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334 Discoveries and Settlements Book k 
would deflroy all Induftry among the white Inhabit* 
ants, and that, by giving them a Power to alien 
their Lands, the Colony would foon be too like its 
Neighbours, void of white Inhabitants, filled with 
Blacks, and reduced to be the precarious Property of 
a few, equally expofed to domeftic Treachery, and 
‘‘ foreign Invafion ; and therefore the Truftees cannot 
be fuppofed to be in any Difpofition of granting this 
Requeft ; and if they have not, before this, fignified 
‘‘ their Diflike of it, their Delay is to be imputed to 
no other Motives but the Hopes they had conceived, 
«« that Time and Experience would bring the Compiain- 
ants to a better Mind. And the Truftees readily 
join IfiTue with them, in their Appeal to Fofterity, 
«« who fhall judge between them, who were their beft 
Friends, thofe who endeavoured to preferve for them 
a Property in their Lands, by tying up the Hands of 
their unthrifty Progenitors, or they who wanted a 
Power to mortgage or alien them? Vvho were the 
beft Friends to the Colony, thofe who, with great La- 
“ bour and Coft, had endeavoured to form a Colony 
“ of his Majefty’s Subjecfts, and perfecuted Proteftants 
“ from other Parts of Europe ; had placed them on a 
“ fruitful Soil, and llrove to fecure them in their Pof- 
‘‘ feffions by thofe Arts, which naturally tend to keep 
the Colony full of ufeful and induftrious People, ca- 
pable both to cultivate and defend it ; or thofe, who 
to gratify the greedy and ambitious Views of a few 
Negro-Merchants, would put it into their Power to 
“ become foie Owners of the Province, by introducing 
“ their baneful Commodity ; which it is well known, 
“ by fad Experience, has brought our Neighbour Colo- 
“ nies to the Brink of Ruin, by driving out their white 
“ Inhabitants, who were their Glory and Strength, to 
make room for black, who are now become the 
Terror of their unadvifed Matters ?” 
The Truftees had great Reafon for proceeding as they 
did in this Refpeft *, fince among the Perfons to whom 
Grants were made, in order to their fettling at their 
own Expence in the Colony, fome never went over to 
take them up, or to fettle at all others were Gentlemen 
of Carolina^ who negledied the Profecution ot their 
Grants, and never fo much as defired to have their 
Lands laid out ; and of the reft, feveral had quitted their 
Plantations, and the laborious Life of Planters, to go 
and refide more at their Eafe at Savannah ; where, by the 
Exercife of their feveral Trades and Profeffions, they 
brought many of the People in Debt ; and befides all 
this, Horfe-Races and other Diverfions were fet on foot, 
and fuch a Spirit of Idienefs began to prevail, as very 
eafily accounted for their Eagernefs in defiring to have 
Negroes granted them ; and plainly Ihewed with what 
fatal Confequences it muft have been attended, if the 
Truftees had not remained firm to their firft Refolu- 
tions, and had not given fuch an Anfwer as fhewed they 
were refolved to preferve that Spirit in the Colony upon 
which it was fettled, and which could alone render it 
worth that Care, which had been hitherto taken of it 
by the Public. However, to make the People as eafy 
and contented as they could, they publiflied an Adver- 
tifement in the London Gazette^ the 8 th of September^ 
1739, and other Papers, which were continued for feve- 
ral Days, and ordered it to be publiftied in the South 
Carolma Gazette \ that they had refolved to enlarge their 
Grants on Failure of Iftlie Male, and to make a certain 
Provifioii for the Widows of the Grantees, in the follow- 
ing Manner, viz. That the Lands already granted, and 
fuch as ftiould hereafter be granted, fliolild, on Failure 
of Iftlie Male, defcend to the Daughters of fuch Gran- ■ 
tees-, and in cafe there ftiould be no IfTue Male or Fe- 
male, that the Grantees misht devife fuch I.ands ; and 
for want of fuch Devife, that fuch Lands fhould de- 
fcend to their Heirs at Law, with a Provifo that the 
Polfeftion of the Perfon who ftiould enjoy fuch Devife, 
fhould not be increafed to more than five hundred 
Acres j and that the Widows of the Grantees, fhould 
hold and enjoy the dwelling Houfe, Garden, and one 
Moiety of the Lands their Hufband ftiould die pofTeftTed 
of, for, and during the Term of, their Lives. The 
Truftees diredled in the Advertifement, that thofe who 
intended to have the Benefit given them, ftiould enter 
their refpedlive Claims, in order that proper Grants and 
Conveyances in the Law might be lorthwith prepared 
and executed for that Purpofe ^ and that no Fee or Re- 
ward was to be taken for the entering any fuch Claim, 
diredly or indirectly, by ,any Perfon or Perfons v/hat- 
foever. It appears clearly from thefe Conceflions, how 
very defirous the Truftees were of giving the People, 
fettled in Georgia^ all imaginable Satisfaction, ccnfiftent 
with the Scheme they had formed of fecuring thefe 
Lands to the aCfual Planters, and thereby prevent thofe 
Inconveniencies, to which others, particularly the fouth- 
ern Colonies, were liable, and v^^hich would have been 
fo much the more fatal in a Colony, the chief Induce- 
ment to eftablifh which, was the making a ftrong Fron- 
tier. 
9. The French., who by degrees grew more and, more 
uneafy at the Settlement of Georgia^ and our Intercourfe 
with the Indians., began to make ufe of every Method 
they could devife, in order to create Differences and 
Jealoufies between us and the Creeks^ which was no 
fooner known, than it greatly alarmed, not only the 
People fettled in Georgia., but the whole Province of Ca- 
rolina., from a juft Senfe of the Danger they fhould be 
in, if the French., either by their Artifices or Prefents, 
fhould draw over the Creek Indians to their Party, as 
appears by their Applications, both to Colonel Ogle- 
thorpe., and to the Government at home. Upon this 
Mr. Oglethorpe thought it necelTary to enter into a clofe 
Alliance with this Nation-, and therefore refolved upon a 
Journey to the Coweta Towp, though at the Diftance 
of no lefs than five hundred Miles from Frederica, where 
he then was, and through a Country very little known 
to, and very difficult for, Europeans to travel. 
provided him, however, with Horfes and Prefents fit 
for the Purpofe ; fet out for that Place, and after a 
painful and fatiguing Journey, reached it in Safety, where 
he was received by the Indians all imaginable Marks 
of Friend fhip and RefpeCt ; and where he had an Op- 
portunity of conferring, not only with the Chiefs of all 
the Tribes of this Nation, but alfo with the Deputies of 
the Chodlaws and Chickefaws, who lie between the En- 
glijh and French Settlements, and who had fent their 
Deputies thither with that View. The Confequence of 
this Meeting was, the making a new, more full, and 
explicit Treaty with the Lower Creeks, than the former; 
which was of fo great Confequence, that Colonel Bully 
Lieutenant-Governor of Carolina, declared, that if the 
Creeks could be fecured, they fhould be under no Appre- 
henfions from the Intrigues of the French with the other 
Nations j and, that this was effectually done, the Reader 
will perceive from the Perufal of the Treaty then con- 
cluded with that Nation ; of which the following is a 
Copy from an Inftrument, containing the Exemplifica- 
tion of the faid Treaty, under the Seal of the Province 
of Georgia, with all the neceffary Certificates from the 
Magiftrates, indorfed thereupon ; and which ought there- 
fore to be confidered as the moft authentic Evidence of 
that Gentleman’s Diligence, Zeal, and Succefs, in the 
Service of his Country, and of the Britijh Colonies in 
America. 
Proceedings of the affemhled Fftates of all the Lower Creek 
Nations, held on Saturday, the 11th Day 0/ Auguft, 
Anno Domini 1739.. 
“ By Powers from his moft facred Majefty George the 
“ Second, by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, 
“ France, and Ireland, &c. General James Oglethorpe ' 
“ being appointed Commiffioner, was prefent in the : 
‘‘ Behalf of his Majefty, and opened the AfTembly by a . 
“ Speech. There were alfo prefent at the faid AfTembly ’ 
of Eftates, the Mico, or King, of the Coweta Town *, , 
“ ChickleyNinia, Mico of the faid Town -, Mico, , 
“ Son of Brim, late Emperor of the Creek Nation, and ^ 
“ the chief Men and Warriors of the Coweta Towns; , 
“ the Mico, or chief King, oi xFoiCuffitas’, z.sAiSciJkeligo, , 
Mico, next to the King of the Cujfitas ; IJkeigo, third I 
“ chief Man of the Cuffitas, and the other chief Men. i 
“ and Warriors of the faid Town ; and alfo Ocakcha- - 
“ pacho, I 
2 
