ernor of the Territory; and in addition the Federal
authorities established an Indian agent, directly responsible to
themselves, among the Creeks. His name was James Seagrove. He did his
best to bring about a peace, and, like all Indian agents, he was apt to
take an unduly harsh view of the deeds of the frontiersmen, and to
consider them the real aggressors in any trouble. Of necessity his point
of view was wholly different from that of the border settlers. He was
promptly informed of all the outrages and aggressions committed by the
whites, while he heard little or nothing of the parties of young braves,
bent on rapine, who continually fell on the frontiers; whereas the
frontiersmen came in contact only with these war bands, and when their
kinsfolk had been murdered and their cattle driven off, they were
generally ready to take vengeance on the first Indians they could find.
Even Seagrove, however, was at times hopelessly puzzled by the attitude
of the Indians. He was obliged to admit that they were the first
offenders, after the conclusion of the treaties of New York and Holston,
and that for a long time the settlers behaved with great moderation in
refraining from revenging the outrages committed on them by the Indians,
which, he remarked, would have to be stopped if peace was to be
preserved. [Footnote: American State Papers, IV., Seagrove to the
Secretary of War, St. Mary's, June 14, 1792.]

Disorder among the Frontiersmen.
McGillivray Bewildered.

As the Government took no efficient steps to preserve the peace, either
by chastising the Indians or by bridling the ill-judged vengeance of the
frontier inhabitants, many of the latter soon grew to hate and despise
those by whom they were neither protected nor restrained. The disorderly
element got the upper hand on the Georgia frontier, where the
backwoodsmen did all they could to involve the nation in a general
Indian war; and displayed the most defiant and mutinous spirit toward
the officers, civil and military, of the United States Government.
[Footnote: _Do_., Seagrove to the President, Rock Landing, on the
Oconee, in Georgia, July 17, 1792.] As for the Creeks, Seagrove found it
exceedingly hard to tell who of them were traitors and who were not; and
indeed the chiefs would probably themselves have found the task
difficult, for they were obliged to waver more or less in their course
as the fickle tribesmen were swayed by impulses towards peace or war.
One