THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 217 



308. Os-ce-o-la, The Black Driuk. Full length, with his rifle iu his hand, calico 

 dress, and trinkets, exactly as he was dressed and stood to be painted five 

 days before his death. Painted in 1838. 



(Plate No. 298, page 219, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 

 Born on the Talapoosa Eiver in the Creek Nation in the years between 

 1800 and 1806 ; died at Fort Moultrie, S. 0. (where he is buried), Jan- 

 uary 30, 1838. 



MR. CATLIN'S notes ON OSCEOLA AT FORT MOULTRIE, S. C. 



The i^risonei's who are held here, to the number of 250, men, women, and children, 

 have been cai^tured during the recent i^art of this warfare, and amongst them the 

 distinguished personages whom I named a few moments since ; of these, the most con- 

 spicuous at this time is Os-ce-o-la, commonly called Powell, as he is generally sup- 

 liosed to be a half-breed, the son of a white man (by that name) and a Creek woman. 



I have painted him precisely in the costume in which he stood for his picture, even 

 to a string and a trinket. He wore three ostrich feathers in his head, and a turban 

 made of a varicolored cotton shawl-^and his dress was chiefly of calicoes, with a hand- 

 some bead sash or belt around his waist, and his rifle in his hand. 



This young man is, no doubt, an extraordinary character, as he has been for some 

 years reputed, and doubtless looked ui^on by the Seminolees as the master spirit and 

 leader of the tribe, although he is not a chief. From his boyhood he had led an ener- 

 getic and desperate sort of life, which had secured for Mm a conspicuous position in 

 society ; and when the desperate circumstances of war were agitating his country he 

 at once took a conspicuous and decided part ; and in some way, whether he deserved 

 it or not, acquired an influence and a name that soon sounded to the remotest parts 

 of the United States and amongst the Indian tribes to the Rocky Mountains. 



This gallant fellow, who was, undoubtedly, captured a few months since, with several 

 of his chiefs and warriors, was at first brought in to Fort Mellon, in Florida, and after- 

 wards sent to this place for safe-keeping, where he is grieving with a broken spirit, 

 and ready to die, cursing white men, no doubt, to the end of his breath. 



The surgeon of the post. Dr. Weedon, who has charge of him, and has been with 

 him ever since he was taken prisoner, has told me from day to day that he will not 

 live many weeks ; and I have my doubts whether he will, from the rajjid decline I 

 have observed in his face and in his flesh since I arrived here. 



During the time that I have been here I have occupied a large room in the oflicers' 

 quarters, by the j)oliteness of Captiiin Morrison, who has command of the post and 

 charge of the prisoners ; and on every evening, after painting all day at their por- 

 traits, I have had Os-ce-o-la, Mick-e-no-pa, Cloud, Co-a-had-jo, King Philip, and 

 others in my room until a late hour at night, where they have taken great pains to 

 give me an account of the war and the mode in which they were captured, of which 

 they complain bitterly. 



I am fully convinced, from all that I have seen and learned from the lips of Osceola 

 and from the chiefs who are around him, that he is a most extraordinary man, and 

 one entitled to a better fate. 



In stature he is about at mediocrity, with an elasf^ic and graceful movement ; in his 

 face he is good-looking, with rather an effeminate smile, but of so peculiar a charac- 

 ter that the world may be ransacked over without finding another just like it. In 

 his manners and all his movements in company he is xjolitc and gentlemanly, though 

 all his conversation is entirely iu his own tongue ; and his general appearance and 

 actions those of a full-blood and wild Indian. 



Since I finished my portrait of Os-ce-o-la, and since writing the first part of this 

 letter, he has been extremely sick, and lies so yet, with an alarnung attack of quinsy, 

 or putrid sore throat, which will probably end his career iu a lew days. Two or three 

 times the surgeon has sent for the officers of the garrison and myself to come and see 



