GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 153 



the soil, and were closely related to, if not identical with, the Chaouanons. It is 

 evident, from the statements of John Lawson, that the Savannas, or Chaouanons, 

 had been subjected to bloody and disastrous wars, and long before had been com- 

 pelled to undertake various migrations, and that, at the time of his travels, 1700, 

 a large portion of the nation, which had formerly inhabited Florida and Georgia, 

 had removed northward and joined the affiliated Algonquin tribes. 



Upon the question of the nature and time of these wars, tradition sheds but dim 

 and imperfect light. Even as late as the travels of Bartram, there were remnants 

 of the Shawnees (Chaouanons) in Georgia, as will be seen from his description of 

 the Uchee Town, esteemed from the antiquity of the people, and their talent and 

 influence, the mother town of the Creek or Muscogulgce Confederacy. Bartram^ 

 says, " Their own national language is radically different from the Creek or Mvis- 

 cogulgee tongue, and is called the Savanna or Savannuca tongue ; I was told by the 

 traders, it was the same as the Shawnese." Col. Benjamin HaAvkins* says, that 

 the " Village of Sauvanogee on the waters of Coosa and Tallapoosa, is inhabited 

 by Shawnees. They retain the language and customs of their countrymen to the 

 northwest." Bartram' thus expresses his views as to the mode in which the great 

 Creek Confederacy arose. This powerful empire or confederacy arose and estab- 

 lished itself on the ruins of that of the Natchez. According to the Muscogulgees' 

 account of themselves, they arrived from the southwest, beyond the INIississippi, 

 some time before the English settled the colony of Carolina and built Charleston; 

 and their history concerning their country and people from whence they sprang, 

 the cause of leaving their native land, and the purposes of their migration, is very 

 similar to the account of the Natchez as given by Du Pratz ; and they might at 

 one time have been included as allies and confederates in that vast and powerful 

 empire of red men. The Muscogulgees pushing on, and extending their settlements 

 on the northeast border, until the destruction of the Natchez Empire, subjugated 

 the various bands or tribes, which formerly constituted the Natchez, and uniting 

 them with themselves formed a new confederacy. The Muscogulgee tongue became 

 now the national or sovereign language, just as the Natchez tongue had been. 

 Those bands which spoke a different language from that of the Muscogulgee were, 

 without doubt," the shattered remains of the various nations Avho inhabited the 

 lower or maritime parts of Carolina and Florida, from Cape Fear westward to the 

 Mississippi. In this connection Bartram says: "The lichees and Savannucas is a 

 third language radically different form the IMuscogulgce and Lingo, and seems to 

 be a more northern tongue. I suppose it to be a language that prevailed amongst 

 the numerous tribes who formerly possessed and inliabited the maritime parts of 

 Maryland and Virginia. I was told by an old trader, that the Savannuca and 

 Shawnese speak the same language."^ 



' Bartram's Travels, pp. 388-9. ' Historical Collections of Georgia. 



' Loc. cit, 464-4G0. 



* Bartram's Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, and East and AVest Florida, 

 pp. 404-406. Bernard Roman's Nat. Hist, of East and West Florida, pp. 59-66. Pickett's History 

 of Alabama, vol. i, pp. 81-82. 



20 June, 1876. 



