The Virginia Gazette

Charlestown (South Carolina) July 27.

The following is a full account of the barbarous murder lately perpetrated on two of the Cherokee Indians: When the Cherokees were returning home from the late treaty at Augusta a party of them encamped on the north side of Broad River, two of whom the next morning, without their guns or match coats, crossed the river, and went to the house of one John Collins, who at that time was from home. His son Hezekiah Collins received them, seemingly in a friendly manner, and ordered a woman in the house to set victuals before them, which being done, and the Indians having begun to eat, the said Collins, without the least provocation given, took the opportunity of shooting them both at one shot. Not long after, the father came home, who assisted his son in conveying them to the river, into which, after tying them together by the necks with a rope, and a large stone at the end thereof, they sunk them. Their companions, after waiting for them a considerable time, set off for Toogoloo; they waited at home about three days with great impatience, hourly expecting their friends, when they began to be very uneasy, and to threaten vengeance. An Indian woman informed the white traders what was meditating against them, who had the good fortune to make their escape in the night. Mr. Cameron, deputy superintendent of Indian affairs, has dispatched messengers to the Indians, informing them that every step shall be taken to apprehend the murderer, who, on conviction, shall be punished with death. The father is apprehended, and Mr. Cameron has offered a reward of two hundred pounds for apprehending the son, and several parties are sent out after him. The people in the back settlements are much alarmed, while, at the same time, many of them applaud Collins's action. The warriors and headmen of the lower towns have informed the messengers that they will allow a reasonable time for apprehending the murderer, but that they expect justice to be done agreeable to treaty. The Cherokees look upon this murder as peculiarly aggravating to them, as it was committed in a house built on lands which belonged to them immediately before the present cession.