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Sparks, William Henry, 1800-1882

"The Memories of Fifty Years Containing Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished Americans, and Anecdotes of Remarkable Men; Interspersed with Scenes and Incidents Occurring during a Long Life of Observation Chiefly Spent i"




CHAPTER XXXII.
GRADUAL EXTINCTION OF THE RED MAN.
LINE CREEK FIFTY YEARS AGO--HOPOTHLAYOHOLA--McINTOSH--UNDYING HATRED--
A BIG POWWOW--MASSACRE OF THE McINTOSHES--NEHEMATHLA--ONCHEES--THE
LAST OF THE RACE--A BRAVE WARRIOR--A WHITE MAN'S FRIENDSHIP--THE
DEATH-SONG--TUSKEGA, OR JIM'S BOY.

I have been to-day, the 23d of August, over the same spot I wandered
over this day fifty years ago. What changes have supervened it is
difficult to realize. This was then a dense, unsettled wilderness. The
wild deer was on every hill, in every valley. Limpid streams purled
rippling and gladly along pebbly beds, and fell babbling over great
rocks. These alone disturbed the profound silence, where solitude
brooded, and quiet was at home. These wild forests extended west to
Line Creek, then the dividing line between the Indian possessions and
the newly acquired territory now constituting the State of Alabama.
Upon this territory of untamed wilderness there wandered then fifty
thousand Indians, the remnant of the mighty nation of Muscogees, who
one hundred and thirty years ago welcomed the white man at Yamactow,
now Savannah, and tendered him a home in the New World.


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