At about the age of seventeen Alexander had
become a chieftain in his mother's nation; and doubtless it is he
who appears shortly afterwards in the Colonial Records as the
White Leader whose influence is seen to have been at work for
friendship between the colonists and the tribes. When the
Revolutionary War broke out, Lachlan McGillivray, like many of
the old traders who had served British interests so long and so
faithfully, held to the British cause. Georgia confiscated all
his property and Lachlan fled to Scotland. For this, his son
hated the people of Georgia with a perfect hatred. He remembered
how often his father's courage alone had stood between those same
people and the warlike Creeks. He could recall the few days in
1760 when Lachlan and his fellow trader, Galphin, at the risk of
their lives had braved the Creek warriors--already painted for
war and on the march--and so had saved the settlements of the
Back Country from extermination. He looked upon the men of
Georgia as an Indian regards those who forget either a blood gift
or a blood vengeance. And he embraced the whole American nation
in his hatred for their sakes.
In 1776 Alexander McGillivray was in his early thirties-the exact
date of his birth is uncertain.* He had, we are told, the tall,
sturdy, but spare physique of the Gael, with a countenance of
Indian color though not of Indian cast.
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