Anecdotes of the American Indians, illustrating their eccentricities of character
History
Anecdotes of the American Indians, illustrating their eccentricities of character
Indians of North America -- Anecdotes
The Yemasees were remarkably black people, and the Ocklewahaw tribe,
who are of a deeper shade than the Seminoles, are descendants of the
conquered race. The chief of the Ocklewahaws, Yaha Hadgo, who was
killed by General Shelton in the campaign of ‘36, was very dark; but
generally, the Seminole’s complexion is like that of the Creeks.
Under King Payne, grandfather of Micconope, (the present Chief) the
Seminoles invaded and achieved the conquest of the territories they
lately occupied. He lived to near 100 years of age, and married a
Yemasee woman, his slave, by whom he had the late chief Payne, who
bore, in the darkness of his complexion, a proof of his Yemasee descent.
The Indians were formerly very numerous in Florida, perhaps as much so
as in Mexico. They are now reduced to comparatively small bands, in few
villages.
[Illustration]
GENERAL JACKSON’S CONQUEST OF THE INDIANS.
An artful impostor, Tecumseh of the Shawnees, a man of most
extraordinary abilities and consummate address, conceived the bold
design of an union of the red against the white population of America,
under a hope that by a general and continued assault along the whole
line of our frontiers, the future extension of settlements might be
checked, if the present inhabitants could not be driven into the ocean.
Assuming the attributes of a prophet, and, among other things, assisted
by the fortuitous occurrence of an earthquake, of which he had hazarded
a prediction, a confidence began to be reposed in the sacredness of his
character and mission. A majority of the Creek nation were enlisted in
his cause, and the storm of an exterminating savage war hung over the
West. Its first explosion was on Fort Mims, a rude stockade defence,
into which the Southern inhabitants of Alabama had lately retreated
for security. More than 300 persons, including women and children,
fell victims to savage barbarity. “The slaughter was indiscriminate;
mercy was extended to none, and the tomahawk often transfixed mother
and child at the same stroke. But seventeen of the whole number in the
fort, escaped to give intelligence of the dreadful catastrophe.” In
the midst of an alarm which such an inhuman outrage was calculated to
excite, the eyes of Tennessee were turned on Jackson. Though confined
at this period to his house by a fractured arm, his characteristic
firmness did not desert him, and he cheerfully yielded to a second call
for his services in the cause of his country. Two thousand militia were
ordered to assemble at Fayetteville in Tennessee, in addition to five
hundred cavalry previously raised under the command of Gen. Coffee.
The alarming accounts of the concentration of the forces of the enemy,
with a view of deluging the frontier in blood, compelled General
Jackson (though individually in a most disabled state of body) to take
the field before the ranks of his army had been filled, or his troops
organized.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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