ng the Indian trail leading to Long Island, and Gist following the trail leading to Cumberland Gap.16 It was on this excursion into East Tennessee that Boone carved on a tree the oft quoted inscription: “D. Boon cilled a bar on this tree in the year 1760”; which I would not again repeat except that it fixes a date important to my story.
Though Gist did not follow Boone to Long Island, he had already seen it and been attracted by its desirable location. It was the most conspicuous point on the Tennessee side of the mountains. As early as 1757 Richard Paris, an Indian trader located on the Holston River, addressed a letter to the Governor of Virginia requesting a grant of the land on Long Island. Instead of going directly to Long Island, Gist continued his journey southwardly until be reached the Cherokee towns on the Little Tennessee River. This appears to me to have been about the time the father of Sequoya must have been at Tuskegee, where his mother lived; and so friendly were Gist’s relations with the Indians that they sold him the Long Island of Holston within a year. In his petition to the legislature of Virginia asking them to confirm his Indian title to the same he represents that he obtained it in 1761. This is the origin of his claim to Long Island which called forth the remarkable reservation in the treaty of 1777, to which attention has been drawn.
Gist spent much of his time in the Cherokee Nation for the next sixteen years. He lived with them on terms of the greatest intimacy. He was so much in their confidence at the time of the Cherokee invasion of 1776, that his loyalty to his country was questioned. On July 8, of that year, Jarret Williams informed the Watauga settlers that Alexander Cameron,
a British Indian agent, had determined to send Captain Nathaniel Gist, William Faulen, and Isaac and Jarret Williams with the invading forces for the purpose of finding out and leading over to the Indians any king’s men among the inhabitants.17 Such ready credence was given to Williams’ information that the Virginia Council of Safety instructed Colonel William Christian, commander of the expedition against the Overhill towns, to insist on the Cherokees giving up all persons among them who had been concerned in bringing on the war—particularly Stuart, Cameron, and Gist.18
It was soon manifest, however, that Colonel Gist was not a British sympathizer. When Colonel Christian reached the Overhill towns Gist surrendered himself a prisoner, and although the inhabitants of Watauga and Holston had been so exasperated against him that his name was rarely mentioned without being coupled with a threat against his life yet Colonel Christian conveyed him through the settlements unmolested, and he proceeded on without further detention, to the headquarters of General Washington.18
December 27, 1776, the Continental Congress had resolved to raise sixteen new battalions, and authorized General Washington as commander-in-chief, to nominate and commission the officers of the same. Nathaniel Gist having reached Washington’s headquarters January 11, 1777, he was appointed colonel of one of these battalions, and authorized to raise four companies of rangers. For this purpose he was instructed to proceed to the Cherokee or any other nation of Indians, and attempt to procure a number of warriors, not exceeding five hundred, who were to be supplied with arms, blankets, and other necessaries, and, instead of presents, were to receive the same pay as troops in the Continental service.19
March 27, Colonel Gist returned to Washington District, bearing letters from the Governor of Virginia to the Cherokee nation, soliciting them to come in in sixty days to treat and confirm the peace.20 A few of them came in April 20, but nothing definite was done, except an agreement to come in sixty
days later to treat and confirm the peace.21 It was largely through the influence of Colonel Gist, acting under instructions from the Virginia government, that they were induced to attend the treaty of Long Island, July, 1777.22 In the progress of the treaty the O