The Project Gutenberg EBook of Se-Quo-Yah; from Harper's New Monthly, V.
41, 1870, by Unknown

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Title: Se-Quo-Yah; from Harper's New Monthly, V. 41, 1870

Author: Unknown

Posting Date: July 9, 2009 [EBook #4241]
Release Date: July, 2003
First Posted: December 15, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SE-QUO-YAH.

From Harper's New Monthly, V. 41, 1870

In the year 1768 a German peddler, named George Gist, left the
settlement of Ebenezer, on the lower Savannah, and entered the Cherokee
Nation by the northern mountains of Georgia. He had two pack-horses
laden with the petty merchandise known to the Indian trade. At that
time Captain Stewart was the British Superintendent of the Indians in
that region. Besides his other duties, he claimed the right to regulate
and license such traffic. It was an old bone of contention. A few years
before, the Governor and Council of the colony of Georgia claimed the
sole power of such privilege and jurisdiction. Still earlier, the
colonial authorities of South Carolina assumed it. Traders from
Virginia, even, found it necessary to go round by Carolina and Georgia,
and to procure licenses. Augusta was the great centre of this commerce,
which in those days was more extensive than would be now believed.
Flatboats, barges, and pirogues floated the bales of pelts to
tide-water. Above Augusta, trains of pack-horses, sometimes numbering
one hundred, gathered in the furs, and carried goods to and from remote
regions. The trader immediately in connection with the Indian hunter
expected to make one thousand per cent. The wholesale dealer made
several hundred. The governors, councilors, and superintendents made
all they could. It could scarcely be called legitimate commerce. It was
a grab game.

Our Dutch friend Gist was, correctly speaking, a contrabandist. He had
too little influence or money to procure a license, and too much
enterprise to refrain because he lacked it. He belonged to a class more
numerous than respect