SE-QUO-YAH.

In the year 1768 a German peddler, named George Gist, left the
settlement of Ebenezer, on the lower Savannah, and entered the
Cherokee Nation by the northern mountains of Georgia. He had two
pack-horses laden with the petty merchandise known to the Indian
trade. At that time Captain Stewart was the British Superintendent
of the Indians in that region. Besides his other duties, he
claimed the right to regulate and license such traffic. It was an
old bone of contention. A few years before, the Governor and
Council of the colony of Georgia claimed the sole power of such
privilege and jurisdiction. Still earlier, the colonial
authorities of South Carolina assumed it. Traders from Virginia,
even, found it necessary to go round by Carolina and Georgia, and
to procure licenses. Augusta was the great centre of this
commerce, which in those days was more extensive than would be now
believed. Flatboats, barges, and pirogues floated the bales of
pelts to tide-water. Above Augusta, trains of pack-horses,
sometimes numbering one hundred, gathered in the furs, and carried
goods to and from remote regions. The trader immediately in
connection with the Indian hunter expected to make one thousand
per cent. The wholesale dealer made several hundred. The
governors, councilors, and superintendents made all they could. It
could scarcely be called legitimate commerce. It was a grab game.

Our Dutch friend Gist was, correctly speaking, a contrabandist. He
had too little influence or money to procure a license, and too
much enterprise to refrain because he lacked it. He belonged to a
class more numerous than respectable, although it would be a good
deal to say that there was any virtue in yielding to these petty