number residing in
North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia was officially esti-
mated at from l.ooo to L,200. 3 It is not the only time a per capita
payment has resulted in a sudden increase of the census population.
In L852 (Capt.) James \V. Terrell was engaged by Thomas, then in
the state senate, to take charge of his store at Qualla, and remained
associated with him and inclose contact with the Indians from then until
after the close of the war. assisting, as special United States agent, in
the disbursement of the interest payments, and afterward as a Con-
federate officer in the organization of the Indian companies, holding a
commission as captain of Company A, Sixty-ninth North Carolina
Confederate infantry. Being of an investigating bent. Captain Terrell
was led to give attention to the customs and mythology ofthe Cher-
okee, and to accumulate a fund of information on the subject seldom
possessed by a white man. He still resides at Webster, a few miles
from the reservation, and is now seventy -one years of age.
In 1855 Congress directed the per capita payment to the East Cher-
okee of the removal fund established for them in 1848, provided that
North Carolina should first give assurance that they would be allowed
to remain permanently in that state. This assurance, however, was
not given until 1S66, a^nd the money was therefore not distributed,
but remained in the treasury until 1875, when it was made applicable
to the purchase of lands and the quieting of titles for the benefit of
the Indians. 4
From 1855 until after the civil war we find no official notice of the
East Cherokee, and our