Lineage of Alexander McGillivray.—His Education—Made Grand Chief—His Connection with Milfort—His Relations with William Panton—His Administration of Creek Affairs—Appointed Colonel by the British—Treaty with Spain—Commissioned Colonel by the Spanish—Invited to New York by Washington—Treaty—Commissioned a Brigadier-General by the United States—His Sister, Sophia Durant—His Trials—His Death at Pensacola.

The people who have been called Creeks in previous pages, received that name after their settlement in Alabama and Georgia; a name, it is said, they derived from the number and beauty of the streams or creeks of the country they inhabited. Before that they were known as Muscogees according to English, and Othomis or Otomies, according to Castilian orthography.

Their original seat was in northern Mexico. They were a warlike and independent tribe, which, though lacking the comparative civilization of the Aztecs and the Tlascalans, had yet received some rays of its light. They had been confederates of the latter in their conflicts for existence with the former. They had afterwards aided in the defence of Tlascala against Cortez. Surviving warriors, however, carried back to their people such accounts of that field of slaughter, and the prowess of the foe, who seemed to be armed with supernatural weapons, that the tribe became panic-stricken, and in a council, resolved upon a flight beyond the reach of the invincible invader. The determination was promptly put into execution.

The entire tribe, bearing off its movable effects, took its line of march in an easterly course. After a journey which consumed many months, they found themselves on the head waters of Red river. Reaching that river, and following it, they at length found a suitable place for a settlement, where they felt they were sufficiently remote from the terrible foe who had inspired their flight. There they accordingly established themselves, and remained for several years. Abandoning that settlement, they proceeded northward to the Missouri, thence to the Mississippi, and from there moved to the Ohio. That progress, however, was not by a continuous march, but by periodic advances, interrupted by settlements more or less long, and marked by conflicts with other tribes, in which, according to their traditions, they were always victorious.

They must have been living on the banks of the Ohio, when Soto made his devastating march through the Creek country which was afterwards to be their home. There they must have been likewise, when de Luna made his explorations, and noted the sparseness of population, and abandoned fields as before narrated; or, perhaps, they were then making one of their intermittent advances southward, which were to bring them eventually to the Coosa, Tallapoosa, and Chattahoochee.

Like other Mexican tribes, the Muscogees were divided into septs or fratries, the most notable of them being those of the Ho-tal-gee, or the Wind, the Tiger, the Bear, and the Eagle. In the first, however, resided the primacy, or hegemony of the tribe.

The traditions of their Mexican origin and emigration, collected by Le Clerc Milfort under the most favorable conditions, as will be seen hereafter, are fortified by their form of government, with its dual executive for civil and military affairs; their glimmer of civilization, as well as their federative tendency.

Soon after their settlement in the Creek country, they are found absorbing other tribes; not by enslavement or incorporation, but as confederates. They had their national councils, composed of the principal chiefs of the confederacy, and suitable buildings at fixed places for their accommodation. The head of the confederacy for civil affairs was the Grand Chief, as the Tustenuggee, or Great Warrior, was for war. They also had Town Governments, the Chief of each being the Micco, an elective officer, and not a King, as often misrepresented. Each town had its council house, in which local affairs were administered.

The Grand Chief of the Muscogees held the position, and exercised the functions which recent criticism has assigned to Montezuma, as the head of the Aztec confederacy, to whom the Spaniards erroneously gave the title, and attributed the powers of an emperor, in accordance with their own habits of thought, as the subjects of an emperor.

The Indian trade that existed between the Creeks and the Atlantic coast, which has already been mentioned, was an inviting field to cupidity and enterprise, and many were the young adventurers from the old world who engaged in it soon after their landing at Charleston or Savannah. Some of them, too, fascinated by the wild life of the forest, made themselves homes in the Creek nation, and found wives amongst the Creek maidens, who in form, feature and habits, were superior to those of other tribes.

Amongst those adventurous spirits was Lachlan McGillivray, a youth of good Scotch family, of Dumglass, Scotland. A few years found him a successful trader. On one of his visits to the Hickory Ground, a prominent Creek town on the Coosa, situated near the present site of Wetumpka, Alabama, he became acquainted with Sehoy Marchand, a young woman whose mother was a full blood of the Ho-tal-gee, or Wind family, and whose father was a French captain who had been murdered by mutineers at Fort Toulouse, a few miles from Hickory Ground. That meeting resulted in marriage. Shortly afterward, McGillivray made a home, and established a trading house, not far from where he had first met his Indian wife.

Of that marriage, Alexander McGillivray was the first born, Sophia the next, and Jenette the third.

The father became exceedingly prosperous, partly in consequence of his alliance with the chief family of the Creeks, and in a few years found himself the owner of two plantations on the Savannah river. His trading journeys, however, still had their attractions for him. When Alexander was fourteen years old he induced his wife to let the boy go with him to Charleston, and remain there to be educated. After having been instructed sufficiently for the purpose, he was placed in a counting-house; but having acquired a taste for learning, that occupation became intolerable to him. His father, accordingly, determined to yield to the bent of the boy’s mind, and found him a highly educated teacher in a clergyman of Charleston. With that assistance, and sedulous application, he became a Greek and Latin scholar, and besides, made rapid and extensive progress in other departments of knowledge. He appears to have been a student up to the age of thirty, which he reached about the year 1776. In that year he left Charleston, an educated man, to return to his people, whom he, a little semi-savage of fourteen, had left sixteen years before. The impelling motive to that movement probably was, that being like his father, a loyalist, residence in a rebel colony was no longer agreeable. Possibly, however, he had purposely deferred his return to the Indian nation until he had arrived at such an age as would justify him in looking to the position of Grand Chief. But, be that as it may, the time for his return was judiciously chosen, and consistently with that sagacity which characterized his whole life, of acting opportunely in all exigencies.

The white settlers of Georgia were beginning to press through what the Creeks claimed as their frontier; and to that pressure was added the hostility engendered by the revolution, now in its second year, against any semblance of favor to the enemies of the patriotic cause. The West Florida-English and their government were on the most friendly terms with the Creeks; and that in itself was sufficient to beget hostility to the latter on the part of the Whigs of Georgia and the Carolinas. This was a new and complex condition of things to the Creeks, presenting questions for solution with which their great council felt its inability to deal. To whom could they look for guidance? They knew no disinterested advice could come from the government at Pensacola, and it would be folly to seek counsel from the Georgians, who regarded them as enemies because they desired to be neutrals, living in peace between hostile communities, engaged in a conflict in which the Indian could feel no interest.

It was just at this juncture that Alexander McGillivray found himself amongst his people. Long and impatiently had they awaited the advent of the representative of the Ho-tal-gee, the grand chieftain, who for so many years had been studying that wisdom of the white man, which made him the Indian’s superior; that wisdom which now acquired by him, was to be exercised for the salvation of his people. Great, therefore, was the satisfaction produced the advent of such a disinterested counselor and guide.

He is hardly well within the nation before a grand council is called at Coweta, on the Chattahoochee, over which he was to preside, and formally assume the hegemony of the Ho-tal-gee.

To a thoughtful mind there is a pathos in this scene which appeals to every generous nature! It comes like the despairing appeal of infancy to manhood for help! It is the ignorance of the savage stretching out its supplicating hands to the white man’s wisdom as his only refuge.

One of the most striking powers which McGillivray possessed, was his ability to win and retain the childlike confidence of his people, and thereby exercise boundless control over them. He was not a soldier, or a man of blood, in any sense of the term. He was essentially a statesman and a diplomat. The conquests of peace only had any fascination for him. His ambition was to save and civilize his people. That such a man should bend to his will in the paths of peace a numerous population of warlike savages, to whom the war-whoop was music, and scalping the most inviting pastime, is a domination over brute instincts of which history contains very few examples.

A remarkable instance of that influence occurred shortly after the council at Coweta. He there made the acquaintance of Le Clerc Milfort, mentioned in a previous page; an adventurous Frenchman, highly educated, and possessing military qualities of no ordinary kind, as well as bodily strength and endurance equal to any exertion. Their mental culture was a mutual attraction.

Milfort went with him from Coweta to Hickory Ground, the home of McGillivray’s childhood, where his mother and his sisters Sophia and Jenette were living. He at once entered into Creek life, and united his fortunes with McGillivray’s. The bright eyes of Jenette were not long in winning Milfort’s heart, nor was there much delay in his winning hers. They were married. By the marriage he acquired great consideration amongst the Creeks.

As previously remarked, McGillivray was not a soldier himself; but as a wise ruler, he felt the necessity of having an able commander in war, when the exigency for it arose. Moreover, his policy as a civilized ruler, was to have war conducted by a civilized leader, who might by his example and influence, control the brutal instincts of his savage forces. Milfort was the man for the place. An obstacle to his appointment, seemingly insuperable, however, existed. The office of Tustenuggee was an honor to which the Indian braves looked as the highest attainable; and presumptively, they would refuse their consent that this coveted prize should be conferred upon a stranger. But, that stranger had married a Ho-tal-gee, and it was the wish of the Grand Chief that he should receive it. It was, accordingly, conferred upon Milfort with the sanction of the tribe.

McGillivray soon attracted the attention of the British government at Pensacola, as well as that of the British officers in Georgia, with whom he carried on an extensive correspondence. They at once saw that it would be impossible for him to keep the Creeks in a state of neutrality, founded, as it must be, upon good feeling for each of two bitter foes, marked by such strict impartiality of conduct as to avoid any ground of exception by either belligerent. McGillivray’s judgment soon led him to the same conclusion; a conclusion which imposed upon him the necessity of choosing one of the belligerents for the ally of his people. He, accordingly, decided in favor of a British alliance, for which the reasons were too obvious for hesitation.

The Americans could reach his people upon one frontier only, and even then their attention would be distracted by their contest with the British. The British, on the other hand, could without danger of interference, assail the Creeks from Pensacola; and in case they crushed, the Georgians would be at liberty to attack them from the east. But, although he sided with the British, it was with the secret resolution that the alliance should be maintained at the least possible sacrifice to his people. His policy was, not to permit their spirit to be broken, or their numbers diminished, by entering with their full strength into a conflict with which they had no concern. Nor would he permit them to inflict such extensive injuries upon Georgia as would be a barrier to future reconciliation.

In order to spur the Creeks to great efforts against the Americans, Tait, a British colonel, was stationed on the Coosa; and at the same time McGillivray received from the British government the commission and pay of colonel in its service. But both expedients proved ineffectual to materially change the policy the latter had adopted. Raids, it is true, were made upon the Georgians, necessarily attended by some blood-shed and rapine, but they were limited in number, character, and consequence, by the mental reservation with which McGillivray had entered into the British alliance. With that limited exertion, however, the British were fain to be content, as it was better for them than strict neutrality, and still more so than the hostility of such a powerful tribe directed against themselves.

Milfort was the commander intrusted with the expeditions against the Georgia settlements; and, doubtless, being fully aware of the conservative policy of the Grand Chief, he made every effort to observe it. A Frenchman, of his ability, was the very man to make such a show of warfare as would impose on the British, and at the same time to render it so barren in results as to make but a transient impression upon those against whom it was directed. That a man should have been selected so eminently qualified to execute such a singular task, affords the highest evidence of the capacity of the mind that made the selection. Such ability, is, indeed, after all, the surest test of the capacity of a ruler.

Though a band of the Creeks, as already mentioned, assisted the British at the time of Galvez’s operations against Pensacola, it is remarkable, that neither McGillivray, who was a colonel in the British army, nor Milfort, the Great War Chief, seem to have taken any part in the contest. Such a force as could have been raised by the Creeks and their confederate tribes, could have rendered great service to the British in resisting, if not, indeed, in defeating Galvez’s invasion. But an explanation is readily found in the Grand Chiefs policy of preventing his people from taking any large part in the quarrels and conflicts of the whites. Besides, he was doubtless impressed with the smallness of the British force in West-Florida, compared with the host the Spaniards had at their command; justifying the conclusion, that as the latter had been able to conquer the country west, they would prove equal to the conquest of that east of the Perdido. He, therefore, wisely refrained from such an interference as would array the Spaniards against his people, after they had expelled the British from the country. If the British proved victorious, the assistance rendered by the Creeks, aided by the Choctaws and Chickasaws, could be urged as the fulfillment of the obligations of an ally. On the other hand, if the Spaniards were successful, it was an easy matter to disavow the action of an adventurer like Bowles, at the head of a handful of Creeks and other Indians, as one in which the tribe had no concern; an explanation the more acceptable, as the conqueror would naturally seek to cultivate the like friendly relations with the Indians which the conquered had enjoyed.

Soon after McGillivray became Grand Chief of his tribe, he met William Panton at Pensacola. Panton was deeply impressed with his ability. It is probable, too, that he was acquainted with the elder McGillivray, and sympathized with him as a fellow victim, who, like himself, had suffered banishment and confiscation, for no other crime than loyalty to their King. That sympathy with the parent naturally inspired good will toward the son. But, aside from such a sentimental consideration, each soon discovering the great advantage he could be to the other, it was not long before they were united by the more practical bonds of mutual interests. McGillivray likewise saw great advantages to his people in dealing exclusively with a house of such great wealth and influence as that of Panton, Leslie & Co., whilst Panton was as quick to see, that by the management of the Grand Chief the firm could secure a monopoly of the entire Indian trade. It was immediately after this understanding between them was reached, that they had that meeting with Governor Chester in the Council Chamber of Fort George, of which a glimpse was had in a previous page.

The war in Georgia and South Carolina had cut off the Creek trade with the Atlantic coast; and consequently, McGillivray had no difficulty in directing the whole of it to Pensacola. But after peace was established, the Atlantic traders were again ready, with their pack ponies, to take the trails that led to western Georgia and eastern Alabama. Panton at once saw that the monopoly of his house was in danger; and that to avert it, he must bring about an understanding between the Spanish government, himself, and McGillivray, like that which he had previously effected with the British. He, accordingly, entered into the treaty with the Spaniards, of which mention was made in the previous chapter. To be effective, however, he knew that treaty must be supplemented by another between the Indians and the Spaniards.

In playing his cards, Panton was looking solely to the advantage of his house. But it was far otherwise with McGillivray. If he induced his people to make such a treaty, it was because he saw clearly it was to their advantage. He rejoiced, too, to find that he was about to reap the fruit of that policy by which he had brought them through the period of the Revolutionary War, stronger, and more numerous than they ever were before; a condition which excited the fears of the Spaniards, and disposed them to seek the alliance of such a powerful tribe by liberal concessions. Accordingly, a treaty between the Creeks and the Seminoles represented by McGillivray, and Spain by Governor Miro of New Orleans, assisted by O’Niell, Governor of West-Florida, and Don Martin Navarro, Intendent General of Florida, was entered into on the first of June, 1784, at Pensacola.^[42] The relations created by that treaty between the Indians and Spaniards were close and intimate, and seem to have been observed substantially, although not always in form, up to the last day of Spanish rule in Florida.

Its conclusion was followed by McGillivray obtaining a commission with the pay of Colonel in the Spanish army.

By that treaty he felt, as he had reason to feel, that he had secured for his tribe an alliance with a strong European power, one that had just expelled the British from the Floridas; and, that thus fortified, he was in a condition to meet the Americans on the eastern frontier in a manner that would prevent their threatened encroachment upon the rights of his people; not by war, however, in which the Creeks were to engage with the United States, for such a course, his judgment told him, would end in their destruction. His treaty with the Spaniards was but a card which he proposed to use, to give his nation the imposing aspect of one to be courted rather than despised. To render its attitude still more imposing, he announced his determination to prevent any further encroachments by the whites upon the Indian territory in Georgia.

These cards won the game, according to the calculations of the sagacious brain which conceived it. The United States met the threatening aspect of affairs in Georgia, by appointing commissioners in 1785, to treat with the Indians. One of them, Andrew Pickens, addressed a letter to McGillivray, expressing the wish of the government amicably “to adjust matters on an equitable footing.” This was the point for the attainment of which the treaty with the Spaniards, and the threats of hostility against the Georgians had been made. For it was the strength of the Creeks, which his policy had so successfully fostered in the midst of war, backed by the Spanish alliance, that induced the United States, exhausted by the Revolutionary struggle, to resort to peaceable means to avoid a conflict with such a powerful tribe.

The reply of McGillivray so clearly illustrates his profound policy, which previous pages have endeavored to unfold as the moving spring of all his actions as Grand Chief, that it must be given in extenso, especially as any attempt to present it by extracts would prove a mutilation in which its force would be impaired, if not destroyed.

Sir:—I am favored with your 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 the meetings 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 differences that subsisted between them and the Indians during 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 natural allies. The Georgians, whose particular interest it was to conciliate the friendship of this nation, have acted, in all respects, to the contrary. I am sorry to observe that violence and prejudice have taken the place of good policy and reason, in all their proceedings with us. They attempted to avail themselves of our supposed distressed situation. Their talks to us breathe nothing 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 an extremity, we might apply for succor and protection, and who, to answer some ends of their policy, might grant it to us. However, we yet deferred any such proceeding, still expecting that we could bring them to a true sense of their interest; 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 hunting-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 I believe that matter is now on foot. However, we know our limits, and the extent of our hunting-grounds. As a free nation, we have applied, as we had the right to do, for protection, and obtained it. We shall pay no attention 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 measures 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 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 our parties to remove the Georgians and their effects from the lands in question, in the most peaceful 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 excursions 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 expectation that every matter of difference will be settled, with that liberality and justice worthy the men who 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.^[43]

Hon. Andrew Pickens.

How politic and graceful the allusion to American independence! Could the alliance with Spain have been touched more artfully? How firm is the insistance of the rights of his people! How striking is the regulation of the force exerted in the removal of trespassers from the Indian domain! How worthy of the spring days of republican America is the closing paragraph!

The reader must be induced to read another letter, not merely as illustrative of the style and springs of action of the Grand Chief, but as a narrative of events bearing upon his life, which no pen can so well narrate as his own. It is in reply to a letter of James White, superintendent of the Creek Indians.

Sir:—It is with real satisfaction, that I learn of your being appointed by Congress, for the laudable purpose of inquiring 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 discontents, which, perhaps, have never come to the knowledge of the honorable body that sent you to our country.

There are Chiefs of two towns in this nation, who, during the late war, were friendly to the State of Georgia, and had gone, at different times, among those 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 individuals; 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 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 the 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 meet them in conference, at the Oconee, professing a sincere desire for an amicable adjustment of our disputes, and pledging their sacred honors for the safety and good treatment of all those who 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 personal safety induced those Chiefs to subscribe to every demand 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 a sacrifice to appease their anger. Assassins have been employed to effect some part of their atrocious purpose. 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 redress 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 applause has your Cincinnatus, your Fabius, obtained. If a war name had been necessary to distinguish 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 propositions which you shall offer us will be such as we can safely accede 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.

Hon. James White.

The foregoing letter illustrates the troubles the Georgians were giving the Creeks, and the call they made upon McGillivray’s abilities and influence over his people, in order to avoid a state of war. No result was reached by the Cussetas talk. Matters remained in the same unsatisfactory condition after as before it, and so continued until after General Washington became President of the United States in 1789.

He appointed a new set of commissioners to effect a settlement, but these, like the others, failed to reach a favorable result. On the other hand, their reports were so alarming that he at first regarded war as the only remedy for the troubles existing between the Georgians and the Creeks. But, wisely concluding that the country was not then able to bear the burden of such a costly corrective, he determined to make another effort at conciliation. In this frame of mind the happy thought occurred to him, that a personal interview between him and McGillivray might be attended by results which commissioners had failed to reach. Acting upon it, he sent an agent to the Creek nation, in the person of Colonel Marius Willet, to induce McGillivray to visit New York. The mission was successful. McGillivray in June, 1790, at the head of thirty of the principal chiefs of the confederacy, set out on their long journey mounted on horses.

A stage of the journey brought them to Guildford Court House, where they were honored by a large assembly of the neighborhood. Suddenly the throng around the Great Chief opens to a woman, who rushes up to him, her face bathed in tears, and then, with blessings upon him, expresses her gratitude for a good deed done by him years before, of which she and her children were the beneficiaries. In an Indian raid her husband had been killed, and she and her children carried into captivity. Her benefactor hearing of their melancholy fate redeemed them, and gave them a home in his own house, until an opportunity was afforded of sending them to their friends. He was received with distinguished consideration at Richmond and Fredericksburg. Philadelphia honored him and his company with a three days’ entertainment. Colonel Willet, who accompanied them, tells us that upon their landing in New York, the Tammany Society, in full regalia, received them, attended them to Congress Hall, and thence to the residence of General Washington. And then and there, were brought face to face, the most remarkable white man, and the most remarkable red man the western hemisphere had then produced.

Whilst the chiefs of the two confederacies are settling their relations, an interesting event calls our thoughts from New York to Alabama. The impressive influence of the Great Chiefs presence was no sooner withdrawn, than a large number of the restless Creeks conceived the purpose of destroying the white settlements on the Tensas, which had been increasing rapidly under his protection. The plan, and the time for its execution were at last fixed. But, fortunately, they were revealed to Mrs. Sophia Durant, the sister of McGillivray.

She possessed remarkable command of the Muscogee language, coupled with the gift of oratory. She often addressed councils at the instance of her brother, who, owing to his long absence from his people in his youth, as well as the study of other tongues, had lost the full command of his own.

At the time she was informed of the bloody scheme, she was at her farm on Little river. Although far under the shadow of maternity she determines, at every risk to herself, by prompt action, to save an unsuspecting population from the terrible fate hanging over them. She orders two horses to be saddled on the instant. She mounts one and her trusty negress the other. More than twice two score human lives depend upon her reaching Hickory Ground in time, and that required a ride of sixty miles. Night and day those two women ride on that errand of mercy. The only pause was when an opportunity offered to summon a chief to the Hickory Ground Council House. The notice flies from chief to chief, that the sister of the Grand Chief has called a council, to tell them, doubtless, what he had said to her on “talking paper.” From all quarters, prompted by interest and curiosity, there is a rush for the Hickory Ground. By that device, worthy the genius of her brother, the council is promptly assembled. She addresses them with a tone of mingled authority and persuasion. She tells them of the scheme that had been disclosed to her; upbraids them for ingratitude to her brother, then with the Great White Chief, who might exact from him and his thirty companions the lives of the murdered whites; warns them, too, of the vengeance which he would be compelled, with the assistance of the whites, to visit upon the murderers; adding all those appeals which in such an exigency would come swelling up from the heart of a noble woman. From all sides of the assembly come pledges that the ringleaders shall be seized, and the enterprise crushed; and promptly and efficiently it was done. History, story and art have commemorated the saving of a single life by Pocahontas; but how insignificant was that act compared with the one just described! The action is further glorified by the fact, that within two weeks after the noble woman had saved so many human beings, she added another life to the long roll of the living.^[45]

A treaty was speedily negotiated between the Creeks and the United States, by which the Oconee lands referred to in the foregoing letter were ceded for an annual payment of fifteen hundred dollars, and a distribution of merchandise. Questions of boundary were settled; the Indian territory was guaranteed against farther encroachment; a permanent peace was provided for; the Creeks and Seminoles placed themselves under the jurisdiction of the United States, and renounced their rights to make treaties with any other nation. All the Indian Chiefs besides McGillivray participated in the negotiation and execution of the treaty.

But besides that open one, there was a secret treaty to which the Grand Chief and the United States only, were parties. It contained a stipulation, that after two years the Indian trade should be turned to points in the United States. It provided for annual stipends to be paid to designated chiefs. McGillivray himself was appointed Indian agent of the United States, with the rank of a Brigadier-General, and the yearly pay of twelve hundred dollars.^[46]

These treaties were the grounds of severe criticism upon McGillivray. By the open treaty, it was said, he made a surrender of the Oconee county for an inadequate consideration. But the obvious answer to that objection was, that he had exhausted every expedient that his clear and fertile mind could command, to stay the encroachments of the Georgians without a war, an alternative which would have eventually ended in crushing his people. Besides, the plighted faith of the United States, that no farther encroachments should be made upon them, was to them a consideration far exceeding every other; for history had not then declared, as it has since, how frail a barrier against encroachments upon Indian territory is the plighted faith of the nation.

Whatever personal advantages he derived from the secret treaty, whether pecuniary or in dignity, inured to the benefit of his people. To honor him was to give consideration to them; and they regarded the tributes which his abilities drew from the British, the Spaniards, and the Americans, as so many offerings made to the power of the nation. That each of those tributaries complained that he was not their dupe, is alike a proof of his ability, and his fidelity to his people.

For a short time after the New York Treaty he seemed to be losing the confidence of his people, through the machinations of the self-styled General Bowles, who, it will be remembered, assisted with a body of Choctaws, Chickasaws and Creeks, in the defense of Pensacola against Galvez. He was a bold, unprincipled mischief-maker, who would stop at nothing that could be turned to his own advantage; one of those characters who breed suspicion and create confusion for their own profit and consideration. To sap the confidence of the Creeks in their Grand Chief, was to bring about an unsettled condition of things in which he would find himself in his element; and for that purpose he availed himself of the New York Treaty. It would have been an easy matter for McGillivray to have him driven out of the nation, or by the judgment of a council to have taken his life; but neither of these courses suiting his policy, he resolved upon one more subtle and yet as effectual. He visited New Orleans, where it was conjectured he held a consultation with Governor Carondolet, on the subject of ridding the nation of the mischief-maker. Shortly afterwards, Bowles was seized by the Spaniards and sent to Spain. Of the end of his exile we are informed by a letter of General Washington’s dated at Mount Vernon, fifth of August, 1793.^[47] “On my way to this place I saw Captain Barney at Baltimore, who had just arrived from Havana. He says, the day before he left that place, advice had been received, and generally believed, that Bowles, who was sent to Spain, had been hanged.” Thus ended a chequered life, full of adventures, strange phases, and bad deeds, which it would be interesting to follow were this the proper place.

The New York Treaty was an object of suspicion both to Panton and the Spaniards, although they knew nothing of its secret feature; but they naturally inferred that some other considerations, besides those made public, must have induced the United States to honor McGillivray with the commission and pay of Brigadier-General.

The suspicion, however, resulted profitably to McGillivray. Before he went to New York he complained to Panton of the parsimonious conduct of the Spanish government to him, from whom it expected, and obtained, so much care and labor. Believing this supposed slight on their part was the cause of the favor he manifested for the Americans, that government at once took steps to remove it. He was appointed the Spanish Superintendent-General of the Creek nation, with a salary of two thousand dollars, to which fifteen hundred more were shortly afterwards added.

Soon after McGillivray received that appointment, the Spanish government sent to the Hickory Ground, as its resident agent, Captain Pedro Olivier, accompanied by an interpreter. This man soon became engaged in intrigues to prevent the running of the boundary lines provided for by the New York Treaty; and in this matter he was assisted by William Panton, who visited the Creek nation for that purpose.

This state of things naturally excited the suspicion of the United States, that McGillivray was co-operating with Panton and Olivier. Of any active co-operation by him, however, there is no evidence, as there is none of his active opposition to their machinations. He was too sagacious a man, and had the good of his people too much at heart to engage in the latter. The boundary line fixed by the treaty, had from the first, been exceedingly objectionable to the Creeks, so much so, that even the influence of their Grand Chief had failed to reconcile them to it. Indeed, he himself feared that such a reconciliation was beyond his ability. In self-vindication, in the midst of Olivier’s intrigues, he writes to General Knox, Secretary of War: “You recollect, sir, that I had great objection 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 would not pledge myself to get it confirmed.” It was against the running of that boundary line, that the intrigues of Olivier and Panton were ostensibly directed; but their real object was to keep the Creeks in a ferment in order to exclude their trade from the Atlantic cities, and confine it to Pensacola; the question of boundary being seized upon as a means of accomplishing that end. McGillivray’s position was one of great delicacy and responsibility. For him to resist by active opposition those who opposed the running of the boundary line, was not only to do something he had never undertaken to do, but to take a stand that might divide his people into two hostile camps, the most calamitous condition that could befall them.

In the midst of these trials, death came to his relief on the seventeenth of February, 1793, at Pensacola, whilst on a visit to William Panton. He was buried with masonic honors, and, it is said, in Panton’s garden. Unfortunately the identity of the spot has defied diligent investigation, and generations have unconsciously desecrated his dust, as they have that of another distinguished man already mentioned. But the suspicion arises that to a different cause must be attributed the oblivion that has befallen the last resting place of the Great Chief, from that which has been assigned in the case of General Bouquet’s. Had Panton erected a respectable brick monument even, over the remains of one for whom he professed so much friendship, and who had done so much to increase his fortune, reverently protecting it up to the time he left Florida, this generation might be able to direct the footsteps of the stranger to the tomb of the most remarkable man to whom Alabama ever gave birth, and the most extraordinary man to whom Florida has furnished a grave.

He has been accused of deceit and duplicity in his dealings with the British, the Spaniards and Americans. But truth and candor, if not exotics, are not virile growths in the domain of state craft, while necessity is the ever ready plea on which adepts in the art, or their apologists, rest their vindication. When, therefore, the Great Indian stands condemned at the Bar of Eternal Truth, well may other statesmen and diplomatists whose achievements history delights to record, shrink from the Judgment Seat.

The Grand Chief watched without interference the struggle of the Spanish and British for supremacy in West-Florida, because the true interests of his people pointed to neutrality. Cavour, the ablest and purest statesman of recent times, from a like patriotic motive stood ready, in case of failure, to disavow the invasion of Naples by Garibaldi, which he had, nevertheless, secretly promoted. If the New York treaty was a gross violation of the Pensacola treaty of 1784, Washington and his cabinet invited, and encouraged, whatever of bad faith there was in the transaction.

The defense of such characters must rest at last upon the final judgment of their own nation upon their life work. So judged, McGillivray is entitled to no low place on the roll of patriotic statesmen.

For seventeen years, dating from the Creek troubles in 1776, up to his death, he had been the guide and shield of his people. For them those were years of comparative peace, growth, and preparation for the white man’s civilization, by the example afforded in his own person of its benefits and attractions. With war raging around them, under his guidance, they reached a condition which caused him to be honored, and their alliance sought by two monarchs and a Great Republic. He moved amongst them enjoying the reverence and honor of a patriarchal sheik. Intrigue and detraction brought him under a transient cloud. But when they learned his life was closed in death, their hearts were smitten as those of a family when it loses its head. There went up from the Creek land an universal wail; and again, like a sinister prophecy of evil, there came over it the shadow it was under before the council of Coweta.

Bitter, too, to his people, was the thought, that he slept in the “sands of the Seminoles,” and not on the banks of the beautiful Coosa, which he loved so well; where he was born, where he had presided over councils, and made “paper talk” for their good, and where his hospitality was ever ready, alike for the distinguished stranger and the humble wayfarer.

The fate of Milfort may interest the reader. After the death of McGillivray he returned to France, where in 1802 he published the “Memoire De Mon Sejour Dans La Nation CrËck,” to which we owe the preservation of the traditions of that people. But sad to relate, forgetting his Indian wife, he married a French woman. He was made General of Brigade by the Emperor Napoleon. He died in 1814. His French wife was burned to death at an advanced age at Rheims.