198 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



had been captured at different times, always by some 'ruse, and not 

 by open warfare, and exported by ships to the far West. Several 

 noted chiefs had been slain, and many villages and corn-fields been 

 laid waste, but braver warriors seemed to take the place of the old 

 ones, and new retreats had been found in the more inaccessible 

 swamps, wherein the Indian woman might nurse her babe and till 

 her corn-fields, while the braves revenged their losses by some foray 

 so distant, unexpected, and bloody, as to countervail all rules of 

 warfare, and render useless all prevention, and impossible all re- 

 dress. This was not one perpetual war, but a succession of wars, 

 separated by treaties and truces more or less long, and more or less 

 faithfully kept. During these truces, sutlers, relying on the pro- 

 mises of the United States Government, made settlements in the 

 territory, and with the temerity of the American borderer, pushed 

 their outermost farms within the lines of the Indian territory. 

 Sometimes, under favour of a particular Indian chief or band, they 

 were protected for years, and remained safe while others were 

 massacred. But at length some wrong done to their people would so 

 excite the Indians that no individual favour could be a protection, 

 and the outposts of the settlers were whelmed in flame and blood. 



" Far Away " had been an instance of this kind of reliance upon 

 this uncertain tenure, and its existence had been prolonged by the 

 hospitality of the planter ; but courtesy could not avail in the hour 

 of general retribution, and the revenge bred by years of accumu- 

 lating wrongs swept over the homestead like a spring freshet 



In a few days after our arrival, a government vessel, sailing by 

 way of Key West for St. Augustine, offered Lou Jackson a passage, 

 with her people, which she accepted, and departed, carrying Duke 

 with her and most of the negroes, and leaving Mike, Poke, and my- 

 self, again to our own resources, awaiting some opportunity for the 

 indulgence of our roving propensities. But roving propensities 

 were now only to be indulged under military escort, or else at the 

 risk of our " hayr" as the hunters pronounced it ; so for the first 

 few weeks we contented ourselves with the curious scenes that 

 were daily transpiring in the enclosure of the Fort, or the limited 

 walks directly around the pickets. Occasionally some scout would 

 come in with the report of a soldier, or a runner, lying dead on 



