d upon Thompson for the indignity he had put upon him.

In the month of December, 1835, while Thompson and a party of friends
were dining near Fort King, with the windows raised, because of the
mildness of the day, Osceola and a party of his warriors stole up and
fired a volley through the windows, which killed Thompson and four of
his companions. Before the garrison of the fort could do anything, the
Seminoles had fled.

DADE'S MASSACRE.

On the same day of this tragical occurrence, Major Francis L. Dade set
out with 140 mounted men to the relief of General Clinch, stationed at
Fort Drane, in the interior of Florida, where he was threatened with
massacre. Dade advanced from Fort Brooke at the head of Tampa Bay, and
was not far on the road when he was fired upon by the Indians from
ambush. Half the men were killed, including Major Dade. The remainder
hastily fortified themselves, but were attacked in such overwhelming
numbers that every man was shot down. Two wounded soldiers crawled into
the woods, but afterward died. "Dade's Massacre" caused as profound a
sensation throughout the country as did that of Custer and his command
forty years later.

The Seminole War dragged on for years. General Scott commanded for a
time in 1836, and vigorously pressed a campaign in the autumn of that
year; but when he turned over the command, in the spring of 1837, to
General Zachary Taylor, the conquest of the Seminoles seemingly was as
far off as ever. Taylor attempted to use a number of Cuban bloodhounds
for tracking the mongrels into the swamps, but the dogs refused to take
the trail of the red men, and the experiment (widely denounced in the
North) was a failure.

In October, while Osceola and a number of warriors were holding a
conference with General Jessup under the protection of a flag of truce,
all were made prisoners, and Osceola was sent to Charleston, and died in
Fort Moultrie in 1838. The war dragged on until 1842, when General
Worth, after it had cost $40,000,000 and many lives, brought it to an
end by destroying the crops of the Seminoles and leaving to them the
choice between starvation and submission.

[Illustration: OSCEOLA'S INDIGNATION.]

GREAT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COMFORTS OF LIFE.

The steam locomotive, of which we have given a brief history, came into
general use during the presidency of General Jackson. When he left
office 1,500 miles of railway had been built, and many more were being
laid in differ