[151]. It would be interesting to know in what year Adair penned these lines.
[152]. Or Tombekbe, now Jones Bluff of Tombigbee River, where the Alabama Great Southern crosses the stream in West Alabama; established by Bienville, 1735.
[153]. The Koasati Indians, once located on Tennessee River below the present Chattanooga, are treated of in Swanton’s Early History of the Creeks, 201-207, 211.
[154]. The Boiling Pot or Suck in Tennessee River, near Hale’s Bar, near Chattanooga.
[155]. George Galphin and Lachlan McGillivray (McGilwray in the Dedication of Adair’s book).
Galphin, a Scotchman, located at an early day (c. 1739) at Silver Bluff, later Gaphinton, on Savannah River, South Carolina side, a few miles below the site of Augusta, Ga., where he built a trading post and engaged in the Indian trade, chiefly to the Creeks. He is said to have been the earliest trader in that section. Ft. Augusta dated from 1736; and it is likely that Galphin and Adair were in close touch shortly afterwards. Galphin at the outbreak of the Revolution sympathized with the colonists, and on Oct. 2, 1775, he was appointed commissioner of Indian affairs for the Southern District, thus realizing the ambition of Adair for his friend. For a number of years he had an important part in affairs affecting the Indians, the value of which is best summarized in a letter to him from Henry Laurens from the Continental Congress, Sept. 16, 1777: “I congratulate upon your success in treating with the Creek Indians. I hold the States of So. Carolina and Georgia, as well as the United States, much indebted to your unwearied labours for the present good disposition of those Savages, and as their continuance in this temper depends much upon your exertions, so we are all bound to pray your life and health.” Burnett, Letters of Members of Const. Cong., II, 494. Galphin appears to have been a considerable trader in the town of Coweta, the principal town of the Lower Creeks. He took a leading part in the affairs of his own colony, and in those of Georgia just across the river. In 1754 he was influential in keeping up the English connection with the Chickasaws—doubtless through his partner in the trade, Adair. Through his intervention, munitions of war were then sent to the Chickasaws by Georgia, to enable them to hold their land, “save themselves, wives and children from being made slaves of their enemies the French.” Galphin was largely instrumental in the success of the great Indian Congress held at Augusta in 1773, referred to by Adair. Therefor in 1848 a claim, prosecuted by his family, was allowed by the Congress of the United States. Galphin was a man of intelligence and great force of character. He died in 1780.
Lachlan McGillivray also lived near Augusta, where his name, alongside that of Galphin, may be found attached to early documents relating to the defense of the neighborhood against danger. He was also a trader, mainly to the Creeks, and many reports of his on Indian affairs are to be found in the South Carolina Archives. He was the father of the noted half-breed chief of the Creek Indians, Alexander McGillivray, who played such an important part in the South in the closing decades of the previous century. As his name indicates, he also was a Scotchman; and a descendant of his was a minor leader among the Chickasaws about 1815-20. Lachlan McGillivray was a man of fine native parts, but had not the talents and did not reach the rank of Galphin.
[156]. By Matthew Roche, of the “Sphynx Company,” for which see later. A letter of Adair was incorporated in the pamphlet, and it may not be doubted that Adair figured not a little in the preparation and composition of its contents.
[157]. Capt. John Stuart, who was rescued by Attakullakulla at the downfall of Ft. Loudoun, was principal superintendent of Indian affairs at the South, from 1762 to the end of the colonial era.
[158]. Evidently “on”—a misprint.