THROUGH SWAMP AND GLADE
[Illustration: A GREAT SHEET OF FLAME LEAPED FROM THE ROADSIDE.]
THROUGH
SWAMP AND GLADE
_A TALE OF
THE SEMINOLE WAR_
BY
KIRK MUNROE
AUTHOR OF "THE WHITE CONQUERORS," "AT WAR WITH
PONTIAC," ETC., ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED BY VICTOR PERARD_
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1896
COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Norwood Press
J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith.
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.
TO MY READERS
The principal incidents in the story of Coacoochee, as related in
the following pages, are historically true. The Seminole War, the
most protracted struggle with Indians in which the United States ever
engaged, lasted from 1835 to 1842. At its conclusion, though most of
the tribe had been removed to the Indian Territory in the far west,
there still remained three hundred and one souls uncaptured and
unsubdued. This remnant had fled to the almost inaccessible islands
of the Big Cypress Swamp, in the extreme southern part of Florida.
Rather than undertake the task of hunting them out, General Worth made
a _verbal_ treaty with them, by which it was agreed that they should
retain that section of country unmolested, so long as they committed no
aggressions. From that time they have kept their part of that agreement
to the letter, living industrious, peaceful lives, and avoiding all
unnecessary contact with the whites. They now number something over
five hundred souls, but the tide of white immigration is already
lapping over the ill-defined boundaries of their reservation, while
white land-grabbers, penetrating the swamps, are seizing their fertile
islands and bidding them begone. They stand aghast at this brutal
order. Where can they go? What is to become of them? Is there nothing
left but to fight and die? It would seem not.
KIRK MUNROE.
BISCAYNE BAY, FLORIDA, 1896.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A BIT OF THE FLORIDA WILDERNESS 1
II. MR. TROUP JEFFERS PLOTS MISCHIEF 9
III. THE SLAVE-CATCHERS AT WORK 17
IV. CAPTURE AND ESCAPE OF NITA PACHECO 26
V. A FOREST BETROTHAL 34
VI. CRUEL DEATH OF UL-WE, THE STAGHOUND 43
VII. COACOOCHEE IN THE CLUTCHES OF WHITE RUFFIANS 52
VIII. RALPH BOYD THE ENGLISHMAN 60
IX. MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF A SENTINEL 67
X. FONTAINE SALANO'S TREACHERY AND ITS REWARD 74
XI. "THE SEMINOLE MUST GO" 82
XII. CHEN-O-WAH IS STOLEN BY THE SLAVE-CATCHERS 88
XIII. "WILEY THOMPSON, WHERE IS MY WIFE?" 96
XIV. OSCEOLA SIGNS THE TREATY 102
XV. LOUIS PACHECO BIDES HIS TIME 111
XVI. OSCEOLA'S REVENGE 119
XVII. ON THE VERGE OF THE WAHOO SWAMP 126
XVIII. COACOOCHEE'S FIRST BATTLE 133
XIX. RALPH BOYD AND THE SLAVE-CATCHER 141
XX. AN ALLIGATOR AND HIS MYSTERIOUS ASSAILANT 148
XXI. BATTLE OF THE WITHLACOOCHEE 156
XXII. THE YOUNG CHIEF MAKES A TIMELY DISCOVERY 165
XXIII. SHAKESPEARE IN THE FOREST 171
XXIV. BOGUS INDIANS AND THE REAL ARTICLE 181
XXV. A SWAMP STRONGHOLD OF THE SEMINOLES 190
XXVI. TWO SPIES AND THEIR FATE 200
XXVII. ANSTICE SAVES THE LIFE OF A CAPTIVE 211
XXVIII. THE MARK OF THE WILDCAT 222
XXIX. TREACHEROUS CAPTURE OF COACOOCHEE AND
OSCEOLA 233
XXX. IN THE DUNGEONS OF THE ANCIENT FORTRESS 245
XXXI. A DARING ESCAPE 255
XXXII. NITA HEARS THAT COACOOCHEE IS DEAD 264
XXXIII. TOLD BY THE MAGNOLIA SPRING 274
XXXIV. FOLLOWING A MYSTERIOUS TRAIL 285
XXXV. FATE OF THE SLAVE-CATCHERS 296
XXXVI. PEACE IS AGAIN PROPOSED 306
XXVII. COACOOCHEE IS AGAIN MADE PRISONER 316
XXXVIII. DOUGLASS FULFILS HIS MISSION 326
XXXIX. THE BRAVEST GIRL IN FLORIDA 336
XL. A DOUBLE WEDDING AND THE SETTING SUN 346
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
A GREAT SHEET OF FLAME LEAPED FROM THE ROADSIDE
_Frontispiece_
THEN WITH A VICIOUS HISS THE RAW-HIDE SWEPT DOWN
WITH THE FULL FORCE OF THE ARM THAT WIELDED IT 58
IT SUNK DEEP INTO THE WOOD OF THE TABLE AND STOOD
QUIVERING AS THOUGH WITH RAGE 100
"TO LEAB BEHINE DE ONLIEST FEDDERBED SHE DONE GOT" 174
THE GIRL STEPPED CLOSE TO THE YOUNG CHIEF AND SPOKE
A FEW WORDS 216
HADJO LOST HIS HOLD OF THE ROPE AND CAME TUMBLING
DOWN THE WHOLE DISTANCE 260
NITA SAT BY HER FAVORITE SPRING 276
"ALL IS LOST AND THE WAR IS ABOUT TO BREAK FORTH
WITH GREATER FURY THAN EVER" 324
THROUGH SWAMP AND GLADE
CHAPTER I
A BIT OF THE FLORIDA WILDERNESS
The scene is laid in Florida, that beautiful land of the far south, in
which Ponce de Leon located the fabled Spring of Eternal Youth. It is a
land of song and story, of poetry and romance; but one also of bitter
memories and shameful deeds. Its very attractiveness has proved its
greatest curse, and for weary years its native dwellers, who loved its
soil as dearly as they loved their own lives, fought desperately to
repel the invaders who sought to drive them from its sunny shores.
Although winter is hardly known in Florida, still there, as elsewhere,
spring is the fairest and most joyous season of the year, and it is
with the evening of a perfect April day that this story opens.
The warm air was pleasantly stirred by a breeze that whispered of the
boundless sea, and the glowing sun would shortly sink to rest in the
placid bosom of the Mexican Gulf. From the forest came sweet scents
of yellow jasmine, wild grape, and flowering plumes of the palmetto
mingled with richer perfumes from orange blossoms, magnolias, and
sweet bays. Gorgeous butterflies hovered on the edge of the hammock
and sought resting-places for the night amid the orange leaves.
Humming-birds, like living jewels, darted from flower to flower;
bees golden with pollen and freighted with honey winged their flight
to distant combs. From a ti-ti thicket came the joyous notes of a
mocking-bird, who thus unwittingly disclosed the secret of his hidden
nest. A bevy of parakeets in green and gold flashed from branch to
branch and chattered of their own affairs; while far overhead, flocks
of snowy ibis and white curlew streamed along like fleecy clouds from
feeding-grounds on the salt marshes of the distant coast to rookeries
in the cypress swamps of the crooked Ocklawaha. Some of these drifting
bird-clouds were tinted or edged with an exquisite pink, denoting the
presence of roseate spoonbills, and the effect of their rapid movement
against the deep blue of the heavens, in the flash of the setting sun
was indescribably beautiful.
Amid this lavish display of nature's daintiest handiwork and in all
the widespread landscape of hammock and savanna, trackless pine forest
that had never known the woodman's axe, and dimpled lakes of which a
score might be counted from a slight elevation, but one human being was
visible. A youth just emerged from boyhood stood alone on the edge of
a forest where the ground sloped abruptly down to a lakelet of crystal
water. He was clad in a loose-fitting tunic or hunting-frock of doeskin
girded about the waist by a sash of crimson silk. In this was thrust a
knife with a silver-mounted buckhorn handle and encased in a sheath of
snakeskin. His hair, black and glossy as the wing of a raven, was bound
by a silken kerchief of the same rich color as his sash. The snow-white
plume of an egret twined in his hair denoted him to be of rank among
his own people. He wore fringed leggings of smoke-tanned deerskin,
and moccasins of the same material. The lad's features were handsome
and clear cut, but his expression was gentle and thoughtful as might
become a student rather than a mere forest rover. And so the lad was a
student, though of nature, and a dreamer not yet awakened to the stern
realities of life; but that the mysteries of books were unknown to him
might be inferred from a glance at his skin. It was of a clear copper
color, resembling new bronze; for Coacoochee (little wild cat) belonged
to the most southern tribe of North American Indians, the Seminoles of
Florida. Indian though he was, he was of noble birth and descended from
a long line of chieftains; for he was the eldest son of Philip Emathla
(Philip the leader), or "King Philip," as the whites termed him, and
would some day be a leader of his tribe.
Now, as the lad stood leaning on a light rifle and gazing abstractedly
at the glistening clouds of home-returning birds that flecked the
glowing sky, his face bore a far-away look as though his thoughts
had outstripped his vision. This was not surprising; for to all men
Coacoochee was known as a dreamer who beguiled the hours of many an
evening by the camp-fire with the telling of his dreams or of the
folklore tales of his people. Not only was he a dreamer of dreams and
a narrator of strange tales; but he was a seer of visions, as had been
proved very recently when death robbed him of his dearly loved twin
sister Allala.
At the time Coacoochee was many miles away from his father's village,
on a hunting-trip with his younger brother Otulke. One night as they
slept the elder brother started from his bed of palmetto leaves with
the voice of Allala ringing in his ears. All was silent about him, and
Otulke lay undisturbed by his side. As the lad wondered and was about
to again lie down, his own name was uttered softly but plainly, and
in the voice of Allala, while at the same moment her actual presence
seemed to be beside him.
It was a summons that he dared not disobey; so, without rousing Otulke,
the young hunter sprang on the back of his pony and sped away through
the moonlight. At sunrise he stood beside the dead form of the dear
sister whose fleeting spirit had called him.
Since then he had often heard Allala's voice in the winds whispering
through tall grasses of the glades, or among nodding flags on the river
banks; in waters that sang and rippled on the lake shore; from shadowy
depths of the hammocks, and amid the soft sighings of cypress swamps.
Fus-chatte the red-bird sang of her, and pet-che the wood dove mourned
that she was gone. To Coacoochee, she seemed ever near him, and he
longed for the time when he might join her. But he knew that he must
be patient and await the presence of the Great Spirit, for he believed
that the hour of his own death had been named at that of his birth. He
also knew that until the appointed time he would escape all dangers
unharmed. He felt certain that Allala watched over him and would warn
him of either death or great danger. Being thus convinced, the lad was
absolutely without fear of dangers visible or unseen; and, dreamer that
he was, often amazed his companions by deeds of what seemed to them the
most reckless daring.
At the moment of his introduction to the reader Coacoochee, bathed
in the full glory of the setting sun, wondered if the place to which
Allala had gone could be fairer or more beautiful than that in which he
lingered.
Although he was without human companionship he was not alone; for
beside him lay Ul-we (the tall one), a great shaggy staghound that
the young Indian had rescued three years before from the wreck of an
English ship that was cast away on the lonely coast more than one
hundred miles from the nearest settlement. Coacoochee with several
companions was searching for turtle-eggs on the beach, and when they
boarded the stranded vessel, a wretched puppy very nearly dead from
starvation was the only living creature they found. The Indian boy took
the little animal for his own, restored it to life through persistent
effort, nursed it through the ills of puppyhood, and was finally
rewarded by having the waif thus rescued develop into the superb hound
that now lay beside him, and whose equal for strength and intelligence
had never been known in Florida. The love of the great dog for his
young master was touching to behold, while the affection of Coacoochee
for him was only excelled by that felt for his dearest human friend.
This friend was a lad of his own age named Louis Pacheco, who was
neither an Indian nor wholly a paleface. He was the son of a Spanish
indigo planter and a beautiful octoroon who had been given her freedom
before the birth of her boy. The SeƱor Pacheco, whose plantation
lay near the village of King Philip, had always maintained the most
friendly relations with his Indian neighbors; and, Louis having one
sister, as had Coacoochee, these four were united in closest intimacy
from their childhood.
At the death of the indigo planter his family removed to a small estate
owned by the mother, on the Tomoka River, some fifty miles from their
old home; but this removal in nowise weakened their friendship with
the red-skinned dwellers by the lake. Frequent visits were exchanged
between the younger members of the two families, and when Allala
was taken to the spirit land, none mourned her loss longer or more
sincerely than Louis and Nita Pacheco.
Louis, being well educated by his father, taught Coacoochee to speak
fluently both English and Spanish in exchange for lessons in forest
lore and woodcraft. The young Creole was as proud of his lineage as was
the son of Philip Emathla, and bore himself as became one born to a
position of freedom and independence.
It was some months since he and Coacoochee had last met, and at the
moment of his introduction to us the latter was thinking of his friend
and meditating a visit to him. It would seem as though these thoughts
must have been induced by some subtle indication of a near-by presence;
for the youth was hardly conscious of them ere Ul-we sprang to his feet
with an ominous growl and dashed into the thicket behind them. At the
same moment the young Indian heard his own name pronounced in a faint
voice, and wheeling quickly, caught sight of a white, wild-eyed face
that he instantly recognized. Ul-we had but time to utter one joyful
bark before his young master stood beside him and was supporting the
fainting form of Nita Pacheco in his arms.