1733 Treaty of Savannah
Articles of Friendship and Commerce between the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America and the Chief Men of the nation of the Lower Creeks.
First. The Trustees bearing in their Hearts great Love and Friendship to you the said Head men of the Lower Creek Nation do engage to let their people carry up into your Towns all kinds of Goods fitting to trade in the said Towns at the Rates and Prices settled and agreed upon before you the said Head Men and annexed to this Treaty of Trade and Friendship.
Secondly. The Trustees do by these Articles promise to see Restitution done to any the People of your Towns by the People they shall send among you upon Proof made to the Beloved Man they shall at any time send among you That they who have either committed Murder, Robbery, or have bet or wounded any of your People or any ways injured them in their Crops by their Horses or any other ways whatever and upon such proof the said People shall be tryed and punished according to the English Law.
Thirdly. The Trustees when they find the Hearts of you the said Head Men and your People are not good to the people they shall send among you or that you or your People do not mind this Paper, they will withdraw the English favour from the Town so offending. And that you and your people may have this Chain of Friendship in your minds and linked to your hearts they have made fast their Seal to this Treaty.
Fourthly. We the Head Men of the Coweta and Cussita Towns in behalf of all the Lower Creek Nation being firmly persuaded that He who lives in Heaven and is the occasion of all good things has moved the hearts of the Trustees to send their Beloved men among us for the good of us our Wives and Children and to Instruct us and them in what is Streight do therefore declare that we are glad that their People are come here, and though this Land belongs to us the Lower Creeks yet we that we may be instructed by them do consent and agree that they shall make use of and possess all those Lands which our Nation hath not occasion for to use and we make over unto them their Successors and Assigns all such Lands and Territories as we shall have no occasion to use, Provided always that they upon Settling every New Town shall set out for the use of ourselves and the People of our Nation such Lands as shall be agreed upon between their Beloved Men and the head men of our Nation and that those Lands shall remain to us forever.
Fifthly, We the Head Men do promise for our selves and the People of our Towns that the Traders for the English which shall settle among us shall not be robbed or molested in their Trade in our Nation: and that if it should so happen that any our People should be mad and either kill, wound, beat, or rob any of the English Traders or their People, then we the said Head men of the Towns aforesaid do engage to have justice done to the English and for that purpose to deliver up any of our People who shall be guilty of the crimes aforesaid to be tryed by the English Laws or by the laws of our Nation as the Beloved Man of the Trustees shall think fit. And we further promise not to suffer any of the People of our said Towns to come into the limits of the English Settlements without leave from the English Beloved man and that we will not molest any of the English Traders passing to or from any Nation of Indians in Friendship with the English.
Sixthly. And we the Head Men for ourselves and People do promise to apprehend and secure any Negro or other slave which shall run away from any of the English Settlements to our Nation and to carry them either to this Town or the Savannah or Pallachuckala Garrison and there to deliver him up to the Commander of such Garrison and to be paid by him four Blankets or two Guns or the value thereof in other goods Provided such runaway Negro or other slave shall be taken by us or any of our People on the further side of the Ocony River, and in case such Negro or runaway Slave shall be taken on the hither side of the said River and delivered to the Commander as aforesaid then we understand the pay to be one Gun or the Value thereof. And in case we or our people should kill any such slave for resistance or Running away from us in apprehending him then we are to be paid One Blanket for his head by any Trader we shall carry such Slaves head unto.
Lastly, We promise with streight Hearts and Love to our Brothers the English to give no encouragement to any other White People but themselves to settle among us, and that we will not have any correspondence with the Spaniards or French. And to shew that we, both for the good of ourselves our Wives and Children do firmly promise to keep this Talk in our Hearts as long as the Sun shall shine or the waters run in the Rivers we have each of us set the marks of our Families.
Schedule of Prices of Goods agreed on Annexed.
Two Yards Strouds, Five Buckskins
One Yard Plains, One Buckskin weighing one pound and three quarters or Doeskins answerable
One White Blanket, Five Buckskins or ten Doeskins
One Blue Duffel Blanket, three Buckskins or Six Doeskins
A Gun, ten Buckskins or Twenty Doeskins
A Pistol, Five Buckskins or ten Doeskins
A Gun Lock, four Buckskins or Eight Doeskins
Four measures of Powder, one Buckskin or two Doeskins
Sixty Bullets, one Buckskin or two Doeskins
A White Shirt, two Buckskins or four Doeskins
A Knife, one Doeskin
Eighteen Flints, one Buckskin or two Doeskins
Three yards of Cadiz, one Doeskin
Three yards of Gartering, one Doeskin
A Hoe, two Buckskins or four Doeskins
A falling axe, two Buckskins of four Doeskins
A Large Hatchet, answerable or three Doeskins
A small Hatchet, one Buckskin or two Doeskins
A Brass Kettle, per pound one Buckskin or two Doeskins
Two Yards of Brass wire, a Doeskin
A Looking Glass, one Buckskin or two Doeskins
A Hat, Two Buckskins of four Doeskins
A Leathern Belt, one Buckskin or two Doeskins
One Dozen Buttons, one DoeskinJohn T. Juricek, Georgia Treaties, 1733-1763, pp. 15-17, Vol. XI in Alden T. Faughan (gen. ed.), Early American Indian Documents: Treaties and Laws, 1607-1789 (Frederick Md.: University Publications of America, 1989.