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No 1 14 16

Mr. John H. Payne   Charleston S.C.    Carmel   Dec. 15 1834  

Dear Sir Yesterday I had the pleasure of receiving yours of the 8th Inst. and should rejoice to comply fully with your request, were it in my power but my information relative to Indian antiquities is not sufficient to justify me in attempting to give any thing like a connected view of them. And though I have written many things from the lips of the old men which were to me interesting, yet these sketches are imperfect and detached, and could not, without some time, be prepared for inspection. The most therefore that I can do at the present is to furnish you with a few out lines of the antiquities of the Cherokees. They consider themselves, and the other Indians in North America as the real, or peculiar people, and the people especially beloved of God. They say they came from beyond the sea; but concerning their history previous to their coming to this continent I have obtained no information, except they say their fathers had sacred fire which God handed down to them from above. They speak of passing through a wilderness long ago, when they carried a certain building which they set up whenever they halted, and in, or about which, the priests sat. (on this continent.) They say they kept their holy fire till their enemies came upon them, destroyed their building in which it was kept, & drove them away. After this, to supply the place of the holy fire, they made new fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together till they took fire. This new fire they used in their hunting, and war expeditions, and on some other occasions. The Cherokees appear to have commenced their year with the blooming of peach trees, or about that time, that is, in March; yet their annual New moons commenced with the new moon in September. The Creeks, however, in order to unite all their religious festivals in one, make their newmoons commence with the feast of first fruits.