men in self defense declared that they had not signed the
treaty, and gave so many reasons why the Seminoles should not go west
that the spirit against emigration was more positive than ever.

The faith of even those Indians who had striven to keep peace with the
United States was destroyed by the "Additional Treaty" and a general
feeling of ill will prevailed. The Indians refused to surrender negroes
claimed as slaves by the white people, and were so hostile that in 1834
General Jackson, then president of the United States, determined to
force them to leave if necessary. He had the treaties ratified by the
Senate, appointed a new Indian agent, and ordered that preparations for
the removal of the Indians should be pushed with all speed.

In October the new Indian agent called a council. This time Osceola went
about urging the Indians to attend and advising the chiefs about their
talks. In the council the slender, energetic, young warrior sat next to
the fat, inactive old chief, Micanopy. Osceola had no right to speak in
council, but there was no man there who had more influence. If Micanopy
wavered under the stern eye of the white man, he heard the voice of
Osceola in his ear and did the young man's bidding.

Micanopy denied signing the treaty of Payne's Landing. When shown his
mark he declared that he had not touched the pen, though he had been on
the point of doing so, "for," he said, "the treaty was to examine the
country and I believed that when the delegation returned, the report
would be unfavorable. It is a white man's treaty, and the white man did
not make the Indian understand it as he meant it." He finished by saying
that he had agreed to the treaty of Camp Moultrie and that by the terms
of that treaty southern Florida belonged to the Seminoles for twenty
years, scarcely half of which had passed.

Other chiefs spoke and said bitter things. The agent became angry and
threatened to withhold the annuity unless the Indians signed a paper
agreeing to leave without further trouble.

At this Osceola's eyes flashed fire; he sprang up like a tiger and
declared that he did not care if the Indians never received another
dollar of the white man's money; he and his warriors would never sign
away their liberty and land for gold. Then, drawing his knife from his
belt, he raised it high in the air and plunged it through document and
table, exclaiming, "The only treaty I will sign is with this!"

VI. HOSTILITIES