St. Clair and Wayne 15 



The wrath of the Creeks was directed chiefly 

 against the Georgians. The Georgians were push- 

 ing steadily westward, and were grasping the Creek 

 hunting-grounds with ferocious grejed. They had 

 repeatedly endeavored to hold treaties with the 

 Creeks. On each occasion the chiefs and warriors 

 of a few towns met them, and either declined to do 

 anything, or else signed an agreement which they 

 had no power to enforce. A sample treaty of this 

 kind was that entered into at Galphinton in 1785. 

 The Creeks had been solemnly summoned to meet 

 representatives both of the Federal Congress and of 

 Georgia; but on the appointed day only two towns 

 out of a hundred were represented. The Federal 

 Commissioners thereupon declined to enter into ne- 

 gotiations ; but those from Georgia persevered. By 

 presents and strong drink they procured, and their 

 government eagerly accepted, a large cession of 

 land to which the two towns in question had no 

 more title than was vested in all the others. The 

 treaty was fraudulent. The Georgians knew that 

 the Creeks who signed it were giving away what 

 they did not possess ; while the Indian signers cared 

 only to get the goods they were offered, and were 

 perfectly willing to make all kinds of promises, in- 

 asmuch as they had no intention whatever of keeping 

 any of them. The other Creeks immediately repu- 

 diated the transaction, and the war dragged on its 

 course of dismal savagery, growing fiercer year by 

 year, and being waged on nearly even terms. 17 



" American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 15. 



