e Creeks, history would have written
him down as a great statesman. It was only by an accidental suit at law
that some of his most characteristic letters were brought to light; but
those that have been rescued from oblivion show that in wielding the
pen he was more than a match for the many able men who corresponded with
him.

In September, 1789, Washington sent General Andrew Pickens, with three
other commissioners, to treat with McGillivray. They found the great
chief at Rock Landing, on the Oconee, with two thousand Creek warriors,
where he had been encamped more than a week. The Indian camp was on the
western bank of the river. The commissioners pitched their tents on the
eastern bank. They were received by McGillivray with great courtesy.
Everything progressed favorably, so much so that the commissioners read
to the assembled chiefs a copy of the treaty which they had drawn up.
This treaty was all in favor of the whites. The Indians were offered
no equivalent for the terms proposed. It is worthy of note that Andrew
Pickens wholly dissented from the terms of the proposed treaty. He knew
that the Indians would have to be paid for the valuable land which the
Georgians were then cultivating in the neighborhood of the Oconee, and
the commissioners had been advised by the Federal authorities to pay
for these lands. McGillivray broke up his encampment and retired to
the Ocmulgee, nor could he be induced at that time to renew the
negotiations.

President Washington was urged by the Georgia delegation in Congress to
declare war against the Creeks, and this indeed was his first impulse;
but when he found, from a careful estimate, that the expenses of such
a war would amount to fifteen millions of dollars, he prudently gave
up the idea. He took the matter in hand in a more conservative way. He
appointed Colonel Marinus Willett a secret agent to visit Mc-Gillivray,
and urge him to visit President Washington in New York. In this Colonel
Willett was entirely successful. Accompanied by McGillivray and a number
of the leading men of the Creeks, Willett set out on his return journey.
At Guilford Court House, McGillivray attracted great attention on
account of a very pathetic incident that occurred there some years
before. A man named Brown had been killed by the Creeks, and his wife
and children captured and made slaves. Their unfortunate condition came
to the notice of Alexander McGillivray, and, as he had done in the case
of ma