ROYCE. } TREATY OF DECEMBER 29, 1835. 267 
was also claimed by the Creeks, and the British Government had 
therefore in purchasing it accepted a cession from those tribes jointly.’ 
At the beginning of the Federal relations with the Cherokees, a defi- 
nition of their boundaries had been made by treaty of November 28, 
1785, extending on the south as far west as the headwaters of the 
Appalachee River. Beyond that point to the west no declaration as to 
the limits of the Cherokee territory was made, because, for the purposes 
of the Federal Government, none was at that time necessary. But 
when in course of time other cessions came to be made, both by the 
Cherokees and Creeks, it began to be essential to have an exact defi- 
nition of the line of limits between them. Especially was this the case 
when, as by the terms of the Creek treaty of February 12, 1825, they 
ceded all the territory to which they laid claim within the limits of 
Georgia, and although this treaty was afterwards declared void by the 
United States, because of alleged fraud, Georgia always maintained 
the propriety and validity of its negotiation. 
As early as June 10, 1802, a delegation of Cherokees interviewed 
Colonel Hawkins and General Pickens, and after demanding the re- 
moyal of certain settlers claimed to be on their lands, asserted the 
boundary of their nation in the direction of the Creeks to be the path 
running from Colonel Easley’s, at High Shoals of the Appalachee, to 
Etowah River. This they had agreed upon in council with the Creeks. 
A delegation of the Creeks, whom they brought with them from the 
council, were then interrogated on the subject by Messrs. Hawkins and 
Pickens, and they replied that the statement of the Cherokees was cor- 
rect. 
In the spring of 1814 (May 15) Agent Meigs had written the Secre- 
tary of War that the Cherokees were sensible that the Creeks ought to 
cede to the United States sufficient land to fully compensate the latter 
for the expenses incurred in prosecuting the Creek war. However, they 
(the Cherokees) were incidentally interested in the arrangements, and 
hoped that the United States would not permit the Creeks to point out 
the specific boundaries of their cession until the division line between 
the two nations had been definitely determined. Ina the following year, 
jn a discussion of the subject with Colonel Hawkins, the Creek agent, 
Colonel Meigs declares that the Cherokees repel the idea entertained by 
the Creeks that the Cherokee or Tennessee River was ever their southern 
boundary. On the contrary, the dividing line between the territories of 
the two nations should.begin at Vann’s Old Store, on the Ocmulgee 
River, thence pursuing such a course as would strike the Coosa River 
below the Ten Islands. This claim was predicated upon the assertion 
that the Cherokees had in the course of three successive wars with the 
Creeks driven them more than a degree of latitude below the point last 


‘Treaty June 1, 1773, between the British superintendent of Indian affairs and the 
Creeks and Cherokees. 
? United States Statutes at Large, Vol. VII, p. 237. 
