Governor Glen took this inauspicious moment to hold high festival
with the Cherokees. It was the last year of his administration
and apparently he hoped to win promotion to some higher post by
showing his achievements for the fur trade and in the matter of
new land acquired. He plied the Cherokees with drink and induced
them to make formal submission and to cede all their lands to the
Crown. When the chiefs recovered their sobriety, they were filled
with rage at what had been done, and they remembered how the
French had told them that the English intended to make slaves of
all the Indians and to steal their lands. The situation was
complicated by another incident. Several Cherokee warriors
returning from the Ohio, whither they had gone to fight for the
British, were slain by frontiersmen. The tribe, in accordance
with existing agreements, applied to Virginia for redress--but
received none.
There was thus plenty of powder for an explosion. Governor
Lyttleton, Glen's successor, at last flung the torch into the
magazine. He seized, as hostages, a number of friendly chiefs who
were coming to Charleston to offer tokens of good will and forced
them to march under guard on a military tour which the Governor
was making (1759) with intent to overawe the savages.
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