s wanton i EARL"? history OF THE CREEK Indians 309 
settlements so far to the cast of the Savannah. Possibly some Coosa 
Indian- of South Carolina afterwards combined with them. After 
the establishment of a Vnclii settlement on the Chattahoochee by 
Chief Ellick of the Kasihta, in the year L729, as will be detailed below, 
they began to make their permanent residence more and more among 
the Creeks, using their old territories principally for hunting. Al- 
though the white settlers naturally coveted these lands, left vacant 
for so much of the time, Governor Oglethorpe restrained them and 
preserved the territory inviolate until after 1740. Not many years 
later they had been practically given over by the Yuehi themselves. 
Two very good descriptions of the Yuehi town on the Chattahoochee 
have been preserved to us -one by Bertram and one by Hawkins. 
It stood at the mouth of the present Big Uchee Creek. Bartram, 
who passed through the place in 1778, says of it: 
The Uche town is situated in a low ground immediately bordering on the river; it 
is the largest, most compact, and host situated Indian town I ever saw; the habita- 
tions are large and neatly built; the walls of the houses are constructed of a wooden 
frame, then lathed and plastered inside and out with a reddish well-tempered clay or 
mortar, which gives them the appearance of red brick walls; and these houses are 
neatly covered or roofed with Cypress hark or shingles of that tree. The town ap- 
peared to be populous and thriving, full of youth and young children. I suppose the 
number of inhabitants, men, Women and children, might amount to one thousand or 
fifteen hundred, as it is said they are able to muster five hundred gunmen or warriors. 
Their own national language is altogether or radically different from the Creek or 
Muscogulge tongue, and is called the Savanna or Savanuca tongue; I was told by the 
traders it was the same with, or a dialect of the Shawanese. They are in confederacy 
With the Creeks, but do not mix with them; and on account of their numbers and 
strength, are of importance enough to excite and draw upon them the jealousy of the 
whole Muscogulge confederacy, and are usually at variance, yet are wise enough to 
unite against a common enemy, to support the interest and glory of the general Creek 
confederacy. 1 
Of course the Shawnee and Yuehi languages are radically distinct. 
Bartram was led into the error of supposing a relation to subsist 
between them by the fact that the two tribes were on very intimate 
terms,, were mixed together, and both spoke languages quite different 
from Creek. 2 
Hawkins's description follows: 
U-chee: is on the right bank of Chat-to-ho-che, ten and a half miles below Cow-e-tuh 
tal-lau-has-see, on a flat of rich land, with hickory, oak, blackjack, and long-leaf pine; 
the flat extends from one to two miles back from the river. Above the town, and 
bordering on it, Uchee Creek, eighty-five 3 feet wide, joins the river. Opposite the 
town house, on the left bank of the river, there is a narrow strip of flat land from fifty 
to one hundred yards wide, then high pine barren hills; these people speak a tongue 
different from the Creeks; they were formerly settled in small villages at Ponpon, 
Saltketchers (Sol-ke-chuh), Silver Bluff, and O-ge-chee, and were continually at war 
with the Cherokees, Ca-tau-bau, and Creeks. 
' bartram, Travels, pp. 386-387. » The Lib. Cong. MS. has "45." 
» See p. 190. 
