Judging by this specimen of his athletic training to feats of prowess,
Colannah Gigagei might boast to the "Goweno" of South Carolina. It was
not, however, merely in muscle that the young captive excelled. As Abram
Varney thought of certain sterling manly traits of the highest type
which this poor waif had developed here in this incongruous environment,
one might suppose from the sheer force of heredity, he shook his head
silently, and his eyes clouded, the pulses of Charlestown still beating
in his veins. For he was wont to leave for months the treasures of his
trading-house, not merely a matter of trinkets and beads, but powder,
lead, and firearms, sufficient for accoutring an expedition for the
"war-path," and great store of cloths, cutlery, paints, in the charge of
this valiant gamester of chungke, stanch alike against friend and foe,
as safely as if its wealth were beneath his own eye. So insecure had
become the Cherokee allegiance to the government that it was impossible
now under its uncertain protection to retain white men from the colonies
here in his employ as agents and under-traders, or, indeed, those whose
interest and profits amounted to an ownership in a share of the stock.
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