the memory of his 'relation, who fell at Quebec, is 
 preserved in the name of the city. 
 
 The day after the terrible battle of the Horse-Shoe, 
 1814 General Jackson assumed the line of march, and reached 
 Fort Williams on the second of April. 
 
 Upon an examination of the Coosa river, it was found im- 
 practicable to transport the stores from Fort Williams to the 
 termination of the falls, by water, and the reduced condition of 
 the horses and the roughness of the country rendered it impossi- 
 ble to transport them by land in any quantity. However, with 
 sitch provisions as the men could carry upon their backs, Jackson 
 marched towards the Hickory Ground, relying upon the 
 1814 eastern army, whose advance guard was then under 
 April 4 Milton, for supplies. „ Heavy rains retarded his march, 
 •but he reached Fooshatchie, where he captured a few 
 prisoners. The Red Sticks fled from Hoithlewaule and other 
 towns across the Tallapoosa. 
 
 Colonel Milton, with troops from the two Carolinas, had been 
 
BATTLE OF THE HORSE-SHOE. 593 
 
 a month at Fort Decatur, situated upon a commanding bluflf, on 
 theeastern side of the Tallapoosa, but took no steps toco-operate 
 with Jackson in preventing the escape of the Indians. 
 
 Prevented from pur-suing the enemy by a flood in the river 
 and the scarcity of provisions, Jackson marched to the 
 head of the peninsula formed by the confluence of the April 
 Coosa and Tallapoosa, and planted his colors upon the 
 spot where Governor Bienville, one hundred years before, had 
 erected Fort Toulouse, so long garrisoned by French troops. 
 Here the rivers approach within six hundred yards of each other, 
 and diverging unite four miles below. 
 
 The battle of the Horse-Shoe had nearly put an end to the 
 war, and the dispirited Red Sticks made but few efforts to rally. 
 Many came in and surrendered, while the larger portion escaped 
 towards Florida. The old French trenches were cleaned out, 
 and an American stockade with block-houses was erected upon 
 the site, which received the name of Fort Jackson. 
 
 Deputations of Chiefs continually arrived, and submitted, in 
 behalf of themselves and their people, to such terms as General 
 Jackson thought proper to impose.j Among the most conspicu- 
 ous of these was William Weathenord, who led the Indians at 
 Fort Mims, and at the battles of Calebee and Holy Ground. 
 Jackson had directed that he should be captured, if possible, and 
 brought to him, confined, to receive such punishment as his crimes 
 merited. Weatherford, a man without fear, boldly resolved to 
 appear at the American camp, voluntarily. , Mounting the same 
 splendid gray steed which had borne him over the bluft' at the 
 Holy Ground,* he rode within a few miles of Fort Jackson, when 
 a fine deer crossel his path and stopped within shooting dis- 
 tance, which he fired at and killed. Re-loading his rifle, with 
 two balls, for the purpose of shooting the Big Warrior, 
 should he give him any cause at the fort, he placed the 1814 
 
 * The Weatheifords always liad fine hoTBes, and old Charles, the father, was a cele- 
 brated patron of the Alabama turf. 
 
 38 
 
594 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 deer behind his saddle and advanced to the American out- 
 posts. Some soldiers, of whom he politely inquired for Jack- 
 son's whereabouts, gave him some unsatisfactory and rude replies, 
 when a gray-headed man a few steps beyond pointed him to the 
 marquee. Weatherford rode up to it, and checked his horse im- 
 mediately at the entrance, where sat the Big Warrior, who exult- 
 ing exclaimed : 
 
 " Ah ! Bill Weatherford, have we got you at last! " 
 
 The fearless Chieftain cast his keen eye at the Big Warrior, 
 and said in a determined tone : 
 
 " You d — ^^d traitor, if you give me any insolence, I will blow 
 a ball through your cowardly heart." 
 
 General Jackson now came running out of the, marquee, with 
 Colonel Hawkins, and, in a furious manner, exclaimed : 
 
 " How dare you, sir, to ride up to my tent, after having mur- 
 dered the women and children at Fort Mims?" 
 
 Weatherford said : 
 
 '' General Jackson, I am not afraid of you. I fear no man, 
 for I am a Creek warrior. I have nothing to request in behalf 
 of myself ; you can kill me, if you desire. But I come to beg you 
 to send for the women and children of the war party, who are 
 now starving in the woods. Their fields and cribs have been de- 
 stroyed by your people, who have driven them to the woods with- 
 out an ear of corn. I hope that you will send out parties, who 
 will safely conduct them here, in order that they may be fed. I 
 exerted myself in vain to prevent the massacre of the women and 
 children at Fort Mims. I am now done fighting. The Red 
 Sticks are nearly all killed. If I could fight you any longer, 1 
 would most heartily do so. Send for the women and children. 
 They never did you any harm. But kill me, if the white people 
 want it done." 
 
 At the conclusion of these words, many persons, 
 1814 who had surrounded the marquee, exclaimed, "Kill 
 April him! Kill him! Kill him!" General Jackson com- 
 manded silence, and, in an emphatic manner, said : 
 
BATTLE OF THE HORSE- SHOE. 595 
 
 t 
 
 " Any man who would kill as brave a man as this would 
 bob the dead !" 
 
 He then invited "Weatherford to alight, drank a glass of 
 brandy with him, and entered into a cheerful conversation, under 
 his hospitable marqiiee. "Weatherford gave him the 
 deer, and tbey were then good ;friends. He took no fur- 1814 
 ther part in the war, except to influence his warriors to April 
 surrender.* He went to the place of his former resi- 
 dence, upon Little river, but soon had to leave it, as his life was 
 in constant danger. 
 
 He then went to Fort Claiborne, and thecommanding ofBcer 
 of that place saved him from being killed, by placing him in 
 a tent by himself, which was pitched very near the marquee, 
 and which was constantly guarded by a file of soldiers. Af- 
 ter he had been kept there ten or fifteen days, the^ com- 
 manding officer became still more uneasy, for fear he would 
 be killed by persons who had lost relations at Fort Mims, 
 and who were bent on his destruction. He now resolved to 
 send him beyond the lines, during a dark night. About 
 midnight, he sent his aid, followed by Weatherford, to the sta- 
 tion of Major Laval, who was then a captain, and the officer 
 on guard. He said, "Captaid Laval, the commanding officer 
 says you must take Weatherford to yonder tree, under which 
 you will find a horse tied, and that he must mount the 
 horse and make his escape." Captain Laval instantly told 
 Weatherford to follow him. He passed by the guard, giving the 
 countersign, and reached the tree. Weatherford eagerly seized 
 the limb to which the horse was tied, threw the reins over the 
 animal's head, shook Laval by the- hand, and said, in earnest and 
 grateful tones, " Good-^ye ! God bless you ! " He then vaulted 
 into the saddle and rode off rapidly." That was the last time he 
 
 » Such is the account of Weatherford's interview with Jackson,, as related by the 
 Chieftain himself, to Colonel Rohert James of Clark, William Siseniore, ot Little river, 
 and m^ny other persons. The incorrect statements of Eaton, in his Life of Jackson, 
 are doubtless based entirely upon camp gossip. 
 
596 HISTORY OF ALABAMA.! 
 
 ever saw Weatherford. For the distance of one mile, at least, 
 Laval heard the clattering of the horse's feet.* 
 
 After the war was over, Weatherford became a permanent 
 citizen of the lower part of the county of Monroe, where, upon a 
 good farm, well supplied with negroes, he lived, maintained an 
 excellent character, and was much respected by the American 
 citizens for his bravery, honor and strong native sense. In 1826 
 he died from the effects of fatigue, produced by a desperate bear 
 hunt. 
 
 Many persons yet living bear testimony to the bravery and 
 honor of William Weatherford in private life, an instance of 
 which we here take occasion to mention : 
 
 In 1820, many people assembled at the sale of the effects of 
 
 the deceased Duncan Henderson, in the lower part of Monroe 
 
 county, Alabama. An old man, named Bradberry— the father 
 
 of thef gallant lieutenant, who fought at Burnt Corn, and who 
 
 was afterwards killed in another action -^was cruelly 
 
 1820 murdered upon this occasion by one C r, who 
 
 plunged a long knife into the back of his neck. The 
 
 murderer had an accomplice, one F r, who was in pursuit of 
 
 Bradberry at the same time, and who had, a few moments be^ 
 fore, broken a pitcher over his head. These men were so desper- 
 ate, and flourished their knives with such defiance, that Justice 
 Henderson in vain called upon the bystanders to seize them» 
 while the poor, unoffending old Bradberry lay weltering in his 
 blood. 
 
 Shocked at the cowardly and brutal act, and provoked at the 
 timidity of the bystanders, William Weatherford, who lived in that 
 neighborhood, now advanced towards Henderson, and said in a 
 loud voice: "These, I suppose, are white men's laws. You 
 stand aside and see a man, an old man, killed, and not one of you 
 will avenge his blood. If he had one drop of Indian blood mixed 
 with that which rans upon the ground there, I woiild instantly 
 
 * Conversations witli Major Laval, a resident of Charleston, S. C. ■ 
 
BATTLE OF THE HORSE-SHOE. 597 
 
 kill his murderers, at the risk of my life." Justice Henderson 
 implored him to take them, andj being assured that the white 
 man's law would not hurt him, but that he would be commended 
 fpr the act, Weatherford now drew forth his long, silver-handled 
 butcher-kriife and advanced towards the murderers, who stood 
 forty, paces off, threatening to kill the first man who should at- 
 tempt to arrest them. He flrsti advanced to C r, who, trem- 
 bling at his approach, let his knife drop by his side, and 
 instantly surrendered. Seizing him by the throat, he 1820 
 said to the bystanders, " Here, tie the d — d rascal." 
 
 Then, going up to F r, upon whom he flashed bis tiger eyes, 
 
 he also arrested him without the least opposition^ — F r ex- 
 claiming, " I will not resist you, Billy Weatherford." 
 
 General Picknney arriving at Fort Jackson, and 
 being the senior officer of the Southern army, assumed 1814 
 the command and approved of -all the acts of Jackson. April 20 
 Learning that the Indians were generally submitting, 
 he ordered the West Tennessee troops to m9,rch home. April 21 
 Two hours after the order was issued they were in 
 motion. Arriving at Camp Blount, near Fayetteville, Jackson 
 discharged them, after gratifying them with a feeling address. 
 He then repaired to the Hermitage, from which he had been 
 absent eighteen months, in a hostile land, and, a portion of the 
 time, almost alone. 
 
 Pinckney remained at Fort Jackson with the troops from 
 the two Carolinas and those from East Tennessee. Four hun- 
 dred of General Dougherty's brigade of East Tennesseans were 
 stationed at Fort Williams. General Johnson, at the head of five 
 hundred men, had been dispatched to the Cahawba river, who 
 proceeded to its source and joined Jackson before he reached the 
 Tennessee river. Several detachments were sent forth from Fort 
 Jackson, who scoured the country in all directions for the fugi- 
 tive Red Sticks. Colonel Hawkins performed several trips to 
 the Chattahoochie, and exerted himself to induce the wretched 
 
598 
 
 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Creeks to surrender and terminate a war which had proved so 
 disastrous to them. But the British at Pensacola were 
 July 1 endeavoring to rally them. Two vessels had anchored 
 at the mouth of the Apalachicola, and had landed five 
 thousand stand of arms and abundant ammunition, and three 
 hundred British troops had commenced a fortification, under the 
 command of a colonel. Runners were sent to all parts of the 
 nation, inviting the Indians to rush to that point for provisions 
 and military supplies, and thither many of the Red Sticks re- 
 paired. The condition of the friendly Indians, too, was at this 
 ■time most wrietched, and upwards of five thousand of them were 
 fed at the different American posts.* 
 
 * Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 857-1 
 
CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 Treaty of Foet jACKSoiir — Attack Upon Mobile Point — 
 Maech Upon Pbnsaoola. 
 
 On the resignations of Generals Hamilton and Harrison, 
 Jackson had been promoted to the rank of major-general. Leav- 
 ing the Hermitage once more, he proceeded with a small 
 escort to Fort Jackson, where he safely arrived, and 1814 
 assumed the command of the Southern army. He had July 10 
 been empowered by the Federal Government to conclude 
 a treaty of peace with the Creek nation. After much opposition 
 from the Big Warrior and other Chiefs to the surrender 
 of the territory which was demanded, a treaty was Aug. 9 
 signed. It was stipulated that a line should commence 
 upon the Coosa, at the southern boundary of the Cherokee nation, 
 and continue down that river to Wetumpka, and thence east- 
 wardly to Georgia. East and north of that line, containing up- 
 wards of one hundred and fifty thousand square miles, re- 
 mained to the Indians. West and south of it was secured to 
 the United States. This territory was obtained as an indemnifi- 
 cation for the expenses incurred by the government in prosecuting 
 the war. Before the treaty was signed the Big "Warrior ad- 
 dressed Jackson and Hawkins in a long speech, and tendered 
 them, in the name of the friendly Chiefs, a reservation of three 
 miles square of land each, « to be chosen where you like, from 
 that we are going tp give, as near as you can to us, for we want 
 you to live by us and give us your advice." To George Mayfleld' 
 and Alexander Curnells, their interpreters, they also gave one 
 mile square each. Jackson accepted of this national mark of re- 
 
 599 
 
600 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 gard for him if approved by the President, who, he said, " would 
 doubtless appropriate its value in aid of your naked women and 
 children." Colonel Hawkins said : 
 
 " I have been long among you — I have grown grey in your 
 service — I shall not much longer be your agent. You all know 
 that when applied to by red, black or white, I looked not to color, 
 but to the justice of the claim. I shall continue to be friendly 
 and useful to you while I live, and my children, born among you, 
 will be so brought up as to do the same. I accept your present, 
 and esteem it the more highly by the manner of bestowing it, as 
 it resulted from the- impulse of your own minds, and not from 
 any intimation from the general or me."* 
 
 Among other gallant officers present upon this occasion 
 was Colonel Arthur P. Hayne, who, after the peace, resided 
 in Autauga county, Alabama, and was there much esteemed 
 and respected. He Vas born in Charleston, South Carolina, 
 on the 12th March, 1790, and descended from a family distin- 
 guished in the Revolution. Although not of age when the attack 
 was made by the British upon the Chesapeake, he entered Colonel 
 Wade Hampton's regiment of light dragoons as a first lieuten- 
 ant. In 1809 he was stationed upon the Mississippi with Scott 
 and Gaines, who then held the same rank with himself. When 
 war was declared against England, Hayne was ordered to the 
 North, and he presently participated in the battle of Sackett's 
 Harbor, in which he displayed so much gallantry and judgment 
 that he was immediately promoted to the command of a squadron 
 of cavalry, with the rank of major. He was with Wilkinson in 
 1813 on the St. Lawrence. General Hampton, who wanted 
 Hayne to join his wing of the army, in one of his letters to the 
 Secretary of War, employed this complimentary language: 
 " Send me Hayne ; I want his constitutional ardor— it will add 
 much to the strength of my army." After Major Hayne had 
 been in several severe engagements at the North, he received the 
 
 'Indian Affairs, vol. 1. 
 
TEBATT OP FORT JACKSON, ETC. 601 
 
 important appointment of inspector-general ; and being ordered 
 to join Jackson in the Creek nation, we find him at the marquee 
 of that of&cer when the. treaty was made. Colonel Hayne, during 
 the battle ot New Orleans, was constantly in his saddle, execut- 
 ing the many hazardous trusts confided to him by Jackson with 
 promptness, bravery and ability. In later years, the duties of 
 important offices abroad, emanating -from the Federal Govern- 
 ment,, have been confided to him. He is now a resident of 
 Charleston. 
 
 In the meantime, General Jackson had been vigilant as to 
 tbe movements of the British and their Indian allies upon the 
 coast of the Floridas. He constantly despatched spies to Pensa- 
 cola and other points, who returned and confirmed the previous 
 reports which had reached him. Provoked at the treachery 
 of the Spaniards, he addressed a letter to Manriquez, Gov- 
 pernor of Pensacola, remonstrating against the attitude of the 
 Spanish authorities towards the United States, a power with 
 which Spain professed to be at peace. Manriquez, in his reply, 
 denied that the fugitive Red Sticks were then with him, and that 
 if they were he could not surrender them, upon the ground of 
 hospitality, nor refuse them assistance at a moment when their 
 distresses were so great ; and, in admitting that the English had 
 and still used the posts of Florida, he justified it on account of- a 
 treaty which existed between Great Britain and the Indians pre- 
 vious to the conquest of the Floridas by- Spain. Jackson replied 
 in strong terms to this letter, despatching Captain Gordon with 
 the document, who was instructed to gain additional information 
 of the designs of the enemy. 
 
 Having arranged all things at the fort, which bore his name, 
 Jackson, in company with Colonel Hayne, departed down the Ala- 
 bama, in boats, with a portion of his troops, and arriving at Mo- 
 bile, made that place his headquarters. He had been ad- 
 monished that it was the design of the English soon to 1814 
 attack the city. He addressed a letter to Colonel But- Aug. 11 
 
602 HISTOET OF ALABAMa.. 
 
 ler, which reached that officer, at Nashville, on the 9th of Sep- 
 tember, urging him to hasten the advance of the volunteers 
 to protect that point and New Orleans. Soon General Coffee 
 was on the march from Tennessee, at the head of two 
 thousand men, while Colonel Butler hastened to press for- 
 ward the militia under Colonel Lowery, which had been, here- 
 tofore, required for garrisoning posts in the Indian country. Cap- 
 tains Baker and Butler also commenced the march from Nash- 
 ville to Mobile, with the regular forces lately enlisted. 
 
 Colonel Nichol, an Irishman by birth, now a British officer, 
 arrived at Pensacola with a small squadron of his majesty's 
 ships, immediately manned the Forts Barancas and St. Michael, 
 and hoisted the British flag upon their ramparts. Making the 
 house of Governor Manriquez his headquarters, Nichol 
 1814 sought to draw around his standard the malcontents and 
 Aug. 29 traitors of the country, by issuing a proclamation, stat- 
 ing that he had come with a force sufficient to relieve 
 them from the chains which the Federal Government was en- 
 deavoring to rivet upon them. This presumptuous appeal was 
 even extended to the patriotic people of Kentucky and Louis- 
 iana. At the same time, in conjunction with Captain Woodbine, 
 he employed himself in collecting: and clothing, in British uni- 
 form, the Red Sticks and Seminoles, whom he publicly drilled in 
 the streets of Pensacola. To these, and all the Red Sticks, he 
 promised a bounty of ten dollars for every scalp, whether of 
 men, women or children. 
 
 Fort Bowyer, at Mobile Point, had been dismantled by the 
 orders of General Flournoy, who deemed it incapable of defence. 
 Jackson, soon after arriving at Mobile, sailed to the Point, and 
 after an inspection of this defence, resolved to garrison it. Send- 
 ing from Mobile the artillery which was taken from it, and one 
 hundred and thirty men, including officers. Major Law- 
 1814 rence, the commander, immediately prepared to resist 
 Sept. 12 the attacks of the enemy, should he make his appear- 
 ance. At length a sentinel, stationed towards Lake 
 
TREATY OF PORT JACKSON, ETC. 603 
 
 Borgne, discovered six hundred Indians and one hundred and 
 thirty British marines. In the evening, two English sloops of 
 war, with two brigs, came to anchor on the coast, with- 
 in six miles east from the fort. The next day, at twelve Sept. 13 
 o'clock, the land force approaching within seven hun- 
 dred yards, threw three shells and one cannon ball. The shells 
 exploded in the air, but the ball carried away a timber of the 
 rampart. The Americans, returning a few shots, forced the as- 
 sailants to retire behind the sand hills, a mile and a half distant, 
 where they began to raise intrenchments, but a few more dis- 
 charges from the fort dispersed them. Some small boats were 
 sent out from the ships to sound the channel, but the discharge 
 from the battery drove them off. The ships now stood 
 out to sea, but about two o'clock they bore down upon Sept. 15 
 the fort in order of battle, th« Hermes, on board of 
 which was Commodore Percy, being in the advance. The Ameri- 
 cans opened a Are upon her at four o'clock, but she came to an- 
 chor within musket shot — the other three taking their position 
 behind her. The engagement became general, the ships dis- 
 charging whole broadsides, while the American circular battery 
 was destructive in its operations. Captain Woodbine opened a 
 battery with a land force, from behind a sand bluff on the south- 
 eastern shore, seven hundred yards distant, but the south battery 
 of the Americans soon dispersed them. A furious cannonade of 
 an hour filled the air with so much smoke, that Major Lawrence 
 ceased for a moment, to ascertain the Intentions of the English, 
 seeing that the halyard of the commodore's flag had been carried 
 away. The commodore raised a new flag, and, at that moment, 
 all the guns of the American battery were discharged, sensibly 
 shaking the earth around. After a short silence, the English 
 renewed the action. The cable of the Hermes was cut and she 
 was carried away by the current, keeping her head to the fort, 
 which enabled Lawrence, for twenty minutes, to rake her, fore 
 and aft. 
 
604 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 In the hottest of the engagement, Lawrence seized a sponge 
 stafE and hoisted upon the edge of the parapet another 
 1814 flag to supply the place of the one which had been car- 
 Sept. 15 ried away. The land force, under Woodbine, seeing 
 the fall of the flag, rushed in triumph towards the fort ; 
 ' but some discharges of grape again dispersed them. The Hermes 
 drifted a half mile, ran aground and was set on flre. The brig 
 was so disabled that she could scarce retire to join the other two 
 vessels, which now all put to sea. At eleven o'clock at night the 
 explosion of the magazine blew up the Hermes.* s 
 
 The attack upon Mobile Point was a confirmation of the 
 previous conjecture of General Jackson, and he determined to 
 throw a force into Pensacola sufficient to expel the enemy, who 
 had sailed to. that place after their defeat at Fort Bowyer. He 
 despatched Colonel Hayne to Foi't Montgomery, which was then 
 in command of Colonel Thomas H. Benton, under whose super- 
 intendence it was erected, for the purpose of organizing the 
 troops in that quarter. Colonel Hayne discharged this duty with 
 his usual promptness and decision. About this time. General 
 Coffee had encamped on the western side of the Tom- 
 1814 bigby, opposite the Cut-Off, with two thousand eight 
 Oct. 26 hundred men. Jackson reached his, camp, and strained 
 every nerve to afford supplies fpr the army, effecting 
 loans upon his own credit and responsibility. The army crossed 
 the Tombigby, and proceeded across Nannahubba Island to Mims' 
 Ferry. One thousand volunteers, hitherto mounted, left their 
 horses in the care of keepers, to feed on the cane, and now cheer- 
 fully marched on foot. Reaching Fort Montgomery, 
 Nov. 4 the army reposed a short time, and again took up the 
 line of march for Pensacola. It consisted, of the third, 
 thirty-ninth and. forty -fourth regiments of infantry, the militia 
 
 * Britisliloss— 162 killed, 70 wounded; American loss— 4 killed, 4 wounded. Latour's 
 War in West Florida and Louisiana, pp. 32-42. Russell's History of the War, p. 279, 
 Williams' Florida, p. 200. Eaton's Life of Jackson, pp. 236-237. 
 
TREATY OF FOET JACKSON, ETC. 605 
 
 of Tennessee, a battalion of volunteer dragoons of the 
 Mississippi Territory and some friendly Indians. En- Nov. 6 
 camping within one mile and a half of Pensacola, Jack- 
 son sent a detachment of cavalry, under Lieutenant Murray, of 
 the Mississippi dragoons, to reconnoitre. They captured a 
 Spanish picket-guard, but could perceive nothing. Lieutenant 
 Murray was, unfortunately,- killed by an Indian, while in a path 
 somewhat separated from his command. > 
 
 Major Pierre was despatched from headquarters to the gov- 
 ernor with a summons, preparatory to an attack upon the town, 
 but was fired upon when he had arrived within three hun- 
 dred yards of Fort St. Michael, although he held a white flag in 
 his hand. Impelled by a feeling of humanity towa'rds the op- 
 pressed Spaniards, whose fortifications were held by the English, 
 Jackson sent a letter by a prisoner to the Governor, demanding 
 an explanation for the insult offered to his flag. Through an 
 officer, his excellency disclaimed any participation in the trans- 
 action, and gave a pledge that American officers should, in future 
 be treated with respect. Major Pierre being again sent at mid- 
 night, was unsuccessful in his negotiation with the Governor to 
 allow Jackson to occupy Forts Barancas and St. Michael, until 
 Spanish troops should arrive in sufficient numbers to protect the 
 Floridas from British outrages upon the neutrality of the nation. 
 Major Pierre then left the Governor, with the assurance that 
 recourse would be had to arms. . 
 
 Zachariah McGirth, wbb has been mentioned in reference to 
 Fort Mims and the battle of Calebee, was sent by Jack- 
 son into Pensacola, to ascertain the number and position 1814^ 
 of the enemy. About midnight he returned, and re- Nov. 6 
 ported that a body of Indians, British and Spaniards, 
 whom he- estimated at over five thousand, occupied the heart of 
 the town, and that some distance in advance Of them, in the 
 direction of the American camp, another party had erected a bat- 
 tery across the street. Knowing that this battery commanded 
 
606 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 the only avenue by which he could reach the enemy, without 
 passing under the guns of Fort St. Michael, Jackson determined to 
 remove it. He sent for Captain Laval, of the third regiment, and 
 informed him that he had selected him as the man to " lead the 
 forlorn hope." He ordered him to pick one hundred and twenty 
 men, for the purpose of storming the battery. Laval commanded 
 a company composing that number, and, although he had the 
 option of selecting men from other companies, he first appealed 
 to his own men, and stated to them the dangerous duty which 
 had been assigned to him. They all responded by say- 
 1814 ing, "Wherever you go. Captain Laval, we follow." 
 Nov. 7 About eight o'clock in the morning Laval began his 
 march. Captain Denkins, who was ordered to support 
 him with two pieces of artillery, if it should become necessary, 
 marched some distance in the rear. Colonel Hayne, so' anxious 
 for the success of Laval, who was his warm friend, rode in the 
 rear of the company. When Laval came near the battery Den- 
 kins and his artillery were far behind, in consequence of the rapid 
 march of the former and the heavy sand, which retarded the 
 pieces of the latter. The enemy opened their canqon upon the 
 " forlorn hope," while numerous assailants annoyed them by cross 
 fires from the houses and gardens. The brave Laval, at the head 
 of his company, however, marched steadily on. Colonel Hayne 
 now dismounted and rushed upon the enemy on foot. Finally 
 Laval reached the battery, and at that moment a large grape shot 
 tore his leg to pieces, and he instantly fell to the ground. The 
 troops rushed over the battery and secured the pieces of the 
 enemy, all of whom presently fied, except the commanding offi- 
 cer, who bravely maintained his position and was taken a pris- 
 oner. 
 
 Captain William Laval, now Major Laval, was born on the 
 27th May, 1788, in Charleston, South Carolina. His father, 
 who had been an officer in France, came to America with the 
 French army, in the legion of the Duke of Lauzun, to assist us 
 
TREATY OF FOKT JACKSON, ETC. 607 
 
 in the struggle for our liberties. He was a cavalry officer, and 
 participated in several of the American battles in Virginia, Dela- 
 ware and New Jersey, and after peace was declared was, for 
 many years, a Sheriff of the Charleston district. The son en- 
 tered the American army in October, 1808, as an ensign. He 
 was stationed at Forts Moultrie and Johnson, and at a recruiting 
 encampment upon the Catawba. In 1812, he was appointed a 
 first lieutenant. In January, 1813, he advanced with his com- 
 pany, commanded by Captain Moore, from Fort Hawkins across 
 the Creek nation to Mobile and from thence to New Orleans. 
 Very soon after, when the Creek war broke out, he was promoted 
 to the post of captain, and marched with the third regiment, to 
 which his company belonged, to Fort Claiborne, and from thence 
 to the Holy Ground, in the battle of which he participated. From 
 the wound which he received upon the occasion of the siege of 
 Pensacola, he was a severe sufferer for two years ; but, although 
 it has rendered him a cripple for life, he is now in fine health, 
 and moves upon his crutches with ease and animation. Since 
 the war, he has held various respectable offices, conferred by a 
 people grateful for his military services. He has been a Secre- 
 tary of State of South Carolma, its Comptroller-General, a Sheriff 
 of Charleston, an officer in the custom-house. Assistant Treasurer 
 of the United States under Mr. Polk, and is now the Treasurer 
 of the State of South Carolina. Major Laval is near six feet 
 high, very erect in person, and presents a very striking and mili- 
 tary appearance. 
 
 In the capture of the Spanish battery, seven Amer- 
 icans were killed and eleven wounded, among whom, 1814 
 besides Laval, was Lieutenant Flournoy. Four Span- Nov. 7 
 iards were killed, six wounded and several captured. 
 
 After the storming of this battery, three thousand Ameri- 
 cans, in three columns, advanced and pi:oceeded along the beach, 
 eastward of the town, to avoid the fire from St. Michael. A flag 
 of truce from Governor Manriquez produced a cessation of hos- 
 
608 HISTORY OI" ALABAMA. 
 
 tilities. The former terms of Jackson were now agreed to ; but 
 the commandant of St. Michael refused to obey the governor. 
 Jackson now, leaving Major Pierre, with eight hundred men, 
 with orders to possess the fort before night, retired to his camp 
 with the remainder of his troops, the British attempting to inter- 
 cept his march by the flre of long guns from the shipping. 
 
 It was important that the Americans should possess the fort 
 before morning, for the British vessels, provided with spring 
 cables^ were, at any moment, ready to fire the town, or effect 
 a landing. Indeed, by the aid of their boats, they had con- 
 tinued to flre upon our troops, as they passed along the princi- 
 pal streets ; but Lieutenant Call, with a single piece of artillery, 
 suddenly appeared upon the beach, and dispersed them. Five 
 hundred men were now placed upon the beach, to oppose 
 the landing of the British, while Captain Denkins, with two 
 companies and three pieces of cannon, occupied Mount St. 
 Bernard, which commanded Fort St. Michael. At six o'clock 
 p. m.. Colonel Sotto, after having sent a verbal message that 
 lie would surrender, refused to receive Captain Denkins and 
 his command, which had been ordered to possess the fort, upon 
 the pretence that they could not evacuate before morning. When 
 
 Denkins was about to commence an attack, Sotto,'aware 
 
 1814 of the consequences, surrendered, and at eleven o'clock 
 
 Nov. 7 at night the Americans took possession. On the same 
 
 afternoon the battery of St. Rose, opposite Fort Baran- 
 cas, was blown up by the Spaniards. 
 
 The next morning the Governor refused to give an order for 
 the surrender of Fort Barancas, and Jackson resolved to take it ; 
 but, while preparations were making to march down against it, 
 
 it was blown up by order of the commandant. The 
 Nov 8. British shipping, by this act, were enabled to pass by 
 
 the ruins of Fort Barancas and put to sea. Had Jack- 
 son possessed it in time, they would have been cut off from re- 
 treat. 
 
TKBATY OP FOET JACKSON, ETC. 609 
 
 Having effected the expulsion of the British from Pensacola, 
 captured one of the forts, while the others were destroyed by the 
 enemy themselves, and forced the Red Sticks to retreat to the 
 forests in a perishing condition, and, being aware that 
 his army could only be supported by tedious land trans- Nov. 9 
 portation, thq,t winter was setting in, and that the de- 
 fence of New Orleans demanded his services. General Jackson 
 took up the line of march for Port Montgomery, where he ar- 
 rived without accident. 
 
 Placing a considerable portion of his army under Major 
 Uriah Blue, of the thirty-ninth regiment, the commander-in- 
 chief visited Mobile, and then departed for New Orleans. 
 
 Major Blue, at a period between the attack upon Pensacola 
 and the battle of New Orleans, scoured the swamps of the Es- 
 cambia and all the bays in West Florida with a large force of 
 mounted men, consisting of Americans, Choctaws, Chickasaws 
 and friendly Creeks. He killed many of the refugee Creeks, who 
 fought him in their dense retreats, and captured a large numbei-, 
 besides women and children, whom he constantly sent to Port 
 Montgomery, guarded by strong detachments. We regret ex- 
 ceedingly that want of space forces us to omit a detailed account 
 of this fatiguing and perilous expedition, taken from the lips of 
 an intelligent surgeon. In some other work we hope to be able 
 to record the brilliant achievements and valuable services per 
 formed on this occasion by Major Blue. We would remark, how- 
 ever, that he was the oflftcer who brought the Creek war of 1813 
 and 1814 to a final termination. No official accountpf thismarch 
 has fallen into our hands, and we believe none exists. • 
 
 In drawing our account of the Creek war to a close, we 
 cannot refrain from indulging in some reflections upon the 
 bravery, endurance, self-sacrifice and patriotism of the Red 
 Sticks. Let us, for a moment, recapitulate their achieve- 
 ments, never yet rivalled in savage life. They defeated the 
 Americans at Burnt. Corn, and compelled them to make a pre- 
 
 89 
 
610 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 cipitate retreat. They reduced Fort Mims, . after a fight of 
 five hours, and exterminated its numerous inmates. They en- 
 countered the large force under Coft'ee, at Tallasehatche, and 
 fought till not one warrior was left, disdaining to beg for quar- 
 ter. They opposed Jackson at Talladega, and, although sur- 
 rounded by his army, poured out their fire, and fled not until the 
 ground was almost covered with their dead. They met Floyd at 
 Auttose, and fought him obstinately, and then again rallied and 
 attacked him, a few hours after the battle, when he was leading 
 his army over Heydon's Hill. Against the well-trained army of 
 Claiborne they fought at the Holy Ground, with the fury of 
 tigers, and then made good their retreat across the Alabama. At 
 Emuckfau, three times did they charge upon Jackson, and when 
 he retreated towards the Coosa they sprang upon him, while 
 crossing the creek at Enitachopco, with the courage and im- 
 petuosity of lions. Two days afterwards, a party under Weath- 
 erford rushed upon the unsuspecting Georgians at Calebee, threw 
 the army into dismay and confusion, and stood their ground in a 
 severe struggle, until, the superior force of Floyd forced them to 
 fly, at daylight. Sixty days after this, Jackson surrounded them 
 at the Horse-Shoe, and, after a sanguinary contest of three hours, 
 nearly exterminated them, while not one of them begged for 
 quarter. At length, wounded, starved and beaten, hundreds fled 
 to the swamps of Florida ; others went to JPensacola, and, rally- 
 ing under Colonel Niehol, attacked Fort Bowyer. Fierce scout- 
 ing parties, during the whole war; had operated against them, 
 from point to point, and they were not finally overcome until 
 Major Blue made the expedition just related. 
 
 Thus were the brave Creeks opposed by the combined 
 armies of Georgia, Tennessee and the Mississippi Territory, to- 
 gether with the federal forces from other States, besides numer- 
 ous bands of bloody Choctaws and Chickasaws. Fresh volun- 
 teers and militia, from month to month, were brought against 
 them, ^hile no one came to their assistance, save a few English 
 
TKEATY OF FORT JACKSON, ETC. 611 
 
 officers, who led them to undertake enterprises beyond their 
 ability to accomplish. And how long did they contend against 
 the powerful forces allied against them ? From the 27th of July, 
 1813, to the last of December, 1814. In every engagement with 
 the Americans, the force of the Creeks was greatly inferior in 
 number, except at Burnt Corn and Fort Mims. 
 
 Brave natives of Alabama! to defend that soil where the 
 Great Spirit gave you birth, you sacrificed your peaceful savage 
 pursuits ! You fought the invaders until more than half your 
 warriors were slain ! The remnant of your warlike race yet live 
 in the distant Arkansas. You have been forced to quit one of 
 the finest regions upon earth, which is now occupied by Ameri- 
 cans. iWill THEY, in some dark hour, when Alabama is invaded, 
 defend this soil as bravely and as enduringly as you have done? 
 Posterity may be able to reply. 
 
CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 The British Take Mobile Point — Peace Declared — The 
 Alabama Terkitobt. 
 
 The victory of the Anaericans at New Orleans forced the 
 
 British to abandon the banks of the Mississippi and hover about 
 
 Mobile Point. Twenty-flve of their vessels anchored in 
 
 1815 a semi-circular position five miles from Fort Bowyer. 
 
 Jan. 8 Thirteen ships of the line anchored two miles in the rear 
 
 of it. Five.thousand men landed and encamped. After 
 
 several days of the most active preparations for the reduction of 
 
 this little American defence, still under the command of the brave 
 
 Major Lawrence, the latter assembled a council of his 
 
 Feb. 12 officers, who decided that it was impossible to contend 
 
 with a powerful force, both by sea and land. The next 
 
 day, according to previous negotiations, three hundred and sixty 
 
 Americans, including officers, marched out of Fort Bowyer, with 
 
 colors flying and drums beating, and took up quarters on board 
 
 of three British ships of the line, as prisoners of war.* 
 
 The treaty of peace between England and the United States, 
 concluded at Ghent, did not reach General Jackson at 
 1814 New Orleans until the 13th March. A few days after 
 Dec. 24 this the latter informed Admiral Cochrane, of the Brit- 
 ish navy, of the joyous intelligence. But the latter, 
 whose fleet still lay about Mobile Point, did not leave our shores 
 immediately, in consequence of the exchange of prisoners con- 
 stantly going on. Besides this, the great mortality from the 
 wounds and disease which prevailed throughout his shipping, 
 
 * Latour'8 Late War in West Florida and Louisiana, pp. 207-:!16. 
 
 612 
 
PEACE DECLARED THE ALABAMA TBEEITORT. 613 
 
 still further retarded his departure. Hundreds of British sol- 
 diers were entombed in. the white sands of Mobile Point and 
 Dauphin Island. At length, the first of April witnessed the de- 
 parture of our enemies and the happiness of our people, now once 
 more left to repose. 
 
 At this period a large tract of country was still in possession 
 of the Chickasaws, south and west of Madison county, but the 
 American population began to form settlements upon it. Hun- 
 dreds went lower down, upon the Tombigby, and others 
 upon its head waters. Governor Holmes extended, by 1815 
 proclamation, the jurisdiction of the Mississippi Terri- June 9 
 tory over the country of the Black Warrior and Tom- 
 bigby, now acquired from the Chickasaws by treaty, and gave 
 the whole the name of Monroe county. 
 
 Madison, north of the Tennessee, at this time less than thir- 
 teen miles square, had, within six years, obtained a population 
 of more than ten thousand souls, many of whom were wealthy 
 and intelligent planters from the Southern Atlantic States. 
 Gabriel Moore, Hugh McVay and William Winston were elected 
 to the Territorial Legislature from this county in June. 
 Fifteen hundred and seventy votes were cast in Madison at the 
 election for a delegate to Congress, while the aggregate vote of 
 the counties of Jeflferson, Claiborne and Adams, was 
 only fourteen hundred and twenty. The Washington 1815 
 district, upon the Tombigby, sent only two members to June 
 the Territorial Legislature. 
 
 The lands acquired by the treaty of Fort Jackson began to 
 be only partially settled^as much of them was still in the oc- 
 cupancy of the C] eeks, who had not removed, and, owing to the 
 intrigues of British emissaries, still in Florida, the boundary 
 lines had not been established. Indeed, even before the 16th Oc- 
 tober, the Creeks had again commenced hostilities upon the 
 frontiers of Georgia, and had broken up the military canton- 
 ments on the line from Fort Jackson to Fort Mitchell. 
 
614 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Dec. 12 Again, settlements were still further retarded by the 
 proclamation of the President, forbidding the settle- 
 ment of this territory until it was surveyed. 
 To facilitate the advance of population north and west of the 
 Creek nation, and to prevent encroachments upon the Choctaws, 
 Chickasaws and Cherokees, commissioners of the United States 
 obtained, by treaties, in the autumn of 1816, all the territory 
 from the head waters of the Coosa westward to Cotton Gin 
 Port, and to a line running from thence to the mouth of Caney 
 Creek, on the Tennessee. After this, the Americans pressed 
 forward, and, before the close of 1816, tlae population of the 
 Mississippi Territory was more than seventy-five thousand, in- 
 cluding slaves. Forty-six thousand of this population was dis- 
 tributed in the counties west of Pearl river, the remainder in 
 the Tennessee valley, and upon the Tombigby and the Mobile. 
 On the 1st March, Congress declared that the Mississippi 
 Territory should be divided, by a line commencing at 
 1817 the mouth of Bear Creek, on the Tennessee, thence to 
 the northwest corner of Washington county, and thence 
 south, with the western limit of that county, to the sea. A con- 
 vention, also upon the authority of Congress, composed of forty- 
 four delegates, assembled at the town of Washington, near 
 Natchez, and adopted the constitution of the State of 
 Aug.l5 Mississippi. None of the counties now lying in Ala- 
 bama were represented in this convention. On the 10th 
 December, the acts of the convention were ratified by Congress, 
 and Mississippi became a member of the Federal Union. 
 
 The territory east of the new State Of Mississippi, Congress 
 erected into a territorial government, giving it the name of Ala- 
 bama, from the great river which drained its centre. Upon the 
 first organization of this new government, seven counties only — 
 Mobile, Baldwin, Washington, Clarke, Madison, Limestone and 
 Lauderdale — were formed within our limits, and they enjoyed 
 the legislative and judicial powers which they possessed before 
 
PEACE DECLARED THE ALABAMA TERRITORY. 615 
 
 the division, and the officers retained their places. The seat of 
 government was temporarily fixed at St. Stephens. 
 
 William Wyatt Bibb was appointed Governor of the Ala- 
 bama Territory. He was born in Amelia county, Virginia, 
 October 2, 1781. His father, William Bibb, had held the 
 commission of captain in the revolutionary war, and was 
 afterwards a respectable member of the legislature of Virginia. 
 His mother, whose maiden name was Wyatt, a native of New 
 Kent county, of the same State, was a lady of superior intellect, 
 and was favorably known to the early settlers of Alabama. The 
 family removed to Georgia at an early period, and settled in 
 Elbert county, upon the Savannah. Captain Bibb died in 1796, 
 leaving to his wife the care and responsibility of eight children, 
 all of whom she lived to see in affluent and respectable positions 
 in life, William, the subject of this notice, graduated at the 
 College of William and Mary, returned to Georgia and established 
 himself as a physician in the town of Petersburg. Shortly after- 
 wards, he was elected to the legislature, where, for several 
 sessions, he evinced considerable talents and usefulness. When 
 scarcely twenty -five years of age, he took a seat in Congress, at 
 the commencement of the session of 1806, where he was an active 
 and efficient member. From the Senate of the United States to 
 which he afterwards succeeded, he was transferred by President 
 Monroe to the government of Alabama. 
 
 The first Territorial Legislature convened at St. Stephens 
 the 19th January, 1818. James Titus was the only member of 
 the Executive Council or Senate. He sat alone, and decided upon 
 the acts of the lower house, and adjourned and met again with a 
 show of formality quite ludicrous. Gabriel Moore, of Madisoii 
 county, was the speaker of the house, which was composed of 
 about thirteen members. Governor Bibb, on the 20th, presented 
 his message, in which he recommended the advancement of edu- 
 cation, the establishment of roads, bridges and ferries, the altera- 
 tion in the boundaries of counties, and the formation of new ones, 
 
616 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 and many other things, calculated to promote the welfare of the 
 
 Territory. He brought to the serious attention of the assembly 
 
 the petition from . the Mississippi convention, recently addressed 
 
 to Congress, praying that body to enlarge the limits of 
 
 1818 Mississippi, by restricting those of the Alabama Terri- 
 
 Jan. tory to the Tombigby river. He opposed the project, 
 
 and contended that the present line of partition had been 
 
 deliberately fixed by the competent authorities and voluntarily 
 
 accepted by the people of that State. 
 
 Thomas Easton was elected Territorial printer. George 
 Philips. Joseph Howard, Mathew Wilson, Joseph P. Kennedy, 
 John Gayle and Keuben Saffold were selected as nominees, from 
 whose number the President of the United States should select 
 three members for the next legislative council. 
 
 The counties of Cotaco, Lawrence, Franklin, Limestone; 
 Lauderdale, Blount, TuscaIoosa> Marengo, Shelby, Cahawba, 
 Dallas, Marion and Conecuh were established. In each, the 
 superior courts of law and equity, and two county courts, and 
 one intermediate court, were to be holden annually. They were 
 allowed one representative each in the legislature. 
 
 The boundaries of Washington, Baldwin, Mobile and Ma- 
 rengo were altered and extended. Madison, the shape of which 
 was formerly that of a triangle, was now made to assume its 
 present form. The St. Stephens Academy was incorporated, and 
 its trustees authorized to raise four thousand dollars by a lottery. 
 " The St. Stephens Steamboat Company " was also incorporated. 
 Hudson Powell, Robert Gaston, Joseph H. Iloward, Howell Rose 
 and George Dabney were appointed commissioners to select a 
 temporary place at which to hold the courts of Montgomery 
 county, then of vast extent. 
 
 The legislature repealed the laws upon usury, and allowed 
 
 any interest agreed upon between the parties, and ex- 
 
 1818 pressed in writing, to be legal. The compensation of 
 
 Feb. the members was fixed by themselves, upon a more 
 
PEACE DECLARED THE ALABAMA TEBEITOEY. 617 
 
 liberal scale than at present. The speaker and president were 
 allowed seven and the members five dollars per diem, besides 
 mileage. 
 
 Clement C. Clay, Samuel Taylor, Samuel Dale, James Titus 
 and William L. Adams were elected commissioners to report to 
 the next session the most central and eligible site for the Terri- 
 torial legislature. 
 
 Madison, Limestone, Lauderdale, Franklin, Lawrence and 
 Catoco counties were erected into the '' northern judicial district." 
 Governor Bibb, on the 14th February, appointed Henry Minor 
 attorney-general of this district. 
 
 Clarke, Washington, Monroe, Conecuh, Baldwin and Mobile 
 counties composed the "southern judicial district," and Mathew 
 D. Wilson was appointed the attorney-general thereof. 
 
 Marion, Blount, Shelby, Montgomery, Cahawba, Marengo, 
 Dallas and Tuscaloosa counties, composed the " middle judicial 
 district," and Joseph Noble was appointed its attorney-general. 
 
 Before the division of the Mississippi Territory, and while 
 the legislature sat at Washington, in Adams county, a stock 
 bank had been established at Hunfsville. A resolution adopted 
 at the session of St. Stephens changed its name to that of "Plant- 
 ers' and Merchants' Bank of Huntsville." The Tombigby stock 
 bank was also now established, with a capital of five hundred 
 thousand dollars. Such were the only important acts of the first 
 session of the legislature of the Alabama Territory.* 
 
 But Indian disturbances, as we have said, had commenced. 
 Although the British, army had sailed for Europe, yet there were 
 still subjects of that nation in the Floridas, who originated the 
 " Seminole war " ; among the most active of whom were Captain 
 Woodbine, Colonel Nichol, Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert C. 
 Ambrister. They had adopted the opinion of Lord (Jastlereagh, 
 that the 9th article of the treaty of Ghent entitled the Creeks to a 
 restoration of the lands which they had been compelled to relin- 
 
 * state Archives. 
 
618 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 quish at Fort Jackson. Woodbine, entering upon the task of en- 
 forcing this ill-founded claim, had conducted to Florida a colony 
 of negro slaves, which had been stolen by the British during the 
 war from the Southern planters. He had ascended the Apalachi- 
 cola, and had erected a strong fort, which was well supplied with 
 artillery and stores. From this point he had presumptu- 
 
 1815 ously addressed Hawkins a letter, demanding the restora- 
 Apr.28 tion of the ceded lands, and representing himself as 
 
 commanding his majesty's forces in Florida. Hostili- 
 ties had already commenced upon the frontiers, and even the 
 Big Warrior had declared that he had been deceived as 
 to the extent of the lands which had been forced from him. Col- 
 onel Clinch, of Georgia, with detachments under Major Muhlen- 
 
 burg and Captain Zachaet Tayloe, had invested and 
 
 1816 completely destroyed Woodbine's negro fort, killing 
 Aug. 26 many of the inmates and burning a vast amount of mil- 
 itary property. Notwithstanding these diflBculties, 
 
 emigrants continued boldly to push through the Creek nation, 
 and to occupy portions of the Alabama Territory. A small 
 colony had established themselves in the present Butler county. 
 Among them was Captain William Butler, a native of Virginia, 
 who had been a member of the Georgia Legislature, and the com- 
 mander of a company of volunteers at the battle of Calebee; 
 Captain James Saffold, a lawyer, who had commanded a company 
 of artillery, under Major Mcintosh, while stationed at Fort De- 
 catur, besides William P. Gardner, Daniel Shaw, James D. K. 
 Garrett, Britain M. Pearman, and others, all of whom 
 1818 came recently from Georgia. Most of these worthy 
 March settlers pitched their camps upon the ridge near the res- 
 idence of the late Chancellor Crenshaw. Two years 
 previous to this, however, a few emigrants had settled on the 
 Federal Road, near where Fort Dale was afterwards erected, in 
 the present county of Butler, among whom were William Ogle, 
 his wife and five children, with J. Dickerson. Another settle- 
 
PEACE DECLAEED THE ALABAMA TEKKITOEY. 619 
 
 ment had been formed in the « Flat," on the western border of 
 that county. 
 
 Sam McNac, who still lived near the Pinohoma, on the Fed- 
 era,l Road, informed these emigrants that hostile Indians were 
 prowling in that region, who meditated mischief. A temporary 
 block-house was immediately erected at — — Gary's, and those 
 in the " Flat " began the construction of a fort, afterwards called 
 Fort Bibb, enclosing the house of Captain Salfold, who had re- 
 moved from the ridge to that place. On the 6th March, William 
 Ogle drove his ox-cart in the direction of Fort Claiborne for pro- 
 visions, and he had not proceeded far before a Chief, named 
 Uchee Tom, and seventeen warriors,' seized the rope with which 
 he was driving, and gave other evidences of violence, but finally 
 suffered him to proceed. Feeling much solicitude on account 
 of his family, and purchasing corn at Sepulga Creek, he returned 
 home, where the Indians had been in the meantime, and 
 had manifested a turbulent disposition. On the 13th of 1818 
 March Ogle attended a company muster, and from March 
 thence there went home with him in the evening an bid 
 acquaintance, named Eli Stroud, with his wife and child. Meeting 
 in a savage laiid, under sad apprehensions, these friends,' having 
 put their children to sleep, sat by the fireside of the cabin and coh- 
 tinued to converse in undertones, ever and anon casting their eyes 
 through the cracks to discover if Indians were approaching. Pres- 
 sently, by the dim light of the moon, Ogle saw a Band of Eed 
 Sticks, who stealthily but rapidly approached the house. Spring- 
 ing from his seat he seized his gun, ran to the door, and set oiihis 
 fierce dogs ; but he was soon shot dead, falling Upon the threshold 
 which he was attempting to defend. Stroud and his wife sprang 
 over bis body into the yard, leaving their infant sleeping upon the 
 hearth and ran off, ptirsued by a part of the savages. Paralyzed with 
 fear, Mrs. Ogle at first stood in the fioor, but recovering herself, 
 ran around the corner of the houSe, and, protected by a large dog, 
 escaped to a reed brake hard by, where she concealed herself. 
 
620 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Here she heard the screams of Mrs. Stroud, who appeared to be 
 running towards her, but who was soon overtaken and toma- 
 hawked. The savages entered the house, dashed out the brains 
 of the infant, which was sleeping upon the hearth, and butchered 
 the other children, whose shrieks and dying groans the unhappy 
 mother heard, from the place of her concealment. After robbing 
 the house, the wretches decamped, being unable to find Stroud, 
 who lay not far off, in the high grass. The next morning some 
 of the emigrants assembled, to survey the horrid scene. During 
 the night, Mrs. Stroud had scuffled to the cabin, and was found in 
 the chimney corner, sitting beside the body of her child, bereft 
 of her senses. Ogle and four children lay in the sleep of death. 
 His two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary Ann, were still alive, and 
 were taken, with Mrs. Stroud, to the houses of the kind settlers, 
 and, in a short time were sent to Fort Claiborne, with an escort 
 furnished by Colonel Dale. On the way, Mrs. Stroud died, and, 
 not long after reaching Claiborne, Mary Ann also expired. Eliza- 
 beth, through the kind attentions of Dr. John Watkins, survived 
 her wounds, and is yet a resident of Butler county. 
 
 One week after this massacre. Captain William Butler and 
 
 James Saffold, in company with Willianl P. Gardner, 
 
 1818 Daniel Shaw and young Hinson, set out from the fort. 
 
 Mar. 20 to meet Dale, who was then marching to that point with 
 
 a party of volunteers, a portion of whom they desired 
 to induce him to send to the Flat, to protect the citizens, while 
 cultivating their fields. Advancing about two miles. Savannah 
 Jack and his warriors — the same who had murdered the Ogles — 
 fired upon them from a ravine. Gardner and Shaw, riddled with 
 rifle balls, fell dead from their horses. Butler and Hinson, both 
 being wounded, were thrown to the ground. The latter, regain- 
 ing his seat in the saddle, fied back to the fort. Unable to reach 
 his horse, Butler attempted, by running across the ravine, to gain 
 the road in advance of the Indians ; but he was pursued and shot 
 at, from tree to tree, until he fell dead, but not before he had 
 
PEACE DECLARED THE ALABAMA TEERITOEY. 621 
 
 killed one of his pursuers. Captain Saffold escaped to 
 
 the fort, receiving no injury, except the perforation of 181S 
 
 his clothes by rifle balls. A detachment, sent by Dale Mar. 21 
 
 the next day, buried the dead, whose heads were beaten 
 
 to pieces, and their bodies horribly mutilated.* 
 
 Not long after this affair, an emigrant, named Stokes, with 
 his wife and children, was killed, fifteen miles below Claiborne. 
 Great alarm pervaded the whole country, and the people moved 
 upon the hills and began the construction of defences. 
 
 In the meantime, Governor Bibb, who had made several trips 
 from Coosawda to St. Stephens, and who was well apprised 
 of these depredations, resorted to prompt measures to afford pro- 
 tection to the settlers. By his directions, Colonel Dale had 
 marched to the scene of the late murders. Bibb sent a despatch 
 to the Big Warrior demanding the withdrawal of all the Indians 
 from the lands ceded at Fort Jackson, acquainting him with the 
 murders committed upon unoffending white people, and request- 
 ing that the authors be pursued and punished by such warriors 
 as he might think proper to send out. 
 
 Dale advanced to Poplar Spring, erected a fort, which as- 
 sumed his name, and assisted the people to finish Fort Bibb. 
 Both of these forts were now garrisoned. Major Youngs, of the 
 eighth infantry, stationed at Fort Crawford, despatched a detach- 
 ment of whites and Chocta,ws, with orders to scour the Conecuh, 
 and afterwards to join Dale. The latter also scoured the sur- 
 rounding country, but overtook none of the Indians, Governor 
 Bibb successfuly co-operated with the United States oflcers sta- 
 tioned at Montgomery Hill and Fort Crawford for the protection 
 of the citizens, and he visited in, person all the newly erected 
 stockades. On' the. 25th May he returned to Coosawda, 
 and the next day rode up to Tookabatcha and had a 1818 ' 
 friendly interview with the Big Warrior. Leaving the May 
 Secretary of State, Henry Hitchcock, a young New Eng- . 
 
 • In relation to the murders in Butler county,, I ,must return jny thanks to Jolin K. 
 
622 HISTOKY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 laader, of great ability, in cliarge of the government, his exceU 
 lency returned to Georgia upon urgent business. 
 
 Tlae Red Sticks, in the meanwhile, had collected in a consid- 
 erable band, and the country over which Dale had the command 
 becoming too hot to hold them, they ci'ossed the Alabama and 
 marched through Marengo and Greene. In McGowan's settlement 
 three children, named Hall, and a negro woman, were murdered on 
 Sept. 14. Suspicion falling upon Savannah Jack and his party 
 they were pursued and, trailed to Gun Island, or Gun 
 1818 Shute, on the Warrior, by Colonel Thomas Hunter, at 
 Sept. 15 the head of some settlers. Night coming on, the pur- 
 suit ceased. The next day a party under Major Tay- 
 lor, and another under Captain Bacon, crossed the Warrior to 
 the western side, and, in a dense swamp, came upon the savages. 
 An action of an hour ensued. The officers, acting with bravery 
 and prudence, were sustained by only a few of their men. A re- 
 treat was at length made, with the loss of two men killed and one 
 severely wounded. The next day Colonel Hunter, with fifty men, 
 followed upon the trail of the enemy, and came upon a small party, 
 one of whom was killed. The next morning he continued the 
 pursuit for twenty miles, to the Sipsey Swamp, -where, from the 
 impracticability of entering it, the enemy was left to repose.* 
 This expedition was followed up by several others upon 
 Oct. the Warrior ; but the Creeks had at length determined to 
 leave the American sin quiet possession of the lands, which 
 were surrendered with such reluctance at the treaty of Tort Jack- 
 son. The flood-gates of Virginia, the two Carolinas, Tennessee, Ken- 
 tucky and Georgia were now hoisted, and mighty streams of 
 emigration poured through them, spreading over the whole terri- 
 tory of Alabama. The axe resounded from side to side, and from 
 corner to corner. The stately and magnificent forests fell. Log 
 cabins sprang, as if by magic, into sight. Never before or since, 
 has a country been so rapidly peopled. 
 
 Henry, Esq., of Greenville, wbo took the pains to procure correct statements of them 
 f rom J., Dickerson and James D. K. Garrett. The late Reuben Hill, of W«tumpka, also 
 furnished notes upon this subject'. " ■ 
 * Report of Colonel Hunter to Governor Bibb, to be found among the State Archives. 
 
CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 Modern French Colony in Alabama, or the Vine and 
 Olive Company. 
 
 A colony oE French sought Alabama as an asylum from 
 Bourbon persecution. The winter of 1816 and 1817 found many 
 of these distinguished refugees in Philadelphia. An ordinance 
 of Louis XVIII had forced them from France on account of their 
 attachment to Napoleon, who was then an exile upon St. Helena. 
 
 The refugees despatched Nicholas S. Parmentier to the 
 Federal city to obtain from Congress a tract of land in the wild 
 domain of the West, upon which they had resolved to establish 
 a colony. On the 4th March, 1817, Congress authorized the sale 
 of four townships to them, at two dollars per acre on a credit of 
 fourteen years, upon condition that they cultivated the vine and 
 olive. In the meantime, the refugees had entered into a corre- 
 spondence with intelligent persons of the West, in regard to the 
 soil and climate of different regions. Dr. Brown, of Kentucky, 
 who had traveled in France, and had become muph interested in 
 these unhappy people, advised them to settle near the confluence 
 ,of the Warrior and Tombigby, which they determined to do. 
 Organizing in Philadelphia, the company was found to consist of 
 three hundred and forty allottees, and the land was divided 
 among them ; some acquiring a full share of four hundred and 
 eighty acres, and others half and quarter shares, and some not 
 more than eighty acres. To each man was also assigned a lot in 
 the town which they were to establish, and also one 
 in the suburbs. Associated with them as assistants 1818 
 were Prosper Baltard, A. Mocquart and J. le Francois. April 
 
 623 
 
624 HISTORY or Alabama. 
 
 George N. Stewart, then a youth of eighteen, and now a dis- 
 tinguished lawyer of Mobile, was their secretary. 
 
 . The schooner McDonough was chartered, and the commis- 
 sioners, with many French emigrants, set sail from Philadelphia. 
 Late one evening, in the month of May, this vessel, bearing these 
 romantic voyagers, was seen approaching Mobile Point, in the 
 midst of a heavy gale. Governed by an obsolete chart, the cap- 
 tain was fast guiding her into danger. Lieutenant Beal, com- 
 manding at Fort Bowyer, perceiving her perilous situation, flred 
 an alarm gun. Night coming on, and overshadowing both sea 
 and land with darkness, he caused lights to be raised along the 
 shore as guides to the distressed vessel. Th3 wind continuing 
 to increase, she was thrown among the breakers and immediately 
 struck. Signals of distress being made, the noble lieutenant 
 threw himself into a boat, with five resolute men, and with Cap- 
 tain Bourke, formerly an officer. Mounting wave after wave, they 
 reached the wreck about one o'clock in the morning. The wind 
 had somewhat abated, and Beal crowded the women and children 
 into his boat and conducted them safely to shore. The larger 
 number of the coloEists remained on board the schooner, which 
 was ultimately saved by being washed into deeper water. Bestow- 
 ing upon the refugees every attention while they remained at 
 the Point, Beal accompanied them to Mobile and partook of a 
 public dinner, which they gave him in token of their gratitude. 
 The commissioners remained a few days at Mobile, which 
 was then a small place, with but one wharf, and proceeded up the. 
 river in a large barge, furnished by Addin Lewis, the collector of 
 the port. Stopping at Fort Stoddard, they were received with 
 hospitality by Judge Toulmin, to whom they bore letters. They 
 next visited General Gaines, then in command of a large force at 
 Fort Montgomery, and the barge then cut across to the 
 Tombigby and landed at St.. Stephens, — a place of some 1818 
 size, with refined and lively inhabitants. Discharging June 
 the government boat and procuring another barge, the 
 
MODERN FEENCH COLONY IN ALABAMA. 625 
 
 refugees once more began their voyage up the winding and rapid 
 current. Camping upon the banks occg,sionally, and ex- 
 ploring the Country around, they at length established July 
 themselves temporarily at the White BlufiE. A portion 
 of them proceeded to old Fort "Tombecbe," and near there 
 visited Mr. George S. Gaines, who was still United Stales 
 Choctaw factor, whose table fed the hungry, and whose roof 
 sheltered the distressed. He advised them to make their 
 location in the neighborhood of the White Bluff. John A. 
 Peniers and Basil Meslier, whom the association had des- 
 patched to explore the Red river country now arrived. Re- 
 ceiving favorable reports of the country in the Alabama Terri- 
 tory, the association at Philadelphia took measures to colonize it. 
 The west side of the Tombigby belonged to the Choctaws, and 
 the east had recently been in possession of the Creeks. The 
 region where the French emigrants had resolved to establish 
 themselves was an immense forest of trees and canes, inter- 
 spersed with prairie; and near the present town of Greensboro 
 was Russell's settlement of Tennesseans, and some distance be- 
 low the White BlufE were a few inhabitants. However, the 
 French continued to arrive in boats by way of Mobile, and cabins 
 were erected about the White Bluff in a rude and scattering 
 manner. Having been accustomed to Parisian life, these people 
 were very indifferent pioneers. Unprovided with wagons and 
 teams, and unacquainted with the shifts to which pioneer people 
 are often compelled to resort, they made but slow progress in 
 subduing the wilds. Provisions of all kinds were remarkably 
 high. They, however, slowly struggled against these diflaculties, 
 and endeavored to raise provisions upon small patches, w'ithout 
 knowing upon what tract in the grant they were to live in 
 future. 
 
 The meridian line was established, and the grant divided 
 into townships and sections. A town was formed at the White 
 Bluff, which, according to the request of Count Real, of Philadel- 
 
 40 
 
626 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 phia, was call Demopolis — the city of the people.* To secure the 
 river front, two fractional townships were chosen by the com- 
 missioners, instead of two entire townships. Emigrants continu- 
 ing to arrive, great confusion and controversy arose in the 
 selection of lots and tracts of land, while the association at Phil- 
 adelphia, unacquainted with the localities, were unwisely and 
 arbitrarily planning their own forms of location. Byji new con- 
 tract, made between Mr. Crawford, Secretary of the 
 1819 Treasury, and. Charles Villar, agent of the association, 
 Dec. the lands were sold and the tracts of each person desig- 
 nated. The allotments made at Philadelphia, and rati- 
 fied by Mr. Crawford, being different from those already made by 
 the settlers, forced the latter to abandon many of their hard- 
 earned improvements, and to retire further into the forest. This 
 wretched state of things caused General Lefebvre Desnoettes, 
 who had opened a farm on his Tombigby allotment, to proceed to 
 Philadelphia to adjust these conflicting interests. He succeeded 
 only in securing his own improvements, while the claims of the 
 others were disregarded, and the contract made at Washington 
 was ordered to be enforced. The settlers were then forced to re- 
 tire upon the lands assigned them in township eighteen, range 
 three east, and township eighteen, nineteen and twenty, in range 
 four east. 
 
 Among the French emigrants were many distinguished char- 
 acters. Count Lefebvre Desnoettes had been a cavalry officer, 
 under Bonaparte, with the rank of lieutenant-general. Accom- 
 panying Napoleon in his march to Russia, he rode with him 
 in his carriage in his disastrous retreat over the snows of 
 that country. He had served in Spain in many bloody 
 engagements, and was an active participator in the dreadful bat- 
 tle of Saragossa. Vivacious and active, handsome in person and 
 graceful in carriage, he was the most splendid rider of the age in 
 
 * Afterwards it proved that Demopolis was not embraced in the towusliips of the 
 French grant. An American company purchased it of the United States, at flifty-two 
 dollars per acre. ■ ' 
 
MODEEN FRENCH COLONY IN ALABAMA. 627 
 
 which he lived. His imperial master was so much attached to 
 him, that when forced to abdicate the throne, and about to de- 
 part for Elba, and while addressing his weeping and sorrowing 
 officers at Fontainbleau, said : " I cannot take leave of you all, 
 but will embrace General Desnoettes in behalf of you all." He 
 then pressed him to his bosom in the most affectionate manner. 
 Napoleon frequently made him valuable presents, and influenced 
 his cousin, the sister of the celebrated banker, La Fitte, to 
 espouse him. While he was at Demopolis, that lady made an at- 
 tempt to join him in exile, but being shipwrecked on the coast of 
 England, was forced to return to France. At length, she nego- 
 tiated with the French government for his return, and, through 
 the influence of her family, succeeded in obtaining permission 
 for him to reside in Belgium. This induced Count Desnoettes, 
 in 1823, to leave Alabama in the ship Albion, which was wrecked 
 upon the coast of Ireland, at Old Kinsale, in view of an immense 
 number of people, who were standing on the cliffs. The distin- 
 guished refugee was washed overboard, and the ocean became his 
 grave. While in Marengo county, he often received large sums 
 of money from France, and was the wealthiest of the emigrants. 
 Near his main dwelling he had a log cabin, which he called his 
 sanctuary, in the centre of which stood a bronze statue of Na- 
 poleon. Around its feet were swords and pistols, which Des- 
 noettes had taken in battle, together with beautiful flags, taste- 
 fully hung around the walls. 
 
 M. Peniers, another distinguished emigrant, was a republi- 
 can member of the National Assembly, and voted for the death 
 of the amiable Louis XVI. He remamed about Demopolis, en- 
 gaged in agriculture, but procuring an appointment of Sub- 
 Agent for the Seminoles, died in Florida, in 1823. Distin- 
 guished in France, and honored with many civil appointments, 
 he was at last expatriated for his adherence to the fortunes of 
 Napoleon. 
 
 Colonel Nicholas Rooul, a remarkable personage, had been a 
 
628 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 colonel under Bonaparte, and had accompanied him in his ban- 
 ishment to Elba. When his imperial master left that island, 
 Rooul commanded his advanced guard of two hundred grenadiers 
 upon the march from Caenes to Paris. When this small band 
 was preparing to fire upon the king's troops, under Marshal 
 Ney, who had come to capture the emperor, Bonaparte advanced 
 to the front of the lines, and gave the command to " order arms." 
 Baring his breast to Ney's division, he exclaimed, " If I have ever 
 injured a French soldier, fire upon me." The troops of Ney 
 shouted " Vive la Empereur!" and Bonaparte marched at their 
 head, through the gates of Paris. Colonel Rooul lived several yeai's 
 upon his grant, and, becoming much reduced in circumstances, 
 was forced to keep a ferry at French Creek, three miles from 
 Demopolis^being accustomed to ferry over passengers himself. 
 Often would the American traveler gaze upon his foreign 
 countenance, martial air and splendid form, and wonder what 
 order of man it was who conducted him over the swollen stream. 
 At this time Rooul, being in the prime of life, was a large, flne- 
 looking man. He was firm and irascible in his disposition, and 
 was a dangerous competitor in any controversy in which he 
 might engage. . His wife was a handsome woman, of the Italian 
 style of beauty. She was a native of Naples, and had been Mar- 
 chioness of Sinabaldi, and maid of honor to Queen Caroline, when 
 Murat was king of that country. She brought with her to Ala- 
 bama two children by a former husband. In 1824, she left her 
 lonely cabin upon French Creek and followed Colonel Rooul to 
 Mexico, where he engaged in the revolution, and fought with his 
 accustomed fierceness and impetuosity. , At length, once more 
 reaching his beloved, France, he there for a long time held an 
 honorable commission in the Frenchr army. .. 
 
 J. J. Cluisi one of the refugees, cultivated a farm near 
 Greensboro. Me. had been an aide to Marshal Lefebvre, the 
 Duke of Rivigo, who was afterwards at the head of the police de- 
 partment,. of, Paris. • Colonel Clviis was then his secretary. At 
 
MODERN FRENCH COLONY IN ALABAMA. 629 
 
 another time Cliiis had the custody of Ferdinand VII., King of 
 Span, while he was imprisoned by Napoleon near the Spanish 
 frontiers. Like all the other refugees, he found planting the vine 
 and olive a poor business in Alabama, and, having become much 
 reduced in fortune, kept a tavern in Greensboro. He died in Mo- 
 bile not many years since. 
 
 Simon Chaudron, one of the Tombigby settlers, formerly a 
 resident of Philadelphia, where his house was a centre of ele- 
 gance and wit, was distinguished for his literary attainments. 
 He had been the editor of the " Abeille Americaine," and was a 
 poet of considerable reputation. He delivered a eulogy upon the 
 life and character of Washington before the Grand Lodge of Phil- 
 adelphia, which was pronounced a splendid effort, both in Europe 
 and in America. He died in Mobile in 1846 at a very advanced 
 age, leaving behind him interesting works, which were published 
 in France. 
 
 General Count Bertand Clausel had been an officer of merit 
 throughout Bonaparte's campaigns. During the Hundred Days 
 he commanded at Bordeaux, and making the Duchess of Anglou' 
 lerae prisoner, released her, for some unknown cause. The gen^ 
 eral did not occupy his grant, but became a citizen of Mobile in 
 1821, living on the bay, furnishing the market with vegetables, 
 - and driving the cart himself. Returning to Prance in 1825. he 
 was subsequently made, by Loui^ Philippe, governor and mar- 
 shal of Algeria. 
 
 Henry L'Allemand, who had been a lieutenant-general, com' 
 manding the artillery of the imperial guard, was an officer of 
 great merit and a man of high character. He married the niece 
 of Stephen Gerard. General Charlies L'AUfemand, his brother^ 
 had also been an officer of distinction in France. Filled With 
 daring and ambitious projects, he employed the following Ian* 
 guage in writing to his brother: "I have more ambition than 
 can be gratified by the colony upon the Tombigby." This was 
 literally true, for he soon made a hazardous expedition to Texas, 
 
630 HISTOBT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 collecting followers at Philadelphia and in Alabama. Arriving 
 at Galveston Island, which was shortly afterwards submerged, 
 his people sufiEered greatly for provisions, and were 'generously 
 relieved by the pirate, La Pitte. Annoyed by the Indians, and 
 prostrated by disease, in a short time most of the colonists per- 
 ished, and the establishment failed. 
 
 The celebrated Marshal Grouchy was one of the Philadel- 
 phia associates. He was a man of middle stature, and had very 
 little, apparently, of the military about him. Not being popular 
 with the refugees, in consequence of his conduct at Waterloo, to 
 which they imputed the loss of that day, he became involved in 
 controversies with them in the American gazettes. He never 
 came to Alabama, but one of his sons, who had been a captain in 
 the French army, settled his grant near Demopolis. The marshal 
 afterwards returned to France and enjoyed honors under the 
 Bourbons. 
 
 M. Lackanal, a savant, and member of the academy at the 
 head of the department of public education under the emperor, 
 settled on the bay, near Mobile, in 1819. He was one of those 
 members of the National Assembly of France who voted for the 
 death of Louis XVI. After a long residence in Mobile, he went 
 to France and there died in 1843. 
 
 Among all the refugees who sought homes in Alabama, none 
 had passed through more stirring and brilliant scenes than Gen- 
 eral Juan Rico, a native of Valencia, in Spain, who had been 
 proscribed in that country, upon the return of Ferdinand VII, 
 because he was a republican, and a supporter of the constitution 
 of 1812. An eloquent member of the Cortes and a distinguished 
 officer of the Spanish army, he resisted to the last the invasion 
 of Napoleon. One day, an interesting scene occurred between 
 General Rico and the elegant Desnoettes. Both being invited to 
 dine at Demopolis, the conversation turned upon the campaigns 
 in Spain, when allusion was made to the obstinate and sanguinary 
 siege of Saragossa, where one of them had commanded the troops 
 
MODERN FRENCH COLONY IN ALABAMA. ' 631 
 
 of France and the other those of Spain. They were now assem- 
 bled at a hospitable table in an humble cottage in the wilds of 
 Alabama. They had met before, amid the din of arms, arraying 
 their troops against each other, and pouring out rivers of blood, 
 at the head of the best trained troops of Europe, who had figured 
 in the most eventful times of France and Spain. Each had been 
 expelled from his native country, and each had been blasted in 
 his ambitious hopes. Nevertheless, good humor prevailed in the 
 cabin, and the sorrows of all were drowned in wine, amid merry 
 peals of laughter. In 1825, General Kico was re-called to Spain, 
 and, arriving there, again became a member of the Cortes, under 
 his favorite constitution. He met wifh singular reverses of 
 fortune, was expelled from Spain the second time, became an 
 inhabitant of England, and was again re-called to assist in the 
 government of his country. When he lived in Alabama, he was 
 fifty years of age, and was of a dark complexion. He possessed 
 great energy and decision of character, and was a most excellent 
 farmer. If our limits would permit it, many other interesting 
 persons among the French emigrants might be described. 
 
 The principal portion of the French grant lay in Marengo 
 county. This name was proposed by Judge Lipscomb, while a 
 member of the legislature at St. Stephens, in honor of the great 
 battle fought during the French republic. It also extended into 
 the county of Greene, embracing some of the best lands in the 
 vicinity of Greensboro. It has been seen that much difficulty arose 
 among the French about their respective locations, and that three 
 times they lost their improvements. Forced to abandon their 
 settlements. in Demopolis, they laid off the town of Agleville, and 
 erected cabins, but the drawing at Philadelphia not embracing 
 this place, they were once more forced to go deeper in the 
 forest. The want of wagons and teams, and the great scarcity of 
 water in the cane brake, induced them to dwell on small allot- 
 ments, while their more valuable tracts were unoccupied. Owning 
 no slaves, a number of German redemptioners were imported, 
 
632 ■ HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 through the enterprise of Desnoettes, but these people -proved a 
 burden and expense, and also disregarded their obligations. The 
 French were less calculated, than any other people upon earth, 
 to bring a forest into cultivation. The provisions which they 
 raised were made at the expense of extravagant hire, and Des- 
 noettes expended over twenty-flve thousand dollars in opening 
 and cultivating his farm. In this manner the whole colony, after 
 a few years, became poor, and many were forced to sell their 
 claims to Americans, who soon opened large plantations, and 
 made the earth smile with abundant products. However, a ma- 
 jority of the French still held on to their grants, and, in good 
 faith to the government, entered Upon the cultivation of the grape 
 and olive. Importations of plants were often made from Bor- 
 deaux, but the newness of the land and the ignorance of the 
 colony in regard to their cultivation, were among the reasons 
 why the experiment failed. The importations frequently arrived 
 out of season, when the vines withered away and the olive seeds 
 became defective. At length, with diflBculty, grapes were grown, 
 but they failed to produce even a tolerable wine, because the fruit 
 ripened in the heat of summer. Before the vinous fermentation 
 was completed the acetic had commenced. In 1821 the French 
 planted three hundred and eighty-three olive trees upon the 
 grant, and a large number in 1824. Every winter the frosts 
 killed them down to the ground, but new shoots putting up were 
 again killed by the succeeding winter. The usual mode of plant- 
 ing the grape was at the distance of ten feet in one direction, and 
 twenty in the other. They were trained to stakes and cultivated 
 with cotton. 
 
 In addition to the ruinous failure of the vine and olive, the 
 French were continually annoyed by unprincipled American 
 squatters. Occupying their lands, without a shadow of title, they 
 insultingly told the French that they intended to maintain their 
 footing at all hazards. Several law suits arose, and although our 
 Supreme Court decided in favor of the grantees, yet the latter 
 
MODERN FRENCH COLONY IN ALABAMA. 633 
 
 _ 
 
 became worn out with controversies, and allowed the intruders 
 in many cases to retain possession for a small remuneration. On 
 the other hand, many honorable Americans purchased their 
 grants for fair considerations, and thus the French refugees were 
 gradually rooted from the soi\. 
 
 But, in the midst of all their trials and vicissitudes, the 
 French refugees were happy. Immured in the depths of the Tom- 
 bigby forest, where for several years want pressed them on all 
 sides —cut off from their friend's in France — surrounded by the 
 Choctaws on one side, and the unprincipled squatters and land- 
 thieves on the other — assailed by the venom of insects and 
 prostrating fevers — nevertheless, their native gaiety prevailed. 
 Being in the habit of much social intercourse, their evenings 
 were spent in conversation, music and dancing. The larger por- 
 tion were well educatesd, while all had seen much of the world, 
 and such materials were ample to afford an elevated society. 
 Sometimes their distant friiends sent them rich wines and other 
 luxuries, and upon such occasions parties were given and the 
 foreign delicacies brought back many interesting associations. 
 Well cultivated gardens, and the abundance of wild game, ren- 
 dered the common living of the French quite respectable. The 
 female circle was highly interesting. They had brought with 
 them their books, guitars, silks, parasols and ribbons, and the 
 village, in which most of them dwelt^ resembled, at night, a 
 miniature French town. And then, farther in the forest, others 
 lived, the imprints of whose beautiful Parisian shoes on the wild 
 prairie, occasionally arrested the glance of a solitary traveler. 
 And then, agam, when the old imperial heroes talked of their 
 emperor, their hearts warmed with sympathy, their eyes kindled 
 with enthusiasm, and tears stole down their furrowed cheeks.* 
 
 * Conversations with George N. Stewart, Esq., of Mobile, who was the secretary of 
 the Prench Vine Company ; also conversations with Mr. Amand Pflster, of Montgomery, 
 whose father was one of the French grantees. 
 
CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 Last Tbreitoeial Legislatubb — State Cokvention. 
 
 The second session of the Legislature of the Territory of 
 Alabama convened at St. Stephens, in the fall of 1818. John 
 W. "Walker was Speaker of the House, and James Titus Presi- 
 dent of the Legislative Council. Among other acts, two new 
 counties were formed — St. Clair, with the courts to be 
 held at the house of Alexander Brown, and Autauga, 1818 
 with the courts to be held at Jackson's Mills, on Au- Fall 
 tauga Creek. The territory of the latter county was 
 formerly attached to that of Montgomery. These new counties 
 were added to the Middle Judicial District. 
 
 The Bank of Mobile, with a charter extending to 1st Jan- 
 uary, 1839, and with a capital stock of five hundred thousand 
 dollars, was established. The banks at St. Stephens and Hunts- 
 ville were empowered to increase their capital stock, by selling 
 shares at auction. The profits, to the extent of ten per cent., 
 were to be divided among the stockholders, and, if there proved 
 to be an excess, it was to be applied to the support of Green 
 Academy, in Madison county, and the academy at St. Stephens. 
 
 Governor Bibb was constituted sole commissioner to lay off 
 the seat of government at the confluence of the Cahawba and 
 Alabama. He was required to have the town surveyed, expose 
 maps of the same at public places, and give ninety days' notice 
 of sale, out of the proceeds of which he was to contract for the 
 building of a temporary capitol. About the last of November the 
 legislature adjourned, having determined to hold the next session 
 at Huntsville.* 
 
 • state Archives. 
 
STATE CONVENTION. 635 
 
 The Territory of Alabama increased in population 
 to such an extent that Congress authorized the people 1819 
 to form a State constitution. Mar. 2 
 
 The following persons were elected members of the 
 convention : 
 
 Fbom the County of MADisoN—i-Clement C. Clay, John 
 Leigh Townes, Henry Chambers, Samuel Mead, Henry Minor, 
 Gabriel Moore, John W. Walker and John M. Taylor. 
 
 MoNKOE — John Murphy, John Watkins, James Pickens and 
 Thomas Wiggins. 
 
 Blount — Isaac Brown, John Brown and Gabriel Hartby. 
 
 Limestone — Thomas Bibb, Beverly Hughes and Nicholas 
 Davis. 
 
 Shelbt — George Philips and Thomas A. Rodgers. 
 
 MoNTGOMEET^-John D. Bibb and James W. Armstrong. 
 
 Washington— Israel Pickens and Henry Hitchcock. 
 
 Tuscaloosa — Marmaduke Williams and John L. Tindal. 
 
 Lawrence — Arthur F. Hopkins and Daniel Wright. 
 
 Feankhn — Richard Ellis and William Metcalf. 
 
 CoTAco — Melkijah Vaughan and Thomas D. Crabb. 
 
 Clarke— Reuben SafEold and James MbGofiBn. 
 
 Cahawba — Littlepage Sims. 
 
 Conecuh — Samuel Cook. 
 
 Dallas — William R. King. 
 
 Maeengo— Washington Thompson. 
 
 Marion — John D. Terrell. 
 
 Lauderdale — Hugh McVay. 
 
 St. Clair — David Conner. 
 
 AuTAUGA^James Jackson. 
 
 Baldwin — Harry Toulmin. 
 
 Mobile— S. H. Garrow. 
 
 These members convened at Huntsville on the 5th July,1819. 
 John W. Walker was chosen to preside over the convention, and 
 John Campbell was elected its secretary. 
 
636 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Being about to introduce biographical notices of soifle of 
 these members,* we begin with the following well- written sketch, 
 prepared by a college companion and intimate friend of the dis- 
 tinguished person of whom he writes.t 
 
 " John W". Walker was born in Virginia, and, while yet a 
 child, accompanied his father, the Reverend Jeremiah Walker, 
 who emigrated to Elbert county, Georgia. His preceptor in the 
 rudiments of education was the Reverend Moses Waddel, long 
 accustomed, with an honest pride, to enumerate among his pupils 
 many of the most celebrated jurists and- statesmen of the South. 
 He graduated with distinguished honor at Princeton, preserving 
 during his collegiate course an untarnished moral character, and 
 acquiring, along with the reputation of an excellent scholar, a 
 high relish for' polite literature, which he ever afterwards re- 
 tained. On leaving college he applied himself to the study of 
 the law, and although more than once interrupted by illness, his 
 quick and keen perception of the right and just, and the extent 
 and variety of his previous attainments, speedily insured him 
 clear and comprehensive views of a science not always enjoyed 
 by more laborious, but less sagacious, students. Seeking the 
 temple as a worshipper in spirit and in truth, who regarded 
 jurisprudence not as a craft or mystery, but the noblest of 
 sciences, he thus insured his future superiority over practitioners 
 who treat their profession as an art and its principles as a mere 
 collection of rules and codes. 
 
 "In 1810 Mr. Walker, then a resident of Petersburg, Geor- 
 gia, married Matilda, the daughter of LeRoy Pope, Esq., of the 
 same village, and removed with his father-in-law and several of 
 his neighbors to Alabama, then a territory, where they became 
 the first settlers of Madison county, and founded the now flour- 
 
 * I regret to bare occasion to observe that my api>lication to the friends of many of 
 the members of this convention, for information in relation to their birth, early life 
 and political career, has not been responded to., and hence I have been unable to. embody 
 in this work any notice of them. 
 
 t From the pen of Richard Henry Wilde, formerly of Georgia, but aftervfards of New 
 Orleans, and now deceased. 
 
STATE CONVENTION. .637 
 
 ishing town of Huntsville., Here he began the practice of his 
 profession, soon rose to eminence, and was repeatedly chosen a 
 member of the Territorial legislature. In 1819 he declined the 
 office of district judge, tendered him by President Monroe, and 
 in the same year was chosen to preside over the convention 
 which formed the constitution of the State, an instrument in- 
 debted to him for many of its best provisions. 
 
 " Immediately after its adoption and the admission of Ala- 
 bama into the Union, he was elected a United States Senator, an 
 ofB.ce which he held until 1823, when ill-health compelled him to 
 retire ; and on the 23d of April of that year he passed away from 
 life, leaving behind him the memory of no fault and the enmity 
 of no human being. 
 
 " In person Mr. Walker was tall, his figure slender but well 
 formed, and his manners and address mild, graceful and prepos- 
 sessing. He had blue eyes, brown hair, a fine complexion, hand- 
 some features, and a countenance whose expression, habitually 
 pensive, kindled into animation with every lofty thought and gen- 
 erous feeling. Even to a stranger his appearance was highly 
 engaging and attractive, while those who enjoyed his familiar 
 conversation were charmed with the sweet, low tones of his collo- 
 quial eloquence, the intellectual music of a pure heart, a sound 
 mind, a rich memory and brilliant imagination. Surrounded by 
 friends who loved and honored, or in the bosom of a family who 
 idolized him, how often hours vanished unconsciously in conversa- 
 tion, grave and gay, in the inexhaustible topics of art, science, lit- 
 erature, government and morals, to all of which his perfect urban- 
 ity, extensive reading, the refinement of his taste, and the delicacy 
 of his feelings, ga^ve interest and novelty. His letters, many of 
 which, have been preserved by the writer with reverential care, 
 are models of the familiar epistolary style, correct and sparkling, 
 yet free, cordial and unstudied— true to the feeling of the moment, 
 and passing from the whimsical and excursive playfulness of 
 
638 HISTOEY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Sterne to the pathos of McKenzie, with all the graceful negli- 
 gence of Byron, or slip-shod gossip of Walpole. 
 
 " Before the higher aims or heavier burdens of life came upon 
 him, he was, like most other men of genius, a rhymer, and the 
 few specimens of his verse, which had currency in the circles of 
 his love and friendship, were prized, not unreasonably, as jewels 
 by their possessors. 
 
 " Mr. Walker's literary attainments, far from impairing, in- 
 creased his efficiency as a jurist and orator. Many, it is true, 
 believe that belles-lettres scholarship is usually an impedient to 
 forensic eloquence ; but the examples of Mansfield and Black- 
 stone, Story and Legaro, stamp this as a vulgar error. The 
 prejudices of ignorance and envy may, indeed, retard the success 
 of the more thorough-bred and highly educated; but, in this case, 
 as in every other, where industry and good sense are not want- 
 ing, all learning is useful, as well as ornamental, and ultimately 
 tends to form the character of a perfect advocate. As might 
 naturally be expected, therefore, Mr. Walker's contemporaries at 
 the bar speak of hife professional skill and knowledge with the 
 highest praise, and assigned to him the palm for persuasive elo- 
 quence, readiness of resource and gentlemanly bearing. 
 
 " In the Senate, he was mainly instrumental in producing 
 the passage of the first law for the relief of purchasers of the 
 public lands, emphatically a bill of peace, which, -while it saved 
 the new State of Alabama from bankruptcy, preserved their affec- 
 tions to the Union, and led to the abolition of the credit system, 
 thus preventing future evils. 
 
 " To this new theatre of usefulness and honor, Mr. Walker 
 brought all the modest worth and unalloyed patriotism of 
 Lowndes, with much of the easy and graceful manner of Foj-syth, 
 and,, to his career as a statesman, only a longer life was wanting. 
 But time, as it has been beautifully observed, is the indispensable 
 ally of genius in its struggle for immortality, and, though death 
 may have shut the gate on other aspirants as highly gifted, 
 
STATE CONVENTION. (l39 
 
 it has never closed on one more fondly loved or more deeply 
 mourned." 
 
 Arthub Feancbs Hopkins was born near Danville, in the 
 State of Virginia. He was a descendent of Arthur Hopkins, an 
 Englishman, and a physician of very high standing, who settled 
 in the early part of the eighteenth century in the colony of Vir- 
 ginia. His grandmother was a Miss Jeflferson, a relative of the 
 President of that name. His father, .Tames Hopkins, was in the 
 severe battle of Guilford Court House, a volunteer soldier of the 
 United 'States at the age of fifteen, and died at his residence in 
 Pittsylvania county, Virginia, in 1844. 
 
 In the pursuit of au education, Akthuk Frances Hopkins 
 studied in an academy at New London, in V'irginia, in an- 
 other at Caswell Court House, North Carolina, and at the Uni- 
 versity at Chapel Hill. He received his law education in the 
 office of the Honorable William Leigh, of Halifax county, Vir- 
 ginia, who was a distinguished jurist, and the brother of the 
 celebrated Benjamin Watkins Leigh. In December, 1816, Mr. 
 Hopkins, at the age of twenty-two, settled in the town of Hunts- 
 ville, Alabama. Owning a plantation near Hnntsville, and the 
 price of cotton then being very high, and the practive of law in 
 the valley of the Tennessee river worth but little, he relinquished 
 his business at the bar in the spring of 1818. In January, 1819, 
 he moved to the county of Lawrence, was elected a member of 
 the convention in May of that year, and took his seat in that 
 body, as we have seen. The people of Lawrence elected him to 
 the State Senate in August, 1822. He immediately ranked with 
 the most talented and influential men, and endeavored, with all 
 his ability and ingenuity, to dissuade the Legislature from enact- 
 ing a measure which, it is believed by many, has inflicted much 
 evil. We allude to the establishment of the State Bank. His 
 speeches upon that occasion were powerful efforts against the 
 system of connecting bank and State, and the evils which he pre- 
 dicted have been, as many believe, most sensibly realized. His 
 
640 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 views were overruled by the Legislature, only thirteen of the 
 entire body, among whom were the Honorable Joshua L. Martin, 
 afterwards Governor of Alabama, James Jackson, of Lauderdale, 
 and Nicholas Davis, of Limestone, concurring with him. The 
 opposition of Mr. Hopkins to the Sta:te Bank, which was called 
 the People's Bank, diminished materially his popularity, which 
 was shortly afterwards impaired still more by his opposition to 
 the election of General Jackson to the office of President of the 
 United States. He preferred Henry Clay to all other men, and 
 supported him whenever he was a candidate for the Presidency. 
 He voted for Judge White in 1836, and for General Harrison in 
 1 840, again for Henry Clay, and lastly for General Taylor ; but, 
 as he emphatically said to us one day, " never for General Jack- 
 son." 
 
 In March, 1825, Mr., Hopkins returned to Huntsville, and 
 applied Jhimself successfully to the profession of the law, without 
 any interruption, until the summer of 1833, when he was 
 returned a member of the Legislature from Madison county. The 
 most exciting measure before the Legislature was the " Ceeek 
 CoNTEovERSY," thcu Waging between the national administration 
 and Governor John Gayle. Although personally friendly to the 
 Governor and opposed to General Jackson, the conviction of his 
 judgment led Mr. Hopkins to take the side of the administration, 
 and in support of his views he delivered in the house a speech of 
 power and research, which was published and widely distributed, 
 giving him great reputation as a constitutional lawyer and 
 statesman. Since the close of the session of 1833 and 1834, he 
 has not been a representative of the people of this State. In 
 January, 1836, he was elected by the Legislature one of the 
 Judges of the Supreme Court without opposition, and at the 
 solicitation of both political parties ; and in 1837 he was appointed 
 by his associates on the bench Chief Justice of Alabama. 
 In December, 1836, the whig members of the Legislature did 
 him the honor to vote for him, as a Senator in Congress, against 
 
STATE CONVENTION. 641 
 
 the Honorable John McKinley. They conferred upon him the 
 same unsolicited honor in January, 1844, when Mr. Lewis was 
 elected a Senator of the United States. In June, 1837, Judge 
 Hopkins resigned his seat upon the bench, returned to Hunts- 
 ville, engaged in the practice of the law, and was soon tendered 
 by Mr. Van Buren the office of commissioner, with others, under 
 a late treaty with the Cherokees, which he declined. During the 
 Presidential canvass of 1840, Judge Hopkins was one of the whig 
 electors, and addressed many public meetings in North Alabama. 
 At the Baltimare whig convention in May, 1844, he presided as 
 chairman, until the convention was fully organized, and during 
 that summer, he often addressed the people of Alabama, to in- 
 duce them to vote for Mr. Clay, for the Presidency. Judge Hop- 
 kins appears to have always been a great favorite with the whig 
 party, for they ran him upon a two day's ballot, when William 
 R. King and Dixon H. Lewis were candidates for the United 
 States Senate, during the first session of the legislature held at 
 Montgomery, and again, in the winter of 1849 and 1850, he was 
 balloted for against Colonel King, to fill the vacancy which oc- 
 curred in the Senate, and, when the latter succeeded over him, 
 the whig party immediately ran him for the other vacancy in the 
 Senate, against our excellent and much-admired friend, Governor 
 Fitzpatrick. But the whigs, being in a minority, have never 
 been able to place him in the United States Senate. 
 
 Judge Hopkins lives in Mobile,' where he is regarded as a 
 lawyer of ability, and as a gentleman of honor, benevolence and re- 
 finement. In person, he is compactly inade, and rather large. 
 He has an agreeable countenance, and is pleasant and affable in 
 his manners. 
 
 William Rufus King is a native of North Carolina. He 
 was born on the Tth April, 1786. His father, William King, was 
 a planter, in independent circumstances, whose ancestors came 
 from the north of Ireland, and were among the early settlers on 
 James river, in the colony of Virginia. He was highly esteemed 
 
 — 41 
 
642 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 for his many virtues, and was elected a member of the State con- 
 vention which adopted the Federal constitution. The mother of 
 Mr. King was descended from a Huguenot family, which had 
 been driven from France by the revocation of the edict of 
 Nantz. 
 
 William Rufus King received his education at the University 
 of North Carolina, to which he was sent at the early age of twelve 
 years. On leaving that institution, where his attention to his 
 studies, and uniformly correct and gentlemanly deportment, had 
 commanded the respect and regard of his fellows, and the appro- 
 bation of the professors, he entered the, law office of William 
 Duffy, a distinguished lawyer, residing in, the town of E'ayette- 
 ville, North, Carolina, and in the autumn of 1805, obtained a 
 license to practice in the superior courts of the State. In 1806, 
 he was elected a member of the legislature of the State, from the 
 county of Sampson, in which he was born. He was again 
 elected, the year following, but on the meeting of the legisla- 
 ture, he was chosen solicitor by that body, and resigned his seat. 
 Colonel King continued in the practice of his profession until he 
 was elected a member of Congress from the Wilmington district, 
 which took place in August, 1810, when he was but little more 
 than twenty-four years of age ; but, as his predecessor's term did 
 not expire before the 4th March, 1811, Colonel King did not take 
 his seat in the Congress of the United States until the autumn 
 of that year, being the first session of the twelfth Congress. This 
 was a most important period in the history of the country. The 
 governments of England' and France had for years rivalled each 
 other in acts destructive of the neutral rights and ruinous to the 
 commerce of the United States. Every effort had been made, 
 but in vain, to procure an abandonment of orders in councils on 
 the one hand and decrees on the other, which had nearly cut up 
 the) commerce of the country by the ropts, and a large majority 
 of the people felt that to submit longer to such gross violations of 
 their lights as a neutral nation would be degrading, and they 
 
STATE CONTENTION. 643- 
 
 called upon their government to protect those rights, even at the 
 hazard of a war. In this state of things, Colonel King took his 
 seat in the House of Representatives, and unhesitatingly ranged 
 himself on the side of the bold and patriotic spirits in that body, 
 who had determined to repel aggression, come from what quarter 
 it might, and to maintain the rights and the honor of the country. 
 The withdrawal of the Berlin and Milan decrees by France, 
 while England refused to abandon her orders in council, put an 
 end to all hesitation as to which of those powers should be met 
 in deadly strife. In June, 1812, war was declared against Eng- 
 land, Mr. King advocating and voting for the declaration. He 
 continued to represent his district in Congress during the con- 
 tinuance of the war, sustaining, with all his power, every measure 
 deemed necessary to enable the government to prosecute it to a 
 successful termination ; and not until the rights of the country 
 were vindicated and secured, and peace restored to the land, did 
 he feel at liberty to relinquish the highly responsible position in 
 which his confiding constituents had placed him. In the spring 
 of 1816 Colonel King resigned his seat in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, and accompanied William Pinckney, of Maryland, as 
 Secretary of Legation, first to Naples and then to St. Petersburgi 
 to which Courts Mr. Pinckney had been appointed Minister Pleni- 
 potentiary. Colonel King remained abroad not quite two years, 
 having, in that time,, visited the greater portion of Europe, 
 making himself acquainted with the institutions of the various 
 governments and the condition of their people. On his return to 
 the United States, he determined to move to the Territory of 
 Alabama, which determination he carried into effect in the winter 
 of 1818-19, and fixed his residence in the county of Dallas, where 
 he still resides. A few months after Colonel King arrived in the 
 Territory, Congress having ^.uthorized the people to form a con- 
 stitution and establish a State government, he was elected a 
 member of the convention. Colonel King was an active, talented 
 and influential member of that body, was. placed on the commit- 
 
644 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 tee appointed to draft a constitution, and was also selected by the 
 general committee, together with Judge Taylor, now of the State 
 of Mississippi, and Judge Henry Hitchcock, now no more, to re- 
 duce it to form, in accordance with the principles and provisions 
 previously agreed on. This duty they performed in a manner 
 satisfactory to the committee. The constitution thus prepared 
 was submitted to the convention and adopted, with but slight 
 alterations. 
 
 On the adjournment of the convention Colonel King returned 
 to his former residence in North Carolina, where most of his 
 property still was, and, having made his arrangements for its re- 
 moval, set out on his return to Alabama. On reaching Milledge- 
 ville, in the State of Georgia, he received a letter from Governor 
 Bibb, of Alabama, informing him that he had been elected a Sen- 
 ator in the Congress of the United States, and that the certificate 
 of his election had been transmitted to the city of Washington. 
 This was the first intimation that Colonel King had that his 
 name even had beeli presented to the Legislature for that high 
 position, and, injuriously as it would affect his private inter- 
 ests in the then condition of his affairs, he did not hesitate 
 to accept the honor so unexpectedly conferred upon him ; and, 
 leaving his people to pursue their way to Alabama, he retraced 
 his steps, and reached the city of Washington a few days before 
 the meeting of Congress. His colleague, the Honorable John W. 
 Walker, had arrived before him. 
 
 Alabama was admitted as a State^ and her Senators, after 
 takmg the oath to support the constitution of the United States, 
 were required to draw for their term of service, when Major 
 Walker drew six years and Colonel King four. At the time that 
 Alabama became a State of the Union, the indebtedness of her 
 citizens for lands, sold by the United States under what was 
 known as the credit system, was nearly twelve millions of dol- 
 lars. It was perfectly apparent , that this enormous sum could 
 not be paid, and that an attempt to enforce the payment could 
 
STATE CONVENTION. 645 
 
 only result in ruin to her people. Congress became satisfied that 
 the mode heretofore adopted for the disposal of the public domain 
 was wrong, and a law was passed reducing the minimum price 
 from two to one dollar and twenty-five cents the acre, with cash 
 payments. This change was warmly advocated by our Senators, 
 Walker and King. 
 
 At the next session a law was passed authorizing the pur- 
 chasers of public lands, under the credit system, to relinquish to 
 the government a portion of their purchase, and to transfer the 
 amount paid on the part relinquished so as to make complete pay- 
 ment on the part retained. At a subsequent session another law 
 was passed, authorizing the original purchasers of the lands so 
 relinquished to enter them at a fixed rate, much below the price 
 at which they had been originally sold. To the exertions of Sen- 
 ators King and Walker, Alabama is mainly indebted for the pas- 
 sage of these laws, which freed her citizens from the heavy debt 
 which threatened to overwhelm them with ruin, and also enabled 
 them to secure their possessions upon reasonable terms* 
 
 Colonel King was elected a Senator m 1823, in 1828, in 
 1834, and in 1840. His firm but conciliatory course insured 
 for him the respect and confidence of the Senate, and he was 
 repeatedly chosen to preside over that body as president pro 
 tem, the duties of which position he discharged in a manner so 
 satisfactory, that, at the close of each session, a resolution was 
 adopted, without a dissenting voice, tendering him the thanks of 
 the body for the ability and impartiality with which he had dis- 
 charged those duties. In the spring of 1844, Colonel King was 
 offered the situation of Minister to France, which he declined, as 
 he had, on previous occasions, refused to accept other diplomatic 
 situations, which had been tendered to him, preferring, as he de- 
 clared, to be a Senator from Alabama to any office which could 
 be conferred on him by the General Government. At this time, 
 the proposition for the annexation of Texas was pending, and 
 there was but too much reason to believe that the British gov- 
 
646 
 
 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 ernment was urging that of France to unite withi ber in a pro- 
 test against such annexation. It was, therefore, of the highest 
 •importance to prevent, if possible, such joint protest, as, should 
 it be made, must have inevitably resulted in producing hostilities 
 with one or both of these powers ; for no one, for a moment, be- 
 lieved that the government of the United States would be de- 
 terred from carrying out a measure which she considered essen- 
 tial to her interests, from any apprehension of consequences 
 which might result from any combination of the powers of 
 Europe, Colonel King was a decided advocate of the annexation 
 of Texas, and when urged by the President and many of his 
 friends in Congress to accept the mission, he consented, under 
 these circumstances, to give up his seat in the Senate. Colonel 
 King, feeling the importance of prompt action, did not even re- 
 turn to his home to arrange his private affairs, but repaired at 
 once to New York, and took passage to Havre. Arriving in Paris 
 he obtained an audience of the King, presented his credentials, 
 and at once entered upon the object of his mission. After fre- 
 quent conferences with the King of the French, who had kindly 
 consented that he might discuss the subject with him, without 
 going through the usual routine of communicating through the 
 foreign ofiBce, Colonel King succeeded in convincing his majesty 
 that the contemplated protest, while it would not arrest the pro- 
 posed annexation, would engender on the minds of the American 
 people a feeling of hostility towards France, which would operate 
 most injuriously to the interests of both countries, now united 
 by the closest bonds of friendship ; and his majesty ultimately 
 declared that," he would do nothing hostile to the United States, 
 or which could give to her just cause of offence." The desired 
 Dbject was accomplished. England was not in a condition to act 
 alone, and all idea of a protest was abandoned. Colonel King re- 
 mained in France until the autumn of 1846, dispensing a liberal 
 hospitality to his countrymen and others, and receiving from 
 those connected with the government, and a large circle of the 
 
STATE CONVENTION. 647 
 
 most-distinguished individuals in Paris, the kindest attention. 
 He returned to the United States in November, 1846y having re- 
 quested and obtained the permission of the President to resign 
 his office. 
 
 In 1848, the Hon. Arthur P. Bagby was appointed Minister 
 Plenipotentiary to Russia, and resigned his seat in the Senate of 
 the United States. Colonel King was appointed, by the Governor 
 of Alabama, to fill the vacancy thus ci'eated, and in 1849, 
 the term for which he was appointed having expired, he was 
 elected by the legislature for a full term of six years. In 1850, 
 on the death of General Taylor, the President of the United States, 
 Mr. Filmore, the Vice-President, succeeded to that high office, 
 and Colonel King was chosen, by the unanimous vote of the 
 Senate, President of that body, which places him in the second 
 highest office in the government. Colonel King has ever been a 
 decided republican of the Jeffersonian school. He has during his 
 whole political life opposed the exercise of implied powers on the 
 part of the General Government, unless palpably and plainly 
 necessary to carry into effect an expressly granted power, firmly 
 impressed with the belief, as he has often declared, that the 
 security and harmony, if not the very existence of the Federal 
 Government, was involved in adhering to a strict construction of 
 the constitution. 
 
 In all the relations of life, Colonel King has maintained a 
 spotless reputation ; his frank and confiding disposition, his uni- 
 form courtesy and kindness, has endeared him to numerous 
 friends, and commanded for him the respect and confidence of all 
 who have had the pleasure of his acquaintance. 
 
 ■ Colonel King is about six feet high, remarkably erect in 
 figure, and is well proportioned. Brave and chivalrous in his 
 character, his whole bearing impresses even strangers with the 
 conviction that they are in the presence of a finished gentleman. 
 His tine colloquial powers, and the varied and extensive informa- 
 tion which he possesses, render him a most interesting companion, 
 
648 HISTOBT OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Clement Comee Clay was born in Halifax county, Virginia, 
 on the 17th December, 1789. His father, William Clay, son of 
 James Clay, and his mother, Rebecca, daughter of Samuel Comer, 
 were Virginians by birth, and of English descent. His father, 
 William Clay, entered the revolutionary army as a private soldiei' 
 at the early age of sixteen, and made several tours. He was in 
 various engagements, and was present at the siege of Yorktown 
 and the surrender of Cornwallis. At an early age, his father 
 removed west of the Alleghanies to Grainger county. East Ten- 
 nessee. 
 
 Clement Comer Clay completed his education>at the East Ten- 
 nessee University at Knoxville. Leaving college, he read law with 
 the Honorable Hugh Lawson White, and obtained a license in 
 December, 1809. He remained in East Tennessee until 1811, when 
 he removed to Huntsville, where he has resided ever since. With 
 a determined self-reliance, he pursued the practice of his profes- 
 sion steadily, and with gradually increasing profit, until the spring 
 of 1817, taking no other interest in political matters than such 
 as might be expected in any intelligent private citizen. When 
 hostilities were commenced by the Creeks in 1813, he performed 
 military duty as 'adjutant of a battalion of volunteers, called 
 into service from Madison county; but he had volunteered 
 3s a private soldier in one of the companies of that battalion. 
 This battalion never joined the army of General Jackson in 
 the Creek nation, but, under his orders, was kept on the frontier, 
 south of Tennessee river, to watch the enemy, and repel any 
 advance which might be made. In the spring of J 817 the friends 
 of Mr. Clay announced him as a candidate for the Territorial 
 council, and he was elected by more than two hundred votes 
 above the next highest candidate who was returned. He went 
 to St. Stephens, and discharged his duties during the two ses- 
 sions held at that place in a manner creditable to himself and 
 useful to his constituents and the Territory. His absence, how- 
 ever, seriously interrupted a lucrative practice at the bar, and 
 
STATE CONVENTION. 649 
 
 deprived him of the favorable opportunity of purchasing a valu- 
 able tract of land near Huntsville as a permanent home. When 
 the convention was organized at Huntsville, Mr. Clay appeared 
 as one of the delegates from the county of Madison. An active 
 and assiduous member to its close, he was appointed chairman of 
 the committee of fifteen to prepare and report a plan of govern- 
 ment, and in that capacity brought forward a paper containing 
 the main features of the constitution as it was originally adopted. 
 When the convention terminated he resolved to devote himself 
 exclusively to the practice of his profession and to planting; but 
 in December, 1819, before he had completed his thirtieth year, he 
 was elected, without opposition, one of the judges of the circuit 
 court. When the judges assembled at Cahawba, in May, 1820, 
 although he was several years younger than any other one on 
 the bench, he was elected by his associates the first chief justice 
 of the State of Alabama. As judge he served more than four 
 years, when he resigned, in December, 1823, to resume the prac- 
 tice of his profession. 
 
 On his return to the bar Judge Clay re-entered upon the 
 practice of his profession with his accustomed assiduity, energy 
 and talents, and immediately obtained a highly lucrative busi- 
 ness. But in 1828 he was elected to the legislature by the 
 people of Madison, to advance their interests in the grant of four 
 hundred thousand acres of land made by Congress for the im- 
 provement of the navigation of the Tennessee river. On his 
 arrival at Tuscaloosa, then the seat of government, he was 
 elected Speaker of the House of Representatives without opposi- 
 tion. He performed the high and responsible duties of that post 
 during the unusually long and exciting session of 1828-9 in a 
 manner very satisfactory to the house. He participated in the 
 debates upon the most important questions, and earned a rep- 
 utation as an able legislator. Upon his return to Huntsville 
 his friends placed him in nomination for Congress. Captain 
 Nicholas Davis, who had been a member of the Senate, and its 
 
650 HI8T0EY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 president, was his opponent. The canvass was a most exciting 
 one. Each candidate had numerous active and influential 
 friends. The district then consisted of the counties of Madison, 
 Jackson, Limestone, Lauderdale and Lawrence. In Jackson and 
 the eastern part of Madison the ptibhc lands had never been 
 offered for sale, and the great question was whether the right of 
 pre-emption should be given to the pioneers. The government 
 of the United States had sold all the lands in the other counties 
 of the district in 1818-19-20 under the credit system, which 
 then prevailed, at such enormous prices as, under the change 
 brought about by the reduced price of cotton, rendered many 
 unable, and nearly all the original purchasers, unwilling, to 
 pay for them. Consequently, nearly all the lands in those coun- 
 ties had been relinquished and forfeited, including, in many in- 
 stances, the dwelling-houses, gin-houses and other improvements, 
 and the question was whether adequate relief should be obtained 
 for the former purchaserSj and those holding under them. Judge 
 Clay and Captain Davis were both advocates of pre-emption 
 rights to the settlers on public lands, and relief to the unfortu- 
 nate purchasers, who had relinquished or forfeited. Judge Clay, 
 the successful candidate, took his seat in Congress in December, 
 1829, and devoted his best energies to the accomplishment of 
 those great measures. He succeeded to his entire satisfaction, 
 and the journals of Congress show the labor and talent which he 
 employed in aiding in the passage of the " relief laws." On his 
 his return home, he was everywhere greeted with expressions of 
 praise and gratitude. 
 
 The tariff Was one of the exciting questions then agitating 
 the national councils. Judge Clay took the ground he has ever 
 occupied, in favor of a revenue tariff and ad valorem duties, and 
 delivered in Congress a creditable speech uf)on that subject. 
 In another speech, he sustained General Jackson's policy and 
 measures in opposition to the Bank of the United States and the 
 removal of the deposits. He agreed with the administration, in 
 
STATE CONVENTION. 651 
 
 the main, in regard to the tariff, and disapproved of the course 
 taken by South Carolina to nullify the tariff laws, yet he could not 
 be induced to vote for the "force bill," as it was familiarly called. 
 His re^Td ior the sovereignty and rights of the States was such 
 that he would not consent to gtve the Federal Executive addi- 
 tional power against any member of the confederacy, however 
 much he condemned her action. Judge Clay's course in Congress 
 was such that he never incurred opposition to his several re-elec- 
 tions, and in 1835 he was nominated as the democratic candidate 
 for governor. At that time Judge White was placed in nomina- 
 tion by his friends as a candidate for the presidency, in opposi- 
 tion to Van Buren. Although Judge Clay's personal preferences 
 were in favor of the claims of the former, and he would have 
 preferred him as the noniinee, he would not consent to divide the 
 democratic party, to which he belonged, and, therefore, he gave 
 his support to Van Buren. This brought out opposition to him, 
 in the person of General Enoch Parsons, but Judge Clay was 
 elected Governor in August, 1835, by the largest majority ever 
 given any candidate for that office in the State, being upwards of 
 thirteen thousand votes. He was inaugurated as governor in 
 November, 1835. 
 
 Governor Clay has been charged with inactivity, and neglect 
 of duty during the Creek war, in the spring of 1886. If we were 
 writing a history of those times, we could vindicate him in a 
 most successful manner, for we were then attached to the execu- 
 tive staff, and well remember what transpired. We cannot, how- 
 ever, refrain from remarking, that no man ever labored more as- 
 siduously to bring into the field a force sufficient to subdue the 
 hostile Indians, and no one ever evinced more willingness to af- 
 ford relief to his fellow citizens in the Creek nation, or felt for 
 them more anxiety. As soon as he learned, at Tuscaloosa, the 
 alarming condition of the settlers in the Creek nation, he ad- 
 dressed an order to Major General Benjamin Patteson, directing 
 him to bring down a force from North Alabama, to hasten to the 
 
652 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 seat of war, and to assume, the immediate command of all the 
 Alabama troops intended to be employed against the hostiles. 
 At the same time, he addressed a letter to the commandant of 
 the United States arsenal at Mount Vernon, making a requisi- 
 tion upon him for arms, munitions and tent equipage, directing 
 them to be shipped forthwith to Montgomery. At the same time, 
 he also issued an order to Brigadier-General Moore, of the Mobile 
 division, ordering him to senl troops to Eufaula, upon the Chat- 
 tahoochie. He then took a seat in the stage-coach, arrived at 
 Montgomery, and temporarily established his headquarters at 
 that place. It was during a period when provisions of all kinds 
 were scarce and exorbitantly high, — when the whole country 
 had run mad, with speculations — and when even the elements 
 were in commotion — tornadoes prostrating trees across the high- 
 ways, and heavy rains swelling every stream and sweeping off 
 every bridge. Yet, in spite of these things, he assembled a large 
 force from North Alabama, from West Alabama, and from South 
 Alabama. He caused a great quantity of arms, tent equipage 
 and ammunition to be brought up the river from the arsenal at 
 Mount Vernon. He made the most judicious arrangements with 
 highly responsible contractors, who sent forward from New Or- 
 leans and M^obile an abundance of subsistence for the army. To 
 meet some pressing necessities, he sold his own bill of exchange 
 to the Bank of l\Iontgomery for the sum of twenty-five thousand 
 dollars. He exerted himself, in gaining over to our side many 
 of the prominent Chiefs. Opottleoholo and eleven principal 
 Chiefs came down to Montgomery by his invitation, to whom he 
 made an ingenious appeal in the ball-room of the Montgomery 
 Hall in the presence of Colonel James E. Belser, Colonel John A. 
 Campbell, Colonel George W. Gayle and the author — who were 
 his aids — and General Patteson, with his staff, among whom 
 were Major J. J. Donegan, Major Withers, and others, who, at 
 this moment, are not recollected. Opothleoholo responded in a 
 
STATE CONVENTION. 653 
 
 " talk " of an hour's length. He concluded, by tendering to 
 Governor Clay his services and those of his people. 
 
 In short, an army of near three thousand men was organized, 
 who reached the Creek nation by the time that General Jessup, 
 who had been sent by the Federal Government to assume the 
 command, arrived there. 
 
 In June, 1837, Governor Clay was elected to the United 
 States Senate, without oppositibn, and shortly afterwards re- 
 signed the gubernatorial office. He took his seat in the Senate 
 in September, 1837, (an extra sebsion) and served the four suc- 
 ceeding regular sessions, and the extra session of 1841. The 
 journals of the Senate contain evidences of his talent and indus- 
 try. In consequence of the ill-health of his family, he resigned 
 his seat in the Senate. 
 
 Governor Clay is of medium size. He is erect in figure, 
 and walks with elasticity, presenting but few of the marks of 
 age. His eyes are of a dark brown color, expressive and pene- 
 trating, and are ever in motion. Nothing escapes his obsprva- 
 tion ; and while conversing with you, even upon a topic highly 
 interesting to him, it is his custom frequently to cast his eyes 
 upon some one who has entered the room, or who is passing the 
 streets, and then upon you. He tells an anecdote well, and is an 
 agreeable companion. He is a brave man, and is exceedingly 
 punctual and honorable in all the relations of life. 
 
 Nicholas Davis, a member of the convention from the county 
 of Limestone, will next be noticed. He was born on the 2Bd of 
 April, 1781, in Hanover county, Virginia, in a region of country 
 familiarly called the " Slashes," where, also, the great orator of 
 Kentucky first saw the light. He descended from the Davis and 
 Ragland families, whose names are preserved in the archives of 
 Virginia, as among the earliest settlers of Ybrktown. He was 
 educated in the same county, and partly in the same school, with 
 Henry Clay. 
 
 Captain Davis never studied any profession, but has been all 
 
654 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 his life a farmer. He removed to Alabama in March, 1817, and 
 established himself at " Walnut Grove," in the county of Lime- 
 stone, where he has resided ever since. After the termination of 
 the convention, he was elected a member of the first legislature 
 of Alabama, which sat at Huntsville in the fall of 1819. In 1820 
 he was again a member, at Cahawba, where the legislature was 
 permanently established. The people of Limestone placed him 
 in the Senate in 1821, and when he arrived at Cahawba, in the 
 beginning of the winter, he was selected to preside over that 
 body. His impartiality, honesty, firmness, talents and efficiency, 
 caused him to be continued in the office of President of the Sen- 
 ate for the period of ten years. 
 
 In the preceding memoir, we have alluded to the Congres- 
 sional canvass in which Captain Davis was engaged in the sum- 
 mer of 1829. It was exceedingly spirited. Governor Clay found 
 him to be a truly honorable and liberal competitor, but a very 
 formidable one. Everywhere Captain Davis met him upon the 
 stump, and exhibited decided evidences of a flrst-rate popular 
 speaker. At that period. Captain Davis was a man in the prime 
 of life, of commanding person, vigorous constitution, and an 
 honest and generous heart. Possessing a handsome and expres- 
 sive countenance, beaming with intelligence, and a clear and dis- 
 tinct voice, he might have been pointed out as one of the noblest 
 specimens -of an intelligent yeomanry. He was defeated for Con- 
 gress, as we have seen^ although every man in the district who 
 voted against him was ready to acknowledge that, as a represent- 
 ative, he would have been honest, faithful and efficient ; but 
 the early opposition which he made to General Jackson in ISTorth 
 Alabama has served to build up a barrier to his political suc- 
 cess. 
 
 The whig party of Alabama, upon whose list the name 
 of Nicholas Davis has ever been among the first and most 
 prominent, placed him upon the electoral ticket in the mem- 
 orable contest between Van Buren and Harrison. Again, when 
 
STATE CONVENTION. 655 
 
 Clay and Polk were candidates for the presidency, Captain^ 
 Davis was one of the whig electors, and frequently addressed 
 the people of North Alabama upon that occasion, in a zealous and 
 eloquent manner, sometimes imploring them, even with tears in 
 his eyes, to vote for the whig candidate ! It was a fine theme 
 for this gentleman, which at once brought out all his warm and 
 generous feelings, emanating from the recollections of his youth, 
 and the unbounded admiration which be had ever since enter- 
 tained for Henry Clay. 
 
 His party supported him for the office of Governor of Ala- 
 bama against the Honorable John Gayle, but the democratic 
 party being greatly in the ascendancy, the latter prevailed over 
 him. When the Honorable Reuben Chapman was nominated by 
 the democratic convention for governor, the whigs again sup- 
 ported Captain Davis for that office, and he was again defeated 
 from the same cause. 
 
 As a legislator. Captain Davis was exceedingly sensible, and 
 useful. He manifested much firmness in his opposition to the 
 State Bank and its branches. He always preferred well regu- 
 Inted stock banks. 
 
 Captain Davis is large and well proportioned. His eyes are 
 deep blue, very expressive, and indicative of benevolence, or much 
 of the " milk of human kindness." He is a man of great energy 
 of character, and is remarkable for his physical strength and in- 
 dustrious habits. He has ever been a patron of the turf. His 
 horses have run at New Orleans, Nashville, Mobile, and through 
 the South generally. He was present at the celebrated contest 
 between the horses of Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, and James 
 Jackson, of North Alabama, at Huntsville. 
 
 Captain Davis still lives at " Walnut Grove^" esteemed and 
 respected by all classes and parties. Many refined and intelligent 
 gentlemen in Huntsville and its vicinity, and other portions of 
 North Alabama, deem it their imperative, but most pleasing duty, 
 to pay him two long visits every year. Often Ms. large old log- 
 
656 HISTOBY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 house, which he erected when he first came to Alabama, and 
 which he venerates so much that he would not exchange it for a 
 palace, contains forty or fifty visitors at one time, who, for days 
 together, are entertained by his agreeable conversation, fed, from 
 his abundant table, and delighted with the survey of his exten- 
 sive groves, rich fields, happy negroes, fine blooded horses, and 
 sleek and well formed cattle. 
 
 Eeuben Saffold was born in Wilkes county, Georgia, on the 
 4Lh September, 1788. He received such an education as was 
 usually imparted at a common academy, where he made some 
 
 proficiency in the Latin language. He studied law with 
 
 Paine, of Watkinsville, Clarke county, Georgia, and in that place 
 he entered upon the practice of his profession. In the spring of 
 1811, he married Mary Phillips, daughter of Colonel Joseph 
 Phillips, then of Morgan county, Georgia, who soon after re- 
 moved to the southern part of Alabama. 
 
 Mr. Saffold, in the spring of 1813, established himself at the 
 town of Jackson, situated upon the Tombigby river, then in the 
 Mississippi Territory. Soon, thereafter, the Indian war broke 
 out, and he at once became actively engaged in the protection 
 of a suffering people and an exposed frontier. Holding 
 at the time the rank of colonel in the militia, he nevertheless 
 raised a company of sixty volunteers, and, as their captain, 
 scoured the thickets from the mouth to the head of the Perdido 
 river, upon which occasion several Indians were killed, while 
 others were driven to the more remote parts of Florida. But 
 before he made this tour he had been a participant, as a private, 
 in the battle of Burnt Corn, and was one of those who fought 
 bravely and retreated among the last. During these early times 
 he was also a member of the legislature of the Mississippi Terri- 
 tory at several sessions. When peace was restored he entered 
 upon the practice of his profession, but in 1819 he was chosen a 
 member of the convention. At the session of the legislature of 
 the State of Alabama, held at Huntsville in the fall of 1819, he 
 
STATE CONVENTION. 657 
 
 was elected, without opposition, one of the circuit judges, and in 
 December of that year he removed to the residence at which he 
 died, in the county of Dallas. 
 
 Judge SafEold held the office of circuit judge, under various 
 re-elections, with distinguished ability and honor .until January, 
 1832, when the legislature authorized the organization of a sep- 
 arate Supreme Court. Then he was elected one of the three who 
 were to constitute, that court. Upon, this new theatre of judicial 
 labor he lost none of the high and deserved reputation which he 
 had acquired in the "court below." At the January term of 
 1836 Judge Lipscomb resigned the oflQce of chief justice, and 
 Judge SaflEold was selected in his place. He occupied this digni- 
 fied position until the spring of 1836, when he resigned it and 
 bid a final adieu. to the bench, having held the ofQce of judge for 
 more than sixteen years. The reports of the Supreme Court of 
 Alabama are enduring memorials of his strength of mind, patient 
 investigation, deep research and profound learning. Before the 
 separate organization, the people of the whole State had it in 
 their power to scan his acts as a circuit jijdge. They remember 
 him to have been firm and dignified, but not austere. Wherever 
 he presided entire order and decorum prevailed, and he was 
 respected and admired by both clients and attorneys. Such, in- 
 deed, was his reputation throughout the State, and such was the 
 confidence reposed in him, that his retirement from the bench 
 was a source of public regret. When Judge Henry Goldthwaite 
 resigned his seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court, Gov- 
 ernor Fitzpatrick tendered the vacancy to Judge SafiEold, wno 
 declined it. 
 
 Judge Saffold, a few years after his resignation, resumed 
 the practice of the law, and pursued it with distinguished success 
 until his death. His political opinions, although he never sought 
 political preferment, and engaged but little in the exciting eonr 
 tests of the times, were well known. He was a democrat. He 
 was warmly devoted to the interests of the South. The firm 
 
 — 43 
 
658 HISTORY OP ALABAMA. 
 
 friend of Texan independence, he rejoiced in her annexation to 
 the United States. A devoted husband and father, it was his 
 fortune to raise a large family, and most nobly did he discharge 
 his duty to them. As a master, he was kind, merciful and just. 
 He never attached himself to any church, yet he was a firm be- 
 liever in the atonement, and was accustomed to express the confi- 
 dent hope that he had nothing to fear beyond the grave. He died 
 of apoplexy on the 15th February, 1847. He was a large man, with 
 an excellent face, and an exceedingly fine forehead. No man of 
 distinction has ever died in Alabama leaving behind more repu- 
 tation for legal ability, and for honor, justice and probity. 
 
 IsKAEL Pickens was born on the 30th January, 1780, in the 
 county of Mecklenburg, State of North Caroliua. He was the 
 second son of Captain Samuel Pickens, a gentleman of French 
 descent, who served his country in the revolutionary war against 
 the British and tories in the two Carolinas. Israel Pickens re- 
 ceived his academic education partly in South Carolina, but prin- 
 cipally at a school in Iredell county, North Carolina, and finished 
 his studies at Washington College, Pennsylvania, where he also 
 completed his law education. He returned to his native State, 
 established himself at Morganton in the practice of the law, lived 
 there many years, and occasionally represented Burke county in 
 the legislature. In 1811, he was elected to Congress from that 
 district, and continued to represent it till the year 1817. He 
 gave his vote for the war of 1812, and continued a firm sup- 
 porter of all the prominent measures of President Madison's ad- 
 ministration. Mr. Pickens removed to Alabama in 1817, and 
 settled at St. Stephens, where he practiced law, and held the post 
 of Register of the Land Office. 
 
 After thedeath of Governor Bibb, Mr. Pickens was elected 
 as his successor in 1821, and again in 1823, filling up the period 
 allotted to him by the constitution. Very soon after the expira- 
 tion of his last term as governor, a vacancy occurred in the Sen- 
 ate of the United States by the death of Dr. Chambers, and Gov- 
 ernor Pickens was appointed by the executive to fill it. A few 
 
STATE CONTENTION. 659 
 
 days after his departure to Washington city, a letter was received 
 at Greensboro conveying a commission for him as District Judge 
 of the United States for Alabama, which he declined to accept. 
 In the fall of 1826 he resigned his seat in the Senate and returned 
 home, in consequence of a serious affection of the lungs. He died 
 in the Island of Cuba on the 24th April, 1827, at the early age of 
 forty-seven years. 
 
 Governor Pickens was six feet high, very slender and erect, 
 with a fair complexion and blue eyes. In all the attributes of 
 a moral nature he was, indeed, a remarkable man. His manners 
 were easy, affable and kind — his temper mild, amiable and always 
 the same. Benevolence was a predominant trait in his charac- 
 ter. He had a finished education and talents of a high order — 
 more solid than brilliant. As a public man, he was very popular, 
 and, although mild and gentle in his deportment, no one was 
 firmer in the discharge of his public duties. He possessed extra- 
 ordinary mechanical ingenuity, and a great fondness fdr mathe- 
 matics, natural philosophy and astronomy. While a student un- 
 der Dr. Hale, of North Carolina, he invented the lunar dial, by 
 which the time of night could be ascertained by the moon. 
 While a member of Congress, the celebrated Reidheifer pretended 
 to have discovered the perpetual motion, and exhibited a model 
 in Washington city, to the inspection of which he invited the 
 members of Congress. Mr. Pickens, with many others, at- 
 tended and witnessed its performance; and being satisfied that 
 there was deception in the matter, he returned the next day and 
 gave it a more thorough examination. Finding the doors open, 
 he entered, but there was no one within. During this second 
 visit, he detected the fraud and exposed it, by inserting a card in 
 the National Intelligencer, signed "A Member of Congress.". 
 This brought forth a bitter reply from the impostor, and a re- 
 joinder from the "Member of Congress," but, iii a few days, 
 Reidheifer, model and all^ left the city never again to return.* 
 
 * A notice of James Jacksou, a member of the convention from Autauga, will be found 
 near the close of this volume. 
 
CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 The First Legislature or the State of Alabama — 
 GovBBNOE Bibb. 
 
 Asr election was held throughout the new State of Alabama 
 for a governor and members of the legislature, in anti- 
 Summer . cipation of the admission by Congress of the State as 
 of a member of the American TJnion. William W. Bibb 
 1819 received eight thousand three hundred and forty-two 
 votes for governor, and his opponent, Marmaduke 
 Williams, received seven thousand one hundred and forty. 
 
 The General. Assembly of Alabama convened at Huntsville 
 
 on the fourth Monday in October. The House of Repre- 
 
 1819 sentatives . was composed of forty-five members, and 
 
 Oct. James Dellet, of Monroe, was elected Speaker. The 
 
 . Senate had twenty-one members, and Thomas Bibb 
 
 was elected President of that body. 
 
 William W. Bibb was inaugurated as the first governor of 
 the State before both houses of the legislature, in the presence of 
 a large assemblage of citizens, to whom he made a iiandsome and 
 appropriate address. He had previously presented an excellent 
 message, in which he congratulated the .people upon the 
 Nov. 9 abundant crops which, it had pleased the Almighty to 
 afford them, the health which they had universally en- 
 joyed, and the fortunate termination of the convention., which 
 had resulted in the establishment .of an excellent constitution. 
 He brought to the attention of the legislature the subject of the 
 liberal donations by Congress in reserving for a seminary of 
 learning seventy-two sections of land — the sixteenth section in 
 
 660 
 
FIRST LBGISLATUEE OP ALABAMA GOV. BIBB. 661 
 
 every township for the use of schools— five per cent, of the net 
 proceeds of the sales of the public lands (sold after the first of 
 September, 1819) for purposed of internal improvements — and 
 sixteen hundred and twenty acres of land, at the confluence of 
 the Cahawba and Alabama rivers, for a seat of government. He 
 reported that he had laid off the town of Cahawba, and that one 
 hundred and eighty-two lots had been sold, for one hun- 
 dred and twenty-three thousand eight hundred and 1819 
 lifty-six dollars — one-fourth of which, received in cash, Nov. 9 
 had been deposited in the Planters' and Merchants' 
 Bank of Hunts ville, to be expended in the erection of a tern-, 
 porary State-house, which was then under contract. The mes- 
 sage concluded by recommending a revision of the statutes, the 
 organization of the judicial department, the election of judges, 
 and the appointment by law of an engineer to examine the 
 rivers, who was to report in what manner their navigation might 
 be improved. 
 
 The legislature proceeded to elect two Senators of the 
 United States. William R. King and John W. Walker were 
 elected upon the first ballot, over Thomas D. Crabb and George 
 Phillips. 
 
 During the session of the legislature. General Jackson visited 
 Huntsville with his horses, and was enthusiastically en- 
 gaged in the sports of the turf, then an amusement in- Session 
 dulged in by- the highest classes. Colonel Howell Rose, of 1819 
 a Senator from the county of Autauga, was also at 
 Huntsville. Colonel Rose was then a young man of indomitable 
 energy and fearless spirit, and possessed a native intellect of re- 
 markable vigor and strength. He was ardent in his attachment 
 to Jackson, and was the first to propose resolutions approbatory 
 of his valuable services to the State performed during the late 
 Creek and Seminole wars. Colonel Rose introduced joint resolu- 
 tions of this character, together with one inviting the general to 
 a seat within the bar both of the House and the Senate on all 
 
662 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 occasions when it should be his pleasure to attend those bodies, 
 which were adopted. Colonel Rose, at the head of a committee, 
 waited upon Jackson, with a copy of the resolutions, to which 
 the latter replied in a letter full of the liveliest gratitude. Since 
 that interesting occasion Colonel Rose has from time to time 
 performed valuable services to the State, as a member of the 
 General Assembly. He is a wealthy citizen of the county of 
 Coosa. His mind, naturally one of the richest in the country, 
 and improved by self-instruction, is still vigorous and clear, 
 while his agreeable eccentricity of manner, and original ideas and 
 sayings, engage the attention of all who are thrown in his way. 
 His colloquial powers are of a very high as well as of a very pe- 
 culiar order. He delivers his views with force and energy, and is 
 never at a loss for a spicy repa,rtee. While he was addressing 
 the members of the legislature, he never failed to engage their 
 attention. Colonel Rose was born in North Carolina, removed 
 from thence to Georgia, and emigrated to Alabama soon after the 
 Creek war. 
 
 So soon as the judicial circuits were organized, the legisla- 
 ture proceeded to elect oflflcers. Henry Hitchcock, the former 
 Territorial Secretary, was elected Attorney -General over John 
 S. N. Jones and D. Sullivan. Abner S. Lipscomb was elected 
 Judge of the First Judicial Circuit over Harry Toulmin ; Reuben 
 SafEold, Judge of the second without opposition ; Henry Y. Webb, 
 Judge of the third without opposition ; Richard Ellis, Judge of 
 the fourth over Beverly Hughes and John McKinley ; Clement 
 C. Clay, Judge of the fifth without opposition. 
 
 John Gayle we^s elected Solicitor of the First Judicial Cir- 
 cuit without opposition ; Constantine Perkins, of the third, over 
 Sion L. Perry ; Peter Martin, of the fourth, without opposition ; 
 James Eastland, of the fifth, over James W. McClung and Pola- 
 dore Naylor. 
 
 The legislature was exceedingly anxious to see the laws en- 
 forced ; and, for that purpose, selected magistrates from among 
 
FIRST LEGISLATUSB OF ALABAMA GOV. BIBB. 663 
 
 the most respectable and promiDent men. throughout the State. 
 They discharged the same duties which the Judges of the County 
 Courts had done previous to the adoption of the present Probate 
 system, and as was the practice of Virginia. A few of those 
 now selected must be mentioned merely to show the determina- 
 tion of our then infant State, to give tone and dignity to the 
 administration of the laws, even in inferior courts. For the 
 county of Autauga, for instance, John A. Elmore, John Arm- 
 strong, Robert Gaston, James Jackson and William R. Pickett 
 were elected magistrates. 
 
 General John A. Elmore, one of these justices, was a native 
 of South Carolina, of the legislature of which State he had often 
 been a respectable member. Not long after his removal to Ala- 
 bama, he represented the county of Autauga in our legislature, 
 which then sat at Cahawba. He was a man of firmness and 
 much good sense, and always delivered his opinions, even in com- 
 mon conversation, in a distinct and loud voice, with that candor 
 and honesty which characterized his conduct through life. He ' 
 had a commanding appearance, was large in person, and, alto- 
 gether, an exceedingly fine looking man. He delighted in the 
 sports of the chase, being a most successful and spirited hunter, 
 and an agreeable companion in the many camp-hunts in which 
 he engaged with his neighbors and friends. Towards the close - 
 of his life, we remember that he presented a dignified and vener- 
 able appearance, and we saw him preside as chairman of several , 
 large and exciting meetings in the town of Montgomery during 
 the days of nullification. 
 
 Jambs Jackson, another of these magistrates, was boin in 
 the county of Wilkes, Georgia. He had been a man of influ- 
 ence in that region. Upon his arrival, in 1818, in the Terri- 
 tory of Alabama, he immediately ranked with the leading men 
 of the county of Autauga. He was elected a member of the 
 State convention, and assisted to give us the excellent con- 
 stitution we now have. Afterwards, Mr. Jackson was several 
 
664 
 
 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 times an active and influential metnber of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives and of the Senate of the State of Alabama. He died 
 the 19th July, 1832, at his residence in Autauga, within a few 
 miles of that of General Elmore, who also died about that period. 
 Mr. Jackson was a man for whom nature had done much. Al- 
 though raised upon the frontiers of Georgia;, among a rude popu- 
 lation, and thrown upon the world with but little means and 
 still less education, he was decidedly elegant in conversation and 
 polite and polished in his manners. He had the faculty of adapt- 
 ing himself to all classes. In person he was of medium size, his 
 face was handsome and expressive, and, when meeting a friend, 
 was generally enlivened with a smile. He was a most excellent 
 and liberal neighbor. Smooth and fluent in conversation, and 
 conciliating in his general views, he was a most delightful fire- 
 side companion. He was shrewd and sagacious, and a close and 
 correct observer of human nature., 
 
 The author, being the son of William R. Pickett, another 
 of the Autauga magistrates, is relieved from the delicate task of 
 portraying his character by copying the following obituary, writ- 
 ten by a friend for the gazettes : 
 
 " Colonel William Raiford Pickett died at his residence, in 
 Autauga county, on the 20th September, 1850, aged seventy-three 
 years. Colonel Pickett was born in Anson county, North Caro- - 
 Una, upon the Pedee river, where his parents, James Pickett and 
 Martha Terry, had removed some time before the revolutionary 
 war from their place of nativity, near Boiling Green, in Caroline 
 county, Virginia. Their ancestors, whose extraction was Scotch, 
 English and French, were among the earliest colonists of Vir- 
 ginia. 
 
 "Soon after he became of age Colonel Pickett filled the post 
 of sheriff of Anson county, and was afterwards elected to the 
 legislature, which sat at Raleigh, where he served for several 
 years. When the federal revenue was collected by direct taxa- 
 tion, he received from Mr. Madison, then President, the appoint- 
 
FIRST LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA GOV. BIBB. 
 
 665 
 
 ment of assessor and collector for a large district in North Caro- 
 lina, the arduous and responsible duties of which he discharged 
 to the end with zeal and fidelity. 
 
 "In the spring of 1818 he brought his family out to this 
 country, and established himself as a planter and merchant in 
 the present Autauga county, which then formed a portion of the 
 county of Montgomery. Two years before this early period he 
 had' explored these southwestern wilds, in company with his 
 near relative and friend, Tod Robinson, encountering dangers 
 and hardships incident upon the close of a sanguinary war with 
 the Creeks. 
 
 "When the legislature of Alabama sat at Cahawba, Colonel 
 Pickett took his seat in that body in 1821. In 1823 he was a 
 member, and again in 1824, which term closed his duties in the 
 Lower House. In 1828 he was elected to the State Senate, and 
 entered that body in the -fall of that year at Tuscaloosa, then 
 the capital of Alabama. He was a Senator for the period of 
 five years, when, in the summer of 1834, he was beaten for 
 that position by Colonel Broadnax, during an exceedingly high 
 state of party excitement, the election turning solely upon 
 party grounds, and many of his old friends voting against him 
 with much reluctance. In his legislative career, he was an active 
 and very influential member, and was the originator of many 
 salutary laws, some of which are still in force. In the meantime, 
 he was three times placed upon the democratic electoral ticket 
 for President and Vice-President, afid each time received over- 
 whelming majorities. 
 
 " He was a man of sterling honor and integrity, and, per- 
 haps, no one ever si)rpassed him in disinterested benevolence and 
 charity, for he not only supported the poor and destitute around 
 him, butfreely dispensed to those upon the highway. In person, 
 he was large, erect and commanding, with a face beaming with 
 intelligence, a forehead bold and lofty, and eyes brilliant and ex- 
 pressive, to the la§t moments of his existence. He was peculiarly 
 
666 HISTOET OF ALABAMA. 
 
 remarkable for his wit and originality, and the risible faculties 
 of more men have been aroused, while in his company, than in 
 that of almost any other person. And even to this day, in North 
 Carolina, though thirty-two years have transpired since he left 
 that State, his original sayings and anecdotes are often repeated. 
 No man ever received more attention, during his protracted 
 illness, from those in his immediate neighborhood, who deeply 
 mourn his departure from their midst. Persons from all parts of 
 the country visited him in his affliction." 
 
 The legislature of Alabama, during its session at Huntsville, 
 enacted many salutary laws, and judiciously arranged the dis- 
 tricts. Six new counties were established, and were added to 
 
 those already organized. They were Greene, Jefferson, 
 Session Perry, Henry, Wilcox and Butler. Wilcox was named 
 of 1819 in honor of the lieutenant, who, in 1814, was killed by 
 
 the Indians upon the Alabama river, as we have seen, 
 and Butler in memory of the captain, who was also killed by the 
 Indians, near Fort Dale, on the 20th March, 1818. The legisla- 
 ture adjourned on the 17th December, 1819.* 
 
 The land offices at Milledgeville and Huntsville were in active 
 
 operation. Extensive surveys had been completed, 
 1819-20 sales had been everywhere proclaimed, and thousands 
 
 of eager purchasers flocked into the country from every 
 Atlantic and Western State. Never before or since, did the pop- 
 ulation of any State so rapidly increase as that of Alabama from 
 the period of 1820 until 1830. 
 
 No sooner had the flourishing State of Alabama been 
 thoroughly organized, than the citizens were called upon to 
 mourn the death of their first governor. Riding in the forest 
 one day, the horse of Governor Bibb fell with him to the ground, 
 and he then received an injury from which he never recovered. 
 He died at his residence, in the county of Autauga, in July, 1820, 
 in the fortieth year of his age— calm, collected, peaceful — sur- 
 rounded by numerous friends and relations. 
 
 * state Archives. 
 
FIRST LEGISI.ATUBB OP ALABAMA — GOV. BIBB. 667 
 
 Governor Bibb was five feet ten inches in height, with an 
 erect but delicate frame. He was exceedingly easy and graceful 
 in his bearing. His interesting face bore the marks of deep 
 thought and great intelligence. His eyes, of a dark color, 
 were mild, yet expressive. Whether thrown into the company 
 of the rude or the refined, his language was pure and chaste. 
 No one ever lived, either in Georgia or Alabama, who was treated 
 with a greater degree of respect by all classes. This was owing 
 to his high moral character, unsyrpassed honor, excellent judg- 
 ment, and a very high order of talents. Entirely free from that 
 dogmatism and those patronizing airs which characterize many 
 of our distinguished men, he invariably treated the opinions of 
 the humblest citizen with courtesy and respect. He was, how- 
 ever, a man of firmness, s,waying the minds of men with great 
 success, and governing by seeming to obey. 
 
 In all the stations which he filled, Governor Bibb was emi^ 
 nently successful. When quite a young man his skill and atten- 
 tion as a physician, in the then flourishing town of Petersburg, 
 Georgia, secured for him an extensive practice. He next went 
 into the legislature from Elbert county, and, serving four years 
 in that body, acquired a popularity rarely attained by one of his 
 age. At the early age of twenty-five he was elected to Congress 
 under the General Ticket System, by a vote so large as to leave 
 no doubt but that he was a great favorite with the people. He 
 immediately became a leading member of the Lower House of the 
 National Legislature — was an able and fearless advocate of the 
 war of 1812, and a conscientious supporter of the administration 
 of Madison. His contemporaries, at his first election, were BoUr 
 ing Hall, George M. Troup and Howell Cobb. He had not been 
 long in Congress before his popularity caused him to come within 
 a few votes of being elected to the ofiQce of Speaker of the House. 
 Afterwards the legislature of Georgia elected him to the Senate 
 of the United States. He was thus a member of Congress from 
 1806 until 1816, when, as we have seen in the preceding pages, 
 
668 HISTORY OF ALABAMA. 
 
 he was appointed by the President, Governor of Alabama Terri- 
 tory, and was afterwards elected by the people Governor of the 
 State of Alabama. In reference to his Congressional career, we 
 have often heard, from the lips of many of his distinguished con- 
 temporaries, that the practical order of his mind, the wisdom of 
 his views, and the peculiar music of his voicp, contributed to 
 render him one of the most attractive and effective of speakers. 
 
 When Governor Bibb first established himself as a physician 
 he married Mary, only daughter of Colonel Holman Freeman, of 
 revolutionary memory, and then a citizen of Wilkes county. She 
 was one of the most beautiful and accomplished ladies of her 
 day, and has ever been esteemed and admired by the early inhab- 
 itants of Alabama. She is now residing in the county of Dallas, 
 in the enjoyment of fine health. Governor Bibb left two chil- 
 dren by this lady — a son and a daughter. The latter, the late 
 Mrs. Alfred V. Scott, who died some years ago, was much like 
 her father in the mildness of her disposition, the grace and ease 
 of her manners, and the intellectual beauty of her face. 
 
 After the death of Governor Bibb his brother, Thomas Bibb, 
 who was President of the Senate, became the acting governor. 
 He was a man of strong mind and indomitable energy. 
 
 In the preceding pages we have alluded to the mother of 
 Governor Bibb. She was one of the most remarkable women 
 we ever knew, for energy, decision, and superior sense. When 
 Captain Bibb, her husband, died, he left her with eight children, 
 and an estate much embarrassed by debt. Benajah, the ninth 
 child, was boi n a few months after the death of his father. Mrs. 
 Bibb worked the estate out of debt — educated her children, and 
 lived to see them all in aiHuenoe, and many of them enjoying 
 oflftces of honor and profit. She was known to the early inhabi- 
 tants, of Alabama, by whom she was much esteemed, as Mrs. 
 Barnett, having married a gentleman of that name. Thomas 
 Bibb resembled his mother more than any of the children, in the 
 native strength of his mmd and the energy of his character. 
 
FIRST LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA GOV. BIBB. 669 
 
 The memory of Governor William Wyatt Bibb is preserved in 
 the name of a county in Georgia, and one in Alabama. 
 
 But here we lay down our pen. The early history of Ala- 
 bama, as far as it rests in our hands, is ended, and our task is 
 accomplished. To some other person, fonder than we are of the 
 dry details of State legislation and fierce party spirit, we leave 
 the task of bringing the history down to a later period. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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