USA > Alabama > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period. v. 2 > Part 8
USA > Georgia > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period. v. 2 > Part 8
USA > Mississippi > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period. v. 2 > Part 8
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CHAPTER XXII.
THE FIRST YAZOO SALE-BOWLES, THE FREEBOOTER.
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CHAPTER XXII.
GEORGIA claimed, under a charter of Charles Il., all the territory, from the Savannah to the Mississippi river, lying between 31° and 35°. She had, as early as February, 1785, established, by legislative enactinent, the county of Bourbon, embracing the settlements along the Mississippi, above and below Natchez; but the occupation of this country by the Spanish government prevented its occupation and settlement.
1789 December
Governor Telfair approved an act of the General Assembly, at Savannah, which authorized a conditional sale of the larger portion of this wild domain, for the purpose of peopling it, and enriching the treasury of the State. For a little upwards of sixty thousand dollars, five million of acres, now embracing the territory of the middle counties of Mississippi, were sold to a "South-Carolina Yazoo Company."
Seven millions of acres, now embracing the territory of the northern counties of Mississippi, were sold to the " Virginia Yazoo Company." for a little over ninety-three thousand dol- lars.
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Three million, five hundred thousand acres, now embracing the territory of the northern counties of Alabama, were sold . for something over forty-six thousand dollars, to the "Ten- nessee Company."
Spain claimed much of this territory, by conquests, made towards the close of the revolutionary war, as we have al- ready seen, and that power and the United States were now negotiating, to settle the boundaries; but Georgia took the matter into her own hands, as she has ever done with whatever concerned her, and as she always will do, as long as her soil is inhabited by its present enterprising, brave and restless population.
Washington, becoming alarmed at the collision which he supposed would take place between the Federal Government, Georgia, Spain and the Indians, in consequence of this extra- ordinary sale of territory, issued a proclamation against the whole enterprise. But the "Tennessee Company " heeded him not. Its head and front, Zachariah Coxe, with a number of his friends, floated down, on flat-boats, from East Tennessee to the Muscle Shoals. Here, upon an island, they built a block-house, and other works of defence, intending to sell out much of the best lands, north and south of the river. But the Cherokees, under the Chief, Class, probably set forward by Governor Blount, of Tennessee, who was the active agent of Washington, advanced upon this establishment, drove Coxe and his adherents out of the block-house, and consumed it by fire. Other efforts were afterwards made to colonize this
CHAPTER XXII.
1:89 December
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1790 August 25
1991 May
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CHAPTER region ; but were defeated by the opposition of the Chickasaws, XXII. the Cherokees, and the Federal Government .*
1790
The "South-Carolina Yazoo Company " also attempted to colonize their lands, and, for that purpose, constituted Dr. James O'Fallan their agent-general, who went to Kentucky, raised troops, and issued commissions, in an illegal mannez, with the design of taking the Natchez country from the Spaniards, and peopling the territory. At the same time, Edmund Phelan, the sub-agent of the company, was piloted through the Creek and Choctaw country, to Natchez, by an old Indian countryman, named Thomas Basket, who was to have been their interpreter. But Washington caused O'Fal- lan to be arrested, and ordered General St. Clair to put down, by military force, all attempts to colonize the Natchez coun- try, against which the Spanish Minister had vehemently remon- strated. Great excitement existed ; Washington was much embarrassed and much abused.
The " Virginia Yazoo Company " made no attempts to set- tle the lands which they had purchased.
1791
These companies all failed to meet the payments due Geor- gia for these lands, and that State, by subsequent enactments, rescinded the whole bargain, having, in the meantime, with- held grants, from the purchasers, which was a condition of sale, until the debt was fully discharged. A great deal of recrimination and abuse passed between the authorities of
* Haywood's History of Tennessee, pp. 219-256. Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 115.
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Georgia and these companies, and the people who had inno- CHAPTER cently suffered, in fitting out private enterprises, to settle the XXII. new region. So ended the first Yazoo sale, by the legislature of Georgia. An account of another, and a more important and extensive one, will hereafter be introduced .*
1791 May
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A Quaker of Pennsylvania, named Andrew Ellicott, ap -- pointed by the Federal Government to run the line between the Creeks and Georgians, arrived at Rock Landing, upon the Oconee, in company with James Seagrove, an Irishman, who was appointed Superintendent of the Creek nation. At this place the government erected a strong fort, and threw into it a large garrison. McGillivray was constantly urged, from this point, to cause the Indians to consent to the running of the boundary line, and to assist in its execution ; but the Chieftain delayed, and threw all the blame upon the hostile efforts of an extraordinary man, who must now be introduced to the reader.
William Augustus Bowles, a native of Maryland, at the age of fourteen, entered the British army, as a foot soldier, and, after a year's service against his countrymen, sailed with a British regiment to Jamaica, in 1777, as an ensign, and, from thence, went to. Pensacola. Here he was deprived of his rank, for insubordination. Disgusted with military dis- cipline, and fond of a roving life, he contemptuously flung his uniform into the sea, and left Pensacola, in company with
* Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 116-117. Public Lands, vol. 1, pp. 120-121-163.
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CHAPTER XXII.
some Creeks. He lived upon the Tallapoosa for several years, and acquired the Muscogee language to great perfection. He visited the Lower Towns, and there married the daughter of a Chief. His elegant and commanding form, fine address, beautiful countenance of varied expression, his exalted genius, daring and intrepidity, all connected with a mind wholly de- based and unprincipled, eminently fitted him to sway the bad Indians and worse traders among whom he lived.
Bowles led a party of Creeks to Pensacola, in 1781, and assisted General Campbell to defend that place from the attacks of Don Galvez. He went to New-York, joined a company of comedians, and sailed to New Providence, of the Bahamas. Here he alternately acted upon the stage, and painted portraits, for which he had taste and genius. Lord Dunmore was then the Governor of the Bahamas. Panton, Leslie & Co. despatched to John Forbes, one of their asso- ciates, living at New Providence, a schooner, in which were six thousand piastres. Lord Duminore seized upon this money, as contraband property. Panton instituted a complaint to the British Court, when the money was ordered to be re- turned. Dunmore ever afterwards hated Panton and his co- partners. He selected Bowles as an agent, to establish a commercial house upon the Chattahoochie, which would check the prosperous commerce of these merchants. Bowles short- ly appeared among the Lower Creeks, and threw the weight of his influence against Panton, and against McGillivray and the Georgians, all of whom he despised. But Milfort was sent to the Chattahoochie, with an order for Bowles to leave
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the nation in twenty-four hours, on penalty of losing his ears. He fled to New Providence, and, from thence, was sent to England, by Dunmore, in company with a delegation of Creeks, Seminoles and Cherokees, to enlist the English government in the cause of these nations, by repelling Ame- rican aggression. The British Court treated him with kind- ness, and heaped upon him valuable presents. He soon returned to New Providence, and began a piratical war upon the coasting-vessels of Panton, having taught his warriors to navigate the Gulf. He captured some of these vessels, laden with arms and ammunition, run them up in bayous, where he and an abandoned set of white men from the pri- sons of London, together with hosts of savages, engaged in protracted debaucheries, and, day and night, made the woods echo with horrid oaths and panther screams. Panton's boxes of merchandize were torn open, distributed among the In- dians, and carried to all parts of the nation. Such piratical successes soon gave him popularity in the Creek country .* Hle now boldly advanced to the heart of it, denounced Gene- ral McGillivray as a traitor to his people, and sought to over- throw him and place himself in power. He had many bad men, of influence with the Indians, who endeavored to stir up rebellion. The most conspicuous of these were Willbanks, a native of New-York and a refugee tory, and a half-breed Cherokee named Moses Price. His emissaries contended that
* Du Lac's Voyage dans les deaux Louisianes, in 1801, 1802, 1803, pp. 458-460. Milfort's Sejourn dans le nation Creck, pp. 116-124.
CHAPTER XXII.
1791
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CHAPTER neither the Americans nor Spaniards had any right to control XXII. the Indians, for that England had not ceded any of their country to either power, and that General McGillivray had endeavored to sell his people, first to Spain, and next, to the Federal Government. Indeed, at this period, McGillivray, for the first time in his life, began to lose the confidence of many of the Chiefs and common Indians, who were indignant at the provisions of the New-York treaty, which they openly disavowed. The Spanish authorities were angry with him, and Panton was deceived by him. Bowles even bearded him in his very den. All this time, the Federal Government was annoying him with urgent solicitations to comply with the treaty. Truly, one might suppose that General McGillivray was an unhappy man, and was soon to fall from his high 1791 November position. At length he departed for New-Orleans, when Bowles and his emissaries exultingly declared that he had fled, never again to show his face upon the Coosa. He went frequently to New-Orleans, Mobile and Pensacola, during the winter, and was treated with great attention by the Spanish authorities, notwithstanding the treaty of New-York. The secret one, of course, they knew nothing of, nor did Panton. He professed to be sick of his trip to New-York, and request- ed not to be given the title of General. Here he arranged for the capture of Bowles, and soon the freebooter was brought to New-Orleans in chains, and from thence sent to Madrid, in Spain, where we must leave him for the present.
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It was not long before measures were adopted, to expel the American inhabitants, principally traders, from the Creek
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nation. Governor Carondelet decreed that they were all to take the Spanish oath of allegiance, and "fight for the King, from the head waters of the Alabama to the sea." James Leonard, who had recently arrived at Tensaw, refusing to take the oath, was stripped of his property, and, while arrangements were making to send him to Moro Castle, in Havana, he made his escape to Rock Landing, upon the distant Oconee.
McGillivray returned to the banks of the Coosa, still in power and authority. It was suspected that he had intrigued with the Spanish authorities. Not long afterwards, one Cap- tain Don Pedro Oliver, who was a Frenchman, but wore the Spanish military uniform, made his appearance in the nation, and was stationed at the Hickory Ground, upon the Coosa. His pay was one hundred dollars a month, and he was accom- panied by an interpreter, named Antonio. These things looked very suspicious to the federal agents upon the Oconee. It was believed by many that General McGillivray did not openly act against the American government, but that he was doing it secretly, through Captain Oliver and others. It was certain that, upon the representations of Carondelet to the Court of Spain, respecting the treaty of New-York, and the remonstrances of Panton to that power, in regard to its neglect of the Chieftain, his Catholic Majesty made McGilli- vray Superintendent-General of the Creek nation, with an annual salary of two thousand dollars! In July, to this amount was added a salary of fifteen hundred dollars, by the same power .* He was, at this time, the agent of Spain,
* Papers filed in the District Court of Louisiana.
CHAPTER XXII. 1792 June
1793
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CHAPTER with a salary of thirty-five hundred dollars, the agent of the XXII. United States, with a salary of twelve hundred dollars, the co-partner of Panton, and the Emperor of the Creek and Semi- nole nations. He was almost unrivalled in intrigue, and we doubt if Alabama has ever produced, or ever will produce, a man of greater ability .* We wish we could defend his con- duct, with a clear conscience, but we cannot. It was emi- nent for treachery, intrigue, and selfish aggrandizement. How- ever he may have been wronged by the Americans, he ought to have acted in good faith with them, after he had made the 1792 treaty with Washington. But McGillivray was like many ambitious and unserupulous Americans of our day, who view politics as a trade. But, notwithstanding he displayed emi- nent selfishness, in his relation towards these rival powers, he was generous to the distressed, whom he always sheltered and fed, and protected from the brutalities of his red brethren. He had many noble traits, and not the least of which was his unbounded hospitality to friends and foes.
During the summer and fall of 1792, General McGillivray secretly caused large meetings to be held, over the Creek and Cherokee nations, at which he appeared to be only a visitor, while Panton and Captain Oliver, in speeches, forbid the running of the line between them and the Georgians, in the name of the King of Spain, and decreed that no American
" I have only introduced a few of McGillivray's letters, to show the order of his mind. The American State Papers contain many of his ablest letters, addressed to Congress and to the Sceretary of War.
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trader should enter the nation. Governor Carondelet was also CHAPTER active in endeavoring to defeat the provisions of the New-York XXII. treaty. He sent to the Creek nation a large body of bloody Shawnees, armed and equipped, who took up their abode at Souvanoga, upon the Tallapoosa. McGillivray moved his ne- groes to Little river, gave up his house to Captain Oliver, whom he had so well established in the affections of his people, and was gone, a long time, to New-Orleans and Pensacola. The Span- iards not only had in view the prevention of the advancement of the Americans on the east, but determined to oppose the settlements upon the Mississippi; to effect all of which, they attempted to unite the four nations of Indians on their side. They strengthened all their forts, and authorized Captain John Linder, of Tensaw, and other active partizans, to raise volunteers. Carondelet gave Richard Finnelson and Joseph Durque passports, to go through the Spanish posts, to the Cherokee nation, as emissaries, to incite those Indians to make war upon the Cumberland people. John Watts, a half-breed of Willstown, was also an active agent. There was, suddenly, great excitement produced over the whole Indian country. One Chief declared, at Willstown," that he had taken the lives of three hundred Americans, but that now he intended
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1793
* Willstown, named for a half-breed Chief, called Red Head Will, whose father was a British officer, was an important Cherokee village. The grave of Red Head Will is within two hundred yards of the resi- dence of Jesse G. Beeson, who owns the entire site of Willstown, situa- ted in Little Wills' Valley, DeKalb county, Alabama.
VOL. II.
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CHAPTER to " drink his fill of blood." The Cumberland people fell XXII. victims on all sides, while the settlers upon the frontiers of Georgia shared the same fate. During all this time, McGilli- vray and the Federal authorities at Rock Landing were en- gaged in fruitless correspondence-the former professing his willingness to carry out the provisions of the New-York treaty, but never doing it. Everything conspired to defeat the hopes of Washington. Even Captain Oliver had become intimate with Willbanks, and the rest of the adherents of Bowles, and used them against the American interests. McGillivray also carried on a correspondence with the Secretary of War, in which he displayed his usual powers of diplomacy .*
* Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 305-315-288-290-432.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
SINGULAR INHABITANTS OF ALABAMA.
THE territory now called Alabama was but sparsely settled in 1792, except by the natives, and they occupied only some of the principal water-courses. Fort Charlotte, at Mobile, was garrisoned with Spanish troops. The old French "Tom- becbe," which, in Spanish times, was called Fort Confedera- tion, contained also a Spanish garrison. The English trading post, near the present Stockton, then called Tensaw, was re- paired and occupied. A Spanish garrison occupied Fort St. Stephens, which was built upon a bluff on the Tombigby, called, by the Choctaws, Hobuckintopa. A considerable Spa- nish garrison held the fortress at Pensacola. West Florida and Louisiana were governed by the Captain-General, at Ha- , vana. The next person in authority was the Governor of Louisiana, to whom all the commandants of the posts in Ala- bama and Mississippi were subordinate. The whole territory of Alabama was then an immense wilderness, with American trading-posts ou the east, upon the Oconee, and those of Spain upon the south and west, while it was uninhabited by whites, as far as the distant Cumberland settlements, on the north.
CHAPTER XXIII. 1793
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1793
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CHAPTER XXIII.
1
1792
The most populous settlement, with the exception of Mo- bile, was upon the Tensaw river and lake of that name. It was composed of both whigs and royalists. The latter had been driven from Georgia and the Carolinas. Added to these, were men, sui generis, appropriately called old Indian coun- trymen, who had spent much of their lives in Indian com- merce. The most conspicuous and wealthy inhabitant of this neighborhood was Captain John Linder, a native of the Can- ton of Berne, in Switzerland. He resided many years in Charleston, as a British engineer and surveyor. There Gene- ral McGillivray became acquainted with him, and, during the revolution, assisted in bringing here his family and large ne- gro property.
1791 February
In February, 1791, a party of emigrants, consisting of Colonel Thomas Kimbil, John Barnett, Robert Sheffield, Bar- ton Hannon, and - Mounger, with a wife and children, three of whom were grown, set out from Georgia, for the Tombigby. Entering the Creck nation, one of the children was injured by a full, which compelled the elder Mounger and his younger family to stop upon the trail. They were after- wards robbed, by the Indians, of everything they possessed, and had to make their way back to Georgia on foot. The three young Moungers, and the other emigrants, continued to the Tensaw, passing the creeks and rivers upon rafts. They found, upon their arrival at Tensaw, the Halls, Byrnes, Mims, Killereas', Steadhams, Easlies, Linders and others. Crossing the Alabama and Tombigby upon rafts, they found, residing below McIntosh Bluff, the Bates', Lawrences and Powells.
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Above there, on the Tombigby, they discovered the Danleys, CHAPTER Wheets, Johnsons, McGrews, Hockets, Freelands, Talleys and XXIII. Bakers. Among these few people, Colonel Kimbil and his little party established themselves, and began the cultivation of the soil with their horses, upon the backs of which they 1791 March had brought a few axes and ploughs.
The garrison at St. Stephens was composed of one compa- ny, comunanded by Captain Fernando Lisora. The block- house, the residence of the commandant, and the church, were good buildings, of frame-work, clay and plaster. The other houses were small, and covered with cypress bark. All the inhabitants of this place, and of the country, were re- quired to labor so many days upon the public works, to take the oath of allegiance, and to assist in repelling the depreda- tions of the Creeks, who stole horses and other property. Some French farmers, also, lived upon this river, who dwelt in houses made almost entirely of clay, while those of the Americans were constructed of small poles, in the rudest manner. They all cultivated indigo, which was worth two dollars and fifty cents per pound. The burning of tar en- gaged much of the time of the Spaniards, still lower down.
Upon Little river, dividing the modern counties of Bald- win and Monroe, lived many intelligent and wealthy people, whose blood was a mixture of white and Indian. This colony was formed at an early period, for the benefit of their large stocks of cattle, for the wild grass and cane were here never killed by the frost. A most remarkable woman, a sister of General McGillivray, lived occasionally among these people.
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1799
1799
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CHAPTER XXIII.
1792
Sophia McGillivray, a maiden beautiful in all respects, was living at her native place, upon the Coosa, when Benjamin Durant, a man of Huguenot blood, came from South-Caro- lina, to her mother's house. A youth of astonishing strength and activity, he had mastered all who opposed him at home. Being informed by the traders that a man in the Creek nation was his superior, he immediately set out for that region, to which he had long before been inclined to go. He was hand- some, and his complexion was almost as brown as that of the pretty, dark-eyed Sophia. She went with him to the Hicko- ry Ground, only a few miles distant, where many Indians had collected, to see the antagonists meet. They encountered each other, and a tremendous fight ensued. Durant felled his antagonist to the ground, where he lay, for a time, insen- sible. The conqueror was proclaimed the champion of the nation. Ile soon married Sophia, and went to reside upon one of the estates of her father, the wealthy Lachlan McGil- livray, situated upon the Savannah river. During the siege of Savannah, she was there with her father, her husband, and her little boy, Lachlan Durant, who is now favorably known to many of our modern citizens, and is yet a resident of Bald- win county. When the city was surrendered to the Ameri- cans, she parted from her father, amid a flood of tears, and set out for her native Coosa, while he, as we have seen, sailed, with his British friends, back to Scotland.
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1792
Sophia Durant had an air of authority about her, equal, if not superior, to that of her brother, Alexander. She was much better acquainted with the Indian tongue, for he had
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long lived out of the nation. When, therefore, he held coun- CHAPTER cils in the vicinity of her residence, she was accustomed to XXIII. 1792 deliver his sentiments in a set speech, to which the Chiefs listened with delight. Her husband became a wealthy man, and " Durant's Bend,"" and other places upon the Alabama, still preserve his memory. In the sunnner of 1790, while McGillivray was at New-York, the Creeks threatened to de- scend upon the Tensaw settlers, and put the whole of them to death. Mrs. Durant mounted a horse, with a negro woman upon another, and set out from Little river, camped out at night, and, on the fourth day, arrived at the Hickory Ground, 1793 where she assembled the Chiefs, threatened them with the vengeance of her brother upon his return, which caused the arrest of the ringleaders, and put a complete stop to their · murderous intentions. Two weeks afterwards, this energetic and gifted woman was delivered of twins, at the Hickory Ground. One of them married James Bailey, who was killed at the fall of Fort Mims, in 1813, and the other lived to be an old woman. At a later period, Mrs. Durant will again appear in this history.
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The territory of the present county of Montgomery con- tained a few white inhabitants, in 1792. Among others, there was a white woman, who had lived with her husband, at Sa-
1792
* The most remarkable bend upon the Alabama, embracing a large tract of land, lying between Montgomery and Selma, formerly the pro- perty of the late Honorable William Smith, and now owned by John Steele, of Autauga. It was cultivated by Benjamin Durant, as early ?? 1786.
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