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NEW YORK:

WILLIAM VAN NORDEN PRINTER,

NO. 39 WILLIAM STREET.

INTRODUCTION.

THE Georgia Historical Society having, for some years, been in possession of several manuscript volumes of the late Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, the earliest agent of the United States for Indian Affairs, their examination and publication by the Society, became an object of interest. Accordingly, they were referred to a committee, whose report attested their value, as materials for the early history of Georgia, and especially for that of the confederacy of the Creek or Muscogee Indians, who formerly owned and swayed, the southwestern portion of the State. That report recommended the immediate publication of one of these manuscripts, which the author has called "A Sketch of the Creek Country in the years 1798 and 1799." As a member of the Society, I proposed to superintend this publication, and to defray its expense, as the resources of the Society were already anticipated by the erection of a Library and Historical Hall. The Society did me the honor to accept my proposition.

The Georgia Historical Society has now been in existence for nine years. During that period, it has published two volumes of Collections and Transactions, and the present publication will constitute the first part of the third volume.

The introduction to the first volume, thus alludes to these manuscripts of Mr. Hawkins: "In relation to the department of Indian history, a department so interesting in itself, and so intimately blended with the early settlement of this State, the Society has obtained some very rare and valuable manuscripts, which contain long and minute accounts of the manners and customs of the Indians; proceedings of Indian agents; treaties with various tribes; all greatly augmenting the materials of aboriginal history."

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