This Day Old Hop, the Little Carpenter, and several of the head Men being afsembled at the Fort the Pipe Sent up by the Governour was produced and smoaked out of by everyone present, when Old Hop, after many Speeches, profofsing the Greatest Friendship, and Sincerity to King George, and all his Children, and adding that he desired to live forever in Peace and Unity with all the English, and declared his aversion to the French, as his Brothers were at war now with them, he said that the Cherokees, had long ago Promised the English some Land in their Nation to build upon that they Were glad to see their Brothers Among them, He then Presented Capt. Demere, with a belt of Wampum, as a Confirmation of what he had said which being accepted he thus proceded, As I am the Governour of the Cherokees, and love all the English, I am Come down to you my Brother, to intercede with you in the behalf of John Brown, who run away from this Nation with one of the whit Warriours, and was taken Nigh the French Fort in the Creeks, he is now at my house at Chotee, he did not reach the French Fort, he had not An opportunity of telling the French anything that Might be a disadvantage to either you or us, I take pity on him as he is come to me to Beg I would intercede with you for his Pardon the Lower Creeks desired him to come to Chotee to me, who they told him would Perhaps endeavour to get his Pardon from the White People. I now beg you will grand my request, and Pardon this Crime, To which Capt. Demere replyed, Brothers, there is nothing in my Power to serve you in, but what, I should be ready to do for you, This, John Brown who you now Petition for is a Bad Man as you all know he is a Horse Thief and a Run away and wafs going to your and our Enemies, He is now you say Nigh this place, I have orders from you Brother the Governour, to take him and send him to Charlestown It is Not in My Power to grant you Request But be Afshured I shall acquaint the Governour of your Defire, who you will hear from by the Next Opportunity. The Little Carpenter, then Spoke as follows, we have now finished what we intended to talk of first, I shall now talk of trade, there is Mr. Elliot now sitting, among us, he Used to bring a great Many goods to the town of Chotee but now he has Brought none, we Expeted when he went to Charlestown, that at his return he would have Brought goods to us, as Usuall, for which we wrote to the Governour as Complaints had formerly Been Made against Elliot, that the Governour According to Our Desire would Continue him in the Town of Chotee, as there is no trader Yet Come amongst us, according to the Governours Promise, which is, Now two years past sonce the first Promise made a Sulludee at a Meeting with the former Governour But what we are most in want of at Present is Powder and Bullets, for we have none to put in Our guns, they stand Empty and are of no Use to us, which make our People uneasy as the time of Hunting Draweth Nigh, Or in Case anything should happen by Enemyes Comeing on us, and we have Nothing but our bare hands to Defend Our Self, Or to Afsist Our Brothers at Tuskegee, this, we have often Mentioned to the Governour, he has Often heard this by way of Letters, Since I wafs with him in Charlestown he has Answered us by Promises, but Our People is impatient, Waiteing for the performance of his Promises, As, to you Mr. Elliot, it is true I trusted Out some of your goods in my town which I promised you should be paide for, I wafs in Charlestown when the Younge fellows returned from Hunting they traded away their Skins, and did not Pay you their Debts, this winter I shall be at home, and shall endeavour to Collect what Debts are Due you from My town, therefore I and the rest of the Warriours, intreat you to Come and trade with us as usual. Capt. Demere after talking with Mr. Elliot, replyed, Mr. Elliot has traded long with you, and brought Plenty of good Among You, the reason of his horses comeing up Empty lately was because the Governour Promised you when you was in town, that Elliot should not trade any longer in your Nation, as you made so many Complaints against him, Elliot did not Chuse to trade again with you in these towns, he was going to settle at Kewokee, but upon my request ( as I shall Endeavour to serve you in Every Point,) he has agreed to go down to town for goods, and trade in Chotee, but I must Acquaint that he will only trust out Ammunition Suitable for Hunting, the goods he brings he Expects You’ll pay Leather for immediately, I desire you will use him well, as it is at my request that he stays Among you, he has Many Debts now due to him and he Expects You’ll pay some of them this winter.
They all seemed pretty well satisfied and said, Mr. Elliot would Supply Chotee very well, but that they looked out for a supply for their whole Nation as the Governour has long ago Promised them, and we hope tho Elliot has Often changed his mind, that as there is no traders, Come yet Among us, that the Governour will Permit him to bring up goods as we desire of him. The Little Carpenter then said I have now finished my talk about trade, which I hope the Governour, when he hears will consider of it I remember what Pafsed between him and I when I was with him, as tho it was Yesterday, My Brother the Governour, offord a reward for Our Enemys Scalps, that should be brought in by our people which he desired me to acquaint all the Nation of, on my return from Charlestown in my way home, and according to his desire I did which satisfied and Encouraged them to go to war, But now our Younge fellows has Commited a crime that makes me ashamed, they have killed five of our friend, and Brothers, the Chickifsaws, a Nation with whom we have long been at peace and wish to Continue in friendship with as our Hunting ground is, in their Walks, I can think of nothing that induced them to do this action, but their hurry to return home to receive the reward as promised for Scalps, which they received on their return by reporting they had killed five of the Sawannaws, which we have found since to be false, for they returned like Thiefs with a lye in their Mouths, And for the future I speak before the warriours and head Men hear Prefent (we desire the Governour would Stop the reward for Scalps, but at the same time we hope that he will Consider us, and not let us want for Ammunition, all tho I speak against the reward for Scalps, we hope the Governour, will not think we are tired of war, No we are not, Nor never will, as long as we can get Ammunition to help our Brothers the English. Capt. Demmere Said I have heard your talk I am sorry for the Affair which happened lately, and I believe the reward offered for the Scalps was the Occasion of it, I shall acquaint the Governour of what you say and Doubt not in the least, but that he will Provide you Ammunition Enough.
