Petals Plucked from Sunny ClimesBrooks, A. M. (Abbie M.)
History
Petals Plucked from Sunny Climes
Brooks, A. M. (Abbie M.)
Cuba -- Description and travel; Florida -- Description and travel; Florida -- History
About midday on March 5, 1841, Wild Cat was announced as approaching the
encampment, preceded by friendly Indians, and followed by seven trusty
warriors. He came within the chain of sentinels, boldly and fearlessly,
decorated, as were his companions, in the most fantastic manner. Parts
of the wardrobe plundered from the theatrical troupe the year previous
were wrapped about their persons in the most ludicrous and grotesque
style. The nodding plumes of the haughty Dane, as personated in the sock
and buskin, boasting of his ancestry and revenge, now decorated the brow
of the unyielding savage, whose ferocity had desolated the country by
blood, and whose ancestors had bequeathed the soil now consecrated with
their ashes, which he had defended with unswerving fidelity. He claimed
no rights or inheritance but those he was prepared to defend. Modestly
by his side walked a friend wound up in the simple garb of Horatio,
while in the rear was Richard III., judging from his royal purple and
ermine, combined with the hideousness of a dark, distorted, revengeful
visage. Others were ornamented with the crimson vest and spangles,
according to fancy. He entered the tent of Colonel Worth, who was
prepared to receive him, and shook hands with the officers all around,
undisturbed in manner or language. His speech was modest and fluent. His
child, aged twelve years, which the troops had captured at Fort Mellon
during the fight, now rushed into his arms. Tears seldom give utterance
to the impulse of an Indian's heart; but when he found the innate
enemies of his race the protectors of his child, he wept. With accuracy
and feeling he detailed the occurrences of the past four years. He said
the whites had dealt unjustly by him. "I came to them; they deceived me.
The land I was upon I loved; my body is made of its sands. The Great
Spirit gave me legs to walk it, hands to help myself, eyes to see its
ponds, rivers, forests, and game; then a head with which to think. The
sun, which is warm and bright, as my feelings are now, shines to warm us
and bring forth our crops, and the moon brings back the spirit of our
warriors, our fathers, wives, and children." Wild Cat admitted the
necessity of his leaving the country, hard as it was. After remaining
four days, he returned, with his child, to his tribe.
General Worth commanded the army in Florida at this time. He established
the head-quarters of his command in the saddle--only asking his troops
to follow where he should lead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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