CHAPTER 2

Under British Rule

• When Virginians James Needham and Gabriel Arthur reached the Cherokee Overhill settlements 11 July 1673, they found a village protected on one side by a high cliff. The other sides of the Cherokee town were fortified by twelve-foot walls with scaffolds and parapets. The Cherokees were also well equipped with 150 canoes, each of which could carry twenty warriors into battle.
• The two Englishmen had been sent over the Appalachian Mountains by trader Abraham Wood of Fort Henry (located near present Petersburg, Virginia), who wished to open a trade path with the Cherokees. The first white contact between the Cherokees and Virginians had taken place thirty-nine years earlier in 1634. Conflicts soon developed., and in 1654 men of the Virginia Colony, supported by a force of Pamunkey Indians, attacked a village of six to seven hundred Cherokees who were located at the site of present Richmond. The colonists and their allies were severely defeated after a bloody fight, and the Britons were forced into making a treaty with the Cherokees.
• But now the Cherokees proved to be peaceful. They received Needham and Arthur royally, ceremoniously entertaining them and supplying ample corn, pod vegetables, fish, wild game meat, and bear oil. Numerous horns like those of a bull covered the village dung heaps- likely an indication that the buffalo was still one of their game animals. The Cherokees were so impressed by the white men that they were placed on a scaffold in exhibition, and their one horse was tied to a pole for the villagers to come and view in awe. The king- the title used by the British In lieu of chief- of the town was very amiable with the visitors.
• The villagers possessed some sixty Spanish flintlock muskets and other European- manufactured implements, clear evidence that the Cherokees had been in contact with the Spanish of Florida. ln fact, the Cherokees told the Englishmen that when twenty of their men had recently gone there to trade, ten of them had been killed and the rest captured. Two had escaped to tell their people of the Spanish treachery, and since then the Cherokees had been deadly enemies of the Spanish.
• After a short visit, Needham returned to his employer's post for more trade goods, leaving Arthur at the village to learn the Cherokee language. Accompanying Needham was a Cherokee named Hasecoll, whom the Britons called Indian John. They were on their way back to the Cherokee village when Indian John shot and killed Needham during a quarrel. Afterward he cut out the Englishman's heart and held it toward the east as a symbol of his contempt for the British.
• Indian John then sent runners to the village demanding that Arthur be murdered as well. It happened that the king of the town was away at the time. Though some of the villagers were against harming their guest, others tied him to a stake and prepared to burn him to death- as the Cherokees then did to captive enemies on occasion. Arthur was saved, however, by the timely arrival of the king, who immediately shot and killed a man who was bringing forth a firebrand. He then cut the Englishman loose from the post and dared anyone to touch him. Clearly, the chief was in control of the village.
• In ensuing months the king took Arthur on raids against the Spanish and other Indian villages in Florida, the coastal areas of the east, and the Ohio country to the north. After Arthur was captured and then released by the Shawnees, the Cherokee king returned him to his employer in Virginia during the spring of 1674. Unfortunately, the name of this Cherokee chief is not given in the Needham-Arthur accounts. Though Wood made no further effort to establish a trade with the Cherokees, other Englishmen soon penetrated the wild country beyond the Allegheny Mountains. Henry Woodward of Charlestown, South Carolina, an acquaintance of Needham, visited Cherokee towns on the upper Savannah River in 1674.
• The first permanent English settlement in South Carolina was made in 1670, and the oldest Cherokee treaty on record was made in 1684 between that colony and chiefs from two villages in far western South Carolina. Signing this document with their own particular mark rather than with the usual cross mark were Corani, Raven of Toxawa; Canacaught, the Great Conqueror of Keowa; Sinnawa, or Hawk, head warrior of Toxawa; Nellawgitehi of Toxawa; Gohoma of Keowa; Caunasaita of Keowa; Gorhaleke of Toxawa; and Owasta, the Beloved Man of Toxawa.
• Between 1711 and 1713 some three hundred Cherokees helped colonial forces drive the Tuscarora Indians northward to the Great Lakes region. In 1721 a group of chiefs representing thirty-seven Cherokee towns met at Charlestown with Sir Francis Nicolson, the first British governor of South Carolina, and reached agreements concerning territorial boundaries. There being no supreme head among the Cherokees, Nicolson appointed a chief named Wrosetasatow as such. The Cherokee was also known as Outacite, or Mankiller. One of the first Cherokee war chiefs to emerge into the realm of modern history was Uskwalena- the name being interpreted as Bull Head or Big Head. He led the Cherokees in defeating the Creeks at Pine Island, near present Guntersville, Alabama, in 1714. The site later became the Cherokee settlement of Creek Path.
• With the appointment of Col. George Chicken as British supervisor of Indian trade in the colonies at Charlestown, the records begin to reveal much more concerning the Cherokees and their leaders. Chicken, who had been in the Cherokee country in 1715, returned ten years later on a peace-and-trade mission to the Cherokee country. After conferring with a group of Overhill Cherokees at Quanassee (near present Murphy, North Carolina), he continued on with traders Eleazar Wiggan and Joseph Cooper past the Cherokee valley town of Tamantley (Tomantley) to Elejoy.
• The headmen of five towns in the area received the Englishman in a very friendly manner, entertaining him with songs and fanning him with eagle tails. One of the leading men present was the head warrior of Great Terriquo (Tellico). When he later visited the Cherokee town, Chicken found it defended by a surrounding ditch filled with sharp wooden spikes. He also visited Tunisee (Tenassee, Tonasee, Tennessee), where the "King of the Upper People" lived.
• Sir Alexander Cuming arrived among the Overhills five years later. An energetic young Englishman of the nobility, Cuming had come to Charlestown in 1729 hopeful of recuperating his family fortunes, which had fallen on hard times. There he became involved in borrowing money with promissory notes and buying up large quantities of silver, gold, and produce, which he shipped abroad. Cuming made a daring, extended journey among the Cherokees and with great dash and aplomb won the friendship of their chiefs and warriors. Accompanied only by a guide, Cuming proceeded to Keowee (near today's Clemson, South Carolina). There, against the advice of traders, and armed with guns and sword, he brazenly entered the town council house during a meeting of some three hundred elders. When Cuming wildly threatened to burn down the council house if the Cherokees did not recognize King George II, traders such as Ludovic Grant expected the worst. Cuming's audacity, however, overwhelmed the Cherokee leaders, and they on bent knee pledged their loyalty to the Crown of England against the French in North America.
• Wrosetasatow had died the previous year, and the Cherokee Nation had no single head of government. Accordingly, Cuming appointed Chief Moytoy (meaning Water Conjuror or Rainmaker) of Tellico as "emperor" of the Cherokees. He also recruited a delegation of seven Cherokee leading men and warriors to travel with him to Charlestown and thence to England to meet King George II.
• The two must notable of these were the head warrior of Tassetchee, who was the highest ranked of the group and was generally accepted by the English as king of the Cherokees - the Oukah Ulah - and Ookounaka (Oukandekah), who later became famous as a Cherokee chief under the name of Attakullakulla, or the Little Carpenter. Others were Ketagusta, Tathtiowie, Clogittah, Collanah, and Ounakannowie. The party was accompanied to England by interpreter Eleazer Wiggan.
• Departing Charlestown on May 4 on the man-of-war Fox, the party arrived at Dover, England, on June 5. Cuming went ahead to prepare King George for the visit, and an audience was arranged for June 18 at the installation of three noblemen as Knights of the Garter at Windsor Castle. The seven chiefs presented a stark contrast to the gorgeously dressed king and court.
• Oukah Ulah wore a scarlet jacket, but the rest of the Cherokees wore only their loin cloths, with a horse's tail hanging down behind. The faces and upper bodies of the tribesmen were painted with red, blue, and green, and their shaved heads were bedecked with colored feathers. Oukah Ulah carried a musket, the others their bows. As Cuming had coached them, the chiefs properly kneeled as instructed and kissed King George's hand, "and there in the presence of the Indian chiefs then kneeling, Sir Alexander declared to his majesty the unlimited power he had acquired at Nequassee upon the 3d, 4th, and 5th days of April, 1730, by the unanimous voice of the Cherokee nation, then declaring in the most solemn manner that his word would be their law." The chiefs then laid before the king the tribal "crown of Tannasee," which "consists of the tails of the female opossum, put together in the form of a wig," plus four scalps of their enemies and five eagles' tails of peace. King George expressed his pleasure with the gift. He afterward escorted the American visitors to a gallery overlooking the castle terrace. When one of them spied a huge elk grazing in the park, he offered to display his skill with a bow and arrow. The king declined to have his stag shot.
• At the king's expense, the Indians were given a banquet of mutton at the Mermaid Inn, then provided lodging at Covent Garden. The status-conscious English press noted that the Cherokee "king" slept on a table above the others, who slept on the floor, scorning to be on the same level with them. They were soon given English-style clothes to replace their forest garb.
• During their four months' stay in England, the Cherokees were roundly toasted, driven about in fine coaches, entertained at levees, given gifts, taken to fairs, and ogled at by curious crowds. They competed with the king's archers, witnessed "lunatics" chained to walls at Bethlehem Hospital, attended miracle plays to be awed at the sham fights and acrobats, marveled at displays of English firelocks and cannons, visited an organ builder and heard his instruments, and by order of King George had their portraits painted. Finally, on September 7 they met with the king's lord commissioners and signed an agreement of friendship and trade. One by one the commissioners listed the king's commands to the Cherokees, and after each they presented the chiefs with a gift: the Cherokees would always be ready at the governor's command to fight for the English- "hereupon we give Twenty guns. 'The Cherokees would keep the trading path clean-"four hundred pounds weight of gunpowder." The Cherokees would return runaway slaves-"a box of vermillion, ten thousand gun flints and six dozen hatchets." The Cherokees would deliver up any Indian who kills an Englishman- "twelve dozen knives, four dozen brass kettles and ten dozen belts." There would be peace and friendship between the English and the Cherokees "as long as the Mountains and Rivers shall last or the sun shine-a belt of wampum."
• Ketagusta was directed to speak for the delegation. Expressing the Indians' admiration and love for Cuming, who had not been invited to the meeting, the Cherokee vowed King George's enemies would always be their enemies. "We came hither naked," he said, "and poor as the worm out of the earth. But you have everything, and we that have nothing must love you and can never break the chain of friendship that is between us."
• After an agreement had been signed, the Indians danced and sang the rest of the evening. A few days later they left London for Portsmouth and in five more days sailed for America, They did so reluctantly, especially so because Sir Alexander was not permitted to return with them.
• The trip to England did much to win the loyalty and military support of the Cherokees for the British in their fight against the French and their Indian allies in North America. It also caused England to recognize the value of maintaining Cherokee friendship and support. The French had established closer contact with the Cherokees when a party of Frenchmen visited the Overhill towns in 1736. Though shunned by Attakullakulla- who strongly relished his visit with King George- Oconostota, the Great Warrior of Chota, and some others flew the French flag from atop their houses.
• Emperor Moytoy was killed in battle in 1741, and the Cherokees were again without a central head when the newly appointed royal governor of South Carolina, James Glen, arrived at Charlestown in 1745 The new governor was greeted by a delegation of some two hundred Cherokees who had been summoned there for the occasion. British officials had appointed Moytoy's thirteen-year-old son, Ammonscossittee, to succeed his father. He was provided a royal reception, with cannons booming as the governor's coach carried him to the capitol to be enthroned as the new emperor of the Cherokees in the eyes of the British, After placing a silk and fur crown on the boy's head and then receiving Cherokee headmen of various towns, the governor displayed the treaty that had been made in London in 1730.
• The effects of the London trip were of great influence on the life of Attakullakulla. For the most part this important Cherokee chief remained a lifelong friend to the English, even when others of his nation warred against them. Several years after his return from England, in about 1738, he was captured by the French-supporting Ottawas and spent some six or seven years in their captivity. His contacts with the French of Canada during that period caused him to be suspect when he returned to his nation.
• Born into a high family, Attakullakulla as a boy had been attended by the tribal elders and trained for leadership. A small, thinly built man, he became noted for his diplomatic and negotiating skills, A leader in most of the council and treaties of his day, he was a good orator and possessed a shrewd mind. However, Attakullakulla had his enemies, both within and without the Cherokee Nation. Some whites believed him to be hypocritical, at limes professing peace while promoting bloodshed. He often faced dangerous opposition from his own people for supporting the British, as was illustrated when he and a half blood named Johnny's Brother became engaged in a quarrel. The half-blood, who was well soaked with rum, knocked the civil chief to the ground and severely stomped his chest. For a time it was thought that Attakullakulla would lose his life, but he recovered in a few weeks. Aided by a rumor that Ammonscossittee had tried to sell the Cherokee northern hunting grounds to Virginia, Chota's Old Hop (Connecorte) had wrested the title of emperor away from the Tellico youth. In August 1751 the new Beloved Man led his own delegation to Williamsburg in an effort to open a trading path with Virginia. The Chota Uku told Gov. Lewis Burwell that he and his people had traveled a long way "thro' bushes and briar" to see their friends.
• The desire for and dependency upon European manufactured goods had now grown strong. Cherokee warriors wanted guns and the necessary, powder, lead, and flints with which to contest tribal enemies. The women wanted cloth goods, knives, needles, and a whole variety of items that had severely altered their domestic life. Trade was a powerful force that not only modified the Cherokee way of life but also brought them time and again to council with the English, and later the Americans, and make concessions in terms of affiliation and territory.
• "We are a poor People," the Raven told Glen, "and can make nothing for ourselves, nor have we anything but what we get from the white People." Raven complained that the governor of Carolina had given ammunition and other necessities to their enemies; and he argued that the Cherokees could provide the people of Virginia with a barrier against the French Indians by guarding the roads. Burwell gave the chief and his interpreter presents and promised to encourage any inhabitant who wished to trade with the Cherokees. Attakullakulla was at the lead of a delegation of Cherokees that arrived at Charlestown in June 1753 in response to Governor Glen's request. The Cherokees also wanted to improve their relations with South Carolina. To assure Governor Glen of his loyalty, the Cherokee leader said that he had lately been out warring against Indians allied with the French. He and his party had killed eight people, some of whom were French, and had taken two prisoners.
• Glen stated that his main purpose for calling the council was to conclude a treaty between the Cherokees and Creeks. Attakullakulla replied that when he was in England, King George had asked the Cherokees to avenge the lives of his people "whose bones lay white upon the ground," killed by the Creeks. When Glen insisted that he could talk for the king now, Attakullakulla replied that he would be glad to go to England and talk to the king himself, The governor refused. Attakullakulla pointed out that there were other places from which he could go to England, meaning Virginia. Glen was annoyed. He had heard reports that this chief was a troublemaker. He insisted that only he could send anyone to see the king. Attakullakulla changed the subject to his own concern, still shrewdly playing the Virginia card against Glen."When I was in England," Attakutktakulla noted, "I remember the great King George's talk, for the paper said the governor of Carolina was to supply us with all kinds of goods, but if he did nor, we might have them in Virgiinia." Glen replied that he, too, had read the paper and that it said nothing about Virginia. Attakullakulla complained that the traders in the Cherokee country treated his people badly, and they dared not complain. "If we do," he said, "they take our skins and throw them on the ground and deny us goods. If we do not give them their prices we must go without any."
• In their final talk on July 7, the governor promised to send the Cherokees a great quantity of goods and repeated a promise he had made before- to build a fort in their country as they had been requesting for several years. Attakullakulla indicated that he would take the governor's talk concerning peace with the Creeks back to Old Hop. Glen was assured that white people would be safe in Cherokee country. Gifts were made to all of the Cherokee delegations, including Attakullakulla and the other six headmen, who were each given a scarlet suit, ruffled shirt, laced hat, shoes, garters, stockings, buckles, silk handkerchief, ribbons, saddle and bridle, fine gun, and blanket. The same prizes were to be taken back to Old Hop. Lesser presents were given to the three headmen of inferior rank, thirty warriors, and four women of the Cherokee entourage. Also distributed among the party was a large amount of gunpowder, bullets, flints, vermilion, domestic goods of all sorts, a drum, and a Union Jack.
• The threat of French advancement south from Canada had become even more alarming to the British in the spring of 1754, when French forces seized the forks of the Ohio and began building Fort Duquesne (present Pittsburgh) at the conflux of the Ohio and the Allegheny. Newly arrived Virginia governor Robert Dinwiddie dispatched twenty-one-year-old George Washington to warn the French away, but to no avail. Dinwiddie, a former Scot merchant, then called the Virginia militia into service. He also sent emissaries into the field to make alliances with various Indian tribes, including the Cherokees, and secure the support of their warriors for a spring campaign against the French. Among these emissaries was twenty-one-year-old Nathaniel Gist, who on the recommendation of George Washington was sent to Chota to make an offer- Virginia trade for Cherokee fighting men. When Gist arrived in the spring of 1755, Old Hop and the other chiefs were more than willing to provide a sizable force. However, a delegation of French favoring northern Indians arrived at Chota and convinced the Cherokees that eutrality was a much wiser course.
• Another meeting was held between Glen and the Cherokees in 1755. Glen wished to persuade Old Hop to sell the Cherokee land holdings in South Carolina, where no active Cherokee towns were still located. Old Hop was in favor of the cession, but other chiefs were not. Because of his advanced age and infirmity the Chota Beloved Man did not wish to travel to Charlestown. However, by reiterating his willingness to build forts in the Cherokee country, Glen was able to get the Cherokee leader to meet him at the former Cherokee town of Saluda, located some twenty-five miles northwest of present Greenville, South Carolina.
• Old Hop called a council of his headmen to select someone to speak in his stead. He was not accustomed to talking with white people, he said, and he thought it necessary to choose a person who could best represent the welfare of the Cherokee people. Accordingly, the council chose Attakullakulla and issued him instructions on how to behave and what to say.
• There were 506 Cherokee chiefs, headmen, and warriors who took their places in a grove of trees near Saluda on July 2, 1755. Governor Glen, his party, and Old Hop were seated under a brush arbor as Attakullakulla stood before them with a bow in one hand and a sheath of arrows in the other. The Cherokee then spoke, as a British account described him, "with the dignity and graceful action of a Roman or Grecian orator, and with all their ease and eloquence." Following this speech, Attakullakulla was looked upon as the principal spokesman for the Cherokee Nation.
• A young Cherokee boy was brought forward and presented to the governor. "I have brought this child," Attakullakulla said, "that when he grows up he may remember our agreement this day and tell it to the next generation that it may be known forever." The Cherokee orator also asked that the governor put all that passed between them in writing so that it could be read to the Cherokee headmen and kept forever."What I now speak the great King should hear. We are brothers to the people of Carolina, and one house covers all." Attakullakulla took some earth and corn from a small bag, requesting that they be sent to the king. They were to be a token that the Cherokees recognized his authority over the Cherokees' land and property. Then raising his how and sheath of arrows above his head, the Cherokee continued. "These are all the arms we have for our defense. We hope the Great King will pity his children the Cherokees, and send us guns and ammunition. We fear not the French. Give us arms, and we will go to war against the enemies of the great King. Lastly, Attakullakulla presented Glen a string of white wampum beads as confirmation that every word he had spoken had been accepted by the Cherokee headmen. It was agreed that the Cherokees would provide warriors to fight with the British- with provisos. The British would supply them with arms and ammunition, and they would build the forts that would protect the Cherokee women and children while the warriors were away. The Cherokees in return made their first important cession of land, giving up to South Carolina what is virtually the western fourth of the state today.
• Following the Saluda meeting, Oconostota led a warring expedition against the French and their Indians in the Illinois-Wabash country, netting five French prisoners. A tall, big- boned man, his face pitted from a youthful bout with smallpox, Oconostota would become known as one of the Cherokees' greatest warriors but also as a leading civil figure of his time, his life and history coinciding with that of Attakullakulla. The Chota first warrior made no pretense at being a great statesman. Still he would sit quietly through the councils and listen carefully before speaking his mind bluntly and emphatically. "Why you know you are telling lies!" Oconostota had once told some whites who were trying to buy land from the Cherokees. "We always told you these lands were not ours; that our claim extended not beyond Cumberland mountain; that all the lands beyond Cumberland river belonged to our brothers, the Chickasaws. It is true you gave us some goods for which we promised our friendship in the affair, and our good will. These you have had according to bargain, and more we never promised you; but you have deceived your people!" Also during 1755 Oconostota commanded some five hundred warriors In a great mass attack upon the Creeks and drove them from northern Georgia. During the key battle at Taliwa, Nancy Ward performed her daring feat that won her the title of "War Woman of Chota." She had gone to the battle site at Taliwa in support of her first husband, a Cherokee named Kingfisher. When he was killed, she took up his musket and joined in the fight. Nancy, who was said to be the niece of Attakullakulla, later married Irish trader Brian Ward.
• Glen's inability to improve trade relations as he had promised left Old Hop and his chiefs frustrated. Still, despite pressure from the northern Indians, the Cherokees remained loyal to the British. Ostenaco Outacite or Mankiller, also known as Judd's Friend because he saved the life of a white man) and 130 of his men went north to help protect the Virginia frontier from the Shawnees. However, when Attakullakulla visited Charlestown at the end of 1755 and failed to get Glen to act on building the fort he had promised, the unhappy Cherokee orator headed off for Williamsburg to shore up his connections with Dinwiddie and Virginia.
• Early in 1756 the Virginia governor sent commissioners Peter Randolph and William Byrd to visit the Cherokees and Catawba Indians for the purpose of recruiting more fighting help. After making a treaty with the Catawbas in February, the commissioners continued on to the French Broad River in North Carolina, where they met with the Cherokees. The Cherokee delegation was headed by Ammonscossittee - who still held a high position as a Tellico chief-and included Attakullakulla and Oconostota. Again, it was Attakullakulla who spoke for the Cherokees.
• The commissioners presented the usual string of wampum beads and then made a speech warning the Indians against the French. As proof of their friendship, they offered to build a school for the education of Cherokee boys and evenly employ them in settling disputes. The Indians, however, were much more interested in securing a fort for their Upper Towns in present Tennessee. They argued that if their warriors went off to fight, their women and children would not be safe from the French and their Indian allies. Attakullakulla expressed their dismay that Governor Glen had made no move to build the fort he had promised. "I have a Hatchet ready," he said, "but we hope our Friends will not expect us to take it up, 'til we have a Place of Safety for our Wives and Children." When the fort had been built, he said, the Cherokees would send a great number of warriors. But he also complained that the Virginians still had not been willing to trade with his people as the king had promised him in England. The French, he noted, supplied their Indian allies with firearms.
• During the council it was learned that some Cherokees then serving with Virginia troops had been killed and scalped by white settlers. Angry relatives of the dead men threatened the lives of Byrd and Randolph. Attakullakulla told the two men to stay in their tents while he extended apologies and gifts and made a speech in their behalf. Because Old Hop could not cross the mountains, Attakullakulla asked for another meeting closer to where the Cherokee headman lived. However, Randolph and Byrd had little desire to make another trip into Cherokee country. They presented the Cherokees with a written agreement to consider overnight. On the following day, Attakullakulla returned to say it had beeninterpreted to him and his chiefs and that they were agreeable to its terms. The Cherokees would supply four hundred warriors to fight with the Virginians after the fort was built. The two commissioners and twelve chief signed the pact, after which the Virginians presented them with presents and treated them to a banquet. All joined in toasting King George's health. The chiefs departed much pleased; not only had they secured a fort, but they had finally opened a trading path with Virginia.
• At the same time these treaty talks were underway, Chief Ostenaco and his warriors joined in an expedition against the Shawnees, The attempted foray failed when the 250-man Virginia force fell apart after their canoes overturned and dumped much of their armament and supplies in the river. For his efforts, Ostenaco was invited to visit Williamsburg again. There he was given a royal reception and the feeling that he was now a key player in Cherokee-British relations.
• Governors Glen and Dinwiddie had different intentions regarding the Cherokees. Glen saw them as a protection against attack on South Carolina; Dinwiddie wished to use them in an offensive campaign to drive the French from the Ohio country. The two governors also quarreled over the building of a fort among the Overhills. Dinwiddie responded with only one thousand of the seven thousand pounds requested by Glen as Virginia's share of the fort construction.
• In the spring of 1754, as Glen had promised, South Carolina constructed Fort Prince George among the Lower Cherokees near Keowee..Upon its completion, Glen made the arduous journey there to emphasize its importance. In 1756 he ordered a complete rebuilding of the fort and dispatched an agent to Chota to reassure the Overhill Cherokees that a second fort would soon be built there.
• Taking personal charge of assembling and outfitting a three-hundred-man expedition, Glen was preparing to march in early June when he was succeeded as governor of South Carolina by thirty-four-year-old William Henry Lyttelton. In the meantime, Dinwiddie had learned of Glen's plans. Not wanting to miss the opportunity of getting fighting help from the Cherokees, he hurriedly sent Maj. Andrew Lewis with sixty men, most of them laborers, with orders to build a fort near Chota under the terms agreed to the year before. Lewis and his men were welcomed by Old Hop and his chiefs, but dissension soon arose. Some of the chiefs demanded two forts-one to guard them from enemies by land and another from those by water. There were others who were convinced that a fort in their country would lead to British domination, persuaded by the French agents that the British meant to enslave them. With the French and Indian War underway, the support of the various tribes had become a matter of fierce competition.
• Not waiting for the arrival of the South Carolinians, the Virginians constructed a log fort on the north bank of the Little Tennessee a mile above Chota. When it was completed in August, Lewis found the chiefs reluctant to send the warrior's help that Dinwiddie was expecting. Lewis could get only seven men and three women to accompany him back to Virginia. He recommended to Dinwiddie that a military expedition be sent to crush the Cherokees into submission.
• Attakullakulla and other Cherokee leaders had maintained their contacts with South Carolina through visits to Fort Prince George. Before leaving office, Glen had sent Capt. Raymond Demere to Prince George to repair that post. When that was done, he was to move on to Chota and build the fort promised for the Overhill Cherokees. While repairing Prince George's defenses and waiting for more troops, Demere met with the visiting Cherokees. He did much to win their friendship and persuade them to remain loyal to Britain.
• When Demere arrived at the Little Tennessee on October 1 with two hundred troops and a long packhorse train loaded with materials, supplies, and presents, he was well received by Old Hop and his people. Demere fired his swivel cannons in greeting; and the Cherokees, painted and dressed in their finest attire, came forth to embrace their visitors with great affection.
• The reception, however, overlaid a seething conflict between Old Hop and Attakullakulla, who had risen in power dramatically. When Demere complained about Old Hop having entertained Frenchmen in his home (French John, the chiefs captive servant, was looked upon as a French agent), Attakullakulla replied that the old chief was a fool who could do nothing without his help.
• Demere had brought two men of special importance with him. One was William De Brahm, a German engineer who was assigned the task of building a fort to protect Cherokee women and children. Another was Capt. John Stuart, commander of a company of South Carolina provincials, who would ultimately play a significant role in the affairs of the Cherokees and other Indians of the region. Demere distributed his presents, and De Brahm- winning a bitter argument with Demere over the site-immediately set about constructing a fort on a narrow ridge near the conflux of the Tellico River with the Little Tennessee south of present Knoxville. The project went slowly, and Demere's troops would work on it through the winter and into the early summer of 1757. When finished, the 105-foot-square log enclosure featured bastions at the corners, each mounting three sixteen-caliber cannons. The fort, which was protected by a steep forty-foot cliff, was left open on the river side. Thick rows of thorny locust trees were planted around the other three sides. A trading store, a house for the commanding officer, and a building to hold military stores were located at the center of the compound. The post was named Fort Loudoun in honor of the earl of Loudoun, then the commander of all English forces in America. Fort Loudoun was preferred of the two forts, and the Cherokees soon destroyed the one built by the Virginians. However, when De Brahm deserted the project in December, Loudoun was still incomplete and wanting of even barracks for the provincial troops. It was good only for keeping horses, cows, and pigs, the Cherokees claimed.