settlements so far to the east of the Savannah. Possibly some Coosa Indians of South Carolina afterwards combined with them. After the establishment of a Yuchi settlement on the Chattahoochee by Chief Ellick of the Kasihta, in the year 1729, as will be detailed below, they began to make their permanent residence more and more among the Creeks, using their old territories principally for hunting. Although the white settlers naturally coveted these lands, left vacant for so much of the time, Governor Oglethorpe restrained them and preserved the territory inviolate until after 1740. Not many years later they had been practically given over by the Yuchi themselves. Two very good descriptions of the Yuchi town on the Chattahoochee have been preserved to us-one by Bartram and one by Hawkins. It stood at the mouth of the present Big Uchee Creek. Bartram, who passed through the place in 1778, says of it:

The Uche town is situated in a low ground immediately bordering on the river; it is the largest, most compact, and best situated Indian town I ever saw; the habitations are large and neatly built; the walls of the houses are constructed of a wooden frame, then lathed and plastered inside and out with a reddish well-tempered clay or mortar, which gives them the appearance of red brick walls; and these houses are neatly covered or roofed with Cypress bark or shingles of that tree. The town appeared to be populous and thriving, full of youth and young children. I suppose the number of inhabitants, men, women and children, might amount to one thousand or fifteen hundred, as it is said they are able to muster five hundred gunmen or warriors. Their own national language is altogether or radically different from the Creek or Muscogulge tongue, and is called the Savanna or Savanuca tongue; I was told by the traders it was the same with, or a dialect of the Shawanese. They are in confederacy with the Creeks, but do not mix with them; and on account of their numbers and strength, are of importance enough to excite and draw upon them the jealousy of the whole Muscogulge confederacy, and are usually at variance, yet are wise enough to unite against a common enemy, to support the interest and glory of the general Creek confederacy.1

Of course the Shawnee and Yuchi languages are radically distinct. Bartram was led into the error of supposing a relation to subsist between them by the fact that the two tribes were on very intimate terms, were mixed together, and both spoke languages quite different from Creek.2

Hawkins's description follows:

U-chee: is on the right bank of Chat-to-ho-che, ten and a half miles below Cow-e-tuh tal-lau-has-see, on a flat of rich land, with hickory, oak, blackjack, and long-leaf pine; the flat extends from one to two miles back from the river. Above the town, and bordering on it, Uchee Creek, eighty-five feet wide, joins the river. Opposite the town house, on the left bank of the river, there is a narrow strip of flat land from fifty to one hundred yards wide, then high pine barren hills; these people speak a tongue different from the Creeks; they were formerly settled in small villages at Ponpon, Saltketchers (Sol-ke-chuh), Silver Bluff, and O-ge-chee, and were continually at war with the Cherokees, Ca-tau-bau, and Creeks.

Bartram, Travels, pp. 386-387.

See p. 190.

The Lib. Cong. MS. has "45.”

In the year 1729, an old chief of Cussetuh, called by the white people Captain Ellick, married three Uchee women, and brought them to Cussetuh, which was greatly disliked by his towns people; their opposition determined him to move from Cussetuh; he went down opposite where the town now is, and settled with his three brothers; two of whom had Uchee wives; he, after this, collected all the Uchees, gave them the land where their town now is, and there they settled.

These people are more civil and orderly than their neighbors; their women are more chaste, and the men better hunters; they retain all their original customs and laws, and have adopted none of the Creeks; they have some worm fences in and about their town, but very few peach trees.

They have lately begun to settle out in villages, and are industrious, compared with their neighbors; the men take part in the labors of the women, and are more constant in their attachment to their women than is usual among red people.

The number of gun men is variously estimated; they do not exceed two hundred and fifty, including all who are settled in villages, of which they have three.

1st. In-tuch-cul-gau; from in-tuch-ke, a dam across water [a "cut off”]; and ul-gau, all; applied to beaver dams. This is on Opil-thluc-co, twenty-eight miles from its junction with Flint River. This creek is sixty feet wide at its mouth, one and a half miles above Timothy Barnard's; the land bordering on the creek, up to the village, is good. Eight miles below the village the good land spreads out for four or five miles on both sides of the creek, with oaky woods (Tuck-au-mau-pa-fau); the range is fine for cattle; cane grows on the creeks, and reeds on all the branches.

They have fourteen families in the village; their industry is increasing; they built a square in 1798, which serves for their town house; they have a few cattle, hogs, and horses.1

2d. Pad-gee-li-gau [padjilaiga]; from pad-jee, a pidgeon; and ligau, sit; pidgeon roost. This was formerly a large town, but broken up by Benjamin Harrison and his associates, who murdered sixteen of their gun men in Georgia; it is on the right bank of Flint River, and this creek, adjoining the river; the village takes its name from the creek; it is nine miles below the second falls of the river;2 these falls are at the island's ford, where the path now crosses from Cussetuh to Fort Wilkinson; the village is advantageoulsy situated; the land is rich, the range good for cattle and hogs; the swamp is more than three miles through, on the left bank of the river, and is high and good canebrake; on the right bank, it is one mile through, low and flat; the cane, sassafras, and sumach, are large; this extensive and valuable swamp extends down on one side or the other of the river for twelve miles.

They have but a few families there, notwithstanding it is one of the best situations the Indians possess, for stock, farming, and fish. Being a frontier, the great loss they sustained in having sixteen of their gun men murdered discourages them from returning.3

3d. Toc-co-gul-egau (tad pole) [tóki ûlga, tadpole place]; a small settlement on Kitcho-foo-ne Creek, near some beaver dams on branches of that creek; the land is good, but broken; fine range, small canes, and pea vines on the hills, and reeds on the branches; they have eight or ten families; this establishment is of two years only, and they have worm fences. U-che Will, the head of the village has some cattle, and they have promised to attend to hogs, and to follow the direction of the agent for Indian affairs, as soon as they can get into stock.

1 Also see Hawkins in Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., IX, pp. 171-172.

"18 miles above Timothy Barnard's and 9 miles below the old horse path, the first rock falls in the river."-Hawkins, in Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., IX, p. 171. '

3 Another description by the same writer, largely parallel, is in Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls., IX, p. 171.

Some of the Uchees have settled with the Shaw-a-ne, at Sau-va-no-gee, among the Creeks of the upper towns.1

I will also add what Hawkins has to say regarding the settlement of Timothy Barnard, who plays a prominent part in Creek history, both before and after this time:

This gentleman lives on the right bank of Flint River, fifteen miles below Pad-jeeli-gau. He has eleven children by a U-chee woman, and they are settled with and around him, and have fine stocks of cattle in an excellent range. He has a valuable property, but not productive; his farm is well fenced on both sides of the river; he has a peach orchard of fine fruit, and some fine nectarines, a garden well stored with vegetables, and some grape vines presented to him by the agent. He is an assistant and interpreter, and a man who has uniformly supported an honest character, friendly to peace during the revolutionary war, and to man. He has 40 sheep, some goats, and stock of every description, and keeps a very hospitable house. He is not much acquainted with farming, and receives light slowly on this subject, as is the case with all the Indian countrymen, without exception." 2

The trader located at the main Yuchi town in 1797 is given by Hawkins as James Smithmoor.3

The Yuchi also appear in the enumerations of 1760, 1761,5 that of Swan," and in the census of 1832, when they were credited with one main town and with a branch village called High Log. During the latter part of the eighteenth century and the first of the nineteenth, settlements of Yuchi were probably scattered through southern Georgia at many places. Imlay says "The Uchees Indians occupy four different places of residence, at the head of St. John's, the Fork of St. Mary's, the head of Cannuchee, and the head of St. Tillis (Satilla)."8

After their removal to the new Creek territories west of the Mississippi they settled in the northwestern part of the nation, where they continued an almost distinct tribal life, although represented in the Creek national assembly. The reader is referred to Dr. Speck's admirable paper for an account of their later condition."

Besides the Savannah, the Yuchi also occupied at least the upper portion of Ogeechee River. This is indicated by Hawkins in his account of the Yuchi town just given and also by several maps of the eighteenth century, in which the Ogeechee is called "Great Ogeechee or Hughchee River,"10 the latter being one spelling of the

7 Senate Doc. 512, 23d Cong., 1st sess., IV, pp. 356-363; Schoolcraft, op. cit., p. 578.

Imlay, Top. Descr. of N. A., p. 369.

9 Univ. of Pa., Anthrop. Publ., 1, No. 1.

10 Jefferys, Am. Atlas, map 24.

name Yuchi. On many maps we find "Ogeechee Old Town" laid down near the upper course of Ogeechee River and on the trading path from Augusta to Ocmulgee old fields and the Creek country. The way in which this appears indicates that the town had removed at the time of the Yamasee war, when it may have united with those Yuchi known as Westo, the larger body of Yuchi not migrating until some years later. Their fate is somewhat confused by the following reference in Bartram:

Mr. Egan politely rode with me over a great part of the island (Amelia). On Egmont estate are several very large Indian tumuli, which are called Ogeeche mounts, so named from that nation of Indians who took shelter here, after being driven from their native settlements on the main near Ogeeche River. Here they were constantly harrassed by the Carolinians and Creeks, and at length slain by their conquerors, and their bones entombed in these heaps of earth and shells.1

If there is any truth in this legend at all it is probable that the people referred to were Yamasee, or at least Indians of the province of Guale who had perhaps lived about the mouth of the Ogeechee, but not the Ogeechee tribe we have been considering.

As noted above, a portion of the Yuchi went to Florida. They appear first in west Florida near the Mikasuki,2 but later they moved across the peninsula and settled at Spring Garden, east of Dexters Lake, in Volusia County. Afterwards they were involved in the long Seminole war with the whites. All of them did not go in the first emigrations, a special census taken in the year 1847 giving four Yuchi warriors among the Seminole left in the peninsula.3

THE NATCHEZ

The Natchez having been made the subject of a special study by the writer, no extended notice need be given here. Their earliest known home was on St. Catharines Creek, Mississippi, close to the present city which bears their name. After Louisiana was colonized by the French the latter established a post among them, which was in a very flourishing condition when, in the year 1729, it was suddenly cut off by a native uprising. Subsequently the French attacked these Indians, killed many, captured some, whom they sent to Santo Domingo as slaves, and forced the rest to abandon their old country and settle among the Chickasaw. When the French turned their attacks against the Chickasaw the Natchez found it necessary to move again, and some went to the Cherokee, some to the Catawba,

1 Bartram, Travels, pp. 63–64.

2 See pp. 406, 409, 412.

Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, 1, p. 522.

♦ Indian Tribes of the Lower Miss. Valley and Adj. Coast of the Gulf of Mex., Bull. 43, Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 45-257.

and some to the Creeks. Those who went to the Cherokee and Creeks subsequently followed their fortunes, and the latter band was taken in by the Abihka. They seem to have conformed in most particulars to the usages of their neighbors. Taitt thus describes his visit to them on March 27, 1772:

I went this morning to black drink to the Square, where I was very kindley received by the head men of the town who told me to look on myself as being amongst my friends and not to be affraid of any thing, for their fire was the same as Charlestown fire and they never had Spilt the blood of any white Man;' after that I had Smoked Tobacco and drinked black drink with them they desired that I might Stay in their Town all day as they were building a hot house and Should have a dance in the Evening which they wanted me to see. In the Evening I went to the Square where thirteen Chickasaws had joined the Natchies and Creeks for the dance. . . The women being dressed like Warriours with bows, hatchets, and other weapons in their hands, came into the Square and danced round the fire, the pole Cat dance, two men Singing and ratling their Callabashes all the time.2

Although having separate towns, the Natchez and Abihka are said to have intermarried to such an extent as to become completely fused. Since descent was reckoned in the female line the Natchez were still distinguished from the Abihka through their mothers, and the language was transmitted thus for many years, but it is now extinct. Among the Cherokee the Natchez preserved their identity longer, and a few Indians remain who can speak the old tongue. Among the Creeks some stories are still told regarding them. Jackson Lewis repeated a tradition to the effect that the Natchez were at one time hemmed in by the French, but all that could move, men, women, and children, escaped by wading through water. Then they went to the Chickasaw to live, but after a time they found some of their children who had gone out berrying run through with canes. This was done by the Chickasaw, who did not want the Natchez among them, so the latter moved on and came to where the Abihka lived. They asked the Abihka to take them in and the Abihka told them to "enter the gates" and confer with the chiefs, the Abihka being the "door shutters" of the confederacy. The Natchez did this and were adopted. They were allowed to settle with the Abihka, according to one story, because the Abihka were a very small people, perhaps having been reduced in wars with the Cherokee. According to Adair, some Chickasaw moved with the Natchez and the two occupied a town called Ooe-asa, somewhere near the upper course of Coosa River.3

To these few notes I will add the account which Stiggins gives of this tribe which was not included in my bulletin above mentioned.

1 A notable prevarication, except on the supposition that the speaker meant English white men. 2 Mereness, Trav. Am. Col., pp. 531-532.

Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p. 319.