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top left margin headnote: obligations to individuals - first branch - commission under the 17th article which was registered the sum accruing to the Cherokee debtor from the United States. The debt owing by the Cherokee being then deducted from the debt due to him from the United States, the Cherokee's creditor was paid by the Commission. But neither of these setts of books express the grounds on which the debts are allowed. These are only to be gathered from the original papers, which are all mixed up like and with the rest. I will digress, so far, as here to observe, how evident it is, that, by this loose arrangement, vast frauds may be covered. It would afford some clue to light, if information could be gathered of the number of debts proven by certain individuals against many Indians. But even this is rendered almost impracticable by the state of the books. Having no Index, the amount received by any one pretended creditor against any number of pretended Cherokee debtors, is only discoverable by going through, either the one class of books or the other, one by one, -- account by account, -- of which, it is computed, there are about eight thousand. Charges in the 6th & 7th paragraph. - Source of the difficulty of tracing the collusion with, or exclusion of, corrupt or honest Attornies, & of ascertaining what Cherokee money the Attornies pocketed. Cases