negotiations and after the receipt of a present of goods, the
Catawbas agreed to send forty warriors to aid Virginia within
forty days; and the Cherokees, in return for presents and
Virginia's promise to contribute her proportion toward the
erection of a strong fort, undertook to send four hundred
warriors within forty days, "as soon as the said fort shall be
built." Virginia and North Carolina thus wisely cooperated to
"straighten the path" and "brighten the chain" between the white
and the red men, in important treaties which Have largely escaped
the attention of historians."

On May 25, 1756, a conference was held at Salisbury between King
Heygler and warriors of the Catawba nation on the one side and
Chief Justice Henley, doubtless attended by Captain Waddell and
his frontier company, on the other. King Heygler, following the
lead set by the Cherokees, petitioned the Governor of North
Carolina to send the Catawbas some ammunition and to "build us a
fort for securing our old men, women and children when we turn
out to fight the Enemy on their coming." The chief justice
assured the King that the Catawbas would receive a necessary
supply of ammunition (one hundred pounds of gunpowder and four
hundred pounds of lead were later sent them) and promised to urge
with the governor their request to have a fort built as soon as
possible. Pathos not unmixed with dry humor tinges the eloquent
appeal of good old King Heygler, ever the loyal friend of the
whites, at this conference:

"I desire a stop may be put to the selling of strong Liquors by
the White people to my people especially near the Indian nation.
IF THE WHITE PEOPLE MAKE STRONG DRINK, LET THEM. SELL IT TO ONE