Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: INTRODUCTION The Cherokee Indians occupied a prominent place in the early history of South Carolina. At the time of Colonel Chicken's visit they numbered upwards of 10,000, of whom not less than 3800 were among the best of Indian warriors. They were distributed among three settlements : the Lower Settlement, in what is now western South Carolina and northeastern Georgia; the Middle Settlement, in western North Carolina and northern Georgia ; and the Upper Settlement, in western Tennessee and northern Alabama. Intercourse between the Cherokees and the government of South Carolina was begun in 1693 when twenty Cherokee chiefs visited Charleston to ask assistance against the Catawbas and the Congarees. A profitable trade with the Cherokees was begun about the same time. At first this was only in a private way, but in 1707 all Indian trade of the colony passed under government regulation, and in 1716, when for a short time it was made a public monopoly, Fort Moore, on the east bank of the Savannah about six miles below the present site of Augusta, Georgia, was erected for its protection. By a treaty with the Cherokees which was made that year it was agreed that both parties should carry their goods for trade to Fort Moore, the immediate consequence of which was that the Government established a pack-horse route from Charleston to that place and that the Cherokees cut a trail from their country thither along the east bank of the Savannah, a trail which was subsequently widened for the pack-horse train. Fort Congarees, on the Congaree River, a little below the present site of Columbia, was erected in 1718, and a shorter pack-horse route from Charleston to the Cherokee country was established. It passed through Dorchester, approached the Congaree opposite the mouth ofthe Wateree, cros...