had •"already almost utterly ruined the
trade for skins and furs, whereby we held our chief correspondence
with England, and turned it into a trade of Indians or slave making,
whereby the Indians to the south and west of us are alreadj involved
in blood and confusion.'" The arraignment concludes with a warning
that such conditions would in all probability draw down upon the colony
an Indian war with all its dreadful consequences. 2 In view of what
happened a few years later this reads like a prophecy.
Aliout tin' year L700the first guns were introduced among the Cher-
okee. th<' event being fixed traditionally as having occurred in the girl-
hood of an old woman of the tribe who died aliout L775. s In 17ns we
rind them described as a numerous people, living in the mountains
northwest fromthe Charleston settlements and havingsixty towns, hut
of small importance in the Indian trade, being "but ordinary hunters
and less warriors."*
In the war with the Tuscarora in 1711-171:'.. which resulted in the
expulsion of that tribe from North Carolina, more than a thousand
southern Indians reenforced the South Carolina volunteers, among
them being over two hundred Cherokee, hereditary enemies of the
Tuscarora. Although these Indian allies did their work well in the
actual encounters, their assistance was of doubtful advantage, as they
helped themselves freely to whatever they wanted alone' the way. so
that the settlers had reason to fear them almost as much as the hostile
Tuscarora. After torturing a large number of their prisoners in the
usual savage fashion, they returned with the remainder, whom they
afterward sold as slaves to South Carolina.'
Having wiped out old scores with