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RAMSAY'S HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
From ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT IN 1670 
TO THE YEAR 1808.
by David Ramsay, M.D. 

Volume I
Preface dated "Charleston, December 31st, 1808"
Published in 1858, by W.J. Duffie, Newberry, S.C.  
Reprinted in 1959, by the The Reprint Company, Spartanburg, S.C.   

CHAPTER V, Section II, pp 110-113

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In proportion as the province increased in the number of white inhabitants,
its danger from the savage tribes grew less alarming. But to prevent any
molestation from Indians, and to establish the peace of the colonies on the
most lasting foundation, his Brittannic Majesty, by his proclamations after
the peace of 1763, took care to fix the boundaries of their hunting lands in
as clear a manner as the nature of the country would admit. No settlements
were allowed to extend any further backward, upon the Indian territories, than
the sources of those great rivers which fall into the Atlantic ocean; and all
British subjects who had settled beyond these limits were ordered to remove.
All private subjects were prohibited from purchasing lands from Indians; but
if the latter should at any time be inclined to dispose of their property, it
must, for the future, be offered to the King by the general consent of the
nation, and at a public assembly held by British Governors for that purpose.
All traders were obliged to take out licenses from their respective Governors
for carrying on commerce with the Indians. 

The French and Spaniards having by the treaty of 1763 ceded to Great Britain
all their territories in the vicinity of South Carolina, nothing further was
necessary than to guard the provinces against the dangers arising from the
savages. It was thought proper that a superintendent of Indian affairs should
be appointed for the Southern, as well as the Northern district of America.
This office was given to Captain John Stuart, who was in every respect well
qualified for it. The Assembly not only thanked him for his good conduct and
great perseverance at fort London, but rewarded him with £1,500 currency, and
recommended him to the Governor as a person worthy of preferment in the
service of the province. After his commission arrived, the Carolinians
promised themselves for the future great tranquility and happiness. Plans of
lenity were likewise adopted by government with respect to the Indian tribes,
and cautions were taken to guard them against oppression and prevent any
rupture with them. Experience had shown that rigorous measures, such as
humbling them by force of arms, though expensive and attended with the
sacrifice of lives, were seldom accompanied with any good effects. Such
treatment rendered the savages cruel, suspicious and distrustful, prepared
them for renewing hostilities, and kept alive their ferocious warlike spirit.

It was thought that by treating Indians with gentleness and humanity, they
would by degrees lose their savage spirit, and become civilized; and instead
of implacable enemies, ever bent on destruction, they might eventually be
rendered useful and beneficial allies. 

The British government adopted this line of government after the peace of
1763. The result in some degree justified their expectations, till the
revolutionary war commenced. The same ambitious cruel policy which had
formerly led the Spaniards and French to set the Indians on the English
settlements was then adopted by the English against their own colonists, even
before they had resolved on independence. The same ruinous consequences
followed. The poor unfortunate misled Indians became once more the victims of
their own folly, in suffering themselves to be employed as tools to forward
the ambitious views of foreign powers; as shall be hereafter explained.

The Indians on the continent of America, who were at the time of its discovery
a numerous and formidable people, have since that period been constantly
decreasing. For this rapid depopulation many reasons have been assigned. It is
well known that population everywhere keeps pace with the means of
subsistence. The Indians being driven from their possessions near the sea, as
the settlements progressed, were robbed of many of the necessaries of life,
particularly of oysters, crabs and fish, with which the maritime parts
furnished them in great abundance, and on which they must have chiefly
subsisted, as is apparent from a view of their camps still remaining near the
sea-shore. As their territorities have been gradually circumscribed by
narrower bounds, the means of subsistence derived from game have, become
proportionably less. The provisions they raise by planting, even in the best
seasons, are scanty; but in case of a failure of crops, or of their fields
being destroyed, numbers of them perished by famine. The first European
settlers soon discovered their natural passion for war, and turned the fury of
one tribe against another, with a view to save themselves. When engaged in
hostilities they always fought, not so much to humble and conquer, as to
exterminate and destroy. The British, the French, and Spanish nations, having
planted colonies in their neighborhood, a rivalship for influence over them
took place. Each nation, having its allies among the savages, was
indefatigable in instigating them against the colonies of every other European
nation, and against its Indian allies. Hence a series of bloody and
destructive wars have been carried on among these rude tribes, as instruments
of the pride and ambitition of European sovereigns, which, though waged
without any national object or interest on the part of the Indians, was
conducted with all the rage and rancour of implacable enemies bent on the
destruction of each other in defence of their nearest connections and dearest
rights.

But famine and war, however destructive, were not the only causes of their
rapid decay. The small pox frequently proved exceedingly fatal. But of all
other causes, the introduction of spirituous liquors among them has been the
most destructive. Excess and intemperance not only undermined their
constitution, but also created many quarrels. Most of the white traders
engaged in commercial business among the Indians, instead of reforming them by
examples of virtue and purity, have rather served to corrupt their morals and
render them more treacherous and debauched than they originally were. The
avarice and ambition of the professors of Christianity have so far debased the
pristine habits and stern virtues of hardy, free and independent savages, that
the few who now remain have lost in a great measure their primitive character.
The vices of white people, falsely called Christians, and the diseases the
consequences of the vices caught by the contaminating intercourse of such,
have so nearly exterminated the native original owners of the soil, that many
nations formerly populous are extinct, and their names entirely forgotten. 

The principal tribes in or near to South Carolina are the Cherokees, the
Catawbas, the Creeks, the Chickesaws and Choctaws. 

The Cherokees, till the revolutionary war, continued to inhabit that western
part of South Carolina which now forms Pendleton and Greenville districts.
Having taken part with the British in that contest, they drew upon themselves
the resentment of the State; and were so far subdued by its troops that they
were obliged by treaty, on the 20th May, 1777, to cede to South Carolina all
their lands eastward of the Unacaye mountains. They now reside beyond the
mountains, and are inconsiderable both in number and force. 

Of twenty-eight tribes of Indians which inhabited South Carolina in 1670, when
it began to be settled by white people, twenty-six have entirely disappeared.
The Cherokees are permitted, during good behaviour, to reside on the west side
of the Oconee mountains. The Catawbas alone have continued in the State to the
present time. They occupy fifteen miles square, situated on each side of the
Catawba river, near the borders of North Carolina. They mustered 1,500
fighting men at the first settlement of the province; but at present their
warriors do not exceed sixty, and the whole of their nation is scarcely two
hundred. These have degenerated from the hardiness of the Indian character,
and are so generally addicted to habits of indolence and intoxication, that
they are fast sinking into insignificance.

The Creeks inhabit a fine country on the southwest, between four and five
hundred miles distant from Charlestown, and the number of both the upper and
lower nations does not exceed two thousand gun-men. The Chickasaw towns lie
about six hundred miles due west from Charlestown; but the nation cannot send
three hundred warriors to the field. The Choctaws are at least seven hundred
miles west and southwest from Charlestown, and have between three and four
thousand gun-men. 

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[End of Section II]

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