63G INDIAN LAND CESSIONS IN THE UNITED STATES [eth.ann. 18 



the English tbey were come down to help me against the Spaniarils and that if I 

 wanted them tlR-y woald bring down four score more of their warriors who should 

 stay with me a whole year. You see how God baffles the attempts of wicked men.'' 



In another letter, July 26, 173(5, incidental mention is made of a 

 cession of land by Opayhatclioo and his tribe. At this time the ces- 

 sions he had obtained did not reach to the upper Aliamaha, as he 

 remarks: •' The opposition from Carolina forced me to give the Indians 

 large presents to procure their coiitirmation of the cession of the 

 Islands; and they have refused as yet to give leave to settle tlie inland 

 parts up the Alatamaha." 



On the 21st of August, 1739, another treaty was entered into at 

 Coweta with the Creeks, Cherokee, and Chickasaw. In this treaty the 

 Indians declare — 



. . . that all the dominions, territories and lands between the Savannah and St. John's 

 Rivers, including all the islands, and from the St .John's River to the Apalachie Bay 

 and thence to the mountains, do, by ancient right belong to the Creek Nation, and 

 that they would not suffer either the Spaniards or any other people excepting the 

 trustees of thf Colony of Georgia, to settle their lands. They also acknowledge 

 the grant which they formerly made to the Trustees of all the lands on Savannah 

 River as far as the river Ogeechee, and all the lands along the seacoast as far as St 

 John's River, and as high as the tide flowed, and all the islands, particularly St 

 Simon's, Cumberland, and, Amelia, etc- 



It would appear from these facts that the policy adopted by this 

 colony at the outset in dealing with the Indians was a kind and just 

 one. -Moreover, it was correct in method, a-< the grants from Indians 

 were not obtained by or on behalf of individuals, but by the properly 

 constituted authority for and on behalf of the ''trustees," who were 

 the proprietors of tLis colony. Happily for the welfare of the settlers, 

 the active control had been placed in the hands of Oglethorpe, who 

 was unquestionably one of the most just, kind, and truly worthy 

 governors who ever ruled over an Ameri(;an colony. Yet, as history 

 testifies, though strictly just and promi)t to repair or amend an injury, 

 he was watchful and prompt to resent an invasion of or trespass on 

 the rights of the colonists, whether by the natives or by the whites 

 from otiier settlements. 



A letter to the trustees dated September 5, 1730, which refers to the 

 treaty of 1739, above mentioned, gives some atlditioual evidence of the 

 just policy Oglethorpe had adopted in treating with the Indians: 



I am just arrived at this Place from the Assembled Estates of the Creek Nation. 

 They have very fully declared their rights to and jiossessiou of all the Land as far 

 as the River Saint .lohns and their Concession of the Sea Coast, Islands and other 

 Lands to the Trustees, of which they have made a regular act. If I had not gone 

 up the misunderstandings between them and the Carolina Traders fomented by our 

 two neighboring Natious would probably have occasioned their beginning a war, 

 which I believe might have been the result of this general meeting; but as their 

 complaints were reasonable, I gave them satisfaction in all of them, and everything 



' Georgia Historical Society CoUectiona, vol. ni, pp. 35-36. 

 ' White, Hiatorical Collections of Georgia (1855), p. 121. 



