HOW WE CONQIJEEED HALLECK TUSTENUGGEE. 323 



He enunciated emphatically and pointed slowly to the 

 sky above him, and waved his draped arm around with 

 a majesty peculiar to the oratory of his race. 



Old Primus, a snowy-haired Indian, translated into 

 English as he spoke, and a secretary at the table wrote 

 down the conversation. 



" Where was our white brother then ? "Where then 

 was that shadow ?" pointing to the shadow of the flag on 

 the oflicer's quarters, as it fluttered back and forth on the 

 greensward. " Forty years ago, God made Tustenuggee. 

 Then our white brothers lived to the north. Did the 

 Mickasukies war against our white brother, and ask him 

 to emigrate to Arkansas? The Mickasukies w^ere big 

 then, and the white man very little. The Avhite man was 

 so little that he could not do his own work, but had 

 black man to help him. 



" Tustenuggee has always lived here. Tustenuggee's 

 peoj)le have always lived here. They have loved the 

 soil ; they have dropped their seed here, and. their seed 

 ha-s taken root. The roots have gone down far into the 

 earth. The wdiite man is a great wind. He comes from 

 where w^e can't see. He blows against the red tree. If 

 he blows hard enough the red tree will break down, and 

 his seed be scattered, but the red tree has grown too 

 long to take root elsewhere. My people are like deer — 

 they have been hunted, and are shy. They start when 

 they hear a twig break. They hide when it is day. The 

 white man has hunted them for many winters. lie has 

 burned their cabins, he has rooted up their cornfields. 



