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5 devotedness to the public good than are, even at this very moment, common among the Cherokees. There is nothing merely accidental or occasional in this character; it is inherent. It has always been their distinction. One of the earliest historians of South Carolina and Georgia, in a work printed in 1777 at London, says of them, "It may be remarked, that the Cherokees differ, in some respects, from other Indian nations that have wandered from place to place, and fixed their habitations in separate districts. From time immemorial they have had possession of the same territory, which at present they occupy. They affirm that their forefathers sprung from that ground, or descended from the clouds upon those hills. These lands of their ancestors they value above all things in the world; they venerate the places where their bones lie interred, and esteem it disgraceful, in the highest degree, to relinquish these sacred repositories. The man that would refuse to take the field in defence of these hereditary possessions, is regarded by them as a coward, and treated as an outcast from their nation." See Footnote Bartram, the celebrated traveler, in

Footnote Historical accounts of the rise & progress of the colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, Vol 2, page 201. London, 1777.