"Father! I hope you will not destroy what I have saved. You, Father, have the means of preserving that which would perish with us from want. The warrior is poor, and his cabin is always empty; but your house, Father, is always full."
During the delivery of this harangue, which is said to have produced a great effect on all present, and especially on those who understood the language in which it was spoken, the Orator two or three times advanced so far towards the Commandant, in the heat of his excitement, that one of the officers present thought proper to interfere and request him to move back. The other war-chiefs now made their speeches, and then the Commandant (an honorable and humane man, notwithstanding the Orator's strictures on his Father,)—called upon him to substantiate his charges against the Missionaries. Pipe, who was still standing, was unwilling to make the attempt, but felt embarrassed. He began to shift and shuffle, (says Loskiel,) and bending towards his Councilors, asked them what he should say. They all hung their heads, and were silent. Suddenly, recollecting himself and rising up, he addressed the Commandant "I said before that some such thing might have happened, but now I will tell you the plain truth. The Missionaries are innocent. What they have done, they were compelled to do." [alluding to their having interpreted letters which the Delaware Chief received from Pittsburg, &c] "We were to blame—We forced them to it, when they refused." After some farther conversation the Commandant declared the Missionaries to be acquitted of all the accusations brought against them.
Pipe expressed his satisfaction at the result, and on returning from the council-house, he asked some of the Delaware Chieftains who were present how they liked what he said. He observed, that he knew it was true, and added; "I never wished your teachers any harm, knowing that they love the Indians; but, I have all along been imposed on, and importuned to do what I did by those who do not love them; and now, when these were to speak, they hung their heads, leaving me to extricate myself, after telling our Father things they had dictated and persuaded me to tell him." This declaration has decidedly the air of candor and truth; and the Captain's subsequent conduct was much more in accordance with the spirit of it than it had been before. He did not however distinguish himself particularly after the close of the war, and even the time of his death has not come within our knowledge, although we have reason to believe that he was living, and able to visit the City of Washington, as late as 1817.
[CHAPTER X.]
State of several Southern tribes during the last century—The English send deputies to the Cherokees, in 1756—Their lives threatened, and saved by Attakullakulla—Account of that Chieftain and his principles—The party opposed to him headed by Occonostota—War with the Colonies in 1759 and two years following—Anecdotes of both these Chiefs—Saloueh, Fiftoe, and others—Several battles—Peace concluded—Attakullakulla visits Charleston—His subsequent Career, and that of Occonostota—Remarks on their character.
Contemporary with the individuals who have just been mentioned, were a number of noted chieftains among the more Southern tribes. Of them we may take this occasion to say, that the Chickasaws generally affected the English interest; and the Creeks, the French;—so that the friendship or the hostility of Great-Mortar, the Standing-Turkey, the Wolf-King, and the other leading men among the latter tribe was nearly neutralized, as regarded the several civilized parties, by the counteraction of the former.
The Cherokees had been friendly to the English ever since the treaty of 1730; but, owing partly to the influence of the Mortar, and partly to the direct exertions of the French, they had now become wavering and divided in sentiment. In 1756, deputies were sent among them, to secure their aid against the French. A council was convened, and was likely to terminate favorably, when tidings suddenly came that a party of Cherokees, who had visited the French on the Ohio, were massacred by some of the Virginians on their return home. The Council was in an uproar, as much as an Indian Council could be,—the gravest political assembly on earth,—at once. Many cried aloud that vengeance should be taken on the persons of the Deputies; and it was not without a great exertion of influence, that they were at length rescued by Attakullakulla, or the Little-Carpenter.
This is the earliest appearance of that renowned Chieftain in history, though he is said to have been already famous both among the Cherokees and the English, especially for his magnanimity, wisdom, and moderation. Nor has there ever been, upon the continent, a more faithful or useful friend to the English cause. We cannot better illustrate his career or his character than by comparing both with those of White-Eyes; and indeed, some of the incidents related of that chief, independently of other circumstances, make it highly probable, that a diplomatic and personal good understanding was constantly maintained between them.
Like White-Eyes, too, Attakullakulla was opposed by a war-party, the chief difference being that it was less formally organized, and that it generally operated in favor of the French. At the head of it was Occonostota, or the Great-Warrior, a man whose extraordinary prowess procured him his title, and whose memory is to this day warmly cherished among his countrymen. Pursuing our comparison, he should remind us of Pipe; but the suggestion does him injustice. He was not only for war, but a warrior—in truth, a "great warrior." He fought, and bled, and led on, where the other appeared only in that capacity of bear-hunter with dogs, which White-Eyes imputed to him. He was sincere to enthusiasm in his principles, and frank and fearless almost to fool-hardiness in professing and pursuing them. He had as much talent as Pipe, and far more virtue.
"Occonostota," says a respectable authority of a date a little subsequent to that just mentioned, "is returned again from the French fort with powder and ball, accompanied with some Frenchmen—how many I cannot learn." And again, soon afterwards,—"Since Occonostota returned from the French with the goods and ammunition, and has had those assurances from the Creeks, he says, 'What nation, or what people am I afraid of? I do not fear all the forces which the great King George can send against me among these mountains.'" [FN] And yet the Great-Warrior was not rash, as we shall soon learn from the sequel.