The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 7, July 1903 - April, 1904 Page: 122
xvi, 340 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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122 Tewas Historical Association Quarterly.
warn would be soon supplied by a lasting dwelling, and the bounti-
ful fruits of the field supply the exertions of the chase. The roam-
ing tenant of the woods would soon be the ornament of civil society.
I have no assistant to accompany me with my designs, though I
have many friends in my country; I have much to perform, and but
little beyond personal exertion with which to accomplish it. The
object alone is of sufficient importance to call forth all the exer-
tions of an individual who feels a lively regard for everything
which concerns their happiness."'
Hunter left England for America in the summer of 1824, and
for nearly a year nothing of his movements is known. It may be,
as Bancroft implies,2 that he went immediately to live with the
Cherokees in Texas; but it is more probable that he did not join
these Indians until some time in the summer of 1825.3 What
induced him to abandon his original intention of settling on his
own land near the Quapaws in Arkansas, and to cast his lot
with the Cherokees in Texas, we are left to conjecture.4 After
joining the Cherokees, he soon acquired great influence among
them.
About the time of Hunter's arrival in Texas the Cherokee land
question had reached a crisis; it was in connection with this ques-
tion that he came to the front. We have seen that Fields tried to
obtain lands peaceably from the Mexican government; how he
failed; and was now on the point of using force to make good his
claims. To Hunter, however, the solution of the question appeared
to lie in a different direction. Personally averse to war, he thought
it idle with their small number of warriors and uncertain allies to
resort to force; finding in all that had been done by the Mexican
government no absolute refusal to grant land, he counseled culti-
1John D. Hunter, Memoirs of a Captivity Among the Indians of North
America, from Childhood to the Age of Nineteen (The Third Edition with
additions), 460-462.
2Bancroft, North Mexican States and Texas, II 104, note 9.
8Foote, Texas and the Texans, I 240.
'The Quapaws ceded all their lands in Arkansas to the United States by
a treaty made November 15, 1824, about the time of Hunter's return from
England. English influence, too, may have induced him to select the bor-
der between Mexico and the United States for his experiments.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 7, July 1903 - April, 1904, periodical, 1904; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101030/m1/126/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.