Alexander Cuming
Voyage to America; the Cherokee delegation
Voyage to America; the Cherokee delegation
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In 1729 Cuming was led, supposedly by a dream of his wife's, to undertake a voyage to America, with the object of visiting the Cherokee mountains on the borders of [South Carolina](/wiki/South_Carolina "South Carolina") and [Virginia](/wiki/Virginia "Virginia"). Leaving England on 13 September, he arrived at [Charlestown](/wiki/Charleston%2C_South_Carolina "Charleston, South Carolina") on 5 December, and on 11 March following he began his journey to the [Cherokee](/wiki/Overhill_Cherokee "Overhill Cherokee") Indian country. It was on 3 April 1730 that "by the unanimous consent of the people he was made lawgiver, commander, leader, and chief of the Cherokee nation, and witness of the power of God, at a general meeting at [Nequisee](/wiki/Nikwasi "Nikwasi"), in the Cherokee mountains". Extracts from his journal, giving an account of his transactions with the Indians and his explorations in the Cherokee mountains, were published in the London *Daily Journal* of 8 October 1730\.

[thumb\|320px\|The Cherokee delegation to England. Engraving by [Isaac Basire](/wiki/Isaac_Basire_%28engraver%29 "Isaac Basire (engraver)").](/wiki/File:Cherokee_Delegations_to_England%2C_1730.png "Cherokee Delegations to England, 1730.png")
He returned to Charlestown on 13 April 1730, accompanied by seven chiefs of the Cherokee nation, including [Attakullakulla](/wiki/Attakullakulla "Attakullakulla"). They sailed with him to England, and on 5 June arrived at [Dover](/wiki/Dover "Dover") in the man\-of\-war *Fox*. On 18 June he was allowed to present the chiefs to [George II](/wiki/George_II_of_Great_Britain "George II of Great Britain") in the royal chapel at Windsor. Four days later laid his crown at the feet of the king, when the chiefs laid also their four scalps to show their superiority over their enemies, and five eagle tails as emblems of victory. The proceedings of the chiefs while in England excited great interest. Shortly before they returned to their country, an "Agreement of Peace and Friendship", was signed with them on 29 September, in the name of the British nation, and with the approval of the Board of Trade: the Cherokees recognized Britain as a sole trading nation, in return for supplies of guns and gunpowder. This agreement was probably the means of keeping the Cherokees as firm allies of Britain in subsequent wars.

By this time some reports seriously affecting Cuming's character had reached England. In a letter from South Carolina, bearing the date 12 June 1730, an extract from which is given in the *Edinburgh Weekly Journal* for 16 September, he is directly accused of having defrauded the settlers of large sums of money and other property by means of fictitious promissory notes. He does not seem to have made any answer to these charges, which, if true, would explain his subsequent ill\-success and poverty. The government turned a deaf ear to all his proposals, which included schemes for paying off eighty millions of the national debt by settling three million Jewish families in the Cherokee mountains to cultivate the land, and for relieving Britain's American colonies from taxation by establishing numerous banks and a local currency.


Why did the government turn a deaf ear to Cuming's proposals?