A short time since, a trader, living in the state of Alabama, went into the Creek country for the purposes of his business. Having met with one of the chiefs of the nation, he bargained with him for peltries; but, as the conditions he proposed were all disadvantageous to the Indian, to induce him the more readily to consent to them, he intoxicated him with whiskey. After the bargain was concluded, they set out together for the nearest village. On the way, the Indian reflected on what he had done, and perceived that he had been duped; he wished to enter into some other arrangement with the trader, but the discussion soon caused a violent quarrel, which ended by the Indian striking his adversary so violent a blow with his tomahawk, as to stretch him dead at his feet. Twenty-four hours afterwards, on the first complaint of the whites, the murderer was arrested by his own tribe, who, after having assembled their great council, pronounced him guilty of a base assassination, in thus having killed a white who was without arms or means of defence. They then conducted him to the banks of Line Creek, where they had requested the whites to assemble to witness the justice they rendered them, and shot him in their presence.
The evening of our arrival at Line Creek, I went into a store to make some purchases, and whilst there, an Indian entered and asked for twelve and a half cents worth of whiskey. The owner of the shop received the money, and told him to wait a moment, as the concourse of buyers was very great. The Indian waited patiently for a quarter of an hour, after which he demanded his whiskey. The trader appeared astonished, and told him if he wanted whiskey he must first pay him for it. “I gave you twelve and a half cents a few moments since,” said the Indian. The poor wretch had scarcely pronounced these words, when the trader sprung forward, seized him by the ears, and, assisted by one of his men, brutally turned him out of the shop. I saw him give the money, and was convinced of the honesty of the one and the rascality of the other. I felt strongly indignant, and notwithstanding the delicacy of my situation, I would have stept forward to interfere, but the whole scene passed so rapidly that I hardly had time to say a few words. I went out to see what the Indian would do. I found him a few steps from the house, where he had been checked by his melancholy emotions. An instant afterwards, he crossed his arms on his breast, and hurried towards his own country with rapid strides. When he arrived on the margin of the stream, he plunged in and crossed it without appearing to perceive that the water reached above his knees. On attaining the other side, he stopped, turned round, and elevating his eyes towards heaven, he extended his hand towards the territory of the whites, in a menacing manner, and uttered some energetic exclamations in his own language. Doubtless, at that moment he invoked the vengeance of heaven on his oppressors; a vengeance that would have been just, but his prayer was in vain. Poor Indians! you are pillaged, beaten, poisoned or excited by intoxicating liquors, and then you are termed savages! Washington said, “Whenever I have been called upon to decide between an Indian and a white man, I have always found that the white had been the aggressor.” Washington was right.
The conduct of the American government is of an entirely different character, as regards the Indian tribes. It not only protects them against individual persecution, and sees that the treaties made with them by the neighbouring states are not disadvantageous to them, and are faithfully adhered to, but it also provides for their wants with a paternal solicitude. It is not a rare circumstance for congress to vote money and supplies to those tribes, whom a deficient harvest or unforeseen calamity have exposed to famine.
We quitted Line Creek on the 3d of April, and the same day General Lafayette was received at Montgomery, by the inhabitants of that village, and by the governor of the state of Alabama, who had come from Cahawba with all his staff and a large concourse of citizens, who had assembled from great distances to accompany him. We passed the next day at Montgomery, and left it on the night of the 4th and 5th, after a ball, at which we had the pleasure of seeing Chilli M’Intosh dance with several beautiful women, who certainly had little idea that they were dancing with a savage. The parting of M’Intosh with the general was a melancholy one. He appeared overwhelmed with sinister presentiments. After having quitted the general and his son, he met me in the courtyard; he stopped, placed my right arm on his, and elevating his left hand towards heaven, “Farewell,” said he, “always accompany our father and watch over him. I will pray to the Great Spirit also to watch over him, and give him a speedy and safe return to his children in France. His children are our brothers; he is our father. I hope that he will not forget us.” His voice was affected, his countenance sad, and the rays of the moon falling obliquely on his dark visage, gave a solemnity to his farewell with which I was deeply moved. I wished to reply to him, but he quitted me precipitately and disappeared.
At two o’clock in the morning, we embarked on the Alabama, on board the steam-boat Anderson, which had been richly and commodiously prepared for the general, and provided with a band of musicians sent from New Orleans. All the ladies of Montgomery accompanied us on board, where we took leave of them; and the moment the reports of the artillery announced our departure, immense fires were lighted on the shore. Our voyage as far as the Tombigbee was delicious. It is difficult to imagine any thing more romantic than the elevated, gravelly, and oftentimes wooded shores of the Alabama. During the three days we were on it, the echoes repeated the patriotic airs executed by our Louisiania musicians. We stopped one day at Cahawba, where the officers of government of the state of Alabama had, in concert with the citizens, prepared entertainments for General Lafayette, as remarkable for their elegance and good taste, as touching by their cordiality and the feelings of which they were the expression. Among the guests with whom we sat down to dinner, we found some countrymen whom political events had driven from France. They mentioned to us, that they had formed part of the colony at Champ D’Asile. They now lived in a small town they had founded in Alabama, to which they had given the name Gallopolis. I should judge that they were not in a state of great prosperity. I believe their European prejudices, and their inexperience in commerce and agriculture, will prevent them from being formidable rivals of the Americans for a length of time.
Cahawba, the seat of government of Alabama, is a flourishing town, whose population, although as yet small, promises to increase rapidly, from its admirable situation at the confluence of the Cahawba and Alabama.
The state of Alabama, which, like Mississippi, was formerly part of Georgia, and with which its early history is intimately connected, received a territorial governor from congress in 1817, and was admitted into the federation as an independent state in 1816. Its population, which in 1810 was only 10,000, had risen to 67,000 in 1817, and is at present 128,000. In this estimate of the population I do not include the Indian tribes of Choctaws, Cherokees, and Chickasaws, residing in the east and west of the state.
From Cahawba we descended the river to Claiborne, a small fort on the Alabama. The general was induced by the intreaties of the inhabitants to remain a few hours, which were passed in the midst of the most touching demonstrations of friendship. Mr. Dellet, who had been appointed by his fellow citizens to express their sentiments, acquitted himself with an eloquence we were astonished to meet in a spot, which, but a short time before, only resounded with the savage cry of the Indian hunter.
A little below Claiborne, I remarked that the banks of the Alabama were much lower; when we had passed the mouth of the Tombigbee, we found ourselves in the middle of low marshy meadows, but apparently very fertile. Finally, we arrived on the 7th of April, in Mobile bay, at the bottom of which is situated a city of the same name.
The distance we had traversed in three days, and which was more than three hundred miles, on account of the windings of the river, formerly required a month or six weeks in ascending, and half the time in descending. This shows what a prodigious revolution the application of steam to navigation will effect in the commercial relations of a country.