298 WILD BPOETS IN THE SOUTH. 



it was told to the different tribes of Florida that they 

 had entered into an agreement to remove, than they, 

 without dissent, repudiated the treaty, refused to relin- 

 quish their native land, or surrender their negro allies. 

 They haughtily answered the different runners and Indian 

 agents, commissioned by the whites, and withdrawing to 

 their villages in the Cypress Swamps and hummocks, 

 prepared to defend their homes as best they might, 

 according to the ancient hereditary rules and regulations 

 of Indian warfare. At a council summoned by General 

 Thompson, when Micanopy, Cooacoochee, Alligator, and 

 other chiefs of high renown were present, Osceola, who 

 was then a young chief, being called upon to answer if 

 he would sign the treaties, strode up to the table in front 

 of the officers, saying, " The only way I will sign such a 

 treaty is this," and drove his scalping-knife through the 

 parchment deep into the table, while the conference 

 broke up in confusion. The call to arms sounded through 

 the land, the Indians pillaged the settler to obtain mili- 

 tary weapons, and burned his cabins, drove off the cattle, 

 and waylaid the soldiers, and the United States Govern- 

 ment threw her best armies into the country, to have 

 them destroyed by the miasma and the Indian arrow, 

 patiently renewing the losses in the regiments, and sup- 

 plying millions of money for a period of over fifteen 

 years. The amplest supplies were afforded for the pro- 

 secution of the war, and the first soldiers in the country 

 such as Generals Jackson, Clinch, Scott, Worth, and 

 Taylor, led the armies. 



