In August 1837 after travelling along the Mississippi , Ohio , and Tennessee Rivers , Featherstonhaugh joined with Special Government Agent John Mason , Jr. to attend the Cherokee National Council at Red Clay , TN at the beginning of the crisis that eventually led to the Cherokee Removal , sometimes called the " Trail of Tears " . He spent more than a month with these Indians , and was an eyewitness of the resistance of Principal Chief John Ross and the Cherokee people to the fraudulent Treaty of New Echota . The public purpose of his visit was to inspect for the Federal government the geology of the mountainous regions of Georgia and North Carolina where gold had been discovered , but there was also another covert mission . In his memoirs , Featherstonhaugh described a pleasant encounter with a learned Welsh-born Baptist missionary Rev. Evan Jones , a fellow Britisher residing among the Cherokees . However , in a secret memoranda sent to Gen. Winfield Scott in May 1838 , he wrote : " Evan Jones , An Englishman of dark . cunning character . This man many years ago settled as a missionary amongst the Cherokee , knows their language well , and has had a great deal of personal intercourse with them . In the event of a rupture with these people , he is a person likely to give them bad advice , and I should advise his removal from the Nation . " This memorandum also lists four other white men living with the Cherokees , analyses tribal politics , and provides an estimate of a possible military confrontation with the tribe because of the upland topography
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
George William Featherstonhaugh