to
evacuate the fort and retire to Fort Stephens. When he did so, however,
Captain Austill and about fifty other planters, with their families,
determined to remain and defend Fort Glass at all hazards. Among those
who remained was Mr. Hardwicke, who, now that the Indians had murdered
his children, as he supposed, had little to live for, and was disposed
to serve the common cause at the most dangerous posts, where every
available man was needed.

After a time Col. Carson was sent back to the fort with his Mississippi
volunteers, and this freed the daring spirits inside the fort from the
necessity of remaining there. They went at once on scouting parties,
Tandy Walker, the guide, being almost always one of the number going out
on these perilous expeditions. They scoured the country far and near, in
bodies ranging from two or three to twenty or thirty men, and fought the
Indians in many places, losing some valuable men but making the Indians
suffer in their turn.

Finally it was determined to send out a party larger than any that had
yet gone, to operate against the savages on the south-east side of the
river. This expedition numbered seventy-two men, thirty of whom were
Mississippi Yauger men, under a Captain Jones, while the others were
volunteers from private life. The expedition was under the command of
Sam Dale, already celebrated as an Indian fighter, and known among the
Creeks, with whom he had lived, as Sam Thlueco, or Big Sam, on account
of his enormous size and strength. During this Creek war he had
performed some feats of strength, skill and daring, the memory of which
is still preserved in history, together with that of the celebrated
canoe fight, which we are now coming to. To tell of these deeds of
prowess would lead us away from our proper business, namely, the telling
of the present story; but the canoe fight comes properly into the story,
being in fact one of its incidents. Three only of Dale's companions
figured with him in the canoe fight, and they alone need mentioning by
name. These were, first Jerry Austill, the young man already spoken of,
who was six feet two inches high, slender but strong, and active as a
cat; second, James Smith, a man of firm frame and dauntless spirit; and
third Caesar, a negro man, who conducted himself with a courage and
coolness fairly entitling him to bear the name of the great Roman
warrior.

The expedition left Fort Glass on the 11th of November, 1823. Tandy
Walker w