The French, to draw off the western towns, had given them repeated assurances of settling a strong garrison on the north side of their river, as high up as their large pettiaugres could be brought with safety, where there was a large tract of rich lands abounding with game and fowl, and the river with fish.—They at the same time promised to procure a firm peace between the Cheerake and all the Indian nations depending on the French; and to bestow on them powder, bullets, flints, knives, scissars, combs, shirts, looking glasses, and red paint,—beside favourite trifles to the fair sex: in the same brotherly manner the Alebahma French extended their kindly hands to their Muskohge brethren. By their assiduous endeavours, that artful plan was well supported, and though the situation of our affairs, in the remote, and leading Cheerake towns, had been in a ticklish situation, from the time their project of an empire was formed; and though several other towns became uneasy and discontented on sundry pretexts, for the space of two years before the unlucky occasion of the succeeding war happened—yet his excellency our governor[129] neglected the proper measures to reconcile the wavering savages, till the gentleman[130] who was appointed to succeed him, had just reached the American coast: then, indeed, he set off, with a considerable number of gentlemen, in flourishing parade, and went as far as Ninety-six[LV] settlement; from whence, as most probably he expected, he was fortunately recalled, and joyfully superseded. I saw him on his way up, and plainly observed he was unprovided for the journey; it must unavoidably have proved abortive {244} before he could have proceeded through the Cheerake country,—gratifying the inquisitive disposition of the people, as he went, and quieting the jealous minds of the inhabitants of those towns, who are settled among the Apalahche mountains, and those seven towns, in particular, that lie beyond them. He neither sent before, nor carried with him, any presents wherewith to soothe the natives; and his kind promises, and smooth speeches, would have weighed exceedingly light in the Indian scale. Footnote LV: So called from its distance of miles from the Cheerake. (A). Adair makes a slight slip here. Ninety-Six was the name applied as early as 1730 to the point ninety-six miles _from Charles Town_. Salley, _George Hunter’s Map of 1730_, p. 3. (W)