84 The Winning of the West 



Wyandots, Shawnees, and Datawares; and, thougn 

 very formidable individual fighters, even in this re- 

 spect it may be questioned if the Creeks equaled the 

 prowess of their northern kinsmen. 



Yet when the Revolutionary war broke out the 

 Creeks were under a chieftain whose consummate 

 craft and utterly selfish but cool and masterly diplo- 

 macy enabled them for a generation to hold their 

 own better than any other native race against the 

 restless Americans. This was the half-breed Alex- 

 ander McGillivray, perhaps the most gifted man who 

 was ever born on the soil of Alabama. 27 



His father was a Scotch trader, Lachlan McGil- 

 livray by name, who came when a boy to Charles- 

 ton, then the headquarters of the commerce car- 

 ried on by the British with the Southern Indians. 

 On visiting the traders' quarter of the town, the 

 young Scot was strongly attracted by the sight of 

 the weather-beaten packers, with their gaudy, half- 

 Indian finery, their hundreds of pack-horses, their 

 curious pack-saddles, and their bales of merchan- 

 dise. Taking service with them, he was soon help- 

 ing to drive a pack-train along one of the narrow 

 trails that crossed the lonely pine wilderness. To 

 strong, coarse spirits, that were both shrewd and 

 daring, and willing to balance the great risks 

 incident to their mode of life against its great 

 gains, the business was most alluring. Young 

 Lachlan rose rapidly, and soon became one of the 



27 "History of Alabama," by Albert James Pickett, Charles- 

 ton, 1851, II., 30. A valuable work. 



