Louisiana and Aaron Burr 163 



Territory; and in addition the Federal authorities 

 established an Indian agent, directly responsible to 

 themselves, among the Creeks. His name was James 

 Seagrove. He did his best to bring about a peace, 

 and, like all Indian agents, he was apt to take an 

 unduly harsh view of the deeds of the frontiersmen, 

 and to consider them the real aggressors in any 

 trouble. Of necessity his point of view was wholly 

 different from that of the border settlers. He was 

 promptly informed of all the outrages and aggres- 

 sions committed by the whites, while he heard little 

 or nothing of the parties of young braves, bent on 

 rapine, who continually fell on the frontiers ; where- 

 as the frontiersmen came in contact only with these 

 war bands, and when their kinsfolk had been mur- 

 dered and their cattle driven off, they were gener- 

 ally ready to take vengeance on the first Indians they 

 could find. Even Seagrove, however, was at times 

 hopelessly puzzled by the attitude of the Indians. 

 He was obliged to admit that they were the first 

 offenders, after the conclusion of the treaties of New 

 York and Holston, and that for a long time the set- 

 tlers behaved with great moderation in refraining 

 from revenging the outrages committed on them by 

 the Indians, which, he remarked, would have to be 

 stopped if peace was to be preserved. 35 



As the Government took no efficient steps to pre- 

 serve the peace, either by chastising the Indians or 

 by bribing the ill-judged vengeance of the frontier 



85 American State Papers, IV, Seagrove to the Secretary 

 of War, St. Mary's, June 14, 1792. 



