nsion we were
in of an attack by the Indians on the stockade, and as it had several
times occurred before during my stay, I resolved to lie and listen
awhile before I rose. The earnest conversation and the noise of horses
soon after satisfied me it was only a friendly arrival. I, however, felt
anxious to obtain intelligence as to the success of a treaty then
pending between the United States Government and the Indians; the
favourable termination of which would not only render my return to
Tallahassee more safe, but put a stop, perhaps for ever, to those
constant scenes of blood and depredation that were by this time become
quite sickening to me. This feeling was much enhanced at the time by the
express between Fort Andrews and Deadman's Bay, being shot by a party of
the common enemy. The body of this poor fellow was never found, but
traces of blood were to be seen near the spot where he had been
attacked; and the saddle and bridle of his horse were found cut into a
thousand pieces; the probability being that he was wounded and taken
prisoner, doubtless to be tortured to death, a practice common with all
Indian tribes in time of war.

On my proceeding to a house used as officers' quarters, outside the
stockade, I found the stir had been caused by the arrival of two
companies of light-horse soldiers from St. Marks, escorting several
couples of bloodhounds, to aid the army, operating in that part of
Florida, to exterminate the Indians. These dogs were very ferocious,
and, on approaching the leashmen, who had them in charge, they opened in
full yell, and attempted to break loose. The dogs had just arrived from
Cuba with their keepers, their importation having been caused by the
supposition, that, like the Maroons in Jamaica, who, for nearly thirty
years, defied the colonists there, the Indians would be terrified into
submission. This, however, turned out to be erroneous; for, on their
first trial, the Indians killed several, and the scheme was very
properly abandoned a short time after.

Such barbarous means were very unjustifiable, although many (to use the
language of the Earl of Chatham, when deprecating a similar course in
the English House of Lords) considered that every means that God and
nature had placed in their hands, were allowable in the endeavour to
bring to a close a war that had cost the Federal Government an immense
amount of blood and treasure. I am of opinion, however, from what I
afterwards heard, that