HOW WE CONQUERED HALLECK TUSTENUGGEE. 221 



carry his own share. One guide was placed ahead of the detach- 

 ment about three hundred yards ; within sight of him and of the 

 column, another. These men were the most experienced of the 

 hunters, and generally one a friendly Indian. To their knowledge 

 of the geography of the country the party was indebted for the 

 directness of its route, to their quick eye for its security from 

 ambush, and to their observation of every passing footstep on the 

 land, marks of paddles on the shallow bottom of rivers, or the 

 slimy projecting logs, its acquaintance with the movements of out- 

 lying parties of Indians, or the recent passage of friend or foe. 

 How small these signs might be, and yet be detected, how blind 

 and yet be read, is one of the mysteries of those woods that are 

 disclosed only to the observant and the practised. Their very 

 description excites incredulity. The passage of one of these scout- 

 ing parties through the Indian country was a curious scene, and 

 impressed one with a feeling of awe. The old tokens by the way, 

 here a ford named after some bloody massacre, and there a little 

 log-pen whitened by the bones of those who fell there at bay 

 together, hemmed in by the pursuing savage, were so frequent and 

 well-remembered, that the soldier crossed the woods with a cease- 

 less watchfulness. He travelled all day with his utmost speed, 

 lest his pursuers might come up on his trail, and at night lay 

 down in the darkness without his fire, that his covert might not be 

 disclosed. The celerity of the passage was the safety of the party. 

 Thus we crossed over to Fort Fraser, on the Hitchipucksasi, 

 and two days more brought us to Fort Gardiner, on the ford of the 

 river that connects two of the largest of the lakes of central 

 Florida, Lake Kississimee and Lake Tohopekaliga. These forts 

 were nothing more than heavy cabins built of logs, and defended 

 by palisades, sometimes garrisoned by a company of men, and 

 sometimes only houses of refuge. The one last named was in the 

 margin of the cypress swamps, one of those huge shallow tarns, 

 whose black waters, encumbered by logs and cypress knees, and 

 encroaching into the dense forest by interminable arms, were more 

 intricate than the labyrinth of Crete. The Indians excelled in the 

 navigation of these lakes. Their canoes left no trail, and they 

 could be hovering about for weeks without the scouts discovering 



