His overhanging brows
made more striking his very large and luminous dark eyes. He bore
himself with great dignity; his voice was soft, his manner
gentle. He might have been supposed to be some Latin courtier but
for the barbaric display of his dress and his ornaments. He
possessed extraordinary personal magnetism, and his power
extended beyond the Creek nation to the Choctaws and Chickasaws
and the Southern Cherokees. He had long been wooed by the
Louisiana authorities, but there is no evidence that he had made
alliance with them prior to the Revolution.
* Probably about 1741 or 1742. Some writers give 1739 and others
1746. His father landed in Charleston, Pickett ("History of
Alabama") says, in 1735, and was then only sixteen.
Early in the war he joined the British, received a colonel's
commission, and led his formidable Creeks against the people of
Georgia. When the British were driven from the Back Countries,
McGillivray, in his British uniform, went on with the war. When
the British made peace, McGillivray exchanged his British uniform
for a Spanish one and went on with the war. In later days, when
he had forced Congress to pay him for his father's confiscated
property and had made peace, he wore the uniform of an American
Brigadier General; but he did not keep the peace, never having
intended to keep it.
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