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Virginia and the Carolinas; and the existing, but injured, provoked, and fast-wasting tribes of the Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, and Seminoles. The origin and events of the Seminole war, now in progress, are minutely detailed, to the time of the printing of the volume; as also the late disturbances among the Creeks.

The English, in their early voyages to Virginia and their fruitless attempts to plant a colony there, met with three sachems, Wingina, Menatonon, and Granganemeo, of whom a few anecdotes are preserved.

Wingina was first known to the English voyagers, Amidas and Barlow, who landed in Virginia in the summer of 1584, upon an island, called by the Indians Wokokon. They saw none of the natives until the third day, when three were observed in a canoe. One of them got on shore, and the English went to him. He showed no signs of fear, but spoke much to them,' then went boldly on board the vessels. After they had given him a shirt, hat, wine, and some meat, he went away, and in half an hour he had loaded his canoe with fish,' which he immediately brought, and gave to the English.

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Wingina, at this time, was confined to his cabin from wounds which he had lately received in battle, probably in his war with Piamacum, a desperate and bloody chief." * * * “He never had much faith in the good intentions of the English, and to him was mainly attributed the breaking up of the first colony which settled in Virginia."- Book IV. chap. i. p. 4.

He was first excited against the English by an outrage committed upon the natives by Sir Richard Greenvil, who had come to the country on a trading expedition.

"He made but one short excursion into the country, during which, by foolishly exposing his commodities, some native took from him a silver cup, to revenge the loss of which, a town was burned. He left a hundred and eight men, who seated themselves upon the Island of Roanoke. Ralph Lane, a military character of note, was governor, and Captain Philip Amidas, lieutenant-governor of this colony. They made various excursions about the country, in hopes of discovering mines of precious metals; in which they were a long time duped by the Indians, for their ill conduct towards them, in compelling them to pilot them about. Wingina bore, as well as he could, the provoca tions of the intruders, until the death of the old chief Ensenore, his father. Under pretence of honoring his funeral, he assembled eighteen hundred of his people, with the intention, as the - No. 95.

VOL. XLIV.

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English say, of destroying them. They, therefore, upon the information of Skiko, son of the chief Menatonon, fell upon them, and, after killing five or six, the rest made their escape into the woods. This was done upon the island where Wingina lived, and the English first seized upon the boats of his visitants, to prevent their escape from the island, with the intention, no doubt, of murdering them all. Not long after, Wingina was entrapped by the English, and slain, with eight of his chief men.'"- Ibid.

Menatonon, sachem of a powerful nation possessing all the country from Albemarle Sound and Chowan River to the Chesapeake and James Bays, was made a prisoner by the English to assist them in their discoveries; and, in compensation for this treatment, he deluded them with the hope of finding a gold mine, which he pretended to have knowledge of. "So eager were they," says Stith, "and resolutely bent upon this golden discovery, that they could not be persuaded to return, as long as they had one pint of corn a man left, and two mastiff dogs, which, being boiled with sassafras leaves, might afford them some sustenance in their way back." After great suffering they again reached the coast, where they released Menatonon. After his liberation, he treated the English with uniform kindness. Two years after, when Governor White visited the country, the wife and child of the chief are mentioned, but nothing is said of him.

"Granganemeo was a chief very favorably spoken of. As soon as the arrival of the English was made known to him, he visited them with about forty of his men, who were very civil, and of a remarkably robust and fine appearance. When they had left their boat, and came upon the shore near the ship, Granganemeo spread a mat and sat down upon it. The English went to him armed, but he discovered no fear, and invited them to sit down; after which he performed some tokens of friendship; then making a speech to them, they presented him with some toys. None but four of his people spoke a word or sat down, but maintained the most perfect silence. On being shown a pewter dish, he was much pleased with it, and purchased it with twenty deer-skins, which were worth, in England, one hundred shillings sterling!! The dish he used as an ornament, making a hole through it, and wearing it about his neck. While here, the English entertained him, with his wife and children, on board their ship. His wife had in her ears strings of pearl, which reached to her middle. Shortly after, many of the people

came out of the country to trade; but when Granganemeo was present, none durst trade but himself, and them that wore red copper on their heads as he did. He was remarkably exact in keeping his promise, 'for oft we trusted him, and he would come within his day to keep his word.' And these voyagers further report, that 'commonly he sent them every day a brace of bucks, conies, hares, and fish, and sometimes melons, walnuts, cucumbers, pease, and divers roots.'"— Ibid., p. 6.

Captain Amidas and some of his men afterwards returned the visit of the sachem. He was living on the Island of Roanoke, in "a little town of nine houses." The chief was absent; but his wife entertained them in the generous and liberal spirit of genuine Indian hospitality. She ordered their boat to be drawn up out of the reach of the surge, and their oars to be housed, to prevent their being stolen. "When they came into the house, she took off their cloathes and stockings, and washed them, as likewise their feet, in warm water. When their dinner was ready, they were conducted into an inner room, (for there were five in the house divided by mats,) where they found hominy, boiled venison, and roasted fish; and, as a desert, melons, boiled roots, and fruits of various. sorts. While they were at meat, two or three of her men came in with their bows and arrows, which made the English take to their arms. But she, perceiving their distress, ordered their bows and arrows to be broken, and themselves to be beaten out of the gate." At evening the English put off from the shore, a short distance, and lay at anchor. This movement much distressed the kind-hearted queen, who "sent their supper to them; and, seeing their distrust, ordered a guard to keep watch upon the shore during the night. She also sent them five mats to cover them from the weather."

We next meet with an account of Powhatan; the romantic and daring adventures of Captain John Smith; and the eventful history of the heroic and high-souled Pocahontas. But these are familiar themes. The universal sympathy of mankind has reared to the memory of Pocahontas a monument as enduring as the human heart's reverence for virtue.

In connexion with the history of the Seminole Indians, the author, as we have before remarked, has treated of the grounds of the war now waging between the United States and that tribe. A subject of such extent demands a separate discussion, to do it any justice. But a few statements, relating to

the condition of the tribe, and to events which prepared the way for the present contest, will not be unacceptable to our readers.

The Seminole Indians are remnants of, and wanderers from, other tribes, principally the Spanish Florida Indians, the upper Creeks or Muscogee, and the Micosukee; from which circumstance they received from the neighbouring tribes their name, which means Runaway. The Micosukee, though a small band, are yet described as "the most relentless and ferocious of all, more bent on warring with their neighbours than pursuing the hunt. They seriously harassed General Jackson during his campaign in 1818-1819, and were the last to be subdued. Having burned their villages west of the Suwannee river and made great havoc among them, he drove the remnant of their tribe to the east of that river, when they became incorporated with the Seminoles." The force of the Micosukees, at the commencement of the present war, is estimated at four hundred warriors; that of the Creek and Spanish Indians at nine hundred; and the negroes, at between five and six hundred, making the available force of the Seminoles at that time, between eighteen and nineteen hundred warriors. The Muscogee, or Creek portion of the tribe, fled from their nation, and took up their abode with the Florida Indians, in the years 1814 and 1818. The negroes among them are mostly slaves, and employed by them in agriculture. The number of the principal chiefs who have been engaged in the present war, is eleven; that of the sub-chiefs, nineteen; and, of the friendly chiefs, who were in favor of recognising the validity of the treaty of 1832, and conforming to its requisitions, seven.

A treaty was made with the Seminoles, on the 18th of September, 1823, at Camp Moultrie, of which the following are the principal features; "The Seminole Indians relinquished all their claim to lands in Florida, with the exception of a tract, estimated to contain about five millions of acres, within the limits of which they bound themselves to continue. The United States were to pay the Indians two thousand dollars; to aid them in the removal of their families and stock from their respective towns to the new reservation; to furnish them with articles of husbandry, stock, &c. to the amount of six thousand dollars; to furnish them with corn, meat, and salt, for one year after they were collected within the limits assigned them; to pay

them four thousand five hundred dollars for the improvements which they surrendered with their lands; to allow them one thousand dollars per annum for a blacksmith, and one thousand dollars per annum for a school fund; these two last allowances to be made for twenty successive years.'

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In less than a year after the ratification of this treaty, complaints to the authorities began to be frequent, of depredations by Indians on the property of the whites in their vicinity. The Indians, on the contrary, with too much appearance of truth, retorted that these depredations of theirs were but reprisals of property, first stolen from them by their white neighbours. To this point, as well as to that of the fraud and violence to which they were perpetually exposed from a horde of land pirates, such as commonly prowl around the outskirts of Indian reservations, we have plenty of authorities at hand. But, as our purpose is at present no more than to show what ground was taken by the Indians, we content ourselves with giving part of a paper, of a deliberate and responsible character. It is a letter addressed from ten of the Seminole towns to the commanding officer at Fort Hawkins.

"Since the last war, after you sent us word that we must quit the war, our red people have come over on this side. The white people have carried all the red people's cattle off. Bernard's son was here, and I asked him what to do about it, - he told me to go to the head white man and complain. I did so, but there was no head white man, and there was no law in the case. The whites first began to steal from us, and there's nothing said about that, but great complaints about what the Indians do. It is now three years since white people killed three Indians; and since, they have killed three more; and since, one more. The white people killed our red people first, the Indians took satisfaction. There are three men that the red people have not taken satisfaction for yet. There is nothing said about what white people do, but all that the Indians do is brought up. The cattle that we are accused of taking, were cattle that the white people took from us; our young men went and brought them back with the same marks and brands."

The annoyance arising from the proximity of the Indians to the settlements of the whites, and the depredations committed. by them, were urged in numerous petitions to the Executive, praying for their removal, at an earlier period than that stipulated in the treaty of Camp Moultrie, which was twenty years.

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