176 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



and the scalping-knife brightens the night, and brings on a cam- 

 paign that for years converts the border into a debatable ground, 

 like the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The white settler, at a 

 distance from relief, and guarding his cabin only by force of arms, 

 regards the sullen, wary, crouching foe with a bitter hatred that 

 he bestows on no other enemy, and his hatred is handed from 

 father to child, and perpetuated by tradition, picture, and song, 

 and many a vacant place by the fireside. The chieftain looks back 

 over a life of battles that were disastrous to him, and that has left 

 his tribe a handful of broken men, and recalls the peace that was 

 more injurious than war, the worthless bargains, hollow promises, 

 poisonous gifts, discordant counsels, mock ceremonies, and cloaked 

 hatred. 



Little wonder is it ; then, that when some chiefs of shrewder 

 foresight than others come to power among the Indian tribes, they 

 form combinations, recount their wrongs, and, urged on by the 

 national enthusiasm, make a bitter burst for revenge and immor- 

 tality ! Such a chief was Halleck Tustenugge, and such was the 

 history of his people ; and the settlers on the Gulf and the verdant 

 bottoms of the Suwanee remember his last unexpected and bloody 

 charge, as the fishermen of the Mexican Gulf remember the torna- 

 does that come out from the south in the middle of the summer 

 afternoon, wrecking all that was basking in the tropical stillness. 



Tustenugge had consulted with all the divisions of the Semi- 

 noles. Runners had come and gone, some in canoes and some on 

 foot, to all the different outlying parties. The women had been 

 removed to the recesses of the swamps, extra quantities of lead 

 and powder had been purchased, a census had been made of all 

 the white inhabitants residing on the debatable land, and the 

 forces had been appointed, so many braves to each department ; at 

 the same time no change in the demeanour of the red men marked 

 their determination ; they came and went the same as before, and 

 bartered and hunted without a word of mistrust or dislike. The 

 very day had been fixed, and the hour ; and that night, while the 

 laugh was so loud by the camp-fire at Bonda Key, and while 

 soothed by the murmurs of the sea, we passed away to the land of 

 dreams, the eye of the Indian was on us all the while, and we 



