The Cherokees, however, had so firmly "shaked hands"
with their Secretary's admired discourse that they threatened to
take the warpath if their beloved man were annoyed, and the
soldiers went home without him--to the great hurt of English
prestige. The Cherokee empire had now endured for five years and
was about to rise "into a far greater state of puissance by the
acquisition of the Muskohge, Chocktaw and the Western Mississippi
Indians," when fortunately for the history of British
colonization in America, "an accident befell the Secretary."
It is in connection with this "accident" that the reader suspects
the modest but resourceful Adair of conniving with Fate. Since
the military had failed and the Government dared not again employ
force, other means must be found; the trader provided them. The
Secretary with his Cherokee bodyguard journeyed south on his
mission to the Creeks. Secure, as he supposed, he lodged
overnight in an Indian town. But there a company of English
traders took him into custody, along with his bundle of
manuscripts presumably intended for the French commandant at Fort
Alabama, and handed him over to the Governor of Georgia, who
imprisoned him and kept him out of mischief till he died.
As a Briton, Adair contributed to Priber's fate; and as such he
approves it.
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