ON  THE  MEDICINAL  PLANTS  OF  CHEROKEE  GEORGIA.  59 
REMARKS  UPON  THE  MEDICINAL    PLANTS  OF  CHEROKEE 
GEORGIA. 
By  Robert  Battey,  of  Rome,  Georgia. 
While  this  section  of  Georgia  was  occupied  by  the  Cherokee 
tribe  of  Indians,  the  collection  and  exportation  of  medicinal 
plants  and  roots,  together  with  slugs  of  silver,  (obtained  from  a 
source  now  unknown)  skins  and  venison  hams  was  their  only  means 
of  securing  the  requisite  supplies  of  salt,  whiskey,  gunpowder, 
calico,  &c,  consumed  by  them.  One  George  Lavender,  a  white 
man,  (who  early  attached  himself  to  the  Cherokees,  and  after- 
wards married,  I  believe,  the  daughter  of  John  Ridge,  one  of 
their  chiefs,)  was  the  principal  trader  of  the  tribe.  Establishing 
himself  at  the  point  now  known  as  Rome,  he  carried  on  a  con- 
siderable trade  in  the  articles  named,  and  is  said  to  have  had 
engaged  in  his  service  numbers  of  wagons,  transporting  these 
commodities  to  Augusta,  a  distance  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
miles,  and  returning  with  goods  for  his  store.  In  this  way  he 
accumulated  in  some  twenty  years  quite  a  large  fortune.  He 
sent  to  market  chiefly  pink  root,  serpentaria,  senega  and  gin- 
sing.  I  can  obtain  no  definite  data  as  to  the  annual  amount 
thus  sent  off,  or  the  relative  quantities  of  each.  Spigelia  and 
serpentaria  doubtless  predominated  largely.  I  am  informed  that 
he  was  in  the  habit  of  shipping  spigelia  with  the  top  attached, 
for  which  he  exchanged  salt,  powder  and  dry  goods,  allowing  the 
Indians  two  cents  the  pound.  During  one  season,  having  the 
monopoly  of  salt,  he  is  said  to  have  exchanged  an  entire  sack  in 
small  lots,  for  slugs  of  native  silver,  weight  for  weight.  Many 
marvellous  tales  are  told  of  him  and  his  traffic. 
For  some  years  prior  to  the  removal  of  the  Cherokees  west, 
the  supply  of  these  plants  greatly  diminished,  until  the  trade  in 
them  almost  entirely  ceased,  and  the  Indians  devoted  themselves 
more  to  the  culture  of  grain,  which  became  so  abundant  as  to  be 
almost  worthless  as  an  article  of  sale.  During  the  space  which 
elapsed  since  their  departure,  the  stock  of  medicinal  plants  has 
gradually  accumulated  in  our  forests,  until  a  profitable  business 
could  again  be  done  in  them,  had  we  the  Indians  among  us  as 
laborers.  Our  negroes  cannot  be  depended  upon  for  discretion 
and  industry,  while  white  laborers  regard  it  as  entirely  too 
