[figure description] Page 133.[end figure description]

“Keowee Old Fort,” as the people in that
quarter style it, is a fine antique ruin and relic of
the revolution, in the district of Pendleton, South
Carolina. The region of country in which we
find it, of itself, is highly picturesque and interesting.
The broad river of Keowee, which runs
through it, though comparatively small, as a
stream, in America, would put to shame, by its
size, not less than its beauty, one half of the farfamed
and boasted rivers of Europe; — and then
the mountains, through and among which it winds
its way, embody more of beautiful situation and
romantic prospect, than art can well figure to the
eye, or language convey to the imagination. To
understand, you must see it. Words are of little

[figure description] Page 134.[end figure description]

avail when the ideas overcrowd utterance; and
even vanity itself is content to be dumb in the
awe inspired by a thousand prospects, like Niagara,
the ideal of a god, and altogether beyond
the standards common to humanity.

It is not long since I wandered through this interesting
region, under the guidance of my friend,
Col. G—, who does the honors of society,
in that quarter, with a degree of ease and unostentatious
simplicity, which readily makes the visiter
at home. My friend was one of those citizens to
whom one's own country is always of paramount
interest, and whose mind and memory, accordingly,
have been always most happily employed when
storing away and digesting into pleasing narrative
those thousand little traditions of the genius loci,
which give life to rocks and valleys, and people
earth with the beautiful colors and creatures of
the imagination. These, for the gratification
of the spiritual seeker, he had forever in readiness;
and, with him to illustrate them, it is not
surprising if the grove had a moral existence in
my thoughts, and all the waters around breathed,
and were instinct with poetry. To all his narratives
I listened with a satisfaction which book-stories
do not often afford me. The more he told,
the more he had to tell; for nothing staled

[figure description] Page 135.[end figure description]

There may have been something in the style of
telling his stories; there was much, certainly, that
was highly attractive in his manner of doing
every thing, and this may have contributed not a
little to the success of his narratives. Perhaps,
too, my presence, upon the very scene of each
legend, may have given them a life and a vraisemblance
they had wanted otherwise.

In this manner, rambling about from spot to
spot, I passed five weeks, without being, at any
moment, conscious of time's progress. Day after
day, we wandered forth in some new direction,
contriving always to secure, and without effort,
that pleasurable excitement of novelty, for which
the great city labors in vain, spite of her varying
fashions, and crowding, and not always innocent
indulgences. From forest to river, from
hill to valley, still on horseback, — for the mountainous
character of the country forbade any more
luxurious form of travel, — we kept on our way,
always changing our ground with the night, and
our prospect with the morning. In this manner
we travelled over or round the Six Mile, and the
Glassy, and a dozen other mountains; and sometimes,
with a yet greater scope of adventure,

[figure description] Page 136.[end figure description]

pushed off on a much longer ramble, — such as
took us to the falls of the White Water, and gave
us a glimpse of the beautiful river of Jocassée,
named sweetly after the Cherokee maiden, who
threw herself into its bosom on beholding the scalp
of her lover dangling from the neck of his conqueror.
The story is almost a parallel to that of
the sister of Horatius, with this difference, that
our Cherokee girl did not wait for the vengeance
of her brother, and altogether spared her reproaches.
I tell the story, which is pleasant and
curious, in the language of my friend, from whom
I first heard it.

“The Occonies and the Little Estatoees, or,
rather, the Brown Vipers and the Green Birds,
were both minor tribes of the Cherokee nation,
between whom, as was not unfrequently the case,
there sprung up a deadly enmity. The Estatoees
had their town on each side of the two creeks,
which, to this day, keep their name, and on the
eastern side of the Keowee river. The Occonies
occupied a much larger extent of territory, but it
lay on the opposite, or west side of the same river.

[figure description] Page 137.[end figure description]

Their differences were supposed to have arisen
from the defeat of Chatuga, a favorite leader of
the Occonies, who aimed to be made a chief of
the nation at large. The Estatoee warrior, Toxaway,
was successful; and as the influence of
Chatuga was considerable with his tribe, he labored
successfully to engender in their bosoms a
bitter dislike of the Estatoees. This feeling was
made to exhibit itself on every possible occasion.
The Occonies had no word too foul by which to
describe the Estatoees. They likened them, in
familiar speech, to every thing which, in the Indian
imagination, is accounted low and contemptible.
In reference to war, they were reputed women, —
in all other respects, they were compared to dogs
and vermin; and, with something of a Christian
taste and temper, they did not scruple, now and
then, to invoke the devil of their more barbarous
creed, for the eternal disquiet of their successful
neighbors, the Little Estatoees, and their great
chief, Toxaway.

“In this condition of things there could not be
much harmony; and, accordingly, as if by mutual
consent, there was but little intercourse between
the two people. When they met, it was
either to regard one another with a cold, repulsive
distance, or else, as enemies, actively to foment

[figure description] Page 138.[end figure description]

quarrel and engage in strife. But seldom, save
on national concerns, did the Estatoees cross the
Keowee to the side held by the Occonies; and
the latter, more numerous, and therefore less reluctant
for strife than their rivals, were yet not often
found on the opposite bank of the same river.
Sometimes, however, small parties of hunters from
both tribes, rambling in one direction or another,
would pass into the enemy's territory; but this
was not frequent, and when they met, quarrel and
bloodshed were sure to mark the adventure.

“But there was one young warrior of the Estatoees,
who did not give much heed to this condition
of parties, and who, moved by an errant spirit,
and wholly insensible to fear, would not hesitate,
when the humor seized him, to cross the
river, making quite as free, when he did so, with
the hunting-grounds of the Occonies as they did
themselves. This sort of conduct did not please
the latter very greatly, but Nagoochie was always
so gentle, and at the same time so brave, that the
young warriors of Occony either liked or feared
him too much to throw themselves often in his
path, or labor, at any time, to arrest his progress.

“In one of these excursion, Nagoochie made
the acquaintance of Jocassée, one of the sweetest

[figure description] Page 139.[end figure description]

of the dusky daughters of Occony. He was
rambling, with bow and quiver, in pursuit of game,
as was his custom, along that beautiful enclosure,
which the whites have named after her, the Jocass
ée valley. The circumstances under which they
met were all strange and exciting, and well calculated
to give her a power over the young hunter,
to which the pride of the Indian does not often
suffer him to submit. It was towards evening
when Nagoochie sprung a fine buck from a hollow
of the wood along side him, and just before you
reach the ridge of rocks which hem in and form
this beautiful valley. With the first glimpse of his
prey, flew the keen shaft of Nagoochie; but,
strange to say, though renowned as a hunter, not
less than as a warrior, the arrow failed entirely,
and flew wide of the victim. Off he bounded
headlong after the fortunate buck; but though,
every now and then, getting him within range, —
for the buck took the pursuit coolly, — the hunter
still most unaccountably failed to strike him.
Shaft after shaft had fallen seemingly hurtless from
his sides; and though, at frequent intervals, suffered
to approach so nigh to the animal that he
could not but hope still for better fortune, to his
great surprise, the wary buck would dash off
when he least expected it, bounding away in some

[figure description] Page 140.[end figure description]

new direction, with as much life and vigor as
ever. What to think of this, the hunter knew
not; but such repeated disappointments at length
impressed it strongly upon his mind, that the object
he pursued was neither more nor less than an
Occony wizard, seeking to entrap him; so, with
a due feeling of superstition, and a small touch of
sectional venom aroused into action within his
heart, Nagoochie, after the manner of his people,
promised a green bird — the emblem of his tribe—
in sacrifice to the tutelar divinity of Estato, if
he could only be permitted to overcome the potent
enchanter, who had thus dazzled his aim and blunted
his arrows. He had hardly uttered this vow,
when he beheld the insolent deer mincingly grazing
upon a beautiful tuft of long grass in the valley,
just below the ledge of rock upon which he
stood. Without more ado, he pressed forward to
bring him within fair range of his arrows, little
doubting, at the moment, that the Good Spirit
had heard his prayer, and had granted his desire.
But, in his hurry, leaping too hastily forward,
and with eyes fixed only upon his proposed victim,
his foot was caught by the smallest stump in the
world, and the very next moment found him precipitated
directly over the rock and into the valley,
within a few paces of the deer, who made off

[figure description] Page 141.[end figure description]

with the utmost composure, looking back, as he
did so, to the eyes of the wounded hunter, for all
the world as if he enjoyed the sport mightily.
Nagoochie, as he saw this, gravely concluded that
he had fallen a victim to the wiles of the Occony
wizard, and looked confidently to see half a score
of Occonies upon him, taking him at a vantage.
Like a brave warrior, however, he did not despond,
but determining to gather up his loins for
battle and the torture, he sought to rise and put
himself in a state of preparation. What, however,
was his horror, to find himself utterly unable
to move; — his leg had been broken in the fall,
and he was covered with bruises from head to foot.

“Nagoochie gave himself up for lost; but he
had scarcely done so, when he heard a voice, —
the sweetest, he thought, he had ever heard in his
life, — singing a wild, pleasant song, such as the
Occonies love, which, ingeniously enough, summed
up the sundry reasons why the mouth, and
not the eyes, had been endowed with the faculty
of eating. These reasons were many, but the last
is quite enough for us. According to the song,
had the eyes, and not the mouth, been employed
for this purpose, there would soon be a famine in
the land, for of all gluttons, the eyes are the greatest.
Nagoochie groaned aloud, as he heard the

[figure description] Page 142.[end figure description]

song, the latter portion of which completely indicated
the cause of his present misfortune. It
was, indeed, the gluttony of the eyes which had
broken his leg. This sort of allegory the Indians
are fond of, and Jocassée knew all their legends.
Certainly, thought Nagoochie, though his leg
pained him wofully at the time, — certainly I
never heard such sweet music, and such a voice.
The singer advanced as she sung, and almost
stumbled over him.

“`Who are you?' she asked timidly, neither
retreating nor advancing; and, as the wounded
man looked into her face, he blessed the Occony
wizard, by whose management he deemed his leg
to have been broken.

“`Look?' was the reply of the young warrior,
throwing aside the bearskin which covered his
bosom, — `look, girl of Occony! 'tis the totem
of a chief;' and the green bird stamped upon his
left breast, as the badge of his tribe, showed him
a warrior of Estato, and something of an enemy.
But his eyes had no enmity, and then the broken
leg! Jocassée was a gentle maiden, and her heart
melted with the condition of the warrior. She
made him a sweet promise, in very pretty language,
and with the very same voice, the music of
which was so delicious; and then, with the

[figure description] Page 143.[end figure description]

fleetness of a young doe, she went off to bring him
succor.

“Night, in the meanwhile, came on; and the
long howl of the wolf, as he looked down from
the crag, and waited for the thick darkness in
which to descend the valley, came freezingly to
the ear of Nagoochie. `Surely,' he said to himself,
`the girl of Occony will come back. She
has too sweet a voice not to keep her word. She
will certainly come back.' While he doubted,
he believed. Indeed, though still a very young
maiden, the eyes of Jocassée had in them a great
deal that was good for little beside, than to persuade,
and force conviction; and the belief in
them was pretty extensive in the circle of her rustic
acquaintance. All people love to believe in
fine eyes, and nothing more natural than for lovers
to swear by them. Nagoochie did not swear by
those of Jocassée, but he did most religiously believe
in them; and though the night gathered
fast, and the long howl of the wolf came close
from his crag, down into the valley, the young

[figure description] Page 144.[end figure description]

hunter of the green bird did not despair of the
return of the maiden.

“She did return, and the warrior was insensible.
But the motion stirred him; the lights gleamed
upon him from many torches; he opened his eyes,
and when they rested upon Jocassée, they forgot
to close again. She had brought aid enough, for
her voice was powerful as well as musical; and,
taking due care that the totem of the green bird
should be carefully concealed by the bearskin,
with which her own hands covered his bosom, she
had him lifted upon a litter, constructed of several
young saplings, which, interlaced with withes,
binding it closely together, and strewn thickly with
leaves, made a couch as soft as the wounded man
could desire. In a few hours, and the form of
Nagoochie rested beneath the roof of Attakulla,
the sire of Jocassée. She sat beside the young
hunter, and it was her hand that placed the pure
balm upon his lips, and poured into his wounds
and bruises the strong and efficacious balsam of
Indian pharmacy.

“Never was nurse more careful of her charge.
Day and night she watched by him, and few were
the hours which she then required for her own pleasure
or repose. Yet why was Jocassée so devoted
to the stranger? She never asked herself so

[figure description] Page 145.[end figure description]

unnecessary a question; but as she was never so
well satisfied, seemingly, as when near him, the
probability is she found pleasure in her tendance.
It was fortunate for him and for her, that her father
was not rancorous towards the people of the
Green Bird, like the rest of the Occonies. It
might have fared hard with Nagoochie otherwise.
But Attakulla was a wise old man, and a good;
and when they brought the wounded stranger to
his lodge, he freely yielded him shelter, and went
forth himself to Chinabee, the wise medicine of
the Occonies. The eyes of Nagoochie were turned
upon the old chief, and when he heard his
name, and began to consider where he was, he
was unwilling to task the hospitality of one who
might be disposed to regard him, when known,
in an unfavorable or hostile light. Throwing
aside, therefore, the habit of circumspection, which
usually distinguishes the Indian warrior, he uncovered
his bosom, and bade the old man look upon
the totem of his people, precisely as he had done
when his eye first met that of Jocassée.

“`Thy name? What do the people of the
Green Bird call the young hunter?' asked Attakulla.

“`They name Nagoochie among the braves of

[figure description] Page 146.[end figure description]

the Estato: they will call him a chief of the Cherokee,
like Toxaway,' was the proud reply.

“This reference was to a sore subject with the
Occonies, and perhaps it was quite as imprudent
as it certainly was in improper taste for him to
make it. But knowing where he was, excited by
fever, and having — to say much in little — but
an unfavorable opinion of Occony magnanimity,
he was more rash than reasonable. At that moment,
too, Jocassée had made her appearance,
and the spirit of the young warrior, desiring to
look big in her eyes, had prompted him to a fierce
speech not altogether necessary. He knew not
the generous nature of Attakulla; and when the
old man took him by the hand, spoke well of the
Green Bird, and called him his `son,' the pride of
Nagoochie was something humbled, while his
heart grew gentler than ever. His `son!' that
was the pleasant part; and as the thoughts grew
more and more active in his fevered brain, he
looked to Jocassée with such a passionate admiration
that she sunk back with a happy smile from
the flame-glance which he set upon her. And day
after day she tended him, until the fever passed
off, and the broken limb was set and had reknitted,
and the bruises were all healed upon him.
Yet he lingered. He did not think himself quite

[figure description] Page 147.[end figure description]

well, and she always agreed with him in opinion.
Once and again did he set off, determined not to
return, but his limb pained him, and he felt the
fever come back, whenever he thought of Jocassée;
and so the evening found him again at the
lodge, while the fever-balm, carefully bruised in
milk, was in as great demand as ever for the invalid.
But the spirit of the warrior at length
grew ashamed of these weaknesses; and, with a
desperate effort, for which he gave himself no little
credit, he completed his determination to depart
with the coming of the new moon. But even this
decision was only effected by compromise. Love
settled the affair with conscience, after his own fashion,
and under his direction, following the dusky
maiden into the little grove that stood beside the
cottage, Nagoochie claimed her to fill the lodge
of a young warrior of the Green Bird. She
broke the wand which he presented her, and seizing
upon the torch which she carried, he buried it
in the bosom of a neighboring brook, and thus,
after their simple forest ceremonial, Jocassée became
the betrothed of Nagoochie.

[figure description] Page 148.[end figure description]

“But we must keep this secret to ourselves, for
as yet it remained unknown to Attakulla, and the
time could not come for its revealment until the
young warrior had gone home to his people. Jocass
ée was not so sure that all parties would be so
ready as herself to sanction her proceeding. Of
her father's willingness, she had no question, for
she knew his good nature and good sense; but
she had a brother of whom she had many fears
and misgivings. He was away, on a great hunt
of the young men, up at Charashilactay, or the
falls of the White Water, as we call it to this day—
a beautiful cascade of nearly forty feet, the
water of which is of a milky complexion. How
she longed, yet how she dreaded, to see that brother?
He was a fierce, impetuous, sanguinary
youth, who, to these characteristics, added another
still more distasteful to Jocassée; — there was not
a man among all the Occonies who so hated the
people of the Green Bird as Cheochee. What
hopes, or rather what fears, were in the bosom of
that maiden!

“But he came not. Day after day they

[figure description] Page 149.[end figure description]

looked for his return, and yet he came not; but in his
place a runner, with a bearded stick, a stick covered
with slips of skin, torn from the body of a wolf.
The runner passed by the lodge of Attakulla, and
all its inmates were aroused by the intelligence he
brought. A wolf-hunt was commanded by Moitoy,
the great war-chief or generalissimo of the
Cherokee nation, to take place, instanter, at Charashilactay,
where an immense body of wolves had
herded together, and had become troublesome
neighbors. Old and young, who had either
taste for the adventure, or curiosity to behold it,
at once set off upon the summons; and Attakulla,
old as he was, and Nagoochie, whose own great
prowess in hunting had made it a passion, determined
readily upon the journey. Jocassée, too,
joined the company, — for the maidens of Cherokee
were bold spirits, as well as beautiful, and
loved to ramble, particularly when, as in the present
instance, they went in company with their
lovers. Lodge after lodge, as they pursued their
way, poured forth its inmates, who joined them in
their progress, until the company had swollen into
a goodly caravan, full of life, anxious for sport,
and carrying, as is the fashion among the Indians,
provisions of smoked venison and parched grain,
in plenty, for many days.

[figure description] Page 150.[end figure description]

“They came, at length, to the swelling hills,
the long narrow valleys of the Keochee, and its
tribute river of Toxaway, named after that great
chief of the Little Estatoees, of whom we have
already heard something. At one and the same
moment, they beheld the white waters of Charashilactay,
plunging over the precipice, and the
hundred lodges of the Cherokee hunters. There
they had gathered — the warriors and their women—
twenty different tribes of the same great
nation being represented on the ground; each
tribe having its own cluster of cabins, and rising
up in the midst of each, the long pole on which
hung the peculiar emblem of the clan. It was
not long before Nagoochie marshalled himself
along with his brother Estatoees — who had counted
him lost — under the beautiful green bird of
his tribe, which waved about in the wind, over the
heads of their small community.

“The number of warriors representing the Estato
in that great hunt was inconsiderable — but
fourteen — and the accession, therefore, of so
promising a brave as Nagoochie was no small
matter. They shouted with joy at his coming,
and danced gladly in the ring between the lodges—
the young women, in proper taste, and with

[figure description] Page 151.[end figure description]

due spirit, hailing, with a sweet song, the return
of so handsome a youth, and one yet unmarried.

“Over against the lodges of the Estatoees, lay
the more imposing encampment of the rival Occonies,
who turned out strongly, as it happened, on
this occasion. They were more numerous than
any other of the assembled tribes, as the hunt was
to take place on a portion of their own territory.
Conscious of their superiority, they had not, you
may be sure, forborne any of the thousand sneers
and sarcasms which they were never at a loss to
find when they spoke of the Green Bird warriors;
and of all their clan, none was so bitter, so uncompromising,
generally, in look, speech, and action,
as Cheochee, the fierce brother of the beautiful
Jocassée. Scorn was in his eye, and sarcasm
on his lips, when he heard the rejoicings made by
the Estatoees on the return of the long-lost hunter.

“`Now wherefore screams the painted bird to-day?
why makes he a loud cry in the ears of the
brown viper that can strike?' he exclaimed contemptuously
yet fiercely.

“It was Jocassée that spoke in reply to her brother,
with the quickness of woman's feeling, which
they wrong greatly who hold it subservient to the
strength of woman's cunning. In her reply,
Cheochee saw the weakness of her heart.

[figure description] Page 152.[end figure description]

“`They scream for Nagoochie,' said the girl;
`it is joy that the young hunter comes back that
makes the green bird to sing to-day.'

“`Has Jocassée taken a tongue from the green
bird, that she screams in the ears of the brown
viper? What has the girl to do with the thought
of the warrior? Let her go — go, bring drink to
Cheochee.'

“Abashed and silent, she did as he commanded,
and brought meekly to the fierce brother, a gourd
filled with the brown beer which the Cherokees
love. She had nothing further to say on the subject
of the Green Bird warrior, for whom she had
already so unwarily spoken. But her words had
not fallen unregarded upon the ears of Cheochee,
nor had the look of the fond heart which spoke
out in her glance, passed unseen by the keen eye
of that jealous brother. He had long before this
heard of the great fame of Nagoochie as a
hunter, and in his ire he was bent to surpass him.
Envy had grown into hate, when he heard that
this great reputation was that of one of the accursed
Estatoees; and, not satisfied with the desire
to emulate, he also aimed to destroy. This feeling
worked like so much gall in his bosom; and
when his eyes looked upon the fine form of Nagoochie,
and beheld its symmetry, grace, and

[figure description] Page 153.[end figure description]

manhood, his desire grew into a furious passion
which made him sleepless. The old chief, Attakulla,
his father, told him all the story of Nagoochie's
accident — how Jocassée had found him;
and how, in his own lodge, he had been nursed
and tended. The old man spoke approvingly of
Nagoochie; and, the better to bring about a good
feeling for her lover, Jocassée humbled herself
greatly to her brother, — anticipated his desires,
and studiously sought to serve him. But all this
failed to effect a favorable emotion in the breast
of the malignant young savage towards the young
hunter of the Green Bird. He said nothing,
however, of his feelings; but they looked out and
were alive to the sight in every feature, whenever
any reference, however small, was made to the
subject of his ire. The Indian feeling is subtlety,
and Cheochee was a warrior already named by
the old chiefs of Cherokee.

“The next day came the commencement of the
great hunt, and the warriors were up betimes and
active. Stations were chosen, the keepers of
which, converging to a centre, were to hem in

[figure description] Page 154.[end figure description]

the wild animal on whose tracks they were going.
The wolves were known to be in a hollow of the
hills near Charashilactay, which had but one
outlet; and points of close approximation across
this outlet were the stations of honor; for, goaded
by the hunters to this passage, and failing of
egress in any other, the wolf, it was well known,
would be then dangerous in the extreme. Well
calculated to provoke into greater activity the jealousies
between the Occonies and the Green Birds,
was the assignment made by Moitoy, the chief, of
the more dangerous of these stations to these two
clans. They now stood alongside of one another,
and the action of the two promised to be
joint and corresponsive. Such an appointment, in
the close encounter with the wolf, necessarily promised
to bring the two parties into immediate contact;
and such was the event. As the day advanced,
and the hunters, contracting their circles,
brought the different bands of wolves into one,
and pressed upon them to the more obvious and
indeed the only outlet, the badges of the Green
Bird and the Brown Viper — the one consisting
of the stuffed skin and plumage of the Carolina
parrot, and the other the attenuated viper, filled
out with moss, and winding, with erect head,
around the pole, to the top of which it was stuck

[figure description] Page 155.[end figure description]

— were at one moment, in the indiscriminate hunt,
almost mingled over the heads of the two parties.
Such a sight was pleasant to neither, and would,
at another time, of a certainty, have brought
about a squabble. As it was, the Occonies drove
their badge-carrier from one to the other end of
their ranks, thus studiously avoiding the chance
of another collision between the viper so adored,
and the green bird so detested. The pride of the
Estatoees was exceedingly aroused at this exhibition
of impertinence, and though a quiet people
enough, they began to think that forbearance had
been misplaced in their relations with their presuming
and hostile neighbors. Had it not been
for Nagoochie, who had his own reasons for suffering
yet more, the Green Birds would certainly
have plucked out the eyes of the Brown Vipers,
or tried very hard to do it; but the exhortations
to peace of the young warrior, and the near
neighborhood of the wolf, quelled any open show
of the violence they meditated; but, Indian-like,
they determined to wait for the moment of greatest
quiet, as that most fitted for taking away a few
scalps from the Occony. With a muttered curse,
and a contemptuous slap of the hand upon their
thighs, the more furious among the Estatoees satisfied
their present anger, and then addressed

[figure description] Page 156.[end figure description]

themselves more directly to the business before
them.

“The wolves, goaded to desperation by the
sound of hunters strewn all over the hills around
them, were now, snapping and snarling, and with
eyes that flashed with a terrible anger, descending
the narrow gully towards the outlet held by the
two rival tribes. A united action was therefore
demanded of those who, for a long time past, had
been conscious of no feeling or movement in common.
But here they had no choice — no time,
indeed, to think. The fierce wolves were upon
them, doubly furious at finding the only passage
stuck full of enemies. Well and manfully did
the hunters stand and seek the encounter with the
infuriated beasts. The knife and the hatchet, that
day, in the hand of Occony and Estato, did fearful
execution. The Brown Vipers fought nobly,
and with their ancient reputation. But the Green
Birds were the hunters, after all; and they were
now stimulated into double adventure and effort,
by an honorable ambition to make up for all deficiencies
of number by extra valor, and the careful
exercise of all that skill in the arts of hunting
for which they have always been the most renowned
of the tribes of Cherokee. As, one by
one, a fearful train, the wolves wound into sight

[figure description] Page 157.[end figure description]

along this or that crag of the gully, arrow after
arrow told fearfully upon them, for there were no
marksmen like the Estatoees. Nor did they stop
at this weapon. The young Nagoochie, more
than ever prompted to such enterprise, led the
way; and dashing into the very path of the teeth-gnashing
and claw-rending enemy, he grappled
in desperate fight the first that offered himself,
and as the wide jaws of his hairy foe opened upon
him, with a fearful plunge at his side, adroitly
leaping to the right, he thrust a pointed stick
down, deep, as far as he could send it, into the
monster's throat, then pressing back upon him,
with the rapidity of an arrow, in spite of all his
fearful writhings he pinned him to the ground,
while his knife, in a moment after, played fatally
in his heart. Another came, and in a second, his
hatchet cleft and crunched deep into the skull of
the hairy brute, leaving him senseless, without
need of a second stroke. There was no rivalling
deeds of valour so desperate as this; and with increased
bitterness of soul did Cheochee and his
followers hate in proportion as they admired.
They saw the day close, and heard the signal
calling them to the presence of the great chief
Moitoy, conscious, though superior in numbers,
they could not at all compare in skill and success

[figure description] Page 158.[end figure description]

with the long-despised, but now thoroughly-hated
Estatoees.

“And still more great the vexation, still more
deadly the hate, when the prize was bestowed by
the hand of Moitoy, the great military chief of
Cherokee —when, calling around him the tribes,
and carefully counting the number of their several
spoils, consisting of the skins of the wolves that
had been slain, it was found that of these the
greater number, in proportion to their force, had
fallen victims to the superior skill or superior daring
of the people of the Green Bird. And who
had been their leader? the rambling Nagoochie—
the young hunter who had broken his leg
among the crags of Occony, and, in the same
adventure, no longer considered luckless, had won
the young heart of the beautiful Jocassée.

“They bore the young and successful warrior
into the centre of the ring, and before the great
Moitoy. He stood up in the presence of the assembled
multitude, a brave and fearless, and fine
looking Cherokee. At the signal of the chief,
the young maidens gathered into a group, and
sung around him a song of compliment and approval,
which was just as much as to say, — `Ask,
and you shall have.' He did ask; and before
the people of the Brown Viper could so far

[figure description] Page 159.[end figure description]

recover from their surprise as to interfere, or well
comprehend the transaction, the bold Nagoochie
had led the then happy Jocassée into the presence
of Moitoy and the multitude, and had claimed the
girl of Occony to fill the green lodge of the Estato
hunter.

“That was the signal for uproar and commotion.
The Occonies were desperately angered,
and the fierce Cheochee, whom nothing, not even
the presence of the great war-chief, could restrain,
rushed forward, and dragging the maiden violently
from the hold of Nagoochie, hurled her backward
into the ranks of his people; then, breathing nothing
but blood and vengeance, he confronted
him with ready knife and uplifted hatchet, defying
the young hunter, in that moment, to the fight.

“`E-cha-e-cha, e-herro—echa-herro-echa-herro,'
was the warwhoop of the Occonies; and it gathered
them to a man around the sanguinary
young chief who uttered it. `Echa-herro, echa-herro,
' he continued, leaping wildly in air with the
paroxysm of rage which had seized him, — `the
brown viper has a tooth for the green bird. The

[figure description] Page 160.[end figure description]

Occony is athirst — he would drink blood from
the dog-heart of the Estato. E-cha-e-cha-herro,
Occony.' And again he concluded his fierce
speech with that thrilling roll of sound, which, as
the so much dreaded warwhoop, brought a death
feeling to the heart of the early pioneer, and made
the mother clasp closely, in the deep hours of the
night, the young and unconscious infant to her
bosom. But it had no such influence upon the
fearless spirit of Nagoochie. The Estato heard
him with cool composure, and though evidently
unafraid, it was yet equally evident that he was
unwilling to meet the challenger in strife. Nor
was his decision called for on the subject. The
great chief interposed, and all chance of conflict
was prevented by his intervention. In that presence
they were compelled to keep the peace,
though both the Occonies and Little Estatoees
retired to their several lodges with fever in their
veins, and a restless desire for that collision which
Moitoy had denied them. All but Nagoochie
were vexed at this denial; and all of them wondered
much that a warrior, so brave and daring
as he had always shown himself, should be so
backward on such an occasion. It was true, they
knew of his love for the girl of Occony; but

[figure description] Page 161.[end figure description]

they never dreamed of such a feeling acquiring
an influence over the hunter, of so paralyzing and
unmanly a character. Even Nagoochie himself,
as he listened to some of the speeches uttered
around him, and reflected upon the insolence of
Cheochee — even he began to wish that the affair
might go over again, that he might take the hissing
viper by the neck. And poor Jocassee —
what of her when they took her back to the
lodges? She did nothing but dream all night of
Brown Vipers and Green Birds in the thick of
battle.

“The next day came the movement of the
hunters, still under the conduct of Moitoy, from
the one to the other side of the upper branch of
the Keowee river, now called the Jocassée, but
which, at that time, went by the name of Sarratay.
The various bands prepared to move with the daylight;
and still near, and still in sight of one another,
the Occonies and Estatoees took up their
line of march with the rest. The long poles of
the two, bearing the green bird of the one, and
the brown viper of the other, in the hands of their

[figure description] Page 162.[end figure description]

respective bearers — stout warriors chosen for this
purpose with reference to strength and valor —
waved in parallel courses, though the space between
them was made as great as possible by the
common policy of both parties. Following the
route of the caravan, which had been formed of
the ancient men, the women and children, to whom
had been entrusted the skins taken in the hunt,
the provisions, utensils for cooking, &c. the great
body of hunters were soon in motion for other and
better hunting-grounds, several miles distant, beyond
the river.

“The Indian warriors have their own mode of
doing business, and do not often travel with the
stiff precision which marks European civilization.
Though having all one point of destination, each
hunter took his own route to gain it, and in this
manner asserted his independence. This had
been the education of the Indian boy, and this
self-reliance is one source of that spirit and character
which will not suffer him to feel surprise in
any situation. Their way, generally, wound
along a pleasant valley, unbroken for several
miles, until you came to Big-knob, a huge crag
which completely divides it, rising formidably up
in the midst, and narrowing the valley on either
hand to a fissure, necessarily compelling a closer

[figure description] Page 163.[end figure description]

march for all parties than had heretofore been
pursued. Straggling about as they had been, of
course but little order was perceptible when they
came together, in little groups, where the mountain
forced their junction. One of the Bear tribe
found himself along side a handful of the Foxes,
and a chief of the Alligators plunged promiscuously
into the centre of a cluster of the Turkey
tribe, whose own chief was probably doing the
proper courtesies among the Alligators. These
little crossings, however, were amusing rather than
annoying, and were, generally, productive of little
inconvenience, and no strife. But it so happened,
there was one exception to the accustomed
harmony. The Occonies and Estatoees, like the
rest, had broken up in small parties, and as might
have been foreseen, when they came individually
to where the crag divided the valley into two,
some took the one and some the other hand, and
it was not until one of the paths they had taken
opened into a little plain in which the woods were
bald — a sort of prairie — that a party of seven
Occonies discovered that they had among them
two of their detested rivals, the Little Estatoees.
What made the matter worse, one of these stragglers
was the ill-fated warrior who had been
chosen to carry the badge of his tribe; and there,

[figure description] Page 164.[end figure description]

high above their heads — the heads of the Brown
Vipers — floated that detestable symbol, the green
bird itself.

“There was no standing that. The Brown
Vipers, as if with a common instinct, were immediately
up in arms. They grappled the offending
stragglers without gloves. They tore the green
bird from the pole, stamped it under foot, smeared
it in the mud, and pulling out the cone-tuft of
its head, utterly degraded it in their own as well
as in the estimation of the Estatoees. Not content
with this, they hung the desecrated emblem
about the neck of the bearer of it, and, spite of
all their struggles, binding the arms of the two
stragglers behind their backs, the relentless Vipers
thrust the long pole which had borne the bird, in
such a manner between their alternate arms as
effectually to bind them together. In this manner,
amidst taunts, blows, and revilings, they were
left in the valley to get on as they might, while
their enemies, insolent enough with exultation,
proceeded to join the rest of their party.

[figure description] Page 165.[end figure description]

“An hundred canoes were ready on the banks
of the river Sarratay, for the conveyance to the
opposite shore of the assembled Cherokees. And
down they came, warrior after warrior, tribe after
tribe, emblem after emblem, descending from the
crags around in various order, and hurrying all
with shouts and whoops and songs, grotesquely
leaping to the river's bank, like so many boys
just let out of school. Hilarity is, indeed, the life
of nature! Civilization refines the one at the expense
of the other, and then it is that no human
luxury or sport, as known in society, stimulates
appetite for any length of time. We can only
laugh in the woods — society suffers but a smile,
and desperate sanctity, with the countenance of a
crow, frowns even at that.

“But down, around, and gathering from every
side, they came — the tens and the twenties of the
several tribes of Cherokee. Grouped along the
banks of the river, were the boats assigned to
each. Some, already filled, were sporting in
every direction over the clear bosom of that beautiful
water. Moitoy himself, at the head of the

[figure description] Page 166.[end figure description]

tribe of Nequassée, from which he came, had already
embarked; while the venerable Attakulla,
with Jocassée, the gentle, sat upon a little bank
in the neighborhood of the Occony boats, awaiting
the arrival of Cheochee and his party. And
why came they not? One after another of the
several tribes had filled their boats, and were either
on the river or across it. But two clusters of
canoes yet remained, and they were those of the
rival tribes — a green bird flaunted over the one,
and a brown viper, in many folds, was twined
about the pole of the other.

“There was sufficient reason why they came
not. The strife had begun; — for, when gathering
his thirteen warriors in a little hollow at the
termination of the valley through which they came,
Nagoochie beheld the slow and painful approach
of the two stragglers upon whom the Occonies
had so practised. When he saw the green bird—
the beautiful emblem of his tribe — disfigured
and defiled, there was no longer any measure or
method in his madness. There was no longer a
thought of Jocassée to keep him back; and the
feeling of ferocious indignation which filled his
bosom was the common feeling with his brother
warriors. They lay in wait for the coming of the
Occonies, down at the foot of the Yellow Hill,

[figure description] Page 167.[end figure description]

where the woods gathered green and thick. They
were few — but half in number of their enemies—
but they were strong in ardor, strong in justice,
and even death was preferable to a longer endurance
of that dishonor to which they had already
been too long subjected. They beheld the
approach of the Brown Vipers, as, one by one,
they wound out from the gap of the mountain,
with a fierce satisfaction. The two parties were
now in sight of each other, and could not mistake
the terms of their encounter. No word was spoken
between them, but each began the scalp-song of
his tribe, preparing at the same time his weapon,
and advancing to the struggle.

“`The green bird has a bill,' sang the Estatoees;
`and he flies like an arrow to his prey.'

“`The brown viper has poison and a fang,'
responded the Occonies; `and he lies under the
net for his enemy.'

“`Give me to clutch the war-tuft,' cried the
leaders of each party, almost in the same breath.

“`To taste the blood,' cried another.

“`And make my knife laugh in the heart that
shrinks,' sung another and another.

“`I will put my foot on the heart,' cried an
Occony.

“`I tear away the scalp,' shouted an Estato, in

[figure description] Page 168.[end figure description]

reply; while a joint chorus from the two parties,
promised —

“`A dog that runs, to the black spirit that
sleeps in the swamp.'

“`Echa-herro, echa-herro, echa-herro,' was the
grand cry, or fearful warwhoop, which announced
the moment of onset and the beginning of the
strife.

“The Occonies were not backward, though the
affair was commenced by the Estatoees. Cheochee,
their leader, was quite as brave as malignant,
and now exulted in the near prospect of that
sweet revenge for all the supposed wrongs and
more certain rivalries which his tribe had suffered
from the Green Birds. Nor was this more the
feeling with him than with his tribe. Disposing
themselves, therefore, in readiness to receive the
assault, they rejoiced in the coming of a strife, in
which, having many injuries to redress, they had
the advantages, at the same time, of position and
number.

“But their fighting at disadvantage was not
now a thought with the Little Estatoees. Their

[figure description] Page 169.[end figure description]

blood was up, and like all usually patient people,
once aroused, they were not so readily quieted.
Nagoochie, the warrior now, and no longer the
lover, led on the attack. You should have seen
how that brave young chief went into battle —
how he leapt up in air, slapped his hands upon
his thighs in token of contempt for his foe, and
throwing himself open before his enemies, dashed
down his bow and arrows, and waving his hatchet,
signified to them his desire for the conflict, à l'outrance,
and, what would certainly make it so, hand
to hand. The Occonies took him at his word,
and throwing aside the long bow, they bounded
out from their cover to meet their adversaries.
Then should you have seen that meeting — that
first rush — how they threw the tomahawk — how
they flourished the knife — how the brave man
rushed to the fierce embrace of his strong enemy—
and how the two rolled along the hill in the
teeth-binding struggle of death.

“The tomahawk of Nagoochie had wings and
a tooth. It flew and bit in every direction. One
after another, the Occonies went down before it,
and still his fierce war cry of `Echa-mal-Occony,'
preceding every stroke, announced another and
another victim. They sank away from him like
sheep before the wolf that is hungry, and the

[figure description] Page 170.[end figure description]

disparity of force was not so great in favor of the
Occonies, when we recollect that Nagoochie was
against them. They were now, under his fierce
valor, almost equal in number, and something
more was necessary to be done by the Occonies
before they could hope for that favorable result
from the struggle which they had before looked
upon as certain. It was for Cheochee now to
seek out and to encounter the gallant young chief
of Estato. Nagoochie, hitherto, for reasons best
known to himself, had studiously avoided the
leader of the Vipers; but he could no longer do
so. He was contending, in close strife, with Okonettee,
or the One Eyed — a stout warrior of the
Vipers — as Cheochee approached him. In the
next moment, the hatchet of Nagoochie entered
the skull of Okonettee. The One-Eyed sunk to
the ground, as if in supplication, and, seizing the
legs of his conqueror, in spite of the repeated
blows which descended from the deadly instrument,
each of which was a death, while his head
swam, and the blood filled his eyes, and his senses
were fast fleeting, he held on with a death-grasp
which nothing could compel him to forego. In
this predicament, Cheochee confronted the young
brave of Estato. The strife was short, for though
Nagoochie fought as bravely as ever, yet he

[figure description] Page 171.[end figure description]

struck in vain, while the dying wretch, grappling
his legs, disordered, even by his convulsions, not
less than by his efforts, every blow which the strong
hand of Nagoochie sought to give. One arm was
already disabled, and still the dying wretch held
on to his legs. In another moment, the One-Eyed
was seized by the last spasms of death, and in his
struggles, he dragged the Estato chief to his
knees. This was the fatal disadvantage. Before
any of the Green Bird warriors could come to his
succor, the blow was given, and Nagoochie lay
under the knee of the Brown Viper. The knife
was in his heart, and the life not yet gone, when
the same instrument encircled his head, and his
swimming vision could behold his own scalp waving
in the grasp of his conqueror. The gallant
spirit of Nagoochie passed away in a vain effort
to utter his song of death — the song of a brave
warrior conscious of many victories.

“Jocassée looked up to the hills when she heard
the fierce cry of the descending Vipers. Their
joy was madness, for they had fought with — they
had slain, the bravest of their enemies. The

[figure description] Page 172.[end figure description]

intoxication of tone which Cheochee exhibited, when
he told the story of the strife, and announced his
victory, went like a death-stroke to the heart of
the maiden. But she said not a word — she uttered
no complaint — she shed no tear — but,
gliding quietly into the boat in which they were
about to cross the river, she sat silent, gazing, with
the fixedness of a marable statue, upon the still
dripping scalp of her lover, as it dangled about
the neck of his conqueror. On a sudden, just as
they had reached the middle of the stream, she
started, and her gaze was turned once more backward
upon the banks they had left, as if, on a sudden,
some object of interest had met her sight, —
then, whether by accident or design, with look still
intent in the same direction, she fell over the side,
before they could save or prevent her, and was
buried in the deep waters of Sarratay for ever.
She rose not once to the surface. The stream,
from that moment, lost the name of Sarratay, and
both whites and Indians, to this day, known it only
as the river of Jocassée. The girls of Cherokee,
however, contend that she did not sink, but walking
`the waters like a thing of life,' that she rejoined
Nagoochie, whom she saw beckoning to
her from the shore. Nor is this the only tradition.

[figure description] Page 173.[end figure description]

The story goes on to describe a beautiful lodge,
one of the most select in the valley of Manneyto,
the hunter of which is Nagoochie of the Green
Bird, while the maiden who dresses his venison is
certainly known as Jocassée.”

[figure description] Blank Page.[end figure description]

p361-446 THE CHEROKEE EMBASSAGE.

— “Where go these messengers —
These untamed lords of the forest, — whither speed
Their barks o'er unknown waters — to survey
What land of blue delight, what better shore,
More grateful to the hunter than the last?”

[figure description] Page 175.[end figure description]

[figure description] Blank Page.[end figure description]

[figure description] Page 177.[end figure description]

It was deemed prudent, soon after the close of
a trying war with the savages, to conciliate the
Cherokee nation, then one of the largest in the
colony; and Sir Alexander Cumming, himself
an ostentatious person, was fitly chosen for this
purpose. Charged with proposals of alliance,
and amply provided with gifts, more imposing
than valuable, to the several leading chiefs and
sages, this gentleman, in the beginning of the
year 1730, set forth for the Apalachian mountains,
in the neighborhood of which the principal
towns of the Cherokees were situated. He was
attended on this occasion, as well by several
voluntary travellers, as by a numerous military
retinue; and no circumstance was omitted, of display
or pomp, which could impress upon the

[figure description] Page 178.[end figure description]

aborigines an idea of the vast power of that foreign
potentate, whose representative was then to appear
before them. Every expense called for by the deputation
was cheerfully conceded on the part of
the royal government, as the king well knew the
great military strength of the people, whom it was
the object to conciliate. The Cherokees inhabiting
South Carolina at this time, were as numerous as
they were brave. The inhabitants of thirty-seven
regular towns, were computed to amount to twenty
thousand. Of these, six thousand were bowmen,
ready, on any emergency, to take the field. In
addition to this force, which may be considered
the regular force of the nation, the roving tribes
were supposed to reach several thousand more;
not so easy to be brought together, but, if possible,
far more dangerous to an enemy when once
collected, as, from their continual habit of wandering,
they grew even fiercer than the wild beasts,
in whose pursuit only they seemed to live.

It was some time before Sir Alexander reached
Keowee, a distance of three hundred miles or more
from Charleston. His way, for the most part,
lay through a wilderness, seldom, if ever before,
trodden by European footsteps. It was a dreary
pilgrimage, and it was no small satisfaction to the
English, when, as they attained the outskirts of the

[figure description] Page 179.[end figure description]

Cherokee territory, the chiefs of the lower town,
hearing of their approach, came forth to receive
and to guide them still further on their way. Ee-fistoe,
the chief of the Green Birds or Little Estatoees,
Chulochkolla, the sachem of the Occonies,
and Moitoy, the Black Warrior of Telliquo, the
most renowned of all their braves, thus joined the
jaded cavalcade.

Sir Alexander Cumming hailed them with a
flourish; and, having disposed of his retinue, before
their approach, in such a manner as to show
them to the best possible advantage, he was pleased
to think that he had made a favorable impression.
He was not deceived. The wondering savages—
themselves ostentatiously decorated, according
to their sylvan fashion, in all the rich plumage of
their native birds, contrasted strangely with the
hideous paint, and rugged skins, which formed so
large a part of their ceremonial equipment — were
nevertheless overcome by the more imposing splendors
of the deputation. The glittering armor —
the gorgeous uniform of the English, shining in
gold and scarlet — the lofty plumes — the plunging
and richly caparisoned horses — together with the
thrilling military music of an English band — all
combined to overpower their imaginations, and to
impress the deeply excited senses of the

[figure description] Page 180.[end figure description]

Cherokees; and though, like the Roman Fabricius, they
were not to be surprised, and suffered neither awe
nor irreverent curiosity to appear upon their faces,
or in their gesticulation, they were all nevertheless
strongly wrought upon by both these emotions.

Sir Alexander lost no time in securing the friendship
of the chiefs, as they severally came forth to
meet him. He received them in great state, and
to each gave some particular present, so carefully
chosen as to avoid all chance of showing a preference
to any one, thus giving offence to the rest.
This caution had its due results. The chiefs were
all well satisfied, and Moitoy, the Black Warrior
of Telliquo, not to be outdone in these respects,
brought from Tenassee, the principal town of the
nation, the crown of the Great Keowee, the old
chief and reigning sovereign — a monarch too potent,
according to his own and his people's estimation,
to be even looked upon by strangers. The
policy of the suspicious savage had much to do
with this strange seclusion. His person, like that
of Montezuma, was considered sacred, and a
proper watch was maintained over it accordingly.
Thus, though able to have annihilated the entire
force under Cumming in a single effort, it was yet
thought advisable to risk nothing, by the exposure
of a commodity so susceptible to injury as a

[figure description] Page 181.[end figure description]

reigning sovereign; and with the first annuciation,
therefore, of the approach of the English, Keowee,
a decrepid and almost blind old man, was hurried
bodily away from the contiguous country, more
deeply than before into the thick forests, and among
the impassable barriers of rock, which girdled in
and covered their extended territory. To Moitoy,
and the other chiefs or kings, was entrusted the
task of receiving and providing for the strangers;
and, to do them all justice, the reception was such
as became a brave and honorable people. The
fruits and flesh, the maize and provisions, to which
they were themselves accustomed, were all freely
provided; and five eagle tails, and four scalps
from slaughtered enemies, were also among the
presents brought by Moitoy. These had a signification
which, through the interpreter, the dusky
warriors explained to the satisfaction of their European
visiters. The feathers of the eagle marked
the strength and the glory alike of Cherokee, and
the scalp of their enemies announced the unerring
certainty of Cherokee victory and vengeance.
These were presented to the English, in token that
henceforward their course should be trodden on
the same war path, in close affinity, and against
the same enemies.

[figure description] Page 182.[end figure description]

Thirty-two chiefs, each paramount with his own
tribe and section, appeared at the solemn council
which followed. A great deal of pompous talk
was uttered, and Moitoy of Telliquo, the Black
Warrior, found such high favor with Sir Alexander,
that he nominated him as the commander-in-chief
of the Cherokee armies, and presented him
with a rich robe as a badge of his new office. The
chiefs present agreed to recognise him as such,
provided that there should be a like accountability
to him, (Sir Alexander,) on the part of Moitoy.
Every thing went on amicably, and, emboldened
by the friendly disposition which the savages
evinced, the English ambassador proposed that
some of them should accompany him to England,
in order, with their own eyes, to behold that great
king, of whom he had given them a most flaming
description.

“Your brother, King George,” said he, in a
speech which was well remembered by the attentive
chiefs, “will be glad to see you. He will
load you with presents, with hatchets and knives,
with rich clothes, and beautiful feathers. He will
bind you to his heart with a bright gold chain,
which will last unbroken for a thousand years.”

“He is our brother,” replied the chiefs with one

[figure description] Page 183.[end figure description]

voice, dazzled by the glorious promise — “he is
our brother — we will go to our brother George.”

There was no difficulty in getting the proposed
deputation; the only difficulty, indeed, was in
making a selection from the number of those offering.
Unconscious of the length of the voyage, of
its dangers, and the new and unaccustomed scenes
and circumstances through which they would have
to go before realizing the prospects set before them,
the simple savages, each a king in his own country,
were readily persuaded to undertake the embassage
which promised them so much enjoyment.
The gold and the glitter — the fine armor like that
which Sir Alexander wore — the pomp and the
display, which, through the interpreter, the Englishman
dwelt upon in the most glowing language—
were irresistible; and, full of the splendors of
their brother George, they threw the bear skins
about their shoulders, filled their quivers with fresh
arrows from the canebrake, and kissing the sunny
side, one after the other, of the broad tree that
covered them during the progress of the council,
they bade their farewell to the green forests, and
the wild free country, their eyes might never again
behold.

Six of them accompanied Sir Alexander to
Charleston, and thence, having been there joined

[figure description] Page 184.[end figure description]

by another chief who followed them after a brief
delay, they embarked with him for Europe. The
eldest of these chiefs, or kings, was Tonestoi,
prince of Nequassée, a once formidable, but now
decayed warrior, and a good old man. He was
renowned among the Cherokees for his wisdom.
The next in order was the famous orator, Skiajagustha—
a man whose eloquence performed wonders
in the councils of his people, and of whose
speeches, some occur upon our own historical records,
not unworthy to appear in any collection.
Next came Chulockholla, another orator, neither
so old nor so well renowned as Skiajagustha. The
chief of the Occonies, or Brown Vipers, Cenestee,
was the fourth of this delegation — a chief only
remarkable for the reckless audacity of his valor.
The fifth was a gallant young warrior of the Little
Estatoees, or Green Birds, Ee-fistoe — a warrior
intelligent as valiant, and not any thing less amiable
because of his acknowledged bravery. Occonostota
made the sixth. He was the king of Echotee,
and could himself bring three hundred warriors
into the field; but he was something of a
tyrant, and was deposed the very year after his return
from Europe. The seventh, who joined the
deputation in Charleston, was a chief also, but

[figure description] Page 185.[end figure description]

his name does not appear in our history. He was
probably of no great renown.

These were the Cherokee kings, who, consenting
to the invitation of Sir Alexander Cumming,
sailed with him in the Swallow Packet, for London,
some time in the month of May, 1730. Seduced
by the glowing pictures spread before their
minds by the English agent, full of expectation,
and flushed with the promise of so many novelties,
the wild men of the woods, wrapped in their hunter
garbs, gorgeously covered with fresh paint,
and armed to the teeth, after the fashion of their
people, fearlessly went on board the little vessel
that awaited them, and, with favoring breezes,
were soon lost to the sight of land, and plunging
steadily over the bosom of the Atlantic.

The sea — a new element to the Cherokees —
exacted its dues, and it was not many hours before
the warriors grew heartily sick of their unusual
undertaking. Much would they have given to be
once more in their native forests, but they were too
brave, and too well taught in the stoical morality
of the savage, to confess to any such weakness.
They had long before learned, that, to conquer, it
is first necessary that we should bear with, our fate,
and they withstood, accordingly, as well as they
could, the storms and the tossings of the waters, in

[figure description] Page 186.[end figure description]

a manner by no means discrediting their creed or
nation. They grew, in a little time, familiar with
their new abiding place, and, as the initial sickness
passed away, soon began to contemplate, with
comparative steadiness and a growing appreciation,
all the various objects and aspects of their
new domain.

All was strange — all was wonderful around
them. Their own complete isolation — the absence
of the woods and wilds to which only they
had been accustomed — their initiation into a world
so new and strange, as to them was that of ocean—
the singular buoyancy of their ship — the astonishing
agility of the seamen, moving about with
ease and dexterity, where they could scarcely
maintain the most uncertain foot-hold — these were
all matters of profound astonishment and curiosity.
But these were all as nothing, after the first blush
of novelty had passed away, in comparison with
the queer tricks and uncouth antics of one of the
ship's company. This was no less than a monkey,
belonging to one of the sailors, named Jacko — a
creature of habitual trick and mimicry, continually
provoked to its exercise by some one or other of
the seamen. He ran along the ropes and rigging
in pursuit of them. He mounted the spars, and
sat in uncouth shapes in the most dangerous

[figure description] Page 187.[end figure description]

places. He carried off the caps of the sailors, then
pelted them down upon those who walked the deck.
In short, nothing in the semblance of mischief was
omitted by Jacko. Tonestoi, the venerable elder
of the Indian chiefs, was absolutely ravished by
the tricks of the sportive monkey. He had no
thought for any other object than Jacko. He
watched his movements by the hour, provoked
their exercise by continual stimulating affronts, and
laughed, in despite of the grave looks of his brother
chiefs, as immoderately as if such had been
his continual practice. Tonestoi was an ancient
chief, renowned as much for wisdom as for valor,
and he presumed upon his reputation. He therefore
gave vent to his merriment without any fear of
losing either his own or the general respect of his
people. The other chiefs, who were all younger,
were either differently situated in rank, or were not
altogether so secure in the estimation of their people;
and, though equally delighted with Tonestoi,
were yet prudent enough to preserve a greater degree
of gravity. They looked on with composure;
and, while watching closely all the sports of Jacko,
they yet forebore to take any part in the merriment.
But the old chief had no such scruples, and his
laughter was without reserve. He played with
Jacko like a child — rolled with him about the

[figure description] Page 188.[end figure description]

decks — hallooed him on to all manner of mischief—
clapped his hands and cheered him in his performance,
and then, in his own language, pronounced
a high eulogy upon his achievements.
He called him “Hickisiwackinaw,” or “the
warrior with a tail;” and at length, when he saw
Jacko swing by his hind legs from a rope, and,
with his paws, grapple and take fast hold upon
the bushy poll of one of the sailors as he walked
beneath, he called him “Toostenugga,” after the
celebrated leader of the Cherokee hobgoblins ——
this being one of the favorite modes by which
Toostenugga, suspending himself from a tree, laid
hold of, and punished, those who offended him, as
they walked beneath. Nothing could divert the
attention of Tonestoi from the monkey. Sir Alexander
Cumming, whose sense of dignity was
greatly outraged by such unbecoming levity, tried
his best to attract the mind of the Cherokee to
more dignified amusements; and, in his vexation,
was with difficulty restrained from tumbling Jacko
overboard, hopeless of any other means of obtaining
his object. He made a show of anger towards
the monkey, but, upon beholding the sudden gravity
of Tonestoi as he comprehended this design,
he thought it only wise to forbear, as it was his
policy, as well as his orders, to avoid all manner

[figure description] Page 189.[end figure description]

of offence. His dernier resort then was in his
liquors, and once made acquainted with their potency,
the old chief, Tonestoi, was soon taught to
prefer the intoxicating cup to the antics of his more
innocent companion. Jacko, or, as he called him
to the last, Toostenugga, ceased to attract so much
of his attention, and, to the shame of all parties
be it said, the good old warrior, after this, had
scarcely a sober hour until they reached the haven
of their destination.

Their arrival in London was the signal for much
bustle and exhibition. Apart from the desire to
impose greatly on their senses by shows and splendors,
to which, in their wild abodes, they had never
been accustomed, the better to acquire dominion
over them, they received a thousand attentions as
the last new lions in the metropolis. Lords and
ladies thronged the hotel at which the Cherokee
kings were lodged, and the beautiful squaws of
London, as was more recently the case in our own
country, submitted joyfully to the salute of the Indian
warriors for the sake of its novelty. Feasts
were given them in profusion — frolics conceived
on purpose to make them actors; and from the day
of their arrival to that of their departure, all was
uproar and exultation. In all these junkettings, it
need scarcely be said that our Cherokees preserved

[figure description] Page 190.[end figure description]

happily their usual equanimity of character. They
were grave and composed, and behaved, for all
the world, as if they had been accustomed all their
lives to such honors and indulgences. Tonestoi,
alone, of all the deputation, gave way to the garrulous
good humor of the aged man. He laughed
and joked freely with his visiters, and nothing gave
him such profound pleasure as when his great
cheek bones and painted lips came in contact with
the velvety skin of his lady visiters. Never had
Cherokee warrior so given way before to all the
practices, and so many of the evidences, of la belle
passion. So much was this the case, that his more
youthful companions began to have doubts as to
the tenacity of that superior wisdom in the ancient
chief which had been a proverb in his own country.

But if the general acquaintance with the Indians,
and their usual deportment, prevailed with
and gave satisfaction to the English nobility, their
conduct in the interview with the king completed
the merriment, and furnished a fitting climax to
the whole proceeding. Seized somewhat with the
spirit of the fashion in reference to them, and desirous
of securing, by a proper policy, the affections
of these people, the British monarch desired,
and determined to do them particular honor. An

[figure description] Page 191.[end figure description]

especial drawing-room was appointed them, and,
in the presence of a most brilliant and imposing
assemblage, he prepared to receive his distinguished
visiters. Sir Alexander Cumming, who
had the chiefs in charge, attempted, before going
to court, to give them certain instructions as to
their behavior in the presence of majesty; but
they either did not, or would not, understand him.
They comprehended sufficiently his object, however,
and the native pride of an aboriginal chief
rose in arms at his suggestion. Skiajagustha, the
orator, was the first to take fire at what seemed an
indignity. Wrapping his bear skin around him
with a majesty which George himself, in all his
career, and with the best teachers, never could
have emulated, he looked scornfully upon his
would-be tutor, while he replied:

“Skiajagustha is the great mouth of Cherokee —
he has stood before his nation when Keowee, the
red arrow, was there. His words are good.”

The interpreter explained; but, as similar sentiments
were uttered by nearly all the party, Sir
Alexander saw that it would not only be idle, but
most probably offensive, were he to endeavor to
teach them farther. As they approached the chair
of state, in which sat the monarch, the aged Tonestoi
took the advance. The king rose as he

[figure description] Page 192.[end figure description]

drew nigh, and came forward, extending his hand
for the usual salute, as he did so, to the approaching
Indian. But Tonestoi, remembering his own
dignity, and what had been said to him on the
score of the relationship between them, prior to his
leaving his own country, to the great horror of the
courtiers, and of Sir Alexander Cumming in particular,
grasped the extended hand of the English
monarch with his own, and, giving it a squeeze
that none but a bear could well have equalled,
shook it heartily and long, exclaiming, in the few
words of courtesy which he had committed in broken
English,

“Huddye-do, Broder George — huddye-do —
glad to see you” — and, continuing with a smile
as he looked round upon the women — “You got
plenty squaws.”

The court was convulsed and shocked beyond
measure. All were astounded except the king
himself, and the savages. George, with his usual
good nature, withdrawing his hand, though with
some difficulty, from the powerful gripe of his brother
monarch, smiled pleasantly, and, amused with
the familiarity, responded in similar style, giving
the cue to those around him. Nothing then could
exceed the hilarity with which the business of the
conference was carried on and finished. The

[figure description] Page 193.[end figure description]

kings made long speeches through the interpreters,
satisfactory on all sides, and a treaty of alliance
was then and there agreed upon between
them, to be valid and binding upon the Cherokees
and English in America, as they were avowed to
be so by both parties present then in England.

We quote portions of this treaty, as it not only
presents us with much of the eloquence employed
by the several contracting parties, but also gives
us some idea of the various topics of trade and communion,
rendering such a treaty between people
so dissimilar essential to the mutual good. It will
be found, however, that the performance of duties
devolves much more frequently upon the Indian
than upon the white man, and that his rewards,
estimated by our standards of use and value, are
quite inadequate to the services required at their
hands. Doubtless, however, they were such as
were best calculated for the uninstructed savage.

The preamble to this treaty recites.

“That whereas the six chiefs, [without naming
them, and without any reference to the chief who
unquestionably joined the embassy at Charleston,
when about to sail,] with the consent of the whole
nation of Cherokees, at a general meeting of their
nation at Nequassée, were deputed by Moitoy,
their chief warrior, to attend Sir Alexander

[figure description] Page 194.[end figure description]

Cumming to Great Britain, where they had seen the
great king George, and where Sir Alexander, by
authority from Moitoy and all the Cherokees, had
laid the crown of their nation, with the scalps of
their enemies, and feathers of glory, at his majesty's
feet, as a pledge of their loyalty; — and
whereas the great king has instructed the lords
commissioners of trade and plantations, to inform
the Indians, that the English on all sides of the
mountains and lakes, were his people, their friends
his friends, their enemies his enemies; that he took
it kindly that the great nation of Cherokee had
sent them so far to brighten the chain of friendship
between him and them, and between his people
and their people; that the chain of friendship between
him and the Cherokee is now like the sun,
which shines both in Britain and upon the great
mountains where they live, and equally warms the
hearts of Indians and Englishmen; that, as there
is no spot or blackness in the sun, so neither is
there any rust or foulness on this chain; and, as
the king has fastened one end to his breast, [suiting
the action to the word, in George's best and
bluffest style,] he desired them to carry the other
end of the chain and fasten it to the breast of Moitoy,
of Telliquo, and to the breasts of all their

[figure description] Page 195.[end figure description]

wise old men, their captains and people, never
more to be made loose or broken.

“The great king and the Cherokees being thus
fastened together by a chain of friendship, he has
ordered, and it is agreed, that his children in Carolina
do trade with the Indians, and furnish them
with all manner of goods they want, and to make
haste to build houses and plant corn from Charleston
towards the towns of the Cherokees behind the
great mountains. [Vague enough, and, like most
treaties with the Indians, carried on through dishonest
or imperfect interpreters, not understood by
one of the parties, and a frequent source of mischief
afterwards.] That he desires the English and
Indians may live together as children of one family—
that the Cherokees be always ready to fight
against any nation, whether white men or Indians,
who shall molest or hurt the English — that the
nation of the Cherokee shall, on its part, take
care to keep the trading path clean — that there
be no blood on the path which the English tread,
even though they should be accompanied with other
people with whom the Cherokees may be at war —
[what an exaction — how is it possible that the
Cherokees should have understood this charge,
or, understanding, that they should have complied
with it?] — that the Cherokees shall not suffer their

[figure description] Page 196.[end figure description]

people to trade with white men of any other nation
but the English — [here is monopoly with a vengeance!
] — nor permit, [mark this,] nor permit
white men of any other nation to build any forts or
cabins, or plant any corn among them, upon lands
which belong to the great king.”

Such was the morality of these selfish traders.
They actually excluded the savages from the exercise
of those wonted rites of hospitality to white
men, and to christians like themselves, (for the
French and Spaniards were contemplated by this
clause,) which the Cherokees had freely accorded
to the British, and which they must otherwise have
extended freely to all others. The treaty goes on
to provide, that, if any such attempt shall be made
by the white men of any other than the British
nation, the Cherokees must not only acquaint the
British government of the fact, but must do whatever
he directs, in order to maintain and defend
the “great king's right to the country of Carolina.”
The treaty further provides, “that if any
negroes shall run away into the woods from their
English masters, the Cherokees shall endeavor to
apprehend them, and bring them to the plantation
from whence they ran, or to the governor.”

Hitherto the contract has been all on one side,
and the English king has never said “Turkey,”

[figure description] Page 197.[end figure description]

once, to his Cherokee brother; but, at this stage
of the treaty, he seems to have recollected himself,
and, accordingly, we find him promising, that,
“for every slave so apprehended and brought
back, the Indian that brings him shall receive a
gun and a watch coat; and if, by any accident, it
shall happen that an Englishman shall kill a Cherokee,
[an event only possible, it seems,] the king
or chief of the nation shall first complain to the
English governor, and the man who did the harm
shall be punished by the English laws as if he had
killed an Englishman; and, in like manner, if any
Indian happens to kill [by any accident is entirely
wanting here] an Englishman, the Indian shall be
delivered up to the governor, to be punished by
the same English laws as if he were an Englishman.”

This was the substance of the first treaty between
the British and the Cherokee nation; and a
precious specimen it is, of cunning beguiling simplicity,
and of unfair relationship between parties
originally contracting on an equal footing of advantage.
The Cherokee chiefs heard it first from
the lips of George, who paused at every sentence,
and, as the interpreter explained it, clause by
clause, a nobleman presented to the expecting
chiefs a rich present of cloths or ornaments.

[figure description] Page 198.[end figure description]

When the king had got through his task, he suddenly
withdrew through a private door, glad to
escape any farther embrace from his Cherokee
brethren. The further business of the treaty was
then concluded by Alured Popple, secretary to the
lords commissioners of trade and plantations, on
the one side, and by the marks of the Indian
chiefs on the other. The secretary, at the same
time, addressed them in a speech confirming the
words of the great king whom they had just seen;
and, as a token that his heart was true and open
to the Cherokees, a belt was given the warriors,
which the king desired them to show to their
children and children's children, to confirm what
was now spoken, and to bind this agreement of
peace and friendship between the English and
the Cherokees, “as long as the rivers shall run,
the mountains shall stand, or the sun shall shine.”

Such was the glowing termination of the secretary's
speech. When he had concluded, the old
chief Tonestoi gave way to Skiajagustha, the famous
orator, who seemed to know his own claims to
reply for the rest. Gathering his robe over his
left shoulder, so as entirely to free the right arm, he
began his reply, the greater portion of which is
preserved as follows. It will be found to contain

[figure description] Page 199.[end figure description]

quite as much good sense, dignity, and beauty, as
was called for by the occasion:

“We are come higher from the mountains, where
there is nothing but darkness. But we are now
in a place of light. We see the great king in
you — we love you as you stand here for him.
We shall die in this thought. The crown of Cherokee
is not like that in the tower; but, to us, they
are the same — the chain shall be carried to our
people. The great king George is the sun — he
is our father — the Cherokees are his children.
Though we are red and you are white — yet our
hearts and hands are tied together. We shall say
to our people what we have seen, and our children
shall remember it. In war we will be one with
you — your enemies shall be ours — we shall live
together as one people — we shall die together.
We are naked and poor as the worms that crawl—
but you have all things. We that have nothing
must love you. We will never break the chain
that is between us. This small rope we show you
is all that we have to bind our slaves — You have
chains of iron for yours. We will catch your
slave that flies — we will bind him as strongly as
we can, and we shall take no pay when we bring
him back to you. Your people shall build near
ours in safety. The Cherokee shall hurt them

[figure description] Page 200.[end figure description]

not — he shall hurt nothing that belongs to them.
Are we not children of one father — shall we not
live and die together?”

Here he paused, and one of the other chiefs
coming forward at a signal from the speaker, presented
him with a bunch of eagle feathers. Taking
them in his hand, Skiajagustha presented them
to the secretary with these words:

“This is our way of talking, which is the same
thing to us as your letters in the book to you.
These feathers, from the strong bird of Cherokee—
these shall be witnesses for the truth of what I
have said.”

Thus discoursing eloquently together, the parties
contracted to their mutual satisfaction, and
however unequal were the general advantages obtained,
there was certainly no dissatisfaction expressed
among them. The terms were agreed
upon without discontent or difficulty, and it will
not be premature or anticipative, in this stage of
our narration, to say, in the language of the historian,
Ramsay, that in consequence of this treaty,
the Cherokees, for many years after, remained in
“a state of perfect friendship and peace with the
colonists, who followed their various employments
in the neighborhood of these Indians, without the
least terror or molestation.”

[figure description] Page 201.[end figure description]

But the nine days' wonder was now over in the
British metropolis. The Indian chiefs began to
lose their importance in the sight of their European
brethren. Some new monster soon occupied
their place, and Sir Alexander Cumming being
now prepared to return to Carolina, and the vessel
ready to depart, they had little reluctance at leaving
a land, where, though every kindness and
courtesy had been shown them, they had found so
few objects and features at all like or kindred with
their own. They set sail from England on the
23d September, 1730, and, under favoring aspects
of wind and weather, were soon out upon the comprehensive
world and void of ocean.

But the second voyage was more tedious to the
chiefs than the first. That had novelty to recommend
it — the strange mass of all objects at sea,
relieved, in the first instance, its general monotony.
But the second brought all this home to them;
and, what added to their dulness still more, was
the absence of Jacko — the monkey was no longer
one of their fellow passengers. The sailor
who owned, had sold him, while in London, and
nothing could exceed the dissatisfaction of old Tonestoi,
on hearing of the circumstance. The first
thing he did on coming aboard the vessel, was to
call aloud for Toostenugga. But he called in

[figure description] Page 202.[end figure description]

vain, and was with difficulty made to understand,
that his goblin acquaintance was left behind them.
He refused consolation, and chafed and almost
quarrelled with those who offered it. He drank
with Sir Alexander Cumming; but that was all, in
the way of relief or amusement, that he could be
persuaded to do. In a state of moody absence,
as soon as his fit of sea sickness was well over, he
roamed about the ship, tumbling from side to side,
and, in his own language, muttering continually
of Toostenugga. Dreadfully, indeed, did he suffer
from blue devils, and, in this mood, shooting
with his arrows wantonly at little spots in the sails,
he soon exhausted all his quiver, as the flying
shafts would generally, after a few discharges, find
their way into the bosom of the ocean. The other,
and younger, chiefs bore the voyage with far more
philosophy than their ancient comrade; and with
that aptness which belongs to man in all situations,
and which we have erringly denied to the
Aborigines, they, at length, began to accommodate
themselves to the novel employments of the
sea. Skiajagustha, the great orator himself, was
the first to set an example of this discipline. He
seized upon the ropes on one occasion, and began
to tug away lustily along with the sailors. His
companions followed him, all but old Tonestoi,

[figure description] Page 203.[end figure description]

and, from a sport at first, it grew to be a common
resort for exercise among them. Sir Alexander
Cumming, however, thought such practices unbecoming
in those who had royal blood in their
veins; but, as there was no alternative, he could
suggest no objection. To Tonestoi, alone, he
could address himself; and, as the old chief took
no part in the amusements of his companions, he
was the more ready to sit gloomily and gravely
over the lengthened glass with the Englishman.
But his ennui continued to increase, and, at length,
to the great consternation of Sir Alexander, the
poor savage grew sick, and his free habit of drinking
only made him worse. The liquor was then
withdrawn from him; and this seemed to increase
his malady. The attack was a very severe one,
and, unhappily, but few precautions had been taken
against such an occasion. There were scarcely
any medicines on board; and even these, the old
chief, with all the fretful obstinacy of a spoiled
child, could not be persuaded to take. Day by
day he grew worse, and it now became evident to
all that the danger was alarming. The younger
chiefs assembled about him, and Sir Alexander,
with deep concern, strove, through them, to persuade
him to the adoption of those remedies which
he proposed. He resolutely rejected all their

[figure description] Page 204.[end figure description]

suggestions, and tossing about in his fever, from
side to side, he exhibited a feeble peevishness to all
around him — his own people not excepted. Several
days passed over in this manner, and it was
evident to all that he had sunk amazingly. At
this stage of his illness, and while he was chafing
querulously with all of them, Skiajagustha approached
him where he lay. The brow of the
orator was stern and full of rebuke, and the first
words which he uttered, in his own sweet but solemn
and emphatic language, rivetted the attention
of the dying warrior. He ceased to tumble
upon his couch — he ceased to chafe and chide
those about him. The appeal of Skiajagustha had
been made to his manhood — to his sense of the
dignity and the courage of a brave of Cherokee:

“Shall Tonestoi go to the Manneyto with the
word of a child on his tongue? Shall he say to
the Master of Life, wherefore hast thou called me?
The brave man has another spirit when the dark
spirit wraps him.

“Tonestoi — it is the word of the Cherokee —
is a brave among the braves. He has taken scalps
from the light-heeled Catawba — he has taken
scalps from the cunning Shawanese — he has taken
scalps from the Creek warrior that rages — he has
taken scalps from all the enemies of Cherokee.

[figure description] Page 205.[end figure description]

He should have a song for his victories, that the
Great Manneyto shall be glad to receive him.”

“Achichai-me!” cried Tonestoi in reply — and,
in his own language, proceeded as follows:

“It is good, Skiajagustha — it is good what thou
hast spoken. But I heard not before the words of
the Great Manneyto. I hear them through thee.
He has called me — I hear him speaking in the
heart of Tonestoi — I am going to the land of
spirits — to the plum groves where my fathers
journey on the long hunt. I am not afraid to go.
The Master of Life knows I am ready.”

“Ha! ha!” he sang a moment after —

“Ha! ha! I laugh at my enemies. The Catawba
could not take the scalp — he could not
drink blood from Tonestoi. Ha! ha! That for
the Shawanee — that for the Creek that rages —
that for all the enemies of Cherokee. The Master
of Life only can kill, and Tonestoi is ready for
him.

“Bring me arrows, Skiajagustha — bring me arrows,
young Ee-fistoe of the Green Birds — bring
me arrows, young braves of Cherokee — the arrows
shall speak for my victories.”

They brought him arrows at his request, and he
separated the bundles, laying each shaft by itself.
The younger chiefs curiously gathered around

[figure description] Page 206.[end figure description]

him, as they well knew they were now to hear a
chronicle of his own and his country's achievements;
and for every arrow, he had the story of
some brave adventure — some daring deed. One
of them stood for his first battle with the Chickasaw,
when, yet a mere boy, he went forth with his
old father, Canonjahee, on the war path against
that subtle nation. Another arrow was made to
signify his escape from a band of roving Shawanese
who had made him a prisoner while hunting;
a third told the affair with the Creeks, for his bravery
in which his countrymen had made him a
chief — feather chief and arrow chief; a fourth
recounted his long personal combat with Sarratahay
of Santee, the big boned chief from that river,
who had come up on purpose to contend with him,
at the lower town of Chinebee. Tonestoi was the
victor after a long struggle, and this he dwelt upon
the most emphatically of all his victories. And
so, with a dozen other events, he associated the
arrows. For an hour his strain proceeded, and
the Indians listened with unrelaxing attention.
Sir Alexander Cumming, apprised of the nature
of the scene, hung over the dying chief with the
deepest interest; and even the sailors, several of
them came as nigh to listen as they well might

[figure description] Page 207.[end figure description]

without manifest impropriety. The old man lay
silent for some time after his song was ended. But
his chosen arrows had all been carefully gathered
up by Skiajagustha, who tied them closely together
with the sinews of the deer. Towards evening
the chief grew much weaker, and he muttered
fitfully, and started every now and then like
one from sleep. When the sun was about to set,
its faint delicate light streamed through the little
aperture in the cabin just where the dying man
lay. He started and strove to raise himself up to
behold the orb now sinking like himself. But failing
to do this, he only raised his right hand and
waved it towards the bright object which he could
not see. Skiajagustha bent towards him, and uttered
two or three words in his own language, at
which all the other chiefs rose and bent over him.
Tonestoi gave each of them a look of recognition,
and, while muttering a brief sentence, probably one
of parting, his lower jaw suddenly dropped, then
caught up as in a spasm, then as suddenly again
relaxed and fell, never again to move. The light
grew dim in the eyes which yet opened upon the
spectators.

Skiajagustha laid the bunch of arrows upon the
breast of Tonestoi, where they remained until the

[figure description] Page 208.[end figure description]

next day, when his body was committed to the
deep. They were then carefully preserved by the
survivors, as witnesses of the whole transaction,
and received as such by the people. They form
one of the tokens of Cherokee valor, and are preserved
to this very hour, among the trophies of the
nation.