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"There
hasn't been a single piece of law that has been passed
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Ontario premier |
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Documents in History - A Primary View
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Appeal |
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1761
Governor Glen
The Role of the Indians in the Rivalry Between France, Spain,
and England
The Situation, Strength, and Connections of the several
Nations of Neighbouring Indians; the Hostilities they have
committed on British Subjects, at the Instigation of the French,
and lately upon those Instigators themselves; some Particulars
relating to the French Forts, Forces and Proceedings in
Louisiana and Mississippi. The concerns of this Country are so
closely connected and interwoven with Indian Affairs, and not
only a great branch of our trade, but even the Safety of this
Province, do so much depend upon our continuing in Friendship
with the Indians, that I thought it highly necessary to gain all
the knowledge I could of them; and I hope that the accounts
which I have from time to time transmitted of Indian affairs
will shew, that I am pretty well acquainted with the subject.
However I think it expedient upon the present Occasion to give a
general Account of the several Tribes and Nations of Indians
with whom the Inhabitants of this Province are or may be
connected in Interest: which is the more necessary as all we
have to apprehend from the French in this part of the world,
will much more depend upon the Indians than upon any Strength of
their own; for that is so inconsiderable in itself, and so far
distant from us that without Indian Assistance, it cannot if
exerted, do us much harm. There are among our Settlements
several small Tribes of Indians, consisting only of some few
families each: but those Tribes of Indians which we, on account
of their being numerous and having lands of their own, call
Nations are all of them situated on the Western Side of this
Province, and at various distances as I have already mentioned.
The Catawbaw Nation of Indians hath about Three hundred Fighting
Men; brave fellows as any on the Continent of America and our
firm friends; their Country is about two hundred miles from
Charles-Town. The Cherokees live at the distance of about Three
hundred miles from Charles-Town, though indeed their hunting
grounds stretch much nearer to us-They have about Three thousand
Gun men, and are in Alliance with this Government. I lately made
a considerable purchase from that Indian Nation, of some of
those hunting grounds, which are now become the property of the
British Crown, at the Charge of this Province: I had the deeds
of conveyance formally executed in their own Country, by their
head men, in the name of the whole people, and with their
universal approbation and good will. They inhabit a Tract of
Country about Two hundred miles in Extent, and form a good
barrier, which is naturally strengthened by a Country hilly and
mountainous, but said to be interspersed with pleasant and
fruitful vallies, and watered by many limpid and wholsome Brooks
and rivulets, which run among the Hills, and give those real
pleasures which we in the lower Lands have only in imagination.
The Creek Indians are situated about Five hundred miles from
Charles-Town; their number of fighting men is about two thousand
five hundred, and they are in Friendship with us. The Chickesaws
live at the distance of near Eight hundred miles from
Charles-Town: they have bravely stood their ground against the
repeated attacks of the French and their Indians: but are now
reduced to Two or Three hundred men. The Chactaw Nation of
Indians is situated at a somewhat greater distance from us, and
have till within this year or two been in the Interest of the
French, by whom they were reckoned to be the most numerous of
any nation of Indians in America, and said to consist of many
Thousand Men. The people of most experience in the affairs of
this Country, have always dreaded a French war; from an
apprehension that an Indian war would be the consequence of it;
for which reasons, I have ever since the first breaking out of
the war with France, redoubled my Attention to Indian Affairs:
and I hope, not without Success. For notwithstanding all the
intrigues of the French, they have not been able to get the
least footing among our Nations of Indians; as very plainly
appears by those Nations still continuing to give fresh proofs
of their attachment to us: and I have had the happiness to bring
over and fix the Friendship of the Chactaw Nation of Indians in
the British Interest. This powerful Engine, which the French for
many years past, played against us and our Indians, even in
times of Peace, is now happily turned against themselves, and I
believe they feel the force of it. For according to last
accounts, which I have received from thence, by the Captain of a
Sloop that touched at Mobile about two months ago, the Chactaw
Indians had driven into the Town of Mobile all the French
Planters who were settled either upon the river bearing the same
name or in the Neighbouring Country, and there kept them in a
manner besieged, so that a few of the French who ventured out of
the Town to hunt up Cattle were immediately scalped. Monsieur
Vaudreuille the Governor of Louisiana was then in Mobile
endeavoring to support his people, and trying to recover the
friendship of those Indians. At the same time there were some
head men with about Twenty of their People in Charles-Town. I
have been the fuller in my Relation of this matter, because I
humbly conceive it to be a very delicate Affair, for these
Chactaw Indians, have formerly and even so lately as I have been
in this Province, at the instigation of the French and assisted
and headed by them, in time of Peace, murdered our Traders in
their Way to the Chickesaw Indians, and Robbed them of their
goods: but I hope the French Governors will never have it in
their power to charge us with such unfair Practises. I shall be
particularly cautious of doing any thing inconsistent with the
peace so lately concluded: but I think it incumbent on me to
say, that it will be impossible to retain those Indians, or any
other, in his Majesty's interest unless we continue to trade
with them. And since war and hunting are the business of the
lives, both Arms and Ammunition as well as Cloaths other
necessaries, are the goods for which there is the greatest
demand among them-I therefore hope to receive instructions in
this particular, as a rule of my conduct. There are a pretty
many Indians among the Kays, about the cape of Florida, who
might be easily secured to the British Interest: but as they
have little communication with any others on the main Land, and
have not any goods to trade for, they could not be of any
advantage either in peace or war. There are also a few Yamasees,
about twenty men near St. Augustine: and these are all the
Indians in this part of the world that are in the Interest of
the Crown of Spain. The French have the Friendship of some few
of the Creek Indians, such as inhabit near the Holbama Fort: and
some of the Chactaw Indians have not as yet declared against
them: They have also some tribes upon Mississippi River, and
Ouabash, and in other parts: but most of these and all other
Indians whatsoever, inhabit above a Thousand miles from
Charles-Town; and yet it may be proper to give attention even to
what happens among those who are so far from us; for to an
Indian, a thousand miles is as one mile their Provisions being
in the Woods, and they are never out of the way: they are slow,
saying the Sun will rise again to-morrow, but they are steddy.
We have little intercourse with the French; but unless there
have been alterations lately, the Accounts I have formerly sent
may be relied on, there are not above six hundred men (Soldiers)
in what they call Louisiana, and those thinly spread over a
widely extended Country: some at New Orleans some at Mobile, and
some as far up as the Ilinois. They had a Fort at the Mouth of
the Mississippi river called the Balise, but they found it was
not of any service, and therefore they have built another
farther up, where it commands the passage: their Forts Holbama,
Chactawhatche, Notche, Notchitosh, and another on Ouabash are
all inconsiderable stockadoed Forts, garrisoned by 40 and some
by only 20 men each. If ever the French settlements on the
Missippi grow great, they may have pernicious effects upon South
Carolina, because they produce the same sorts of Commodities as
are produced there, viz., Rice and Indigo: but hitherto, the
only Inconvenience that I know of, is, their attempting to
withdraw our Indians from us, and attacking those who are most
attached to our interest. I beg Leave to assure you that I shall
never do any thing inconsistent with that good faith which is
the basis of all his Majesty's Measures, but it is easy for me
at present to divert the French in their own way, and to find
them business for double the number of men they have in that
Country. However, this, and even the Tranquility of South
Carolina will depend upon preserving our Interest with the
Indians, which it will be very difficult to do, unless the
presents are continued to them, and those Forts built which I
have formerly proposed, or at least, one of them, and that to be
in the Country of the Cherokees....
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