Moo.vEY] FRKNCH AND INDIAN WAU 17r)4-i;l 89 



tains to the southwest, cliscovi'i-iiii;' and iianiiuji- the oi'lobrated C'liiulx-r- 

 land gap and passing on to the headwaters of Cumberland river. 

 Two years later he made a second exph)i'ation and penetrated to Ken- 

 tucky river, but on account of the Indian troubk^s no permanent 

 settlement was then attempted.' This invasion of their territory 

 awakiMied a natural res(Mitment of th(> native owners, and we find 

 proof also in the \'irginia rei'ords that the ii'responsit)le borderers 

 seldom let pass an opportunity to kill and plundei' any stray Indian 

 found in their iKMghhorhood. 



In 175.5 the Cherokee w(^re oliiciaily reported to number 2.5!M) war- 

 riors, as against probabh' twice that number previous to the great 

 smallpox epidemic sixteen years before. Their neighboi's and ancient 

 eiuimies. the Catawba, had dwindled to 2-K) men.' 



Although war was not formally declared by England until 1750, 

 hostilities in the seven year's struggle between France and Kngland, 

 commonly known in America as the " French and Indian war," began 

 in April. 175-1. when the French seized a small po.st which the English 

 had begun at the present site of Pittsl)urg, and which was afterwiird 

 finished by the French under the name of Fort Du Quesne. Strenuous 

 efforts were made by the English to secure the Cherokee to their 

 interest against tlie French and their Indian allies, and treaties were 

 negotiated by which they promised assistance.' As these treaties, 

 however, carried the usual ces.sions of territory, and stipulated for 

 the building of several forts in the heart of the Cherokee country, it 

 is to be feared that the Indians were not duly impressed by th^ disin- 

 terested character of the proceeding. Their preference for the French 

 was but thinly veiled, and only immediate policy prevented them from 

 throwing their whole force into the scale on that side. TJie reasons 

 for this preference are given by Timberlake. the young Virginian 

 otiicev who visittnl the tribe on an embassy of conciliation a f(>w years 

 later: 



I fouml tlie nation inui-li rtltachcil to the French, who have the pniilence, by 

 familiar politeness — which cost.s but little and often doe,« a great deal — and conform- 

 ing theniselve.s to their ways and temper, to conciliate the inclinations of almost all 

 the Indians they are acquainted with, while the pride of our officers often disgusts 

 them. Nay, they did not scrapie to own to me that it was the trade alone that 

 induced them to make peace with us, and not any preference to th(> French, wliom 

 they loved a great <leal better. . . The Knglish are now so nigh, and encroachecl 



daily so far upon them, that they not only felt the bad <'ffects of it in their hunting 

 grounds, which were spoiled, hut had all the reason in the world to apprehend Vicing 

 swallowed up by so potent neighbors or driven from the country inhaliitud liy Their 

 fathers, in which they were 1)orn and brought up, in tine, their native soil, for which 

 all men have a particular tenderness and affection. 



' Walker, Thoma.s, Journal of an Exploration, etc., pp. 8, 35-3"; Boston, 1S88: Monette (Valley of 

 tile Miss. I, I). 317; New Yo?k, 1S4.S) erroneously tnakcs tliu secoiul dale 1758. 



= Letter of Governor Dobbs, IVfw, in North Carolina ("olonlal Keeords, v. pp. 320. 321. 1SS7. 



•■"Ramsey. Tcnnes.see, pp. .TO-Sa, 18.53; Koyce, Cherokee Nation, in Fifth .\nn. Xeji. Kiir. "f Klh- 

 nology, p. 14.1, 1888. 



