As the Tuscaroras of eastern and middle Carolina were one of the most powerful of the Indian tribes, exercising a dominant sway over much of its undulating and semi-tropical territory early in the last century, so the Cherokees were the most powerful tribe of western Carolina and the adjoining region, preceding and during our Revolutionary war, frequently requiring the strong arm of military force to chastise them and teach them, by dear experience, the superiority and growing destiny of their “pale faced” neighbors.

The native land of the Cherokees was the most inviting and beautiful section of the United States, lying upon the sources of the Catawba and Yadkin rivers—­upon Keowee, Tugaloo, Etowab, Coosa and Flint, on the east and south, and several of the tributaries of the Tennessee, on the west and north.  If to this list be added the names of Hiwassee, Enoree, Tallulah, Swannanoa and Watauga, all streams originating and flowing through this mountainous country in rapid, frolicksome mood, we have an assemblage of musical sounds, (omitting the hard-sounding Flint,) only equaled in beauty and soft cadence upon the ear, by the grand and picturesque scenery with which they are surrounded.

According to Adair, one of the earliest settlers of South Carolina, and who wrote of the four principal tribes, (Cherokees, Shawnees, Chickasaws and Choctaws,) in 1775, “the Cherokees derive their name from Cheera, or fire, which is their reputed lower heaven, and hence they call their magi, Cheera-tah-gee, men possessed of the divine fire.”

Within twenty miles of old Fort Loudon, built on the Tennessee in 1756, says the same authority, “there is a great plenty of whetstones for razors, of red, white and black colors.  The silver mines are so rich that by digging about ten yards (thirty feet) deep, some desperate vagrants found at sundry times, so much rich ore as to enable them to counterfeit dollars to a great amount, a horse load of which was detected in passing for the purchase of negroes at Augusta.”  “A tradition, says Dr. Ramsey, (Annals of Tennessee,) still continues of the existence of the silver mine mentioned by Adair.”

After the whites had settled near, and began to encroach upon the “Over-Hill Towns,” their inhabitants withheld all knowledge of the mines from the traders, fearing their cupidity for the precious metals might lead to their appropriation by others, and the ultimate expulsion of the natives from the country.  The history of the Cherokees is closely identified with that of the early settlements of the frontiers of the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee, and all suffered from their vigorous and frequent hostile and murderous incursions.  They were formidable for their numbers, and passionate fondness for war.  They were the mountaineers of Aboriginal America, and like all other inhabitants of an Alpine region, cherished a deep affection for their country, and