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Ebook has 1344 lines and 54008 words, and 27 pages

Editor: Samuel Cole Williams

Transcriber's Note:

This volume is a reprint of Adair's original text. The editor had preserved the page numbers in the form of bracketed numbers. Those page breaks frequently were interpolated in mid-word. In this rendering of the text, those page numbers are moved slightly to allow each word to complete without hyphenation.

The editor's own footnotes were already numbered sequentially from the first to the last page, beginning again at '1' after the Introduction. This approach has been retained, however an 'i' is prefixed for the twenty-seven notes in the Introduction.

Adair's footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are referenced. The editor's notes are gathered at the end of each section.

Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber's note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.

Adair's History of the American Indians

OTHER WORKS OF THE EDITOR

William Tatham, Wataugan, 1923 History of the Lost State of Franklin, 1924 Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake, ed., 1927 Early Travels in the Tennessee Country, 1928 The Beginnings of West Tennessee, 1929

Adair's History of the American Indians

BY SAMUEL COLE WILLIAMS, LL.D.

THE WATAUGA PRESS JOHNSON CITY, TENNESSEE 1930

Printed in an edition limited to 750 copies from type.

EDITOR'S PREFACE

The writer was asked to undertake the editorial work. The task of annotation has proceeded on the basis of a reckoning that Adair's book is not true to name--a history of the American Indians--but of its being an account of the principal tribes of the Indians of the Southeast and of their countries. His work is all the more unique and useful in that such is its real scope; and the editor's notes, speaking generally, have been brought within the same limitation. The London edition carried no index--a lack that impaired its useability. One is supplied in this reprint.

The author's punctuation, spelling and capitalization have been followed, but the old form of "s" has been changed to the modern. For the convenience of students in running references to pages of the original edition its page-numbers are carried into the body of the text between brackets.

SAMUEL COLE WILLIAMS.

"Aquone" Johnson City Tennessee

INTRODUCTION

JAMES ADAIR, THE MAN

James Adair has been called by various writers an Englishman, a Scotchman and an Irishman--and with some basis of fact in each case. He derived from the historic Irish house of Fitzgerald. Indeed, Fitzgerald was his true name. That family descends from Walter, son of Other, who at the time of the Domesday Survey was castellan of Windsor and tenant-in-chief of five of the counties of England. His descendants took active parts in the conquest of Ireland, where one of them in 1346 came into the Earldom of Kildare. Another line of the Fitzgeralds was that of the Earls of Desmond, which also descended from Maurice, the founder of the family in Ireland. The Desmond branch, under the third earl, who was viceroy of Ireland in 1367-69, became embroiled in difficulties and suffered defeat, and was captured by a native king of Thomond.

Robert Fitzgerald, whose patrimonial estate was that of Adare, inclusive of the manor and abbey of that name, is said to have been the eldest son of Thomas Fitzgerald, sixth Earl of Desmond. In a dispute over the succession to the estate of his grandfather, Robert Fitzgerald killed his kinsman Gerald, the "White Knight," a man of great distinction. A powerful combination being formed against him, he fled from Ireland to Galloway in Scotland. There he was hospitably received as guest at various baronial houses. He decided to change his name and took that of Robert Adare from his Irish estate in county Antrim.

"During his visit, Currie, who held the castle of Dunskey, was declared a rebel, as an incorrigible robber and pirate. A proclamation was made that whoever should produce Currie, dead or alive, should be rewarded by his lands. Robert Adare saw an opening by which to retrieve his fortunes, and watched the castle of Dunskey by day and night. At length the redoubtable robber issued one evening from his hold with few attendants, and was instantly followed by Adare, who, engaging him hand to hand, got the better of him, drove him slowly backwards and at last dispatched him outright by a blow from the hilt of his sword. Possessing himself of the robber's head, Adare hastened to court with all convenient speed, and, presenting his trophy to the king, on the point of his sword, his Majesty was pleased to order his enfestment in the lands and castle of the rebel. His family was known as the Adairs of Portree, and when a castle was built on the spot where Currie was struck down, it was called Kilhilt, from which the Adairs took designation."

Alexander Adair of Kilhilt held the barony, so obtained from Robert I of Scotland, during the reign of James V of Scotland, and the barony was in the possession of the family in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A Sir Robert Adair was a member of the public committee of Wigtonshire during the factious period of 1642 to 1649.

Sir Robert Adair, perhaps son of the above, removed from Scotland to Ireland before the battle of the Boyne, which was fought in July, 1690, he having sold his Scottish estate to Lord Stair. It is inferable that he settled in county Antrim, where our author James Adair was born, about 1709.

James Adair is silent on the point of his parentage and birth-date; but it is probable that he was a younger son of this last mentioned Sir Robert Adair; and that, as has been the case with so many scions of noble and other houses of Great Britain, facing the vice-grip of the law primogeniture, he preferred the freedom and opportunities of distant climes.

Animated by something of the spirit of his distant ancestor, James Adair migrated and appeared in South Carolina in 1735, landing at Charles Town, in high probability.

Shortly after his arrival Adair engaged in the Indian trade, then a business more gainful than was the case in the later years of his career. In 1736 he was a trader to the Cherokees, and mentions an incident "in Kanootare, the most northern town of the Cherokee." This town was probably identical with Connutre laid down on George Hunter's Map of 1730, in the upper part of the territory occupied by the Middle Cherokees in the southwestern part of North Carolina. It seems probable that he formed a connection or traded in that section with George Haig, called by Adair "our worthy and much lamented friend." At the Congaree Thomas Brown, also mentioned by Adair , had a large trading establishment from which the Cherokees and Catawbas were supplied. Haig was associated with Brown, and Adair in likelihood had his first transactions as a trader from that post, visiting both of the tribes mentioned.

Adair's book gives evidence of the fact that he was among the Overhill Cherokees in the Tennessee Country, whose towns were on the Tennessee River, and its branches. Our author, however, is tantalizingly sparing of dates in that regard. He, doubtless, came in contact with the enthusiast Priber while the latter was among the Overhill Cherokees engaged in the projection and establishment of his "red empire," in the years 1737-1743.

The same thing is true of the Catawbas. He speaks of his "residence with them," but his census of them, of the year 1743, is the only indication of the period of his stay.

In 1744 Adair transferred his residence and operations to the Chickasaw nation in what is now North Mississippi. An eastern band of that tribe had a considerable village across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia, in South Carolina. It is likely that Adair conducted a trade with the warriors of that village, either from the Congaree or Charles Town; and becoming measurably conversant with the Chickasaw language, sought a trade among the main branch of the tribe in the West, where competition was less keen.

It was among his "cheerful brave Chikkasah" that Adair brought his career as a trader and diplomat to peak. The innate independence and bravery of the Chickasaws appealed to him. The glorious history they had but recently made in two contests with the French and their numerous red allies under Bienville challenged his admiration. The Chickasaws reciprocated. They and Adair were well met. Theirs was a kinship of spirit. It is manifest that he, alongside their chiefs, was their leader on bloody forays against enemy Indians, particularly the Shawnees, then in the French interest. If that were possible, he instilled in the Chickasaws a stronger dislike of the French. That age-old hatred did more and very much more to save the Mississippi Valley to the English than histories of our country have so far recorded.

About a year or two after Adair entered upon his life among the Chickasaws, in the winter of 1745-46, he saw an opportunity to extend the influence of the Anglo-Americans of Carolina and win at least a portion of the populous Choctaw nation from the French at New Orleans. This chance lay in the fact that the goods supplied the Choctaws by French traders were inferior to goods of English make; and, usually, they were sold at higher prices. Added to this were the seeds of a schism among the Choctaws. The forceful but mercurial chief Red Shoes was leader of one faction. Adair sough to reach and win him, following the violation of Red Shoes' favorite wife by a French trader from Fort Tombikbe . Adair, in carrying out his plan, had the material aid of John Campbell, a Carolina trader who had been much longer among the Chickasaws and Choctaws than the prime mover himself. During the summer of 1746, with the authority and concurrence of Governor James Glen, of South Carolina, Adair made presents to the already deeply incensed Red Shoes and to his followers. The two leaders, white and red, planned a break with the French--called by the French "the Choctaw rebellion." Internecine war was now flagrant among the Choctaws. The faction of Red Shoes attacked not only the tribesmen who remained true to the old alliance, but also settlements of the French on the Mississippi and their commerce on the river. In acknowledgement of his leadership scalps were brought to Adair.

As successful intriguer Adair naturally expected to be rewarded by the South Carolina government. He claimed that Governor Glen had committed himself to see to the grant to Adair and his friends of a monopoly of the Choctaw trade for a term of years. Instead, Glen, it was charged, formed a company--called by Adair the "Sphynx Company"--composed of his brother and two others to conduct the trade thus opened up. The sight of three hundred and sixty horse-loads of goods passing to the Choctaw Country must have enraged Adair. His bitterness towards Governor Glen was ever afterwards manifest, often in biting sarcasm and invective. Adair attributed to this breach of plighted faith his personal bankruptcy.

Charles McNaire was entrusted by the "Sphynx Company" with the above cargo of goods, but he proved inadequate to the task. Glen appealed to Adair to help McNaire out of his difficulties. This Adair says he did on a renewal of promises of a reward, which was never forthcoming. The conjuncture of the death of Red Shoes at the hands of an emissary of the French, and McNaire's mismanagement brought the "Sphynx Company" to disaster, not to say retribution.

"Apparently Glen withdrew his patronage of the Sphynx Company. Adair seems to charge that he turned now to prevent 'two other gentlemen'--presumably Matthew Roche and his partner--getting recompense for losses in the venture, whereupon a controversy arose between his Excellency and Matthew Roche, one of the partners, it seems, in the course of which the latter printed a pamphlet, 'A Modest Reply to the Governor's Answer to an Affidavit made by McNaire.'" The pamphlet incorporated a letter written by Adair on some phase of the transactions. In umbrage, the Governor asked the Common's House of the province to have its committee on Indian affairs investigate and report on the controversy. This was done. The report branded Roche's pamphlet "a false and malicious paper, throwing unjust and slanderous aspersions on the governor's honor and character," and declared Adair's letter to be so contradictory of a previous one he had written as to be unworthy of credit.

"Adair's was not the only charge against Glen of his having investments in the Indian trade and of having his official acts influenced thereby. The fact of such investments is indicated by a suit brought by him which involved several dealers in the Indian trade, by his relations with Cherokee traders, such as Grant and Elliott, and by his failure to deny charges. The bad policy of this is, of course, beyond question, but of actual fraud there is no evidence."

This production was announced in title form or display, but is here given with dashes to indicate the several lines and divisions. While the name of no author is given, the prospectus is unmistakably Adair's--in his style down to the peculiar punctuation, as well as in its satire. No one else had the knowledge of the Choctaw intrigue and revolt along with the literary skill requisite. The reference to "pretenders to the merit of a certain revolt" is explained by the fact that four different traders laid claims to the honor of and reward for the Choctaw defection.

Adair petitioned the legislative body of the province for reimbursement of expenses in bringing about the revolt; but his memorial was rejected during Governor Glen's administration, May, 1750. "With a flow of contrary passions I took leave of our gallant Chikkasah friends," whom he had accompanied down to Charles Town. Bankrupt in purse and deeply resentful in feeling, Adair now entered upon the most trying and morally perilous period of his career in America. He was off to the Cherokees, and, we may suspect, to strong drink in association with hardy but inferior men. He seems to have made head-quarters for a time at the home of James Francis, an Indian trader of Saluda Town, then to have left for the Overhill towns with a son-in-law of Francis, Henry Foster. Inquiries from Glen as to whereabouts and doings followed after him. James Francis must have pretended ignorance when he wrote to the governor: "I made it my business to be diligent in my inquiry after him but could no ways understand where he was to be found or I should have gone any distance of ground to have acquainted him with your Excellency's pleasure. She said that he told her he was directly going to quit the country and gott a passage from norward to Jamaica."

Adair says that at this time he was tempted by the French to enter into their service. His letter to Wm. Pinckney of Charles Town, commissioner for Indian affairs, sheds light upon this stage of his career and his distraught mental condition. It was written as he was near the Overhill towns on May 7, 1751. It is of value, too, as showing Adair's raw composition--written in the saddle, so to speak:

"I last summer wrote to the Honble Council and you, each a letter, shewing the Force I lay under of going to the French; the Contents were very large and the why as uncommon, to which I refer you. Monsieur endeavored to Tempt me with Thirty two thousand Livers, which not taking they formed Bills of Capital Crimes against me, and retained me as close Prisoner for three weeks. In short, for all the consequences of the Choctaw war. The world thinks it strange that I should be Punished both by the English and French, for that in effect that I was some for the one and against the other in time of a hot war. But so it happens in Iron-age; only that I behaved like a desperado against their garrison, I should have been Hang'd & Gibbetted, for they had the plainest proof and clearest circumstances against me. Besides I need not mention their policy, envy and Trachery.

"This spring I went to the Cherokees, and saw the most evident Tokens of war, for Capt. Francis's son and I were in great danger of being cut off by a gang of nor'wd Indians down within Ten Miles of the Nation. The evening before I left the Nation a gang of the Cherokees returned from the southw'd who killed some white men in Georgia and were concluding that night to cut us off. All night we stood on our arms; and John Hatton persuaded us to break off with him to Carolina, but we deferred it and the Indians the execution of their designs, yet in the narrow all the headmen of Keeokee and Istanory came with Three Linguists and Persuaded me to write to his Excellency a most Cunning Remonstrance and Pet'n which they dictated; the First Extinuating their crimes and murdering the white men and the other requesting some Swivel Guns. Several of the Traders, as they were unacquainted with Letters, desired me to write to His Excellency & Council the unhappy & dangerous situation of affairs in the nation that they might use proper measures against the then desponding consequences, for they told me the Government disregarded their Reports; and indeed I have found the Gov't very remiss in the like affairs, and being used Ill and my credit small after having served them in a continued chain of actions, I thought myself blamable to have writ because every Faulty character of Indian was rejected, yet to serve the Country I offered to Captn Francis to prove on oath all that I knew of the affair. If Carol'a designs to stand on the defensive part and willing to give me that encouragement which I possibly might merit as well, in this, I should induce the Chickesaws at Augusta and many brave woods-men to engage in the Publick Service, and, if I'm not mistaken in myself, with such Brave Wanton fellows I should be somewhat remarkable. I thot I was bound to write so much on sev'l considerations.

"JAMES ADAIR."

Adair now passed practically out of public view for several years. Was he among the Overhill Cherokees, as an irregular, unlicensed trader; or was he among the eastern band of the Chickasaws engaged in writing his book?

In 1753, Cornelius Doherty, the old trader, wrote Governor Glen that "a great many of the Cherokees were gone to Chickasaws to assist them against the French." Under Adair's prompting, in order to aid his well loved tribe in their dire straits?

On Governor Glen's visit to Ninety-Six in May, 1756, Adair saw him and gives details in his book . He also met Governor William Henry Lyttleton at Fort Moore two years later. Lyttleton seems to have made a favorable impression upon him--quite in contrast with Glen.

Adair was emboldened by the new Governor's attitude again to petition for a reimbursement of losses incident to the Choctaw affair. In so doing he was not able to refrain from tart language. This the legislature of the province was glad enough to seize upon, with result:

"April 28, 1761. A memorial of James Adair was presented to the House and the same containing improper and indecent language was Rejected without being read thro'."

Adair evidently thought that his former service followed by aid he had given to the province in its war with the Cherokees just terminated had justly earned for him better treatment. Into that struggle he had thrown himself whole-heartedly.

Due to unfortunate happenings in the western part of Virginia--the killing by frontiersmen of above a dozen Cherokee warriors, including some of prominence, as they were returning from an expedition in aid of Virginia against the hostile Shawnees, in 1756--and due, also, to subsequent mismanagement of affairs in South Carolina, war with the Cherokees was in prospect towards the middle of the year 1759, and flagrant in the winter and summer following. In June a force of about eleven hundred men under Colonel Archibald Montgomery started from Charles Town to reduce the Cherokee towns and relieve the province's garrison at Fort Loudoun-on-Little Tennessee, which had been beseiged by the Cherokees, aided by Creeks.

The Chickasaws would have been valuable as scouts, but for some reason they were not so used. Montgomery's campaign went well in the Lower Cherokee Country, but disaster overtook it in the Middle towns. The troops "fell into an ambuscade, by which many were wounded; and tho' the enemy were everywhere driven off, yet the number of our wounded increased so fast that it was thought advisable to return as fast as possible. In these covers a handful of men may ruin an army." Fort Loudoun was left to its sad fate.

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