The Carolina traders, not being disposed to apply for a permit, nor to subject themselves to such stipulations and restrictions, were disallowed by the Georgia Commissary, who held a trading house among the Creeks.[2] This was resented by them, and their complaints to the Provincial Assembly led to the appointment of the Committee just referred to, and whose conference with Oglethorpe was held at Savannah on the 2d of August, 1736.[3] In their printed report they lay down these fundamental principles.

"The Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and Catawba Indians, at the time of the discovery of this part of America, were the inhabitants of the lands which they now possess, and have ever since been deemed and esteemed the friends and allies of his Majesty's English subjects in this part of the Continent.

They have been treated with as allies, but not as subjects of the crown of Great Britain; they have maintained their own possessions, and preserved their independency; nor does it appear that they have by conquest lost, nor by cession, compact, or otherwise, yielded up or parted with, those rights to which, by the laws of nature and nations, they were and are entitled." [Footnote 1: McCALL, Vol.

I.p.

46.] [Footnote 2: Capt.