chiefs were entertained by the Tammany society, all the members being
in full Indian dress, at which the visitors were much delighted and
responded with an Indian dance, while McGillivray was induced to resign
his commission as colonel in the Spanish service for a commission of
higher grade in the service of the United States. Soon afterward, on
account of some opposition, excited by Bowles, a renegade white man,
he absented himself from his tribe for a time, but was soon recalled,
and continued to rule over the Nation until his death.
McGillivray appears to have had a curious mixture of Scotch shrewdness,
French love of display, and Indian secretiveness. He fixed his
residence at Little Talassee, on the Coosa, a few miles above the
present Wetumpka, Alabama, where he lived in a handsome house with
extensive quarters for his negro slaves, so that his place had
the appearance of a small town. He entertained with magnificence
and traveled always in state, as became one who styled himself
emperor. Throughout the Indian wars he strove, so far as possible,
to prevent unnecessary cruelties, being noted for his kindness
to captives; and his last years were spent in an effort to bring
teachers among his people. On the other hand, he conformed much to
the Indian customs; and he managed his negotiations with England,
Spain, and the United States with such adroitness that he was able
to play off one against the other, holding commissions by turn in the
service of all three. Woodward, who knew of him by later reputation,
asserts positively that McGillivray's mother was of pure Indian
blood and that he himself was without education, his letters having
been written for him by Leslie, of the trading firm with which he
was connected. The balance of testimony, however, seems to leave
no doubt that he was an educated as well as an able man, whatever
may have been his origin. Authorities: Drake, American Indians;
documents in American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 1832; Pickett,
Alabama, 1896; Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography; Woodward,
Reminiscences, p. 59 et passim, 1859.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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