he was
tied, and went scampering through the village, arousing and alarming
warriors, squaws, children, and dogs with the jingling bell.

At the sound of the bell, Major Adams knew that there would be a
tremendous uproar in the village, and he made an instant rush toward
the river, but soon found himself entangled in the briers and thick
underbrush of the swamp. It was fortunate that he missed the path
leading to the ford; for a party of Indians ran in that direction,
either to catch the pony, or to find out whether they were about to be
attacked. Some of them passed within a few feet of the spot where Major
Adams stood.

In a short time the Indians returned to the village, and it was not long
before everything was as quiet and as peaceful as before the uproar.
Major Adams, instead of hunting for the path, made his way directly
to the river, slipped into the water, and swam straight across to the
opposite bank. He soon found his men, and told them of his adventure
and of the plans he had matured. Up to this moment he had been second in
command. A colonel of militia was with the party, and it was his right
to be the leader of the expedition; but now the men declared that they
would cross the river under the leadership of no one but Adams. It was
Adams or nobody; and the militia colonel, as gracefully as he could,
yielded to the demand.

Major Adams led the volunteers safely across the treacherous ford and
into the Indian town. The surprise was complete. Scarcely a warrior
escaped. The women and children were spared as far as possible, but the
village was burned to the ground. In retreating from that point, which
was the center of the famous Muscogee nation, Major Adams made long
marches during the day, and camped without fires at night, and in this
way brought his command out of the Indian country without the loss of a
man.

But Adams's excursion to the center of the Muscogee (or Creek) nation
did not settle matters. The troubles continued. The temper of the people
was not improved by the efforts of the United States Government to take
affairs into its own hands. In some instances the agents of the General
Government sought to stir up active strife between the people of the
State and the Indians, and it was their habit to belittle the State
government by speaking of it contemptuously before the Indians. In many
instances the United States stepped in between the agents of the State
and the Indians, and prevented sett