36 The Winning of the West 



these treaties amounted to nothing, for nobody could 

 tell exactly which towns or tribes owned a given 

 tract of land, or what individuals were competent 

 to speak for the Indians as a whole ; the Creeks and 

 Cherokees went through the form of surrendering 

 the same territory on the Oconee. 3 The Georgians 

 knew that the Indians with whom they treated had 

 no power to surrender the lands ; but all they wished 

 was some shadowy color of title, that might serve 

 as an excuse for their seizing the coveted territory. 

 On the other hand, the Creeks, loudly though they 

 declaimed against the methods of the Georgian 

 treaty-makers, themselves shamelessly disregarded 

 the solemn engagements which their authorized rep- 

 resentatives made with the United States. More- 

 over their murderous forays on the Georgian settlers 

 were often as unprovoked as were the aggressions 

 of the brutal Georgia borderers. 



The Creeks were prompt to seize every advan- 

 tage given by the impossibility of defining the rights 

 of the various component parts of their loosely knit 

 confederacy. They claimed or disclaimed responsi- 

 bility as best suited their plans for the moment. 

 When at Galphinton two of the Creek towns signed 

 away a large tract of territory, McGillivray, the fa- 

 mous half-breed, and the other chiefs, loudly pro- 

 tested that the land belonged to the whole confeder- 

 acy, and that the separate towns could do nothing 

 save by consent of all. But in May, 1787, a party 



3 American State Papers, IV, 15. Letter of Knox, July 6, 



1789. 



