ey were set upon by upwards
of five hundred well-armed Indians, who were in their midst before they
could recover their weapons. He was one of the very first wounded, and
had crawled behind a bush, where he lay and witnessed the slaughter of
his comrades. As evening approached, favoured by the darkness, he
crawled farther into the wood, to die in peace. He heard the shouts and
shrieks of the Redskins, triumphing over their victims, when suddenly
they had hurried off, as he supposed, to the northward.

While we were listening to the poor fellow's account, the dogs had been
sent in to the other side of the forest, where they discovered three
more soldiers, almost at the point of death. Two, indeed, died before
they could give any account of what had happened; but the other
corroborated the statement of the first in all particulars, adding that
he had seen the savages dance round the slain; and that while thus
engaged the horses had escaped, with the exception of two or three,
which they had succeeded in carrying off with them. Several, indeed,
lay dead on the battle-field, almost torn to pieces by the wolves. My
father, who had had some experience in gunshot wounds, did his best to
attend to the poor men; but the last discovered died in the course of a
few minutes, and we had now only one, the sole survivor of the massacre,
to carry with us. A rough litter was at once formed, as he could not
bear the jolting of a horse; and he was carried forward on the shoulders
of some of our people, who willingly undertook the task. As it was
dangerous to remain in the exposed position in which we were, we now
advanced as fast as possible, fearing that at any moment we might be
attacked by a vastly superior force. Every man of the party, however,
was resolved to fight to the last, and to sell his life dearly.

Spotted Wolf had appeared as much astonished as any of us at the
discovery of the massacred troops. Carlos observed to me that he
thought the fellow was looking out for an opportunity to escape. "If he
tries to do so, I'll shoot him," he added. "I have mistrusted him from
the first. I suspect that, in advising us to take this route, he
expected to lead us up to the ambush into which our troops have fallen;
and I believe that he wants to get off for the purpose of letting Oceola
know how small a party we are. Probably the enemy were deceived, and,
getting information of our approach, supposed that we were a large for