Such were the fruits of William Panton’s presence in the province. Idle, however, would have been his labor, his wealth and talents, though backed by the Spanish Government, but for the co-operation of McGillivray. Had the great Chief pointed his long, slender finger to Savannah and Charleston as the sources of supply for his people, the commercial life of Pensacola would have withered and perished like a tree girdled by the woodman’s axe. ----- Footnote 41: American State Papers, Vol. III. p. 311. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XVII. Lineage of Alexander McGillivray.—His Education—Made Grand Chief—His Connection with Milfort—His Relations with William Panton—His Administration of Creek Affairs—Appointed Colonel by the British— Treaty with Spain—Commissioned Colonel by the Spanish—Invited to New York by Washington—Treaty—Commissioned a Brigadier-General by the United States—His Sister, Sophia Durant—His Trials—His Death at Pensacola. The people who have been called Creeks in previous pages, received that name after their settlement in Alabama and Georgia; a name, it is said, they derived from the number and beauty of the streams or creeks of the country they inhabited. Before that they were known as Muscogees according to English, and Othomis or Otomies, according to Castilian orthography. Their original seat was in northern Mexico. They were a warlike and independent tribe, which, though lacking the comparative civilization of the Aztecs and the Tlascalans, had yet received some rays of its light. They had been confederates of the latter in their conflicts for existence with the former. They had afterwards aided in the defence of Tlascala against Cortez. Surviving warriors, however, carried back to their people such accounts of that field of slaughter, and the prowess of the foe, who seemed to be armed with supernatural weapons, that the tribe became panic-stricken, and in a council, resolved upon a flight beyond the reach of the invincible invader. The determination was promptly put into execution. The entire tribe, bearing off its movable effects, took its line of march in an easterly course. After a journey which consumed many months, they found themselves on the head waters of Red river. Reaching that river, and following it, they at length found a suitable place for a settlement, where they felt they were sufficiently remote from the terrible foe who had inspired their flight. There they accordingly established themselves, and remained for several years. Abandoning that settlement, they proceeded northward to the Missouri, thence to the Mississippi, and from there moved to the Ohio. That progress, however, was not by a continuous march, but by periodic advances, interrupted by settlements more or less long, and marked by conflicts with other tribes, in which, according to their traditions, they were always victorious.