them from the encroachments of the surrounding
white population: that, however the government might wish to help
them, their lands would be taken, their stock stolen, their women cor-
rupted, and their men made drunkards unless they removed to the
western paradise. He ended by proposing to pay them one hundred
thousand dollars for their whole territory, with the expense of removal,
if they would go at once. Upon their prompt and indignant refusal
he offered to double the amount, but with as little success.
•Morse, Geography, i, p.577, 1819; and p. 185, 1822.
-Rc.yiT, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau ol Ethnology, pp. 221-222, 18S8,
106 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
Every point of the negotiation having failed, another course was
adopted, and a delegation was selected to visit Washington under the
conduct of Agent Meigs. Here the effort wasrenewed until, wearied
and discouraged at the persistent importunity, the chiefs consented
to a large cession, which was represented as necessary in order to com-
pensate in area for the tract assigned to the emigrant Cherokee in
Arkansas in accordance with the previous treaty. This estimate was
based on the tigures given by Governor McMinn, who reported 5,291
Cherokee enrolled as emigrants, while the eastern Cherokee claimed
that not more than 3,500 had removed and that those remaining num-
bered 12.544, or more than three-fourths of the whole nation. The
governor, however, chose to consider one-half of the nation as in favor
of removal and one-third as having already removed. 1
The treaty, concluded at Washington on February 27, 1819, recites
that the greater part of the Cherokee nation, having expressed an
earnest desire to remain in the East, and being