THE SEMINOLE MUST GO
The Seminoles must be removed. The clamor of the land-speculator, the
slave-hunter, and a host of others interested in driving the Indian
from his home had at length been listened to at Washington, and the
fiat had gone forth. The Seminoles must be removed to the distant
west--peaceably if possible, but forcibly if they will not go otherwise.
A new treaty had been made by which the Indians agreed to remove to the
new home selected for them, provided a delegation of chiefs appointed
to visit the western land reported favorably concerning it. These went,
saw the place, and upon their return reported it to be a cold country
where Seminoles would be very unhappy.
Upon hearing this, the Indians said that they would prefer to remain
where they were. Thereupon the United States Government said through
its commissioners that it made no difference whether they wanted to go
or not; they must go.
In the meantime, outrages of every kind were perpetrated upon the
Indians. The whipping of those discovered off the reservation, that
was begun with Coacoochee, was continued. Several Indians were thus
whipped to death by the white brutes into whose cowardly hands they
fell. The system of withholding annuities and supplies was continued,
and the helpless Indians were recklessly plundered right and left.
General Andrew Jackson, who was now President, had no love for Indians.
He had in former years wronged them too cruelly for that, while
teaching them lessons of the white man's power. He therefore appointed
General Wiley Thompson of Georgia, as the Seminole agent, and ordered
him to compel their removal to the far west without further delay. He
also sent troops to Florida, and these began to gather at Fort Brooke
and Tampa Bay under command of General Clinch.
It was evident that the Seminoles must either submit to leave the sunny
land of their birth, their homes, and the graves of their fathers, or
they must fight in its defence, and for their rights as free men. If
they consented to go west to the land that those chiefs who had seen it
described as cold and unproductive, they would find already established
there their old and powerful enemies, the Creeks, who were eagerly
awaiting their coming, with a view to seizing their negro allies and
selling them into slavery. It was evident that a fight for his very
existence was to be forced upon the Seminole in either case, and it
only remained for him to choose whether he would fight in his own
land, of which he knew every swamp, hammock, and glade, and of which
his enemy was ignorant, or whether he should go to a distant country,
of which he knew nothing, and fight against an enemy already well
acquainted with it.
This was the alternative presented to the warriors of Philip Emathla's
village assembled about their council fire on a summer's evening a few
weeks after that with which this history opens.
On Coacoochee, now sitting in the place of honor at the right hand of
the chief his father and earnestly regarding the speaker who laid this
state of affairs before them, the weeks just passed had borne with the
weight of so many years. During their short space he had passed from
youth to manhood. Having directed the search for himself that followed
the death of Salano, toward the Okeefenokee, while his village lay in
exactly the opposite direction, he had escaped all intercourse with the
whites from that time to the present. But from that experience he had
returned so much wiser and graver that his advice was now sought by
warriors much older than he, while by those of his own age and younger
he was regarded as a leader. Thus, though still a youth in years, and
though he still reverenced and obeyed his father, he was to all intents
the chief of Philip Emathla's powerful band.
It was in this capacity that the speaker, to hear whom this council
was gathered, evidently regarded him, and it was to Coacoochee that his
remarks were especially directed.
This speaker was a member of a band of Seminoles known as the Baton
Rouge or Red Sticks, who occupied a territory at some distance from
that of King Philip. His father, whom he had never known, was a white
man, but his mother was the daughter of a native chieftain, and though
he spoke English fluently, he had passed all of his twenty-eight
years among the Seminoles, and they were his people. Although not a
chief, nor yet regarded as a prominent leader, he was possessed of
such force of character and such a commanding presence that he had
acquired a great influence over all the Indians with whom he was thrown
in contact. His name was Ah-ha-se-ho-la (black drink), generally
pronounced Osceola by the whites, who also called him by his father's
name of Powell.
This dauntless warrior was bitterly opposed to the emigration of his
tribe, and was anxious to declare war against the whites rather than
submit to it. He believed that the Seminoles, roaming over a vast
extent of territory abounding in natural hiding-places, might defend
themselves against any army of white soldiers that should undertake to
subdue them for at least three years. Could the conflict be sustained
for that length of time without the whites gaining any decided
advantages, he declared they would then give up the struggle and allow
the Indians to retain their present lands unmolested.
Osceola was now visiting the different bands of the tribe, preaching
this crusade of resistance to tyranny. As he stood before Philip
Emathla and his warriors, with his noble figure and fine face fully
displayed in the bright firelight, they were thrilled by his eloquence.
With bated breath they listened to his summing up of their grievances,
and when he declared that he would rather die fighting for this land
than live in any other, they greeted his words with a murmur of
approving assent.
Never had Coacoochee been so powerfully affected. The sting of the
white man's whip across his shoulders was still felt, and he was choked
with the sense of outrage and injustice inflicted upon his people. His
fingers clutched nervously at the hilt of his knife and he longed for
the time to come when he might fight madly for all that a man holds
most dear.
As his gaze wandered for a moment from the face of the speaker, it
fell on a group just visible within the circle of firelight. There sat
the beautiful girl to whom he had so recently plighted his troth, and
beside her Chen-o-wah, the daughter of a Creek chief and his quadroon
squaw. She was the wife of Osceola, and the one being in all the world
whom the fierce forest warrior loved.
For a moment Coacoochee's determination wavered as he reflected what
these and others equally helpless would suffer in a time of war. There
came a memory of the manner in which Nita's mother and brother had been
consigned to slavery by the white man. No word had come from them, but
he could imagine their fate. Might not the same fate overtake her most
dear to him and hundreds of others with her? Would it not be better for
them to incur the dangers and sufferings of war rather than those of
slavery? Yes, a thousand times yes.
And then, perhaps the whites were not so very powerful, after all.
Their soldiers, so far as he had seen them, were but few in number,
and moved slowly from place to place. He and his warriors could travel
twenty miles to their five. Besides, there were the vast watery
fastnesses of the Everglades and the Big Cypress in the far south, to
which the Indians could always retreat and into which no white man
would ever dare follow them. Yes, his voice should be raised for war,
no matter how long it might last, nor how bloody it might be, and the
sooner it could be begun, the better. But he must listen, for Philip
Emathla was about to speak.