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in 1791, also published of them, in London, as follows: "The Cherokees, in their disposition and manners, are grave and steady; dignified and circumspect in their deportment; rather slow and reserved in conversation, yet frank, cheerful and humane; tenacious of the liberties and natural rights of man; secret, deliberate, and determined in their councils; honest, just and liberal, and ready always to sacrifice every pleasure and gratification, even their blood & life itself, to defend their territory and maintain their rights." See Footnote
3. It is obvious that such a people could not prove otherwise than extremely sensitive upon the least attempt to dispossess them of any part of the native land which they prized so dearly. No land in the world could equal it in attractiveness to them. With evidence of this their history overflows. I will give an instance from among the anecdotes of the elder Ridge in the large work entitled "The Indian Tribes of North America." The story exhibits a remarkable contrast with that later course which led to his destruction. It describes him in the meridian of his career, as one of the most violent against a sacrifice of his father-land by sale and removal. This was at the time when the wholesale emigration was first proposed, soon after the close of Jefferson's administration
Footnote Bartram's Travels, 1791. London edition, page 483.