th the English, the Cherokees were known to have
hesitated long in taking sides in the struggle between France and Great
Britain, still in progress now in 1758, for supremacy in this western
country, and many were suspected of yet inclining to the French, who had
made great efforts to detach them from the British interest.

"Where go?" demanded the chief, suspiciously.

"To Chote, old town," she averred at haphazard, naming the famous
"beloved town, [2]city of refuge," of the Cherokee nation.

He nodded gravely. "I go Chote,--travel with white man," he remarked,
still watchful-eyed.

The shadows were deepening; the flames had revealed other dark figures,
eight braves at the heels of the spokesman, all painted, all armed, all
visibly mollified by the aspect that the dialogue had taken on,--that of
an interpreting female for a French husband.

"What do--Chote--old town?" demanded the chief.

"Buy furs," said Odalie at a venture, pointing at her husband.

The Cherokee listened intently, his blanket drawn up close around his
ears, as if thus shrouded he took counsel of his own identity. The
garment was one of those so curiously woven of the lustrous feathers of
wild-fowl that the texture had a rich tufted aspect. This lost
manufacture of the Cherokee Indians has been described by a traveler in
that region in 1730 as resembling a "fine flowered silk shag."

"Ugh!" muttered the chief. "Ugh!" he said again.

But the tone was one of satisfaction. The buying and shipping of peltry
was at that date a most lucrative business, furs bearing a high price in
all the markets of the world, and this region bade fair to be one of the
large sources of supply. The Indians profited by selling them, and this,
too, was the magnet that was beginning to draw the hardy Carolina
hunters westward, despite the hazards. At no other industry elsewhere
could commensurate sums of money be earned without outlay beyond a rifle
and ammunition and a hunter's cheap lodgement and fare. The Indians
early developed a dependence on the supplies of civilization,--guns,
ammunition, knives, tools, paints, to say nothing of fire-water, quickly
demonstrating their superiority to primitive inventions, and this
traffic soon took on most prosperous proportions. Thus, although the
Cherokees resented the presence of the white man upon their
hunting-ground in the capacity of competitor, and still more of
colonist, they were very tolerant of his entrance into their