On the 22d of May, 1736, a respectable deputation of the Uchee Indians, from the neighborhood of Ebenezer, waited upon the General at St. Simons. They had painted themselves with various colors, and were dressed in their richest costume. Being introduced to him in the large apartment of the magazine store, the Indian King made a long speech; after which an alliance was entered into, and pledge presents interchanged.[1] This treaty was a very important one, because the Uchees claimed the country above Augusta to the border of the Creeks, and a portion below adjoining the Yamacraws; because they were an independent tribe, having no alliance with the others; and because they had been a little dissatisfied with the Saltzburgers at Ebenezer.
[Footnote 1: URLSPURGER, I. 844, and Appendix No. XIX.]
On the first of June intelligence was received that Major Richard and Mr. Horton, instead of being received as commissioned delegates, had been arrested and made prisoners at St. Augustine. Not explaining to the satisfaction of the Governor and his Council the situation of the forts and the design of the military force that was stationed in them, they were detained in custody, till Don Ignatio Rosso, Lieutenant Colonel of the garrison, with a detachment of men had made personal investigations; who, after an absence of five days, returned and reported that the islands were all fortified, and appeared to be filled with men; and that the shores were protected by armed boats. A council of war was then held, and it was resolved to send back Major Richard and Mr. Horton, and their suit, and with them an embassy, consisting of Charles Dempsey, Esq., Don Pedro Lamberto, Captain of the Horse, and Don Manuel D'Arcy, Adjutant of the garrison, with intimations that this formidable array was unnecessary. By private information, however, Oglethorpe was led to infer that, notwithstanding the fair professions that had been made by the Spaniards, there were evidently measures concerted to increase their forces, to procure guns and ammunition, and to arm the Florida Indians.[1]
[Footnote 1: MOORE'S Voyage, p. 79.]
In consequence of these and other indications that the Spaniards were commencing preparations for dislodging the English settlers, the General took all possible precautionary measures for repelling them. The fort and works on St. Simons were completed in the best manner, and a battery was erected on the east point of the island, which projects into the ocean. This commanded the entrance of Jekyl sound in such manner that all ships that come in at this north entry must pass within shot of the point, the channel lying directly under it.
St. Andrew's fort, on Cumberland Island, with its munition of ordnance and garrison of well-disciplined soldiers, was much relied upon as a mean of defence; and even the outpost at St. George's, on the north side and near the mouth of St. John's river, was deemed of no inconsiderable importance as a check, at least, upon any attempted invasion by the Spaniards, and as serving to prevent their going through the inner passages.
In the month of July the General visited Savannah, to attend to affairs there, and to hold a conference with a Committee of the General Assembly of South Carolina respecting the Indian trade, which they charged him with aiming to monopolize, to the disallowance of their traders.
It may be necessary here to state, that, as the boundaries of Georgia separated the Indians on the west side of the Savannah river from the confines of South Carolina, they must be admitted as in affinity with the new Colony. At any rate, Oglethorpe deemed it so expedient to obtain their consent to the settlement of his people, and their good will was so essential to a secure and peaceful residence, that his earliest care had been to make treaties of alliance with them. That these treaties should include agreements for mutual intercourse and trade, seemed to be, not only a prudential, but an indispensable provision; particularly as Tomo Chichi and the Micos of the Creeks, who went with him to England, had requested that some stipulations might be made relative to the quantity, quality, and prices of goods, and to the accuracy of weights and measures, in what was offered for the purchase of their buffalo hides, and deer-skins and peltry.[1] Whereupon the Trustees proposed certain regulations of trade, designed to prevent in future those impositions of which the Indians complained. To carry these into effect, it was thought right that none should be permitted to trade with the Indians but such as had a license, and would agree to conduct the traffic upon fair and equitable principles. The Carolina traders, not being disposed to apply for a permit, nor to subject themselves to such stipulations and restrictions, were disallowed by the Georgia Commissary, who held a trading house among the Creeks.[2] This was resented by them, and their complaints to the Provincial Assembly led to the appointment of the Committee just referred to, and whose conference with Oglethorpe was held at Savannah on the 2d of August, 1736.[3] In their printed report they lay down these fundamental principles. "The Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and Catawba Indians, at the time of the discovery of this part of America, were the inhabitants of the lands which they now possess, and have ever since been deemed and esteemed the friends and allies of his Majesty's English subjects in this part of the Continent. They have been treated with as allies, but not as subjects of the crown of Great Britain; they have maintained their own possessions, and preserved their independency; nor does it appear that they have by conquest lost, nor by cession, compact, or otherwise, yielded up or parted with, those rights to which, by the laws of nature and nations, they were and are entitled."
[Footnote 1: McCALL, Vol. I. p. 46.]
[Footnote 2: Capt. FREDERICK McKAY, in a letter to THOMAS BROUGHTON, Esq., Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, dated July 12,1735, written to justify his conduct as Indian Commissary, in turning out four traders who would not conform to the rules stipulated in the licenses, has the following remarks on the difficulties which he had to encounter: "It was impracticable to get the traders to observe their instructions, while some did undersell the others; some used light, others heavy weights; some bribed the Indians to lay out their skins with them, others told the Indians that their neighboring traders had heavy weights, and stole their skins from them, but that they themselves had light weights, and that their goods were better.">[