Before parting, the Indians made us
presents of pipes and tobacco, of which we were much in want; and after
a hearty breakfast, we resumed our journey.
CHAPTER XXXI.
The Cherokee Indians, a portion of whom we had just met on such friendly
terms, are probably destined to act no inconsiderable part in the future
history of Texas. Within the last few years they have given a severe
lesson to the governments of both Texas and the United States. The
reader is already aware that, through a mistaken policy, the government
of Washington have removed from several southern states those tribes of
half-civilized Indians which indubitably were the most honourable and
industrious portion of the population of these very states. The
Cherokees, the Creeks, and the Choctaws, among others, were established
on the northern banks of the Red River, in the territory west of
the Arkansas.
The Cherokees, with a population of twenty-four thousand individuals;
the Creeks, with twenty thousand, and the Choctaws, with fifteen, as
soon as they reached their new country, applied themselves to
agriculture, and as they possessed wealth, slaves, and cattle, their
cotton plantations soon became the finest west from the Mississippi, and
latterly all the cotton grown by the Americans and the Texans, within
one hundred miles from the Indian settlements, has been brought up to
their mills and presses, to be cleaned and put into bales, before it was
shipped to New Orleans.
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