The early history of Florida Territory, soon after it came into the
possession of the United States, being written in characters of blood
for years, it is considered both appropriate and interesting to
intersperse a sprinkling of historical facts in this work, to the
authenticity of which some now living can testify.
The Indians were intensely opposed to emigrating West, as that country
offered them no such means of idleness as Florida, where they lived with
as little solicitude as the buzzards that lazily flew above their
heads--while in Arkansas they would have to work. They were a race of
hunters and fishermen, with no habits of industry, gliding on the
surface of lakes and rivers, with as little idea of locating as the
watery inhabitants they captured.
The movements of the Indians and American troops, encumbered with their
wagons, or a field-piece, compared unfavorably with the agile foe they
had to meet in warfare, who could swim the streams and leap over the
logs of the wide forest, and vanish, like the whooping crane, that made
its nest at night far from the spot where it dashed the dew from the
flowers and grass in the morning.
One of the occasions of the Seminole war, like our own late struggle,
was on account of the fugitive slaves, which the Indians harbored,
instead of returning to their owners, or permitting their masters to
come and get them.
The following is a correct copy of an interesting document, to which
frequent reference was made during the Florida war, as a compact which
had been violated. We have transferred it as an item of interest. As the
whites found the Indians becoming troublesome neighbors, this treaty was
drawn up in order to rid the country of them--its violation the true
cause of the war:
_Treaty of Payne's Landing, concluded May 9, 1832, and ratified
April 12, 1834._
ARTICLE I. That the Seminole Indians relinquish to the United
States all claim to the lands they at present occupy in the
Territory of Florida, and agree to immigrate to the country
assigned to the Creeks, west of the Mississippi River--it being
understood that an additional extent of territory, proportioned to
their numbers, will be added to the Creek country, and that the
Seminoles will be received as a constituent part of the Creek
Nation, and be reädmitted to all the privileges as a member of the
same.
ART. II. For and in consideration of the relinquishment of claim in
the first article of this agreement, and in full compensation for
all the improvements which may have been made on the lands thereby
ceded, the United States stipulate to pay to the Seminole Indians
fifteen thousand dollars, to be divided among the chiefs and
warriors of the several towns, in a ratio proportioned to their
population, the respective portions of each to be paid on their
arrival in the country they consent to move to: it being understood
their faithful interpreters, Abraham and Cudjo, shall receive two
hundred dollars each of the above sum, in full remuneration for the
improvements to be abandoned, now cultivated by them.
ART. III. The United States agree to distribute, as they arrive at
their homes in the Creek Territory, west of the Mississippi River,
a blanket and home-spun frock to each warrior, women and children,
of the Seminole tribe of Indians.
ART. IV. The United States agree to extend the annuity for the
support of a blacksmith, provided for in the sixth article of the
treaty at Camp Moultrie, for ten years beyond the period therein
stipulated; and in addition to the other annuities secured under
that treaty, the United States agree to pay three thousand dollars
a year for fifteen years, commencing after the removal of the whole
tribe--these sums to be added to the Creek annuities, and the whole
sum to be divided, that the chiefs and warriors of the Seminole
Indians may receive their equitable portion of the same, as members
of the Creek Confederation.
ART. V. The United States will take the cattle belonging to the
Seminoles, at the valuation of some discreet person appointed by
the President, and the same shall be paid for in money to the
respective owners, after their arrival at their new homes; or other
cattle, such as may be desired, will be furnished them, notice
being given through their agent of their wishes on this subject,
before their removal, that time may be afforded to supply the
demand.
ART. VI. The Seminoles being anxious to be relieved from certain
vexatious demands for slaves and other property, alleged to have
been stolen and destroyed by them, so that they may remove
unembarrassed to their new homes, the United States stipulate to
have the same property investigated, and to liquidate such as may
be satisfactorily established, provided the amount does not exceed
seven thousand dollars.
ART. VII. The Seminole Indians will remove in three years after the
ratification of this agreement, and the expenses of their removal
shall be paid by the United States; and such subsistence shall also
be furnished for a term not exceeding twelve months after their
arrival at their new residence, as in the opinion of the President
their numbers may require, the emigration to commence early as
practicable in A.D. 1833, and with those Indians at present
occupying the Big Swamp and other parts of the country beyond, as
defined in the second article of the treaty concluded at Camp
Moultrie Creek, so that the whole of that proportion of Seminoles
may be removed within the year aforesaid, and the remainder of the
tribe, in about equal proportions, during the subsequent years 1834
and 1835.
Done at Camp at Payne's Landing, on the Ocklawaha River, in the
Territory of Florida, May 9, 1832.
JAMES GADSDEN, Commissioner, [L. S.]
and fifteen Chiefs.
Osceola figured very conspicuously during the early history of our
Florida troubles; indeed, we consider the following statements connected
with his movements as items of unsurpassed interest to those who are
more fond of facts without fiction than the wondrous legends of any
day-dreamer.
The mother of Osceola belonged to the Red Stick tribe of Indians, a
branch of the Creeks. She was married to Powell, who was an English
trader among the Indians for twenty years, and for this reason he is
sometimes called Powell instead of Osceola. He was born in the State of
Georgia, on the Tallapoosa River, about the year 1800. In 1808 a quarrel
occurred among the Indians of the Creek tribe, when the mother of
Osceola left, taking him with her, and retiring to the Okefinokee Swamp.
Powell remained in Georgia, with his two daughters, and emigrated to the
West with them.
In 1817 Osceola retreated before General Jackson, with a small party,
and settled on Pease Creek. A few years afterward he removed to the Big
Swamp, in the neighborhood of Fort King, uniting himself with the
Micosukees. The greater portion of his life was spent in disquietude,
when there was neither peace nor war, but depredating in various ways.
He was opposed to the Payne Treaty, declaring he would fight before
signing it, or kill any of his followers who made a move toward its
ratification.
When the Indians held a council at Fort King, consisting of thirteen
chiefs, only eight of them were willing to leave for the West. Hoithlee
Mattee, or Jumper, a sworn enemy of the whites, who was called in their
language "The Lawyer," and for whom General Jackson had offered a reward
of five hundred dollars, rose in their council, with all the dignity of
a Roman orator, after which he announced his intention in thundering
tones: "I say there is no good feeling between Jumper and the white man.
Every branch he hews from a tree on our soil is a limb lopped from
Hoithlee's body. Every drop of water that a white man drinks from our
springs is so much blood from Hoithlee's heart."
After the return of Charlie Emaltha from the West, who was the most
intelligent of their chiefs, he met with the whites in council, that he
might give expression to his opinion: "Remain with us here," said he to
the whites, "and be our father; the relation of parent and child to each
other is peace--it is gentle as arrow-root and honey. The disorderly
among us have committed some depredations, but no blood has been
spilled. We have agreed that if we met a brother's blood on the road, or
even found his dead body, we should not believe it was by human
violence, but that he had snagged his foot, or that a tree had fallen
upon him; that if blood was spilled by either, the offender should
answer for it."
Previous to this period the Indians were lords of the soil, and
considered themselves located in a land of undisputed titles, as
entirely their own property, by right of possession, as though they held
registered deeds.
The following is an effort at Indian poetry, descriptive of their
condition previous to hostile demonstrations:
We were a happy people then,
Rejoicing in our hunter mood;
No footsteps of the pale-faced men
Had marred our solitude.
Osceola was not tall, but of fine figure and splendid _physique_, his
head being always encircled with a blue turban, surmounted by the waving
_tafa luste_, or black-eagle plumes, with a red sash around his waist.
He was a time-server, a self-constituted agent, and a dangerous enemy
when enraged. In 1834 the United States survey corps, while camping at
Fort King, was visited by Osceola, Fred L. Ming being the captain.
Indians always show their friendship by eating with their friends. On
this occasion he refused all solicitations to partake of their
hospitality, and sat in silence, the foam of rage resting in the corners
of his mouth. Finally he rose to retire, at the same time assuming a
menacing manner, and, seizing the surveyor's chain, said: "If you cross
my land I will break this chain in as many pieces as there are links in
it, and then throw the pins so far you can never get them again." Like
most of his race, he was possessed of a native eloquence, the following
of which is a specimen, after the Payne's Landing Treaty was framed and
signed by some of the chiefs: "There is little more to be said. The
people have agreed in council; by their chiefs they have uttered it; it
is well; it is truth, and must not be broken. I speak; what I say I will
do; there remains nothing worthy of words. If the hail rattles, let the
flowers be crushed; the stately oak of the forest will lift its head to
the sky and the storms, towering and unscathed."
The whites continued urging the stipulations of the treaty to be
enforced, while the Indians continued opposing it in every way. It is a
law of our nature that the weak should suspect the strong; for this
reason the Seminoles did not regard the Creeks as their friends, but
feared them. Captain Wiley Thompson, the Agent, kept reminding the
Indians that they had made a promise to leave for the West. Messages
were also sent to Micanopy, who, after much debating, said he would not
go. Some time afterward General Thompson ordered Osceola to come up and
sign the emigration list, which request moved the indignation of this
savage to the highest pitch of desperation, and he replied, "I will
not." General Thompson then told him he had talked with the Big Chief,
in Washington, who would teach him better. He replied, "I care no more
for Jackson than for you," and, rushing up to the emigration treaty, as
if to make his mark, stuck his knife through the paper. For this act of
contempt he was seized, manacled, and confined in Fort King. When Col.
Fanning arrested him he was heard to mutter, "The sun is overhead, I
shall remember the hour; the Agent has his day, I will have mine." After
he was first imprisoned he became sullen, but soon manifested signs of
penitence, and called the interpreter, promising, if his irons were
taken off, to come back when the sun was high overhead, and bring with
him one hundred warriors to sign the paper--which promise was fulfilled.
The great mistake was made in releasing him from Fort King. If he had
then been sent West, much blood and treasure would have been spared. He
had one talk for the white man, and another for the red--being a strange
compound of duplicity and superiority. After his release he commanded
his warriors to have their knives in readiness, their rifles in order,
with plenty of powder in their pouches, and commenced collecting a
strong force, not eating or sleeping until it was done.
The first direct demonstration of hostility was on June 19, 1835, near
what was called the Hogg's Town settlement, at which time one Indian was
killed, another fatally injured; also three whites wounded. The fray
commenced by some whites whipping a party of five Indians, whom they had
caught in the act of stealing. Private Dalton, a dispatch-rider, was
killed August 11, 1835, while carrying the mail from Fort Brooke to Fort
King. This was an act of revenge for an Indian killed in a former
encounter. Dalton was found twenty miles from Fort King with his body
cut open and sunk in a pond. The Indians commenced snapping their guns
in the face of the Government, at the same time expressing their
contempt for the laws, and threatening the country with bloodshed if any
force should be used to restrain them. November 30, 1835, the following
order was issued by the Agent: "The citizens are warned to consult their
safety by guarding against Indian depredations." Hostilities were soon
inaugurated in a most shocking manner, with a tragedy of deep
import--the killing of Charlie Emaltha, November 26, 1835--which act was
only a cold-blooded murder, Osceola heading this band of savages.
Charlie Emaltha was shot because he favored immigration, and was
preparing to move West.
Osceola afterward selected ten of his boldest warriors, which were to
wreak vengeance on General Thompson. The General was then camping at
Fort King, little dreaming that the hour of his dissolution was so near,
or that Osceola was lying in wait to murder him. Although a messenger
was sent to tell Osceola of the Wahoo Swamp engagement being in
readiness, no laurels won on other fields had any charms for him until
Thompson should be victimized by his revengeful machinations. After
lingering about for seven days, the opportune moment presented itself,
when Thompson was invited away from the fort. On the afternoon of
December 28, 1836, as he and Lieutenant Smith, who had dined out that
day, were unguardedly walking toward the sutler's store, about a mile
from the post, the savages discovered them. Osceola said, "Leave the
Agent for me; I will manage him." They were immediately attacked by
these warriors, when they both received the full fire of the enemy, and
fell dead. Thompson was perforated with fourteen bullet-holes, and Smith
with five. The Indians then proceeded to the store, where they shot
Rogers and four others. After the murder they robbed the store and set
fire to the building. The smoke gave the alarm, but the garrison at Fort
King being small, no assistance could be rendered them.
On the same day (December 28), and nearly the same hour, Major F. L.
Dade, when five miles from Wahoo Swamp, was attacked while on his way
from Fort Brooke to Fort King. The Indians were headed by Jumper, who
had previously warned those who were cowards not to join him. Micanopy,
their chief, who was celebrated for his gluttony, like the Trojan
heroes, could eat a whole calf or lamb, and then coil up in a snake-like
manner for digestion. On a previous occasion, when an appeal was made to
him by the argument of bullet-force, he replied, "I will show you," and
afterward stationed himself behind a pine-tree, awaiting the arrival of
the Fort Brooke force, while his warriors lay concealed in the high
grass around him. When Major Dade arrived opposite where the chief and
his men were ambushed, Micanopy, in honor of his position as top chief,
leveled his rifle and killed him instantly. Major Dade was shot through
the heart, and died apparently without a struggle. The savages rushed
from their coverts, when Captain Frazier was their next victim, together
with more than a hundred of his companions. The suddenness of the
attack, the natural situation of the country, with its prairies of tall
grass, each palmetto thicket being a fortress of security from which
they could hurl their death-dealing weapons, were all formidable foes
with which the whites had to contend. Within a few hours' march of Fort
King, under the noonday splendor of a Florida sun, were one hundred and
seven lifeless bodies, which had been surprised, murdered, and scalped,
with no quarter, and far from the sound of human sympathy.
The night after the "Dade Massacre" the Indians returned to Wahoo Swamp
with the warm life-current dripping from the scalps of those they had
slain. These scalps were given to Hadjo, their Medicine Man, who placed
them on a pole ten feet high, around which they all danced, after
smearing their faces with the blood of their foes, and drinking freely
of "_fire-water_." One instance is mentioned worthy of remark, in regard
to finding Major Dade's men with their personal property untouched.
Breast-pins of the officers were on their breasts, watches in their
places, and silver money in their pockets. They took the military coat
of Major Dade, and some clothing from his men, with all the arms and
ammunition, which proved they were not fighting for spoils, but their
homes. The "Bloody Eight Hundred," after they had committed the murder,
left the bodies unburied, and without mutilation, except from scalping.
They were buried by the command of Major-general Gaines, who also named
this tragic ground "Field of the Dead."
Fights now followed each other in rapid succession. Long-impending
hostilities burst upon the white settlers, who in turn sought every
opportunity of gratifying their revenge for outrages committed. No
person was safe; death lurked in every place, and there was security in
none. Acts of fiendish barbarity were of common occurrence; houses
burned--the labor of years gone forever--while many of the missing were
consumed in the flames of their own dwellings, the savages dancing
around the funeral-pile. The Indians appeared seized with a kind of
desperation which knew no quarter, and asked for none, constantly
posting themselves in the most frequented highways, with the intention
of slaying or being slain.
On the 31st of December, same year, the Indians, receiving information
that the troops under General Clinch were approaching, and would cross
the Withlacoochee, posted themselves at the usual fording-place for the
purpose of intercepting them. General Clinch was surprised by them, as
they had greatly the advantage, being among the trees, while the troops
were in an open space, with only an old leaky canoe to cross in, under
constant fire of the enemy, some of them being obliged to swim. The
soldiers accustomed to Indian warfare never forded twice in the same
place. Captain Ellis, now a worthy citizen of Gainesville, Florida, who
commanded a company during the Seminole war, being present when this
attack was made, says: "I was so much afraid the war would be over
before I had a chance to be in a fight, I was glad when I saw the
Indians coming, but I got enough fighting before it was through with."
When he saw the savages at the commencement of this engagement, not
knowing of the "Massacre," he said, "Boys, the Indians have been killing
our men, for they have got on their coats."
Osceola was the prime leader in this first battle of Withlacoochee, and
although whole platoons were leveled at him, from behind the tree where
he was stationed he brought down his man every fire to the number of
forty, while he ordered his warriors not to run from the pale faces, but
to fight. The contest was a close one, but General Clinch held his
ground. After the Indians retreated the troops buried their dead, and
built log-fires over their remains to keep the enemy from digging them
up and scalping them.
During September, 1837, Osceola sent in negotiations of peace to General
Hernandez through an envoy, accompanied with presents of a bead pipe and
white plume, as an assurance that the path of the pale face was peaceful
and safe. General Hernandez, with the sanction of General Jessup,
returned presents and friendly messages, requesting the presence of
Osceola, with the distinct understanding that it was for the purpose of
making arrangements for the immigration of his people. The messenger
returned in accordance to his previous contract, reporting that Osceola
was then on his way to St. Augustine with one hundred warriors. Osceola
had never heretofore regarded the sacredness of a flag of truce as
binding, besides being engaged in the abduction of Micanopy and others,
who would otherwise have complied with the terms of the treaty. General
Jessup intended before his arrival to have him detained. General
Hernandez, who was the soul of honor, remonstrated with him, when he
replied, "I am your superior; it is your duty to obey." General
Hernandez met them at Fort Peyton, near Pelicier Creek, about seven
miles south-west of St. Augustine. From the inquiries of General
Hernandez in regard to the other chiefs and their locality, Osceola soon
comprehended the situation; and when asked for replies to the General's
questions, he said to the interpreter, "I feel choked; you must speak
for me." The place where they were assembled for parley being surrounded
by a detachment of dragoons, they closed in on them, capturing the whole
band without firing a gun.
This strategy in taking Osceola did not tarnish the laurels of General
Jessup in the least; a much greater blunder was committed in turning him
loose after his first capture. Those who have condemned him must think
of the anxiety by day and horrors at night through which these poor
settlers struggled, when time passed like a bewildering dream of
terrors, improvement of all kinds languishing with a sickly growth,
while the dragon of war sowed the seeds of discord, and desecrated the
golden fleece of the harvest with a bloody hand.
When Osceola was first captured he was imprisoned in Fort Marion, but
was afterward removed to Sullivan's Island, where his wife and child
accompanied him. He was a sad prisoner--never known to laugh during his
confinement, but often heard to sigh. During his last illness he had the
best medical attention from Charleston, whose skill he refused,
believing they intended poisoning him. To one of his wives he was much
attached, and his spirit passed away while leaning on her bosom. He died
in 1838, from an inflammation of the throat.
The eagle plumes droop o'er his piercing eyes,
The fire of youth was there!
Osceola had always lived among the Seminoles, and regarded their lot as
his. The name of his wife was Chécho-ter, or Morning Dew. She was a
Creek, and their family consisted of four children. The following lines
were composed after his death by one of his friends in Charleston:
The rich blue sky is o'er,
Around are tall green trees,
And the jasmine's breath from the everglades
Is borne on the wand'ring breeze.
On the mingled grass and flowers
Is a fierce and threat'ning form,
That looks like an eagle when pluming his wing
To brave the gath'ring storm.
We recently conversed with a missionary from the Creek Nation, who had
been preaching among the Indians in that locality, who says Osceola has
two sisters living there, both exemplary Christians, upon whom the
serpent's trail had evidently rested very lightly.