swanton] EARLY HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 101 
was the result of a conspiracy shared by the Creeks, the Choctaw, 
the Catawba and other Siouan tribes, and probably by the Cherokee. 
Apparently the only exceptions were the Chickasaw and a few small 
bands of Indians within the colony of South Carolina itself. Fortu- 
nately the greater tribes were at a distance and rested satisfied when 
they had killed the traders among them and plundered their stores. 
Fortunately too, the governor of South Carolina and his subordinates 
acted with promptness and complete success. The Yamasee were 
handled so severely that they left the country and settled for the most 
part in Florida, whither their women and children had preceded them. 
The Indians attacking from the north, probably small tribes only, were 
driven back. This removed the first line of Indian attack on the 
colony in short order, and either the more remote hostiles must be 
prepared to bear the brunt of the fighting if the original project was 
to be carried out or they must get out of danger. It was one thing 
to take the part of passive conspirators behind the backs of the Yama- 
see, but quite another to be the principal performers, especially after 
the impressive and rapid manner in which their allies had been routed. 
As a result the more distant tribes immediately quieted down. The 
Catawba ever after remained staunch friends of the colonists, and the 
Cherokee resumed peaceful relations with them. To secure them- 
selves against possible reprisals many of the other tribes moved 
farther from the borders of Carolina, the Apalachee, Oconee, Apalach- 
ioola, and part of the Yuchi and Savannah falling back to the Ocmul- 
gee and thence to the Chattahoochee, while the great body of Lower 
Creeks, who were then living on the Oomulgee and its branches, also 
fell back to the Chattahoochee, some of them, apparently, removing 
as far as the Tallapoosa. xVside from its immediate effects on the 
colony of South Carolina the Yamasee war is thus of great importance 
in tracing the history of the Indian tribes of the Southeast, marking 
as it does a great step in their progressive decline and fall. 
From what Escudero says it may be inferred that another cause of 
the lukewarmness of the Creeks was jealousy of the Yamasee, and, 
as we shall see when we come to consider the part played in this dis- 
turbance by the Apalachee, there was an English as well as a Spanish 
faction in the Creek Nation. The former apparently obtained control 
shortly after the beginning of the war. 
The part played by the Spaniards in all this was perhaps nothing 
more than that of passive sympathizers. They may or may not have 
been aware that a massacre was coming when they received the 
women and children of the Yamasee, for it was a natural measure of 
precaution preceding the change of allegiance. Some light is thrown 
on the events of the time by Juan de Ayala's letter to the Spanish 
ambassador. He says: 
The Governor and Captain General of these provinces [of Florida] at that time 
reported to H. M. that on the 27th of May of last year [1715?], there had appeared 
