62 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19 



of Coosa river, undisturbed, while the whole country east of the Blue 

 ridge, with the Watauga at d Cumberland settlements, was given over 

 to the whites. The general boundary followed the dividing ridge 

 between Cumberland river and the more southern waters of the Ten- 

 nessee eastward to the junction of the two forks of Holston, near the 

 present Kingsport, Tennessee, thence southward to the Blue ridge 

 and southwestward to a point not far from the present Atlanta, 

 Georgia, thence westward to the Coosa river and northwestwai'd to a 

 creek running into Tennessee river at the western line of Alabama, 

 thence northward with the Tennessee river to the beginning. The 

 lands south and west of these lines were i-ecognized as belonging to the 

 Creeks and Chickasaw. Hostilities were to cease and the Cherokee 

 were taken under the protection of the United States. The proceed- 

 ings ended with the distribution of a few presents.' 



While the Hopewell treaty defined the relations of the Cherokee to 

 the general government and furnished a .safe basis for future negotia- 

 tion, it yet failed to bring conjplete peace and security. Thousands 

 of intruders were still settled on Indian lands, and minor aggressions 

 and reprisals were continually occurring. The Creeks and the north- 

 ern triljes were still hostile and remained so for some years later, and 

 theii' warriors, cooperating with those of the implacable Chickamauga 

 towns, continued to annoy the exposed settlements, particularly on the 

 Cumberland. The British had withdrawn from the South, but the 

 Spaniards and French, who claimed the lower Mississippi and the 

 Gulf region and had their trading posts in west Tennessee, took every 

 opportunity to encourage the spirit of hostility to the Americans." 

 But the spirit of the Cherokee nation was broken and the Holston 

 settlements were now too surely established to be destroyed. 



The Cumberland settlements founded by Robertson and Donelson in 

 the winter of 1779-80 had had but short respite. Early in spring the 

 Indians — Cherokee, Creeks, Chickasaw^ and northern Indians — had 

 Vjegun a series of attacks with the design of driving these intruders 

 from their lands, and thenceforth for years no man's life was safe out- 

 side the stockade. The long list of settlers shot down at work or while 

 hunting in the woods, of stock stolen and property destroyed, while 

 of sorrowful intei'est to those most nearh^ concerned, is too tedious for 

 recital here, and only leading events need be chronicled. Detailed 

 notice maj' be found in the works of local historians. 



On the night of January 15, 17.S1, a band of Indians stealthily 

 approached Freeland's station and had even succeeded in unfastening 



' Indian Treaties, p. 8 et passjm, 1837. For a full discussion of the Hopewell treaty, from official docu- 

 ments, see Koyce, Cherokee Nation, in Fifth .\nn. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. l.Vi-l.'jS, 1.888, with map: 

 Treaty Journal, etc., American State Papers; Indian .\ffairs. i. pp. 3.S-44. 183'J; also Stevens, Georgia, 

 It, pp. -117-429,18.59; Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 336, 337, 18.53; see also the map accompanying this work. 



2 Ramsey, oj). cit,, pp. 459-461; Agent Martin and Hopewell commissioners, ibid., pp. 318-336: 

 Bledsoe and Robertson letter, ibid., p. 465; Roosevelt, Winning of the West, ii, p.3l&, 1899. 



