159
WHITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1830
of the Agent, for the amount of bounty due them, and took their receipts for the amount, as vouchers for the Agent to settle his accounts by with the Government. The consequence was, that the Indians, not 1·egarding paper as of any real value, would go to the traders, and sell the due bills at what they could get for them. And the traders, having no confidence in the promises of the Government through its Agents, united with the hazard of delay at all events, would not give the real value of the amount prom- ised by the due bills. If the Indians attempted to trade them to the whites for cattle, or any thing which they stood in need of, the consequence was, that they were compelled to make a discount upon them. Not finding them worth as many dollars as they purported to be for, they were willing to let them go upon any terms, rather than keep them in their possession. The due bills amounted, in all, to about twenty-one thousancl dollars, which due bills are now in the hands of the original holders, or the pur- chasers, but not lifted by the Agent, according to his promise. (Is not the Government bound by the acts of its Agent or Attor- ney?) It is but fair to estimate the loss of the Indians at one- third of the sum above stated, and this loss being entirely to the Government, by its Agents withholding the fulfilment of its con- tract with the McIntosh party. Last summer, a party of emigrating Creeks came over- to unite with the Mcintosh party on Arkansas. The Government of the United States had promised to furnish them transportation and food on their way. On the route generally, it is not material how they were supplied or treated; but those to whom the care of them was confided, left a party, consisting of several families, on Illinois river, in the Cherokee nation, as they were passing through it, destitute of provisions-sick, and in a miserable con- dition. They were dependent for subsistence on the few fish which they could catch in the river, and a field of corn belonging to Major Flowers, of the Cherokees, and such assistance as he, through humanity, was induced to offer to them. They remained there some weeks-their sick in some instances not able to turn upon their blankets without assistance, exposed to the weather, in a most unhealthy season. At the same time there were public wagons and teams, not employed, within thirty miles distance, by which provisions could have been sent-relieved their suffer- ings, and transported them to their friends. This party had been sent under the care of Mr. Thomas Crowell3 (a brother and mer- chant to the Creek Agent of the old nation) and Mr. Blake,' at the
Powered by FlippingBook