ed my frame, and made travelling very irksome. My accommodation
was indifferent, but medical assistance, which I needed most, was not
wanting, and I shall never forget the courtesy of the officers.

I employed my time chiefly in rambling the woods, when health would
permit, and had a boat lent to me, with which, in company, I several
times penetrated the tortuous river, Esteenahatchie, to the bay, some
miles distant. At night the boats were all sunk, or they would have been
stolen or destroyed by the Indians, who hovered round and committed
petty depredations at every opportunity. Below the fort, was a ruinous
mill, in a gloomy dell, through which the river wended its silent
course. This had once been tenanted, but the inhabitants were murdered
some years before by the Indians, who afterwards (as is their almost
unvarying custom), added to the atrocity by setting fire to the
building.

Sitting one day, after a lengthened ramble, in solitary meditation on my
position and the surrounding scenery, I saw a fine Indian, who appeared
greatly fatigued, emerge from the adjoining hammock, and walk to the
edge of the stream, and there, after glancing round him with eager eye
and air, he laid down his rifle, and stepping on to a tree which
debouched into the stream (lying as it had been struck down by a
tornado), he crouched down at the end of it, and commenced laving
himself with the water. His appearance was romantic, and there is no
doubt, from his dress, he was a warrior of some note, probably following
his wife, one of the squaws captured by the volunteers I have before
mentioned, and who were still at Fort Andrews, awaiting orders from
General Taylor. I could have shot him to a certainty, had I been armed,
which was not the case. Had it been so, however, I was predetermined
never, unless in self-defence, to imbrue my hands in Indian or negro
blood while in the territory, neither was I disposed to betray him, for
I deeply sympathized with the misfortunes of his race, and well knew
that an inexcusable spirit of aggrandizement on the part of the Federal
Government had in the first place roused the indignation of both negroes
and red men, and provoked hostilities. After performing his ablution,
the Indian stalked like a deer into the recesses of the forest, I having
in the mean time, as a matter of policy, moved out of danger, for he was
no doubt animated with feelings of dire revenge, and in a very different
mood from that in