gun at him repeatedly, but it missed fire. They
then pursued him, overtook him, knocked him down with the butt of their
guns, and battered his head until he also was motionless in death. One
of the Choctaws, in his frenzied blows, broke the stock of his rifle.
They then fired off the gun of the Creek who was killed, and one of
them uttered the war-whoop which was heard by the rest of the party.

These two savages drew their scalping-knives and cut off the heads of
both their victims. As the whole body came rushing up, they found the
gory corpses of the slain, with their dissevered heads near by. Each
Indian had a war-club. With these massive weapons each savage, in his
turn, gave the mutilated heads a severe blow. When they had all
performed this barbaric deed, Crockett, whose peculiar type of good
nature led him not only to desire to please the savages, but also to
know what would please them, seized a war-club, and, in his turn, smote
with all his strength the mangled, blood-stained heads. The Indians
were quite delighted. They gathered around him with very expressive
grunts of satisfaction, and patting him upon the back, exclaimed, "Good
warrior! Good warrior!"

The Indians then scalped the heads, and, leaving the bodies unburied,
the whole party entered a trail which led to the river, near the point
where the two wigwams were standing. As they followed the narrow path
they came upon the vestiges of a cruel and bloody tragedy. The
mouldering corpses of a Spaniard, his wife, and four children lay
scattered around, all scalped. Our hero Crockett, who had so valiantly
smitten the dissevered heads of the two Creeks who had been so
treacherously murdered, confesses that the revolting spectacle of the
whites, scalped and half devoured, caused him to shudder. He writes:

"I began to feel mighty ticklish along about this time; for I knowed if
there was no danger then, there had been, and I felt exactly like there
still was."

The white soldiers, leading the Indians, continued their course until
they reached the river. Following it down, they came opposite the point
where the wigwams stood upon the island. The two Indian hunters who had
been killed had gone out from this peaceful little encampment. Several
Indian children were playing around, and the man and woman whom they
had before seen were still beating their roots. Another Indian woman
was also there seen. These peaceful families had no conception of the
disaster w