230 



WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



it, amoug them several of the Indians taken at the other camp, 

 that had been forwarded for security. It appears they had been 

 canvassing the means by wliich they had been made captive, and 

 one of them had intimated that it could only have been effected 

 by the treachery of their chief. 



The words were no sooner out of his mouth than Tustenuggee 

 was on his feet. Bounding over the fire, he struck the bold speaker 

 in the breast with both feet, then seized him by the throat, and as 

 those in the yard, attracted by the tumult, reached the window 

 of the building, they saw him almost strangled in the tiger-like 

 clutch of the raving chief. Before help could be rendered him, 

 Tustenuggee had seized the ear of his antagonist between his teeth 

 and bitten it off, then throwing aside his prey, he ground the ear 

 between his teeth, and spat the clotted flesh in the faces of the 

 guard, then, raising his sinewy form to its grandest height, and 

 waving his arm, he gave the Indian whoop, and called out with a 

 wild voice twice, " Halleck Tustenuggee ! Halleck Tustenuggee ! " 

 and fell back to his seat, trembling with excitement and the rush 

 of his passions. 



The strange accessories of form and colour, the armed guard, 

 and red fire-light, the savage act of the barbarian, impressed the 

 scene on our minds as the act of a demon. It held us enchained, 

 and we looked on the actor as a caged lion. 



On the morrow he and his chiefs were on their way to Tampa 

 Bay, to be sent by ship to New Orleans, and beyond to the reserva- 

 tion of the Arkansas. 



