had to clear the ground, to build bridges, to dry up mud-holes and
swamps; and, moreover, they found that they could not enter into
competition with the Cherokees, who having been established there for a
longer time, and raising abundant crops of maize, cotton, and tobacco,
were enabled to sell their provisions at one-half the price which the
white planter wished to realise. The Europeans, of course, preferred to
settle near the Cherokees, from whom they could obtain their Indian corn
at fifty cents a bushel, while the American planters demanded two
dollars and sometimes three. In a short time, the Cherokee district
became thickly settled, possessing good roads, and bridges and ferries
upon every muddy creek; in short, it was, in civilisation, full a
century ahead of all the other eastern establishments of Texas.

The Texian planters from the United States represented to the government
that they would have no chance of cultivating the country and building
eastern cities, as long as the Cherokees were allowed to remain; and,
moreover, they backed their petition with a clause showing that the
minimum price the Cherokee land would be sold at to new comers from the
United States was ten dollars an acre. This last argument prevailed,
and in spite of the opposition of two or three honest men, the greedy
legislators attacked the validity of the acts made during the former
presidency; the Cherokees' grant was recalled, and notice given to them
that they should forth with give up their plantations and retire from
Texas.

To this order, the Cherokees did not deign to give an answer, and, aware
of the character of the Texians, they never attempted to appeal for
justice; but, on the contrary, prepared themselves to defend their
property from any invasion. Seeing them so determined, the Texians'
ardour cooled a little, and they offered the Indians twelve cents an
acre for their land, which proposition was not attended to; and probably
the Cherokees, from the fear which they inspired, would never have been
molested had it not been for an act of the greatest cowardice on the
part of the Texian government, and a most guilty indifference on that of
the United States.

In Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas, labour had fallen so low, that
thousands of individuals had abandoned their farms to become
horse-thieves and negro smugglers. Many among them had gone to sell the
produce of their depredations to the Cherokees, who not only did