When Robertson wrote to him of the
Creek and Cherokee depredations, with a hint that the Spanish
might have some responsibility in the matter, Miro replied by
offering the Cumberlander a safe home on Spanish territory with
freedom of religion and no taxes. He disclaimed stirring up the
Indians. He had, in fact, advised Mr McGillivray, chief of the
Creeks, to make peace. He would try again what he could do with
Mr. McGillivray. As to the Cherokees, they resided in a very
distant territory and he was not acquainted with them; he might
have added that he did not need to be: his friend McGillivray was
the potent personality among the Southern tribes.
In Alexander McGillivray, Miro found a weapon fashioned to his
hand. If the Creek chieftain's figure might stand as the symbol
of treachery, it is none the less one of the most picturesque and
pathetic in our early annals. McGillivray, it will be remembered,
was the son of Adair's friend Lachlan McGillivray, the trader,
and a Creek woman whose sire had been a French officer. A
brilliant and beautiful youth, he had given his father a pride in
him which is generally denied to the fathers of sons with Indian
blood in them. The Highland trader had spared nothing in his
son's education and had placed him, after his school days, in the
business office of the large trading establishment of which he
himself was a member.
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