These Catawbas were but a miserable remnant of what a century and a half earlier had been one of the most powerful and warlike of the Southern tribes. They once occupied and controlled a large region of country in the two Carolinas, though principally in the Southern province. Their generally accepted western limit was the Catawba River and its tributaries, the region between this river and Broad River being usually denominated a neutral hunting ground for both the Catawbas and the Cherokees. An enmity of long standing had existed between the Catawbas and the Six Nations, and war parties of both nations for many years were wont to make long and devastating forays into each other's territory. The casualties of war and the ravages of infectious diseases had long prior to the beginning of the present century rendered the Catawbas insignificant in numbers and importance. Their territorial possessions had been curtailed to a tract of some fifteen miles square on the Catawba River, on the northern border of South Carolina, and the whites of the surrounding region were generally desirous of seeing them removed from the State. In pursuance therefore of the provisions of the act of 1848 an effort was made by the authorities of the United States to find a home for them west of the Mississippi River. Correspondence was opened with the Cherokee authorities on the subject during the summer of that year, but the Cherokees being unwilling to devote any portion of their domain to the use and occupation of any other tribe without being fully compensated therefor, the subject was dropped. FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES OF THE CHEROKEES. Unusual expenditures are always incident to the removal and establishment of a people in an entirely new country. Domestic dissensions and violence of a widespread character have a tendency to destroy the security of life and property usually felt in a well governed community, and insecurity in this manner becomes the parent of idleness and the destroyer of ambition. Thus from a combination of adverse circumstances the Cherokees since their removal had been subjected to many losses of both an individual and a national character. Their debts had come to be very oppressive, and they were anxiously devising methods of relief. _Proposed cession of the "neutral land."_--At length in the fall of 1852 they began to discuss the propriety of retroceding to the United States the tract of 800,000 acres of additional land purchased by them from the Government under the provisions of the treaty of 1835. This tract was commonly known as the "neutral land," and occupied the southeast corner of what is now the State of Kansas.