Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 35
they catch the ball and are enabled to throw it a great distance, when
not prevented by the opposite party, whose effort it is to intercept its
passage. The goal is some five hundred yards in extent. At each end of
it, they fix into the ground two long, bending poles, which are three
yards apart .at the bottom, but reach much farther outward at the top.
The party who succeeds in throwing the ball over these, scores one; but
if the ball goes, underneath, it is cast back and played for as usual. The
gamesters were equal in number on both sides; and at the beginning of
every course of the ball they throw it high in the center of the ground
and in .a direct line between the two goals. When the crowd of players
prevents the one who catches the ball from throwing it directly in front,
he .commonly sends it in the right course by an artful, sharp twirl. They
are so exceedingly expert in this manly exercise that, between the goals,
the ball is mostly flying the different ways, by the force of the playing-
sticks, without falling to the ground; for they are not allowed to catch
it with the hand. In the heat and excitement of the game, the arms and
legs of the players are sometimes broken. The celebration of this game
is preceded by fastings and night-watches, by those who are about to
engage in it. They turn out to the ball-ground, in a long row, painted
white, and whooping as if Pluto's prisoners had all broken loose. The
leader then begins a religious invocation, which is joined in by his com
panions. Each party strives to gain the twentieth ball, which they
esteem a favorite divine gift." From the foregoing description it will
be observed that while the modern game of baseball differs materially
from the primitive game played by the North American Indians, the
equally popular game of football preserves many of the savage charac
teristics of its original prototype.
But the primitive inhabitants of the state at the time of Oglethorpe's
arrival upon the bluffs at Savannah were Indians." These, broadly speak
ing, were divided into four great tribes or nations: The Creeks, the
Cherokees, the Chickasaws, and the Choctaws. It is only with the first
two, however, the Creeks and the Cherokees, that Georgia's history is
to any great extent concerned. The Chickasaws and the Choctaws re
sided in the extreme western part of Georgia and did not, therefore,
come in contact with the early settlements.
The Cherokees were the prehistoric mountaineers, dwelling on either
side of the lower Appalachians. At the outbreak of the Revolution,,
these Indians occupied a domain embracing 40,000 square miles. The
chief towns of the nation were in East Tennessee, but its territory em
braced portions of all the adjacent states, including Georgia, North Caro
lina, South Carolina, Alabama, Virginia and Kentucky. On the eve of
the final deportation, most of the Cherokee lands were in upper Georgia
and East Tennessee, while the capital of the nation was at New Echota,
in what is now Gordon County, Georgia.
The Creeks, or Muscogees, comprised a great confederacy to which
the Lower Creeks of Georgia, the Upper Creeks of Alabama, and the
Seminoles of Florida, all belonged. The Yamacraws, with whom Ogle-
thorpe treated on his arrival at Savannah, were a detached tribe of Creek
Indians, at whose head was the great chief, Tomo-chi-chi, of whom there