Adair's History of the American IndiansAdair, James
History
Adair's History of the American Indians
Adair, James
Indians -- Origin; Indians of North America -- Southern States
This production was announced in title form or display, but is here
given with dashes to indicate the several lines and divisions. While the
name of no author is given, the prospectus is unmistakably Adair’s—in
his style down to the peculiar punctuation, as well as in its satire. No
one else had the knowledge of the Choctaw intrigue and revolt along with
the literary skill requisite. The reference to “pretenders to the merit
of a certain revolt” is explained by the fact that four different
traders laid claims to the honor of and reward for the Choctaw
defection.
Adair petitioned the legislative body of the province for reimbursement
of expenses in bringing about the revolt; but his memorial was rejected
during Governor Glen’s administration, May, 1750. “With a flow of
contrary passions I took leave of our gallant Chikkasah friends,” whom
he had accompanied down to Charles Town. Bankrupt in purse and deeply
resentful in feeling, Adair now entered upon the most trying and morally
perilous period of his career in America. He was off to the Cherokees,
and, we may suspect, to strong drink in association with hardy but
inferior men. He seems to have made head-quarters for a time at the home
of James Francis, an Indian trader of Saluda Town, then to have left for
the Overhill towns with a son-in-law of Francis, Henry Foster. Inquiries
from Glen as to whereabouts and doings followed after him. James Francis
must have pretended ignorance when he wrote (July 24, 1751) to the
governor: “I made it my business to be diligent in my inquiry after him
[Adair] but could no ways understand where he was to be found or I
should have gone any distance of ground to have acquainted him with your
Excellency’s pleasure. She [Mrs. Flood] said that he told her he was
directly going to quit the country and gott a passage from norward to
Jamaica.”
Adair says that at this time he was tempted by the French to enter into
their service. His letter to Wm. Pinckney of Charles Town, commissioner
for Indian affairs, sheds light upon this stage of his career and his
distraught mental condition. It was written as he was near the Overhill
towns on May 7, 1751. It is of value, too, as showing Adair’s raw
composition—written in the saddle, so to speak:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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