162 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
further cession of territory from the Cherokees as the tranquillity and 
interests of the United States should require. A proviso to this reso- 
lution limited the compensation to be paid to the Cherokees for such 
further cession to $1,000 per annum and stipulated that no person who 
had taken possession of any lands within the limits of the proposed ces- 
sion should be confirmed therein until he had complied with such terms 
as Congress should thereafter prescribe. 
Accordingly, instructions were issued to William Blount, governor 
of the Territory south of the Ohio River and ex-officio superintendent 
of Indian affairs, to conclude ‘a treaty of cession with the Cherokees. 
TENNESSEE COMPANY’S PURCHASE. 
In the mean time the troubles between the Indians and the settlers 
had become aggravated from divers causes. Prominent among these 
was the fact that Georgia had by act of her legislature disposed of 
3,500,000 acres of vacant land lying south of Tennessee River to the 
Tennessee Company. This association undertook to effect a settlement 
in the year 1791 at or near the Muscle Shoals.? The matter coming to 
the notice of the Secretary of War was made the subject of a strong 
protest by him to the President.? 
The latter issued his proclamation forbidding such settlement. The 
company persisted in the attempt, and as the President had declared 
such act would place them without the protection of the United States, 
the Indians were left free to break up and destroy the settlement, which 
they did.‘ 
DIFFICULTIES IN NEGOTIATING NEW TREATY. 
In pursuance of Governor Blount’s instructions, he convened the 
Indians at White’s Fort, on the present site of Knoxville, Tenn. ; 
and after a conference lasting seven days, succeeded, with much diff- 
culty and with great reluctance on the part of the Cherokees, in con- 
cluding the treaty of July 2, 1791.° 
In his letter to the Secretary of War,° transmitting the treaty, he 
asserts the greatest difficulty to have been in agreeing on a boundary, 
and that the one fixed upon might seem singular, The reason for this 
peculiarity of description was owing to the fact that the Indians in- 
' These instructions were issued in pursuance of the advice and consent of the Sen- 
ate, under date of August 11, 1790. See American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. 
Ty psloos 
>This act of the Georgia legislature bore date of December 21, 1789. A prior act, 
bearing date February 7, 1785, had been passed, entitled ‘An act for laying out a dis- 
trict of land situated on the river Mississippi, within the limits of this State, into a 
county, to be called Bourbon.” See American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 
114. 
Ss January 22,1791. See American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 112. 
*tamsey’s Annals of Tennessee, pp. 549-556. 
° United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 39. 
6 July 15,1791. See American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 628. 
