bwahton] BABL"X HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 399 
"the Cowkeeper,'* mentioned in the qnotation above from Bartram. 
He appears in the Georgia Colonial Documents as living well toward 
the south and spending most of his time in warring with the Span- 
iards. 1 The Oconee chief who participated in Oglethorpe's first gen- 
eral Indian council was "Oueekachumpa," called by the English 
"Long King." 2 It does not appear whether Secoffee was his suc- 
cessor or merely the leader of those Oconee who went into Florida. 
I do not know on what authority Brinton places the invasion of 
Florida by Secoffee in 1750, but the date appears to be at least ap- 
proximately correct, and is important as establishing the beginnings 
of the Seminole as a distinct people. Fairbanks incorrectly states — 
that is, if SecofTcc is really the Cowkeeper of the English — that he 
"left two sons, head chiefs, Payne and Bowlegs." 3 This is, of course, 
an assumption natural to a white man, but descent was in the female 
lino among both Creels and Seminole, and Cohen, who knew Indian 
customs much better than Fairbanks, is undoubtedly correct when 
he says that Cowkeeper was "uncle of old Payne." 4 He adds that 
the former had been given a silver crown by the British Govern- 
ment for services during the American Revolution, from which we 
know that he lived at least almost to the end of that struggle. Cohen 
apparently contradicts himself in referring to these chiefs, but his 
later statement appears to be correct, and from this it seems that 
the Cowkeeper was succeeded by a chief known as "King Payne." 
Cohen says that he married a Yamasee woman. 5 The grant of land 
to Forbes & Co. made in 1811 in payment for debts contracted by the 
Indians was signed among others by Payne for all of the Alachua 
settlements and by Capitchy Micco [Kapitsa miko] for the Mikasuki. 
In 1812, in revenge for depredations committed on the Georgia settle- 
ments by these Indians, Colonel Newman, Inspector General of Flor- 
ida, offered to lead a party against Payne's town, which was still in 
Alachua, and probably just where Bartram found it. In the fight 
which ensued near that place King Payne was mortally wounded, 
and many other Indians killed or wounded, but the invaders were 
forced to retreat under cover of night. King Payne was succeeded 
by his brother, Bowlegs, whose Indian name is given by Cohen as 
Islapaopaya [opayu meaning "far away"]. 6 Cohen says that the 
Alachua settlements were broken up in 1814 by the Tennesseeans and 
Bowlegs was killed. 7 At any rate about this time the Alachuas, or 
part of them, moved farther south, and we presently find their head 
chief, Mikonopi ("Top Chief"), the nephew of King Payne and Bow- 
i Ga. Col. Docs., vn, p. 626 et seq. ■'■ Ibid., p. 33. 
• Acct. Shewing the Progress of Ga., pp. 35-36. 6 Ibid., pp. 35, 238. 
' Fairbanks, Hist of Fla., p. 174. > Ibid., p. 35. 
* Cohen, Notices of Florida, p. 238. 
