year 1680.[1] They were at the same time at war with the Savannahs, by whom they were shortly after totally defeated and driven away.[2] The Savannahs remained in the province, and, according to Archdale's testimony, were, in 1695, "good friends and useful neighbours of the English." They are also mentioned by Lawson, who was in Charleston in 1700, as "a famous, warlike, friendly nation, living to the south of Ashley River." The name of Savannahs, most probably derived from that of the river on which they lived, and which is of Spanish origin, is there dropped. Instead of them we find only the Yamassees, occupying the same seats, mentioned uniformly as having been, from the first settlement, friendly to the English and hostile to the Spaniards of Florida; and, as no mention whatever is made of a war with the Savannahs, or that they had been expelled from the province, it may be inferred that they and the Yamassees were the same people, and the last their true Indian name. That of their principal town was Poketalico, which belongs also to a tributary stream of the Great Kanhawa. We have no specimen of their language; but the name of Coosa Hatchie,[3] or Coosa River, is certainly Muskhogee, and renders it probable that they were a tribe of that nation.
The Yamassees had assisted the English in two expeditions, carried on by Governor Moore against the Spaniards of St. Augustine and the Indians living between the rivers Altamaha and Savannah, and again, as late as 1712-1713, against the Tuscaroras.[4] In 1715, they suddenly attacked the colony, massacred a number of inhabitants unaware of any danger, and involved South Carolina in a calamitous and dangerous war. They are said to have been excited by the Spaniards, to whom they had previously been remarkably hostile. Subsequent circumstances render the suggestion probable. But other causes, of which the principal was beyond doubt the progress and extension of the settlements, must have cooperated in forming the general combination, not only of the Yamassees and of the Creeks and Appalachians from beyond the Savan- nah, but also of the Cherokees, the Catawbas, the Congarees, and of all the tribes as far as Cape Fear River. These
