The Cherokee Chief

The White Rose of the Saluda by J. Stanley Henderson (1887). This frontier historical romance, set in 1756 South Carolina, concerns the Crawley family—William, his wife, and their children Matthew and Hester—living on the frontier near Cherokee lands. As war between England and France escalates, concern grows that French traders will incite the Cherokees to attack English settlements. The peaceful Cherokees, described as civilized and numbered at six thousand warriors, are sought as allies or neutrals. Saloueh, a wealthy, eloquent young Cherokee chief and warrior, persistently courts Hester (the "White Rose"), comparing his love to an eagle. Hester firmly declines him, bound to Warren Stafford, an English hunter. When Stafford appears and kills an eagle—the bird Saloueh had used as a love metaphor—the chief covers his face in apparent anguish at this apparent omen.