94 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. In the year 173*2, when Georgia was first settled, the terri- tory of the Creek confederacy, including at that time the Semiooles, was bounded on the west by Mobile River, and by the ridge that separates the waters of the Tombigbee from those of the Alabama, the ordinary though contested boundary between them and the Choctaws* ; on the north by the Chero- kees ; on the northeast by the Savannah ; on every other quarter by the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. It is believed that at the end of the seventeenth century, the Creeks occupied, south of the thirty-fourth degree of north latitude, the eastern as well as the western banks of the Savannah. It is not possible to ascertain when the confederacy was con- solidated to that extent. During the forty preceding years, we find the Indians between Savannah River and St. Au- gustine, on various occasions, divided amongst themselves and taking adverse parts in the conflicts between the Spaniards of Florida and the English settlers of South Carolina. It may be, that, as has been seen recently, the contending European powers drew to their respective sides different portions of the confederacy. But we cannot ascertain whether, by the names of Appalachians and Creeks, both of which occur in Hewatt and other early writers, distinct tribes are designated. It is proba- ble that the appellation of Appalachians was geographical and applied to the Indians living on the Appalachicola, or Chatahoo- chee River, as the name of Creeks seems to have been given from an early time to those inhabiting generally the country adjacent to the river Savannah. The Creek confederacy now consists of several tribes speak- ing different languages. The Muskhogees are the prevailing nation, amounting to more than seven eighths of the whole. The Hitchittees who reside on the Chatahoochee and Flint rivers, though a distinct tribe, speak a dialect of the Muskho- gee. The Seminoles or Isty-semole, (" wild men,") who inhabit the peninsula of Florida, are pure Muskhogees, who have gradually detached themselves from the confederacy, but who were still considered as members of it, till the United States treated with them as with an independent nation. The name of Seminoles was given to them, on account of their being principally hunters and attending but little to agriculture. A
- According to Adair, the river Coosa was the boundary in his
time.
