to he considered as forming
one people. The United States agreed to pay for any substantial
improvements abandoned by those removing from the ceded lands,
and each emigrant warrior who left no such valuable property behind
was to be given as full compensation for his abandoned field and cabin
a rifle and ammunition, a blanket, and a kettle or a beaver trap. The
government further agreed to furnish boats and provisions for the
journey. Provision was also made that individuals residing upon
the ceded lands might retain allotments and become citizens, if they
so elected, the amount of the allotment to be deducted from the total
cession.
The commissioners for the treaty w*ere General Andrew Jackson,
General David Meriwether, and Governor Joseph McMinn of Ten-
nessee. On behalf of the Cherokee it was signed by thirty-one princi-
pal men of the easternattention was paid to the
memorial, and the treaty was carried through and ratified. Without
waiting for the ratification, the authorities at once took steps for the
removal of those who desired to go to the West. Boats were provided
at points between Little Tennessee and Sequatchee rivers, and the
emigrants were collected under the direction of Governor McMinn.
Within the next year a large number had emigrated, and before the
'Indian Treaties, pp. 209-215, 1837; Royee, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology,
pp. 212-217, 1888; see also maps in Royce.
104 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
end of 1819 the number of emigrants was said to have increased to six
thousand. "Flic chiefs of the nation, however, claimed that the esti-
mate was greatly in excess of the truth. 1
"There can be no question that a very