INDIAN HISTORY. 299 



This was the condition of Florida when in the latter 

 part of the winter of 1840 and 1841 we found ourselves 

 involuntary prisoners at Fort Brooke. 



A low octagon fortress, with a palisade in closure of 

 sharpened timbers, situated at the end of Tampa Bay, 

 and that formed the headquarters of the American army 

 through the many discouraging years of the Seminole 

 war. The temperate climate of the coast, and the com- 

 manding and safe position of the fortress, made it a plea- 

 sant and safe residence amid the miasma and disorders of 

 the interior country. It was also the depot for military 

 stores, the arsenal for ammunition, and the harbor for the 

 gun-boats. Civilized and savage warfare here displayed 

 their pomp and coloring in close relief. The jpainted 

 savage, with his wives, camped daily by the walls, or 

 traded with the sutler ; the Indian runners, who alone 

 could thread the inner wilderness, came and went to dis- 

 tant outposts ; and the little brown canoe of the savage, 

 so thin in texture that a pin could pierce it, and so light 

 in mold it left no wake in the water, floated side by side 

 in the ripples with the heavy gunboat of the soldier, 

 that some day was destined to rake and crush to pieces 

 its slighter opponent — fit emblems both of the power 

 and feebleness, of the people of which they were res- 

 pectively the types. 



Fort Brooke often contained within its casemented 

 walls other and greater contrasts, and more stirring emo- 

 tions than the material landscape and pageantry of war 

 and race. Here came the young recruit, emulous of 



