What had been a happy people dwelling with full barns and populous wigwams became in a night a desolation.

Our wives and children were slain or carried captive, and on every Cherokee belt hung the scalps of my warriors.

Some fled westwards to our nation, but they were few that lived, and the tribe of Shalah went out like a torch in a roaring river.
"I slew many men that night, for the gods of my fathers guided my arm.
Death I sought, but could not find it; and by and by I was alone in the woods, with twenty scars and a heart as empty as a gourd.

Then I turned my steps to the rising sun and the land of the white man, for there was no more any place for me in the councils of my own people.
"All this was many moons ago, and since then I have been a wanderer among strangers.

While I reigned in my valley I heard of the white man's magic and of the power of his gods, and I longed to prove them.
Now I have learned many things which were hid from the eyes of our oldest men.