be thus lost? He was aroused to his danger by the
relative to whom he owed so much. His temper was eminently philosophic.
He was, as he proved, capable of great effort and great endurance. By
an effort which few red or white men can or do make, he shook off the
habit, and his old nerve and old prosperity came back to him. It was
during the first few years of this century that he applied to Charles
Hicks, a half-breed, afterward principal chief of the nation, to write
his English name. Hicks, although educated after a fashion, made a
mistake in a very natural way. The real name of Se-quo-yah's father was
George Gist. It is now written by the family as it has long been
pronounced in the tribe when his English name is used--"Guest." Hicks,
remembering a word that sounded like it, wrote it--George Guess. It was
a "rough guess," but answered the purpose. The silversmith was as
ignorant of English as he was of any written language. Being a fine
workman, he made a steel die, a facsimile of the name written by Hicks.
With this he put his "trade mark" on his silver-ware, and it is borne
to this day on many of these ancient pieces in the Cherokee nation.

Between 1809 and 1821, which latter was his fifty-second year, the
great work of his life was accomplished. The die, which was cut before
the former date, probably turned his active mind in the proper
direction. Schools and missions were being established. The power by
which the white man could talk on paper had been carefully noted and
wondered at by many savages, and was far too important a matter to have
been overlooked by such a man as Se-quo-yah. The rude hieroglyphics or
pictoriographs of the Indians were essentially different from all
written language. These were rude representations of events, the
symbols being chiefly the totemic devices of the tribes. A few general
signs for war, death, travel, or other common incidents, and strokes
for numerals, represented days or events as they were perpendicular or
horizontal. Even the wampum belts were little more than helps to
memory, for while they undoubtedly tied up the knots for years, like
the ancient inhabitants of China and Japan, still the meagre record
could only be read by the initiated, for the Indians only intrusted
their history and religion to their best and ablest men. The general
theory with many Indians was, that the written speech of the white man
was one of the mysterious gifts of the Great Spirit. Se-quo-yah bo