Cherokee Lands.- Gen. R. M. Saunders, who we a few weeks since mentioned, had repaired, under a commission from the Governor of this state, to Haywood County, to enter into contracts with divers Cherokee Indians, for a relinquishment of their claims to certain reservations of lands, some of which have been sold by the state returned last week to his residence in this town. We learn that General has been successful in contracting for the extinguishment, at moderate price, of the Indian claims to twenty-six of these reservations, and entered into conditional contracts for the purchase of fifteen more-comprising all the reservations to which the Indians were enabled to establish valid claims.- These contracts are to be submitted to the Generally [sic] Assembly, for their ratification, before they can become binding on the state. But; from the favourable [sic] terms upon which they have been entered into, we presume the Legislature will not hesitate to ratify them. --Western Carolinian 12th Aug.

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Creek Indians- We have understood that, in consequence of the dissatisfaction expressed by many of the Creek Indians who had subscribed their names and agreed to form a part of the emigrating party, a disturbance has taken place among them, and rendered it necessary for the Government to take some precautionary measures. Capt. Wager's Company of the 4th Regiment has been ordered to repair immediately to the scene of disturbance, and will leave here in a few days. It is supposed the disturbance has been created by Indians opposed to emigration, and some white persons who have influence in the nation.

Pensacola Argus, 29th ult.

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From the People's Friend

Confessions of a Rum Drinker.

No one who has not experienced the effects of habit, when appearing under the form of vice, can judge of its absolute power, nor of the insidious advance it makes, from the moment when we first become acquainted with it, to that when we have become slaves to its power, and completely subjugated to a tyrant, whose influence increases the longer we are governed by him. We do not at once become vicious. We are led on gradually from one step to another; we go deeper and deeper, until we are involved too seriously oftentimes to be extricated.

I pass by the history of my former life. Suffice it to say at the present time, that at the age of 25 I was the father of a family, and in circumstances of prosperity. Fortune had, indeed, denied me wealth, and I was compelled to be dependant upon my own labour [sic] for a livelihood;-yet that would have afforded me enough to live easy, had I properly improved the privileges in my power. But, alas, how keen is the agony I feel, when I think of the past! Its horrors and realities are before me; and I see myself again (as I was then) a loathed and hated wretch, for whom affection had lost all feeling-for whom life had no joy. I was then a slave to intemperance.

I contracted the habit as thousands have done, and as thousands do now. I began by little, but repeated indulgence made way for new efforts to arouse the dormant and paralyzed energies of my frame. One step made way for another. The oftener I raised the accursed cup to my polluted lips, the oftener, I burned for it again. Did I think then I would be the hated, sinful wretch I soon became? No- Though I saw thousands around me who were sunk by the same destroying spirit into the most abject misery, yet I only pitied them, and did not fear that such would be my fate, for I trusted in my own prudence, my own sense of moral rectitude, little dreaming that I was going on imperceptibly to the same grade of depravity, and that habit was every day throwing around me allurements which, in a little while human power could scarcely destroy. Yet so it was and it was infatuation that hid from my view the precipice I stood on.- Oh what an awful fall is such a one! But let me finish my history.

I was at this time in the bloom of life. Every thing might have been beauty and happiness around me, for God had blessed be infinitely more than I deserved- infinitely more than even now, a redeemed man, I dare to ask. My circumstances were favorable. My employment afforded enough to supply the wants of my family, and I could even allow them to indulge in some of the luxuries of life. But, alas, how soon was I doomed to see these fair prospects wither.

As it generally happens in cases like mine, the companions with whom I associated were, like myself, fond of frequenting taverns- those great marts vice and immorality. To such places I often went, when my daily labor was finished, and spent there many thoughtless hour in riot and debauchery. Yet I was not so far gone iniquity as not to feel now ' then, when reflected upon my life, a secret sting of conscience. Unfortunately, however, it had but little effect upon me. Reason ceased to exercise her wonted power. Every day found me involved more and more, and it was not long before the taverns and intemperate companions had more attraction than my innocent and suffering family. The consequence was, my business was neglected, my credit was lost, and poverty and distress soon followed after.

In this way I went on, step after step, until at length I became a confirmed toper. I made myself an object of scorn and derision. The finger of shame was pointed at me as I walked the streets. But need I add any thing more to the picture? Every one knows what a wretched, loathsome object a drunkard is. He has made himself worse than a brute-sunken in depravity, lost, lost to all sense of moral feeling. And need I say, too, that all shame and disgrace heaped upon me by the world, failed to bring a bout a change of habits, when the tears and entreaties of a beloved wife, and the misery and want of my innocent children, had no redeeming influence over my heart? Oh what a state of cold, adamantine insensibility! I had been the possessor of feeling, but every fibre of my heart was palsied. Vice had set up his throne there, and it was all desolate and drear.

I pass by the five long years of my moral death. I do not love to swell upon the subject. Let me only say, that during that period I was an outcast from society. My wife and children were taken from me, and generously supported by a relative. Every thing I owned was seized upon by my creditors, and my property was lost forever.

I am now an altered man. It has cost me many a struggle to break off from the pernicious habit; but, by the blessing of God, I am redeemed, and restored once more to myself and to the world.

Let him remember, who puts the glass to his lips, that vice steals imperceptibly upon its victims; that security consists, not in meeting, but in avoiding temptation; and that no one who is in the habit of drinking, be it ever so little, can safely say, he will not be, in a few years, what I was?

M.

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From the N. Y. Observer

INTERESTING TO DRUNKARDS.

In the latter part of July, Samuel Wager, about 70 years of age, was found dead at Chester, N. J. sitting with his back against a fence,- in a state of putrefaction and covered with worms,-having in one hand a rum bottle, and in the other a cork!! He was an old veteran in the service, and had destroyed cast quantities of intoxicating liquor-that cruel enemy of man. He was not without his reward; for he reached the highest honors to which the drunkard seems to aspire, viz. the poor-house, and to die drunk, unlamented and alone in the open field, exposed to the ravages of vermin, a sight too appalling for human nature!!- What encouragement is this to the thousands who are following in the same steps!

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