IROQUOIAX LANGUAGES. 



41 



Cherokee — Continued. 



Sold for 75 ccuts at the Field sale, No. 340. 

 Priced by Leclerc, 1878. No. 2139, 15 tV., and by 

 Clarke, 18SG, No. 6713, 75 cents. 



Cherokee. See Nevv Testameut. 



Cherokee. [One line Cherokee charac- 

 ters; picture of eagle. ] | Cherokee Phoe- 

 nix. I Vol.1. New Echota, Thursday, 

 February 21, 1828. No. 1. 



A four-page, super-royal weekly newspaper, 

 partly iu Cherokee, partly in English, Elias 

 Boudinot, editor, Isaac N. Harris, printer. 



In No. 48, vol. 1, Feb. 11, 1829, the heading 

 was bligliLly changed, the eagle being removed 

 and to Cherokee PhcEnix being added the words 

 "and Indian Advocate". 



Though claiming to be a "weekly," it was 

 issued irregularly, .sometimes two weeks and 

 in one case neai'ly a month intervening between 

 issues. 



The last I have .seen was the issue of Aug. 

 11, 1832, Vol. 4, No. 52; but Professor Turner, 

 in Ludewig's Literature of American Lan- 

 guages, says it continued until May 31, 1834, 

 Vol. 5, No. 52, when it wa.s suspended for want 

 of funds and perhaps not resumed. 



This is the first publication in the Cherokee 

 characters. For their first use in printing, see 

 note to Worcester (S. A.). 



Copies seen: Boston Athenffium, British Mu- 

 seum. 



Mr. John F. Wheelor, who was the first to 

 set typo in the Cherokee characters, gives an 

 interesting account of the beginning of this 

 paper in the Indi.an llecord, vol. 1, No. C, from 

 which I extract the folbiwing: 



"In the year 1827 the Cherokees, having ad- 

 vanced in civilization far .ahead of any other 

 Indian tribes iu the limits of the United States, 

 resolved iu the National Council to establish a 

 newspaper. 



"The Cherokee alphabet, invented by G-oorge 

 Guess, a halfbreed Cherokee, who could not 

 speak English, began to ba discussed and read 

 by the full-blood Indians, and, for the purpose 

 of disseminating knowledge among that class, 

 it was determined upon by the Council to have 

 the Guess alphabet cast into type, and, as there 

 were a number of missionaries iu the Nation 

 under the direction of the American Board of 

 Missions, whose headquarters were in Boston, 

 that place was chosen as the place where the 

 now alphabet could be formed into type. The 

 Rev. Samuel A. Worcester, a prominent man 

 in the mission, who had a good education, was 

 selected, or rather volunteered, to look after 

 the casting of this new font of type. 



" Very soon after the Cherokee Council had 

 determined upon establishing the paper, Isaac 

 N. Harris, a printer, whose father lived in 

 Sequochee Valley, Tennessee, near the town of 

 J.isper, hearing of the intention of the Chero- 

 kees, went into the Nation and engaged to un- 

 dertake the printing of the paper. Harris, after 

 perfectiug arr.ingemouts witli the Cherokee 



Cherokee — Continued. 



authorities, left for home, and from thence 

 he came to Huntsville, Ala., where the writer 

 of this narrative lived. « * * 



"After Harris .stated the conditions under 

 which the work was to be done, we entered 

 into an agreement to go to Now Echota, the 

 capital of the Cherokees, and bo ready for com- 

 mencing the paper by the first of January, 

 1828. 



" We arrived at New Echota about the 23d of 

 December, 1827. We found the press, type, 

 etc., had not arrived, they having to be trans- 

 ferred from Augustine, Ga , in wagons, a dis- 

 tance of over 200 miles. We found the Rev. 

 Samuel A. Worcester, a missionary under the 

 American Bo.ard, with his family, and Elias 

 Boudinot, the editor of the paper, with his 

 family, at New Echota, both of whom had just 

 removed there, and both intending to engage in 

 the tr.anslation of the Scriptures into the Cher- 

 okee language, to be printed with the newly 

 invented ch.aracters. Mr. Worcester had .sys- 

 tematically arrsinged the characters, which can 

 be better understood as something like the 

 English ba, be, bi, bo, etc., using the Cherokee 

 vowels at the head of each line. Mr. Worcester 

 furnished Mr. Harris and myself with a copy 

 written (for then there was no printing in the 

 Cherokee Language) to learn the alphabet. We 

 had nothing to do for three or four weeks but to 

 learn the alphabet, and it was more and more 

 incomprehensible to us than Greek. For mj'- 

 self, I could not distinguish a single word in 

 the talk of the Indians with e.ach other, for it 

 seemed to be a continuance of sounds. While 

 we were waiting for the type and press it was 

 ascertained that no printing paper h.ad been 

 ordered from Boston with the material. A two- 

 horse wagon was procured and Harris started 

 forKnoxville, where wasajjaper mill, for paper. 

 He was gone about two weeks, when he re- 

 turned with a sutticient supply of jiaper for 

 the present wants. At that time, 1828, paper 

 w.as moulded, each sheet separate. This was 

 the kind of paper on which the first number of 

 the PlKenis was printed. 



" The press and type did not arrive until the 

 latterp.irt of .January, 1828. While waiting we 

 had devoted a portion of our time to learning 

 the .alphabet. 



" The house built for the printing-otfice was 

 of hewed logs, about 30 feet long and 20 wide. 

 The builders had cut out a log on each side 15 or 

 16 feet long, and about two and a half feet .above 

 the floor, in which they had made a sash to fit. 

 This we h.ul raised, because the light was below 

 the cases. Stands had to be made, a bank, and 

 cases fur the Cherokee type. The latter was 

 something entirely new, as no itattern for a case 

 or cases [to accommodate] an alpliabet contain- 

 ing 8G characters could be found. After consid- 

 ering the matter over for a few days, I woiked 

 upon making cases with boxes corresponding to 

 the systematized alphab(it as arranged by Mr. 

 Worcester. Accordingly we had the cases so 



