It is a pleasing change to turn from deeds of blood to instances of humanity, especially when they come to us in the form of attractive youth. A young Georgian, named Duncan McRimmon, captured by the Indians whilst he was fishing, was doomed to death. The stake was fixed, the victim bound, the faggots and torch were ready when a deliverer came in the person of Milly or Malee, a girl of sixteen years, the daughter of Francis. Her intercessions induced her father to spare McRimmon and send him to St. Marks to insure his safety. Not thinking himself secure there, McRimmon went aboard the decoy vessel, and by a singular fatality was there when Francis also came. Malee, bewitching in face, slender and graceful in form, a Red Stick in blood and courage, an expert with the rifle, a fearless rider who required no other help than one of her small hands to mount, was the ideal of an Indian heroine. She was likewise sprightly in mind, and spoke English and Spanish as well as Indian. An adventure will illustrate her heroic nature. After her father’s capture, but in ignorance of it, she and several attendants barely escaped the snare into which he had fallen. As they approached the decoy, however, something occurring to excite suspicion, their canoe was turned for the land. To arrest it, a blank shot was fired by the vessel. That being unheeded, a charge of grape shot was sent after the fugitives. The missiles fell around them, but the canoe neither pausing nor changing its course, was paddled the faster for the shore. A boat was sent in pursuit, but the chase was too late. As the heroine leaped from the canoe to the beach, she snatched a rifle from an attendant and fired at the pursuers. The ball having grazed several of them, and struck the rudder-post, put an end to the chase. After the close of the war, McRimmon sought Malee in marriage. His suit, after repeated refusals, was crowned with success. A marriage, and a happy plantation home on the Suwanee, were the fruits of her humanity, and his persistent wooing. After eighteen years of married life, Malee found herself a widow with eight children. Among the Red Sticks, who after the disastrous battle of the Horse Shoe fled to the Seminole nation, were a Creek mother and her orphan boy, whose age might be twelve. The young Red Stick was destined in after years to fill the continent with his name. Osceola was old enough at the time of Tecumseh’s mission, and the stirring events in which it resulted, to receive from them a deep and lasting impression. To those impressions, doubtless, and the blood he derived from one of those Spartan warriors, whose heroism excited the admiration of their conquerors,[63] was due his primacy in the Seminole war; for an alien he was without the influence of a sept to achieve it. In the career of the Seminole chief may be discerned the far-reaching influence of the Great Shawnee, and the abiding force of youthful impressions. ----- Footnote 61: