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ments all around them; but they are so much reduced by a long war with the Five Nations, that they could not muster one hundred and fifty warriors. The Creeks inhabit a fine country on the south-west, between four and five hundred miles distant from Charlestown, and the number of both the Upper and Lower nations does not exceed two thousand gun-men. The Chickesaw towns lie about six hundred miles due west from Charlestown, but the nation cannot send three hundred warriors to the field, owing to the incessant wars which they have carried on against the French, by which their number has been greatly diminished. The Choctaws are at least seven hundred miles west-south-west from Charlestown, and have between three and four thousand gun-men; and as their settlements border on West Florida, the greatest part of them till the late peace remained allies of France. But as these artful and insinuating rivals were removed out of the way, and the British government had adopted prudent plans of civilizing and managing those barbarous nations, the colonies for the future were in a great measure freed from all apprehensions of danger from them. I shall therefore conclude my observations respecting Indians with a speech of Mr. Stuart the superintendant, delivered at a general congress held in Mobile, at which Governor Johnstone and many British officers and soldiers attended. For as he was so well acquainted with the humours, tempers and characters of these tribes, this speech, in which is exhibited a good specimen of the language and manner proper for addressing barbarous nations, may not be unworthy of the reader's attention.
[Sidenote] Mr. Stuart's first speech to the Indians at Mobile.
"Friends and brothers, the Supreme Being who made the world and all its inhabitants, has been pleased to permit many great warriors of the British and Indian nations to meet together in peace. The great King, who is the father of all white people in Great Britain and America, and defends them from danger, this day stretches o