86 The Winning of the West 



requisite for a warrior; but he was a consummate 

 diplomat, a born leader, and perhaps the only man 

 who could have used aright such a rope of sand as 

 was the Creek confederacy. 



The Creeks claimed him as their own blood, and 

 instinctively felt that he was their only possible 

 ruler. He was forthwith chosen to be their head 

 chief. From that time on he remained among them, 

 at one or the other of his plantations, his largest and 

 his real home being at Little Tallasee, where he 

 lived in barbaric comfort, in a great roomy log- 

 house with a stone chimney, surrounded by the 

 cabins of his sixty negro slaves. He was supported 

 by many able warriors, both of the half and the full 

 blood. One of them is worthy of passing mention. 

 This was a young French adventurer, Milfort, who 

 in 1776 journeyed through the insurgent colonies 

 and became an adopted son of the Creek nation. 

 He first met McGillivray, then in his early man- 

 hood, at the town of Coweta, the great wartown 

 on the Chattahoochee, where the half-breed chief, 

 seated on a bear-skin in the council-house, sur- 

 rounded by his wise men and warriors, was plan- 

 ning to give aid to the British. Afterward he mar- 

 ried one of McGillivray's sisters, whom he met at a 

 great dance a pretty girl, clad in a short silk petti- 

 coat, her chemise of fine linen clasped with silver, 

 her ear-rings and bracelets of the same metal, and 

 with bright-colored ribbons in her hair. 28 



28 Milfort, 23, 326. Milfort's book is very interesting, but 

 as the man himself was evidently a hopeless liar and brag- 



