184 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



at the camp or on our way back ; that his unexpected capture had 

 delayed the plan, and that there was no time to be lost in getting 

 into a more open country, if it should appear, as he suspected, that 

 there was a general rising of the savages along the coast. The 

 reasoning was so correct that it was immediately adopted. A 

 shallow grave, hastily dug, preserved the remains of the old cook 

 from the buzzards, and a short survey and a " hulloo " satisfied us 

 that the few other people that had been left behind had been 

 carried off by the savages, and then, with the goods we brought 

 home, we hurried back to the boats, and in a few minutes were 

 speeding down the river. No song of oarsmen now ; no laugh or 

 jest; it was the hurried exodus from impending fate, "and the 

 boldest held his breath for a time." 



Tustenuggee, the Mickasukie chief, now commanding a band of 

 the Seminoles, at the time of the return of Jackson's family, was 

 lying with his men in one of the little elevations that raise them- 

 selves from the swamps, on the upper shore of the Ouithlacouchee, 

 where he had retired after the sack of the plantation house to wait 

 for the return of those whose unexpected absence had deprived 

 him of half his revenge. Among the spoils he had carried away 

 from the last night's sacking was a case of spirits that had created 

 a debauch in the savage band, and from the chief to the youngest 

 warrior they had all succumbed to its influence, and passed the 

 day in alternate riot and stupor. But when the scout who had 

 been sent down the river to watch the hunters, and whose fleetness 

 of foot had saved him from Jackson's vengeance, arrived and told 

 of the return of the party, the chief was immediately aroused, and 

 shaking off his sluggishness, hastened to take such steps as were 

 necessary to secure his prey. Runners were sent out, some to the 

 site of the despoiled house, some to the river, and some to the 

 country lying north of the river, and through which the settler's 

 family would necessarily have to travel, if it sought to escape by 

 land to the upper settlements, that at this time were but sparsely 

 located, in the direction of Pensacola, 



Hardly had the different scouts been sent on their errand before 

 one came hurrying back with the word that the boats were descend- 

 ing the river again, and, like a pack of dogs on a fresh scent, the 



