GEORGIA. 
452 
the Mifllfllppi. The country in which the Chaftaw and 
Chickal'aw towns are fituated, is faid to be as healtliy 
as any part of the continent, the natives fcarcely ever 
being tick. Such of them as frequent the MitlifTippi, 
leave its banks as the fummer approaches, led they 
might partake of the fevers that fometimes vifit the 
low fwampy lands bordering upon that river. Wheat, 
it is faid, yields better at the Yazoo than at the Natchez, 
owing probably to its more northern fituation. Though 
the quantity of good land on the Miffidippi and its 
brandies, from the Bay of Mexico to the river Ohio, 
a diftance of nearly one thoufand miles, is vaftly great, 
and the conveniences attending it ; fo likewife we may 
edeem that in the neighbourhood of the Natchez, and 
of the river Yazoo, the prime of it all. 
About a mile and a half up the Yazoo river, on the 
north dde, there is a large creek, which communicates 
with the Millidippi above the river St. Francis, about 
one hundred leagues higher up by the courfe of the ri¬ 
ver. It palfes through feveral lakes by the way. At 
the didance of I'everal miles from the mouth of the river 
Yazoo, on the fouth fide, are the Yazoo hills. There 
is a did' of folid rock at the landing place, on which 
are a variety of broken pieces of fea diells, and fome 
entire. Four miles further up, is the place called the 
Ball Ground,'near which a duirch, fort St. Peter, and 
a French fettlement, formerly dood. They were de- 
droyed by the Yazoo Indians in 1729. That nation is 
now entirely extind. 
From about twenty miles eadw’ard of the MidilTippi, 
to Halfway or Pearl river, the didance of about lixty 
miles, is “a due level country, very fertile, and better 
Watered than nearer the Miliitlippi. '1 here is fome 
mixture of fand with loam ; tlie timber the fame, with 
the addition of black-jack, and pod-oak. This trad is 
interfperfed with what the Frencli call prairies, or favan- 
nas, which arc extendve intdvals of one and two thou¬ 
fand acres of excellent land, of a deep black foil, free 
of all timber and trees. It is this kind of land which 
the Indians cultivate. From the Mididippi to this river 
there are no Indians. To a trad of this country, ex. 
tending along the Mididippi from the thirty-fird degree 
of latitude to the Yazoo river, at the ibuth end, thirty 
miles wide, and narrowing as we proceed northerly to 
the width of iifteen miles, the Indian title has been ex- 
tinguidied. It was fil'd purchafed by the Englilh ; but 
they not having completed the payment of the purchafe 
money before it tell into the hands of the Spaniards, 
they, (the Spaniards,) in the year 1792, paid the balance. 
At V/alnut Hills the Spaniards had a fort,^ fmee given 
up to the United States. I'o the country north of the 
Yazoo, tlie Indian title is not yet extinguilhed. About 
one half of the fouthern part, a didance of about fifty 
miles up the Yazoo, is owned by the Chadlaw s ; the 
northern half by tlie Chickafaws.” The gentleman 
who gives the above information, and who was in this 
country in the year 1792, fays, “that the Yazoo is 
about ninety yards wide; is navigable one liundred 
miles; that he crofl'ed the country by different routes 
three or four times from the Millidippi to the Tombig- 
bee ; paired over the Yazoo feveral times ; went up and 
down the river on the ffiore; and fays that the lands to 
the ead of the Yazoo (the didance of about one hundred 
miles) are very excellent.” 
Pearl river is about forty yards wide; a branch of it, 
palling ead of the Natchez and neared, bears the name 
of Buff'alo river. On the ead fide of Pearl river com¬ 
mence the Chadfavv fettlements, and extend to the 
Gliickafaw Hay river; thence, about forty miles ead. 
ward, the fettlements extend near to the Tombigbee. 
This is a numerous nation, containing about three thou¬ 
fand hunters, who are a peaceable and friendly people. 
The dreams on which the Chadtaws are fettled, are laid 
down by Coxe as proceeding from wed to ead; the Ho- 
rnachitta, (called by Purcell, Hodaphatcha,) Chadlaw, 
and Souhawtee, which unite, and the main dream, re. 
tains the name of Homachitta till it pmpties into the 
Gulf of Mexico. This is probably the fame river that 
Flutchins calls Pafcagoula. The head branches of this 
river fpread extenfively through the nortliern part of 
this territory, chiefly wedward of the Chactaw' nation. 
"White or Bluff river, appears to rife in abofit lat. 33. 
N. takes a courfe to the ead of the Chadlaws, and emp¬ 
ties into the Tombigbee fome didance below the head 
of the tide water, and is laid down as about the fize of 
Pearl river. 
From the compadt fettlements of the Chadlaws ead- 
ward, to the wedern branches of the Tombigbee, the 
land is tolerably good : the timber generally oak and 
pine, with fome hickory, well watered and level. Of 
this kind is the country a didance of about forty miles 
wedward of the wedern branches of the 'J'ombigbee ; 
afterwards the land is more uneven, iatCifperfed with 
large favannas, and the whole generally good land, and 
pretty well watered; the water, however, has a limy 
tade. The natural growth much the fame as on tlie 
Milliflippi. T he intervals, or, as they call it in this 
country, the bottom lands, are generally about a mile wide 
on the river, extremely rich, and thickly overgrov>n 
with canes. This general defeription will apply to the 
whole tract belonging to the Georgia Milfillippi Com- 
pany. 
We have now arrived ead ward to the Mobile, the 
principal river in this territory, “ On the bar at the 
entrance of the bay of Mobile, there is only about fif¬ 
teen or fixteen feet water; two-thirds of the way through 
the bay, towards the town of Mobile, there is from two 
to three fatlioms ; and the deeped water to be depended 
on in the upper part of the bay is only ten or twelve 
feet, and in many places not fo much. Large velfels 
cannot go within feven miles of the town. This bay is 
about thirty miles long, and from ten to twelve wide. 
I'he tide flows fixty or feventy miles above this bay, 
and is fo far navigable for fea-velTels. Thence 150 or 
200 miles north, is good boat navigation, fmooth water, 
generally lOo or 150 yards wide, and eight to ten feet 
deep. The bay of Mobile terminates a little to the 
north-eadward of the town, in a number of mardies and 
lagoons ; which fubjeft the people to fevers and agues 
in the hot feafon. The river Mobile divides into two 
principal branches, about forty miles above the town ; 
one of which, called the Tanlaw", falls into the ead part 
of the bay ; the other empties itfelf dole by the town, 
where it has a bar of feven feet ; but there is a branch 
a little to the eadward of this, called Spanifli river, 
where there is a channel of nine or ten feet when the 
water is high : this joins Mobile riverabout two leagues 
above the town. Two or three leagues above the Tan- 
law branch, the Alabama river falls into the Mobile, 
after running from the north-ead a courfe of about 130 
miles; tliat is, from Alabama fort, fituated at the con¬ 
fluence of the Coofa, and Talipofee, both very confi- 
derable rivers ; on which and their branches are the 
chief fettlements of the Upper Creek Indians, The 
French fort at Alabama was evacuated in 1763, and has 
not lince been garrifoned. Above the confluence of 
Alabama and Mobile, the latter is called the Tombigbee 
river, from the fort of Tomb^bee, fituated on the wed 
fide of it, about ninety-fix leagues above tlie town of 
Mobile. The fource of this river is reckoned to be 
about forty leagues liigher up, in the country of the 
Chickafaws. The fort of Tombigbee was taken pof- 
felfion of by the Englilli, but abandoned again in 1767, 
by order of the commandant of Penfacola. The river 
is navigable for floops and fchooners about thirty-fiv.e 
leagues'above the town of Mobile. The banks, where 
low, are partly overflowed in the rainy feafons, which 
adds greatly to the foil, and adapts it particularly to the 
cultivatien of rice. The fides of the river are covered 
in many places with large canes, fo thick that they are 
almod 
