he river. They had made the passage slowly and
laboriously in an old canoe that carried only eight at a time. But they
were now advancing on this side of the river. Many a warrior's heart
failed him when he heard this. But Osceola's dauntless spirit rose to
the emergency. He cheered his men with words of such good courage that
they were soon following him with new enthusiasm to a hill, where he
posted them in a hammock to await the enemy.

On the morning of the last day of the year, General Clinch advanced
towards the hammock. He was aware of the presence of hostile Indians,
but not knowing of the outrages they had already committed, he felt
reluctant to attack them. He sent messages to Osceola telling him that
it was useless for the Indians to struggle against the white man and
advising him not to enter upon a war that could end only with the
destruction of his race.

To this humane counsel Osceola replied with haughty independence: "You
have guns, and so have we; you have powder and lead, and so have we; you
have men, and so have we; your men will fight, and so will ours until
the last drop of the Seminoles' blood has moistened the dust of his
hunting grounds." He added, what then seemed to the whites an idle
boast, that after a few weeks' further preparation the Seminoles would
be ready to enter upon a five years' struggle for the hunting grounds of
Florida.

At about noon General Clinch charged up the hill. He was greeted with a
lively fire, but his men were tried fighters and were not checked. On
they came calmly returning the fire of the enemy. The Indians and
negroes offered a determined resistance. If they wavered, the shrill and
terrible "Yo-ho-e-hee" of their leader gave them new courage. Everywhere
his white plumes waved in the thick of the fight. The fire of his
warriors broke upon the enemy always at the most unexpected point, and
had it not been for the bravery of General Clinch, the Indians would
have driven the soldiers back to the river, on the other side of which
four hundred volunteers were watching the battle. But they held their
ground, and at last Osceola was so seriously wounded that he ordered a
retreat.

For an hour and twenty minutes the battle had raged. The loss of the
Indians was slight. When at Osceola's signal the wild yells ceased and
the Indians disappeared in the forest, they bore with them only three
dead and five wounded. General Clinch had suffered much heavier loss.
Eight of hi