soldiers distributed among the different forts extending from St. Augustine across the country to the Suwanne. The Indians were free to roam where they listed through the immense wilderness to the southward, and to lay plans of secret attack upon every exposed settlement or plantation.

About the end of April, a terrible massacre took place at Charlotte Harbor; and in May and June, the country between the St. Johns and the Atlantic, nearly as far north as St. Augustine, was generally ravaged by the Indians. Their attacks extended to the vicinity of Mandarin, only sixteen or eighteen miles south of Jacksonville. A Mr. Motte, residing at that place, was murdered, and his establishment was destroyed.

Early in June, the Indians, emboldened by success in the destruction of plantations, and the expulsion of the whites from such extensive districts, beset the fort at Micanopy, which was garrisoned by a company under the command of Major Heillman, then at the head of the army west of St. John's river. They were driven off, but not without some loss on the part of the whites.

In July, Fort Drane had become so unhealthy that it was thought necessary to abandon it. As the troops were on their march upon the evacuation of the place, they had a sharp brush with some hundreds of Indians who lay in wait for them near Welika Pond, in the vicinity of Micanopy. Towards the close of the month the lighthouse at Cape Florida was destroyed. The keeper, named Thompson, was singularly preserved by clinging to the top of the stone wall of the building, while the wood-work was burned out from within. After the Indians had, by their own act, cut off the means of access to the summit, they descried the unfortunate man, half dead with the heat and smoke, and shot at him a long time without effect. He was able to crouch in such a manner upon the top of the wall as to elude their aim, until they took their departure.

It would be impracticable, in a sketch of this kind, to give full particulars of the skirmishing, plundering, and murders which were to be heard of on every side during the summer of 1836. About the middle of August, it was ascertained that Osceola and a large company of his followers were staying in the vicinity of the abandoned Fort Drane, for the sake of securing the corn growing upon the neighboring plantations. They were attacked and defeated by Major Pierce.

In September a marauding party of Indians made their way to within seven miles of Jacksonville, where they attacked the house of Mr. Higginbotham. There were only two men in the house, but, having a number of guns, and receiving resolute assistance from the women of the family, they successfully resisted the assault. After the Indians had retired, Higginbotham hastened with all speed to Jacksonville, and procured a party of twelve men, under Major Hart, to pursue them. Taking the Indian trail, the company followed it to the house of Mr. Johns, ten miles distant from the scene of the attack. The building had been reduced to ashes, and the half-burned body of its proprietor lay among the ruins. Mrs. Johns had been scalped, and left to perish. Before their departure, one of the savages set fire to her clothes, but she managed to extinguish the flame, and to creep away from the burning building. In this miserable condition she was discovered, lying by the border of the swamp, and kindly cared for.

The perpetrators of this outrage, having secured good horses, effected their escape.

Before the end of this month, additional forces from Tennessee were brought into Florida, and a body of nearly a thousand Creeks, led by the chiefs Paddy Carr and Jim Boy, came to lend their aid against the Indians of the peninsula. An army of from one to two thousand men, including the Tennessee brigade, under Governor Call, marched,

in the beginning of October, to the deserted Fort Drane, but found that the Indians had recently left their quarters in that neighborhood. The trail of the fugitives was followed towards the Ouithlacoochee, but the pursuit of savages, in their own country, especially in such a country as Florida, by regular troops, encumbered with baggage, and ignorant of the fastnesses of the enemy, proved as futile in that instance as upon former and subsequent occasions. Little was accomplished against the enemy, who were enabled, at any time, to retreat beyond the reach of their pursuers, and only showed themselves where they could attack the whites at a disadvantage. Under existing circumstances, the main force was obliged to return to Fort Drane, not without the loss of a great number of their horses from hard service upon indifferent food.

Colonel Lane, with a strong force of Creek Indians and regular troops, made an excursion into the enemy's country from Tampa Bay, during the early part of this month. Near the Ocklikany Lake, called the Spotted Lake, from the great number of small wooded islands which cover its surface, about sixty miles from Tampa, an Indian trail was struck. The party followed this track to the southward, and came successively upon several considerable Indian villages deserted by the inhabitants. Large corn fields were seen in the vicinity of these settlements, and some hundreds of cattle were secured by the Creek Indians of the company. At one advantageous post, where the thick underwood on the borders of a small lake offered protection to an ambush, the Seminoles attempted, unsuccessfully, to resist the invaders. They were driven out into the open country and dispersed. Lane and his detachment joined General Call at Fort Drane on the 19th. He survived this service but a few days, being found in his tent, nearly dead, with the point of his sword thrust into the brain over his eye: there was little doubt among those

conversant with the circumstances of his death, but that it occurred accidentally.

The combined army, of more than two thousand men, marched to the Ouithlacoochee in November. This region, which had been a favorite resort of the Seminoles throughout the war, was now found entirely abandoned, and trails were discovered trending towards the great Wahoo Swamp. That the main body of the enemy had moved in that direction, was also affirmed by an old negro, found at an abandoned village on the river. Taking up the pursuit, a portion of the American forces followed the trail, and had a sharp engagement with the Indians on the border of the swamp. There was, however, abundant space for the fugitives to retreat into, where the whites were unable to follow them, and no heavy loss occurred on either side.

Another battle took place on the 21st, in which the Seminoles displayed more resolution, and stood the charge of the regular troops with greater firmness, than had ever before been observed in them. The dangers of the extensive morass to which they retreated proved more insurmountable than those attendant upon the contest with the savages themselves.

Provisions being nearly exhausted, and it being impos-` sible to procure supplies in such a wilderness, the army proceeded to Volusia, between Lake George and Dexter's Lake. There it was joined by General Jessup, who had been appointed to the chief command in Florida, with four hundred mounted volunteers from Alabama.

CHAPTER VI.

PURSUIT OF THE SEMINOLES SOUTHWARD. — ENCOUNTER ON THE HATCHEE LUSTEE.-CONFERENCE AND TRUCE WITH THE INDIANS. -RENEWAL OF THE TREATY OF PAYNE'S LANDING.- -NEGLECT ON THE PART OF THE INDIANS TO COMPLY WITH ITS PROVISIONS.-CAPTURE, SURRENDER, AND TREACHEROUS SEIZURE OF VARIOUS CHIEFS. DEATH OF OSCEOLA.- -COLONEL TAYLOR'S CAMPAIGN.

WE have already given more space to the details of the Florida campaign, than such ill-advised, ill-conducted, and trivial operations deserve. We would be the last to endeavor to detract from the deserved laurels of many of the brave men who were engaged in them, while we can but lament that their lives should have been sacrificed; less by the weapons of the savages than by the diseases of the country; that the public money should have been squandered; and the whole peninsula so long kept in a state of agitation and suspense, when pacific measures might have kept matters comparatively at rest.

Before the first of January, General Jessup, marching with his troops from Volusia, with the coöperation of Colonel Foster, despatched from Tampa, ranged the whole country on the Ouithlacoochee and other haunts of the Seminoles, and examined the deep recesses of the Wahoo morass, without finding an enemy. The Indian trails which were observed, all led to the unexplored wilderness of the south. Thither he started in pursuit of the fugitive Seminoles, on the 22d of January (1837). On the succeeding day, a detachment, under Colonel Cawfield, surprised Osuchee or Cooper, a Seminole chief, then encamped at Ahapopka Lake, from which flows the Ocklawaha. The chief and