The Cherokee had agreed to furnish four hundred warriors to cooperate
against the French in the north, but before Fort Loudon had been
completed it was very evident that they had repented of their promise,
as their great council at Echota ordered the work stopped and the
garrison on the way to turn back, plainly telling the officer in charge
that they did not want so many white people among them. Ata-kullakulla,
hitherto supposed to be one of the stanchest friends of the English,
was now one of the most determined in the opposition. It was in
evidence also that they were in constant communication with the
French. By much tact and argument their objections were at last
overcome for a time, and they very unwillingly set about raising the
promised force of warriors. Major Andrew Lewis, who superintended the
building of the fort, became convinced that the Cherokee were really
friendly to the French, and that all their professions of friendship
and assistance were "only to put a gloss on their knavery." The fort
was finally completed, and, on his suggestion, was garrisoned with
a strong force of two hundred men under Captain Demeré. [83] There
was strong ground for believing that some depredations committed
about this time on the heads of Catawba and Broad rivers, in North
Carolina, were the joint work of Cherokee and northern Indians. [84]
Notwithstanding all this, a considerable body of Cherokee joined the
British forces on the Virginia frontier. [85]
Fort Du Quesne was taken by the American provincials under Washington,
November 25, 1758. Quebec was taken September 13, 1759, and by the
final treaty of peace in 1763 the war ended with the transfer of
Canada and the Ohio valley to the crown of England. Louisiana had
already been ceded by France to Spain.
Although France was thus eliminated from the Indian problem, the
Indians themselves were not ready to accept the settlement. In the
north the confederated tribes under Pontiac continued to war on their
own account until 1765. In the South the very Cherokee who had acted
as allies of the British against Fort Du Quesne, and had voluntarily
offered to guard the frontier south of the Potomac, returned to rouse
their tribe to resistance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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