[603] On June 18, 1718, Robert Johnson, governor of Carolina, reported that he had made peace “with several nations, particularly the great nation of the Creeks who live to the southward near St. Augustine,” and added that “the treaties with them are very precarious so long as the French from Morels and the Spaniards from St. Augustine live and have intercourse amongst them, and do continually by presents and furnishing them with arms and ammunition and buying the slaves and plunder, encourage them to war upon us.” _Public Records of South Carolina_, 1717–1720, vii, p. 135; _B. P. R. O._, _B. T._, x, p. 2157. [604] Margry, _op. cit._, iv, p. 517. [605] _Ibid._, iv, p. 578. [606] _Ibid._, iv, p. 544; _Report concerning Canadian Archives_, 1905, i, p. 523. [607] French, _op. cit._, pt. iii, p. 32. [608] _Ibid._, new series, i, p. 86. [609] _Ibid._, new series, i, p. 97; pt. iii, p. 33. [610] _Ibid._, pt. iii, p. 34. [611] _Ibid._, new series, p. 123; Margry, _op. cit._, v, p. 506. The slaves acquired on this special occasion were from the Shawnee nation, and had been taken by a combined force of Chickasaw, Yazoo and Natchez. [612] Rivers, _op. cit._, p. 132. [613] Hewat, _op. cit._, i, p. 78. In their letter to West, telling him of their sanction of his appointment, the proprietors cautioned him against appointing any deputies, including Mathews, Moore and Middleton, who might belong to the opposing party. _Calendar of State Papers_, colonial series, xii, p. 11. West became governor in 1674. [614] Oldmixon, _The British Empire in America_, i, p. 337; Grahame, _op. cit._, ii, p. 115. Yeamans prospered so well in the traffic in negroes with Barbadoes that, in 1684, he returned to his plantation and the office of governor was restored to West. [615] Rivers, _op. cit._, p. 126. [616] West was a member of this commission. [617] Chalmers, _Political Annals of the Province of Carolina_, in Carroll, _op. cit._, ii, p. 314. [618] _Public Records of South Carolina_, i, 1663–1684, p. 141; _B. P. R. O._, _Colonial Entry Book_, xx, p. 184. [619] _Calendar of State Papers_, colonial series, xi, pp. 508–510. [620] The colonial officials persistently denied that they stirred up the tribes to make war upon each other so as to obtain captives for slaves. Such letters and statements of denial are found in _North Carolina Colonial Records_, ii, p. 252. (A letter of April 5, 1716); _Journal of the Board of Trade, Public Record Office_, Co. 391, 25 R., xvii, p. 175 (Testimony rendered July 16. 1715). The government officials claimed that the Indian outbreaks against the English were caused, not by any action of the officials in stirring them up to obtain slaves, but rather by the abuses practiced upon them by the traders and by the inability of the colonial government to control the traders. _Journal of the Board of Trade, Public Record Office_, Co. 391, 25 R., xvii, pp. 168, 169, 176, 191.