In 1773 they lived on a beautiful plain of great extent, in a compact village. They had houses made of timbers framed together, lathed and plastered over with a kind of red clay, which gave them the appearance of having been built of brick. At that time they numbered 1500, of whom 300 were warriors. For many years they have not joined the Creeks in any of their games or dances; and have only been kept from open hostility with other tribes, by the influence of the white people.
[For this note I am indebted to my friend SAMUEL G. DRAKE; whose Biography and History of the Indians of North America comprises much that can be known of the aborigines.]
XX.
OF THE MUTINY IN THE CAMP, AND ATTEMPT AT ASSASSINATION.
From the journal of William Stephens, Esq. (Vol. II. pp. 76, 90, 473, 480, 499, and 505; and Vol. III. 4, 5, 27, and 32,) I collect the following particulars. One of the persons implicated in the insidious plot, was William Shannon, a Roman Catholic. "He was one of the new listed men in England, which the General brought over with him. By his seditious behavior he merited to be shot or hanged at Spithead before they left it, and afterwards, for the like practices at St. Simons. Upon searching him there, he was found to have belonged to Berwick's regiment, and had a furlough from it in his pocket." Instead of suffering death for his treasonable conduct, in the last instance, he was whipped and drummed out of the regiment. "Hence he rambled up among the Indian nations, with an intent to make his way to some of the French settlements; but being discovered by the General when he made his progress to those parts, in the year 1739, and it being ascertained that he had been endeavoring to persuade the Indians into the interest of the French, he fled, but was afterwards taken and sent down to Savannah, and committed to prison there as a dangerous fellow." On the 14th of August, 1740, he and a Spaniard, named Joseph Anthony Mazzique, who professed to be a travelling doctor, but had been imprisoned upon strong presumption of being a spy, broke out of prison and fled. On the 18th of September, they murdered two persons at Fort Argyle, and rifled the fort. They were taken on the beginning of October at the Uchee town, and brought back to Savannah, tried and found guilty, condemned and executed on the 11th of November, having previously confessed their crime.
Since my account of the traitorous plot was written, as also of the attempt at assassination, I have received from my friend Dr. W.B. STEVENS, of Savannah, the following extracts from letters of General Oglethorpe. As they state some particulars explanatory and supplementary of the narrative which I had given, I place them here. And this I do the rather because DR. HEWATT, (Vol. II. p. 70,) as also Major McCALL, (Vol. I. p. 124,) in the same words, and some others, incorporate the treachery at St. Simons, and the assault at St. Andrews into a connected narrative, as one occurrence; whereas it is very evident that the circumstances detailed were distinct; one originating among the troops which sailed in the Hector and Blandford, in July 1738, from England, and the other in the two companies drawn from the garrison at Gibraltar, which came in the Whittaker in the preceding month of May.
In reference to the first, General Oglethorpe thus wrote in a letter to the trustees, dated, "on board the Blandford at Plymouth, July 3d, 1738."
"We have discovered that one of our soldiers has been in the Spanish service, and that he hath stroved to seduce several men to desert with him to them, on their arrival in Georgia. He designed also to murder the officers, or such persons as could have money, and carry off the plunder. Two of the gang have confessed, and accused him; but we cannot discover the rest. The fellow has plenty of money, and he said he was to have sixty or a hundred crowns, according to the number of men he carried. He is yet very obstinate, refusing to give any account of his correspondents. We shall not try him till we come to Georgia, because we hope we shall make more discoveries."
"They left Plymouth on the 5th of July, and arrived about the 16th of
September, at Frederica."
On the 8th of October, 1738, occurs the following passage in a letter from Frederica, to his Grace the Duke of Newcastle.