An Account of the Cheerake Nation. 245
before he could have proceeded through the Cheerake country, gratifying the inquifitive difpofidon of the people, as he went, and quieting the jealous minds of the inhabitants of thofe towns, who are fettled among the Apa- lahche mountains, and thofe feven towns, in particular, that lie beyond them. He neither fent before, nor carried with him, any prefents where with to foothe the natives ; and his kind promifes, and fmooth fpeeches, would have weighed exceedingly light in the Indian fcale.
Having fhewn the bad (late of our affairs among the remotefl parts of the Cheerake country, and the caufes. I (hall now relate their plea, for commencing war againft the Britim\ colonies ; and the great danger we were expofed to by the incefiant intrigues of the half-favage French garri- fons, in thofe hot times, when all our northern barriers were fo prodigioufly harrafled. Several companies of the Cheerake, who joined our forces un der General Stanwix at the unfortunate Ohio, affirmed that their alienation from us, was becaufe they were confined to our martial arrangement, by tinjuft fufpicion of them were very much contemned, and half ftarved at the main camp : their hearts told them therefore to return home, as freemen and injured allies, though without a fupply of provifions. This they did, and pinching hunger forced them to take as much as barely fupported nature, when returning to their own country. In their journey, the German inhabitants, without any provocation, killed in cool blood about forty of their warriors, in different places though each party was under the command of a Britim fubjeft. They fcalped all, and butchered feveral, after a mod mocking manner, in imitation of the barbarous war-cuftom of the favages ; fome who efcaped the carnage, returned at night, to fee their kindred and war-companions, and reported their fate. Among thofe who were thus treated, fome were leading men, which had a dangerous ten dency to difturb the public quiet.. We were repeatedly informed, by pub lic accounts, that thofe murderers were fo audacious as to impofe the fcalps on the government for thofe of French Indians ; and that they ac tually obtained the premium allowed at that time by law in fuch a cafe. Although the vindictive difpofition of Indians in general, impetuoufly forces them on in queft of equal revenge for blood, without the leaft thought of confequences ; yet as a mifunderftanding had fubfifted fome time, between feveral diftant towns, and thofe who chanced to lofe their peo ple in Virginia, the chiefs of thofe families being afraid of a civil war,
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