f the Mississippi! Still there
was no reason to be distressed about it, he thought, for it was to be
done only if the Florida Indians were willing to make the change, and he
knew that the Seminoles would never consent to leave Florida. With arms
folded across his breast and a calm eye he watched one chief after
another take the pen and make at the end of the treaty his mark or
signature.

A short time afterwards seven chiefs and the faithful negro interpreter,
Abraham, left for Arkansas to examine the new country. The delegation
returned in April, 1833.

Then the Indians asked, "When will the white men meet the red to hear
what they think about going towards the setting sun?"

"There will be no council," said the agent. "You promised to go if the
delegates liked the land. They like the land. Now you must go without
any more talk."

"No, no! We promised to go if we were suited with the land when they
told us about it!" exclaimed the Indians.

The agent repeated, "You gave your word to your white father that you
would go if the country pleased your chiefs. The chiefs were well
pleased." Then he added, "They met your white father's messengers on the
new land and pledged their faith that you would go. They promised for
you. They signed another treaty. You agreed to do as your chiefs wished.
Your chiefs have promised your white father. There is no help for it.
You must go."

When Osceola heard this he was in a rage. The white men had got the
chiefs away from their own people and induced them to make promises they
had no right to make. What right had Charley A. Mathla to promise for
him or to promise for Micanopy, the head chief of the nation?

Osceola was not the only indignant one. All the Indians were in a fury
with the government agents. They felt that they had been tricked, caught
by a phrase they did not understand. They believed that undue influence
had been brought to bear upon their chiefs. Had the delegates been
allowed to return to Florida to give their report, some Indians would
have heard it with favor, but all were angered because the chiefs had
been influenced to make an additional treaty at Fort Gibson without
consulting their people. But the Indians were usually as severe in their
judgment of their own race as in their condemnation of another and they
did not spare the chiefs who had signed the additional treaty. Men and
women alike held them in supreme contempt. They scolded, they ridiculed
till the