ROYCE] TREATY OF JULY 2, 1791. 165 
their towns lying on the south side of the Tennessee. This rendered 
apparent the necessity of changing the direction of the line into a more 
nearly east and west course, and led the commissioners to express the 
opinion that the true line should run from the point of the ridge south 
G0° east to Chilhowee Mountain and north 60° west to the Clineh. 
The course thus designated left a number of the settlers on Nine- 
Mile Creek within the Indian limits.’ 
The records of the War Department having been almost completely 
destroyed by fire in the month of November, 1800, it is with great dif- 
ficulty that definite data can be obtained concerning the survey of this 
and other Indian boundaries prior to that date. It has, however, been 
ascertained that the above mentioned line was not actually surveyed 
until the year 1797. 
Journal of Col. Benjamin Hawkins.—The manuscript journal of Col. 
Benjamin Hawkins, now in the possession of the Historical Society of 
Georgia, shows that instructions were issued by the Secretary of War 
on the 2d of February, 1797, appointing and directing Col. Benjamin 
Hawkins, General Andrew Pickens, and General James Winchester as 
commissionerson the partof the United States to establish and mark the 
lines between the latter and the Indian nations south of the Ohio. 
These instructions reached Colonel Hawkins at Fort Fidius, on the 
Oconee, on the 28th of February. Notice was at once sent to General 
Pickens at his residence at Hopewell, on the Keowee, and also to Gen- 
eral Winchester, through Silas Dinsmoor, at that time temporary agent 
for the Cherokee Nation, to convene at Tellico, on Tennessee River, on 
the Ist of April following, for the purpose of determining and marking 
the Cherokee boundary line pursuant to the treaty of 1791. Colonel 
Hawkins joined General Pickens at Hopewell, from which point they set 
out for Tellico on the 23d of March, accompanied by Joseph Whitner, 
one of their surveyors, as well as by an escort of United States troops, 
furnished by Lieut. Col. Henry Gaither. Passing Ocunna station, they 
were joined by their other surveyor, John Clark Kilpatrick. They 
reached Tellico block-house on the 31st of March, and were joined on 
the following day by Mr. Dinsmoor, the Cherokee agent. Here they 
were visited by Hon. David Campbell, who, in conjunction with Charles 
MeLung and John McKee, had been appointed in 1792, as previously 
set forth, to survey and mark the line. Mr. Campbell informed them 
that he and his co-commissioners, in pursuance of their instructions, did 
in part ascertain and establish the boundary and report the same to 
Governor Blount, and that he would accompany the present commis- 
sioners and give them all the information he possessed on the subject. 
About the same time confidential information was received that General 
Winchester would not attend the meeting of his co-commissioners, and 
that this was understood to be in pursuance of a scheme to postpone 
‘Report of Boundary Commissioners, November 30, 1792. American State Papers, 
Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 630. 
