Makers and Romance of Alabama HistoryRiley, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)
History
Makers and Romance of Alabama History
Riley, B. F. (Benjamin Franklin)
Alabama -- Biography; Alabama -- History
The result of the meeting, which lasted for hours, was that a deputation
of chiefs, together with Colonel McGillivray, would accompany Willett on
horseback to New York. Arrangements for transporting the baggage on horses
were made, and the day appointed for the departure. Accordingly, Colonels
Willett and McGillivray, a nephew of Colonel McGillivray, and a body of
Indian chiefs filed out of Little Tallassee, near Wetumpka, on the morning
of June 1, 1790, for the distant capital. Along the way the party was
reinforced by other chiefs on horseback, who were in wait for the arrival
of Willett and McGillivray. At Stone Mountain, Georgia, the two great
chiefs of the Cowetas and Cussetas joined the party. Onward the procession
moved, exciting much interest, and in certain quarters, not a little
sensation. On reaching the home of General Andrew Pickens, on the Seneca
River, in South Carolina, they were received with the utmost cordiality by
this distinguished gentleman, who arranged for more comfortable means of
travel. Here the party fell in with the Tallassee king, Chinnobe, the
"great Natchez warrior," and others. Henceforth the Indians rode in
wagons, excepting the four who were the bodyguard of Colonel McGillivray,
who accompanied him on horseback, while Colonel Willett rode alone in a
sulky. At Richmond and at Fredericksburg the party halted to rest, at
which places much consideration was shown to Colonel McGillivray.
Distinguished honor was shown the entire party at Philadelphia, where they
were entertained for three days. Boarding a sloop at Elizabethtown, New
Jersey, they were finally landed in New York.
Now began a series of demonstrations that lasted through a number of days.
The sachems of Tammany Hall turned out in full regalia, met the deputation
at the water's edge in lower New York, which was at that time about all
there was of the city, marched up Wall Street, then the principal
thoroughfare of the city, past the federal building, where congress was in
session, then to the home of the President, with that pomp and ceremony of
which Washington was very fond. Each member of the deputation was
presented to the President, while the eyes of the enchanted chiefs fairly
glittered with delight as they unceremoniously gazed on the scenes about
them in the mansion of the President. Washington could not outdo Colonel
McGillivray in conventionality in the exchange of greeting. Both were men
of splendid physique, McGillivray being just six feet high, with broad
shoulders, well proportioned, and as straight as a flagstaff. From the
home of the President the procession filed to the office of the secretary
of war, thence to the mansion of Governor Clinton, all of which being
over, they were marched for entertainment to the principal hostelry of
the city, the City Tavern, where a banquet was spread for the unique
deputation, when the functions of the first day were closed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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