398 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 73 
discouraged. The rather high position of the chief is probably 
attributable in some degree to the influence of their neighbors on the 
north and west. 
THE SEMINOLE 
The history of the Seminole is very well known in outline, and much 
has been written regarding our famous Seminole war; yet it is evident 
that much remains to be said, on the Indian side at least, before we 
can have a clear understanding of the Seminole people and Seminole 
history. The name, as is well known, is applied by the Creeks to 
people who remove from populous towns and live by themselves, 
and it is commonly stated that the Seminole consisted of "runaways" 
and outlaws from the Creek Nation proper. A careful study of their 
history, however, shows this to be only a partial statement of the 
case. 
Perhaps the best account we have regarding the beginnings of the 
Seminole is by Bartram. The destruction of the Apalachee towns 
in the manner elsewhere narrated 1 had partially cleared the way 
for settlements in Florida by Indians from the north, and in the 
period immediately succeeding bodies of them gradually pushed 
southward from the large Creek towns on Chattahoochee River. 
The first impulse toward Florida of any consequence began with that 
great upheaval we have so often mentioned — the Yamasee war. 
The Yamasee themselves entered Florida almost in a body, but they 
arrived there as friends of the Spaniards, adding their strength to 
the decaying forces of the original Floridian tribes, and themselves 
shared in large measure the fate of those peoples — extermination or 
expulsion from the country. At the same time a movement was 
started which resulted in the invasion of the peninsula on its western 
side, and this, indeed, marks the real beginning of the Seminole. 
Bartram gives an account of it in describing his journey from the 
Savannah River to Mobile, and it has been reproduced in detailing 
the history of the Oconee Indians. 2 
By consulting this it will be seen that the Oconee Indians were a 
nucleus about which the Seminole Nation grew up. It is evident 
that for a considerable period part of them remained near the Chat- 
tahoochee, for they are recorded in the census of 1761 3 and their 
town is described by Hawkins in 1799. 4 It disappears in the interval 
between 1799 and 1832, when the government census of Creeks was 
taken, and probably all had then moved to Florida. 4 Brinton says 
that the first group of Seminole came into Florida in 1750, under a chief 
named Secoffee. 5 He was probably the one known to the English as 
i See pp. 121-123. * See p. 181. 
2 See p. 180. 6 Brinton, The Floridian Peninsula, p. 145. 
» Ga. Col. Docs., vni, p. 522. 
