Chapter I: Front Matter

THROUGH SWAMP AND GLADE

THROUGH
SWAMP AND GLADE

_A TALE OF
THE SEMINOLE WAR_

BY

KIRK MUNROE

AUTHOR OF "THE WHITE CONQUERORS," "AT WAR WITH
PONTIAC," ETC., ETC.

_ILLUSTRATED BY VICTOR PERARD_

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1896

COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Norwood Press
J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith.
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

TO MY READERS

The principal incidents in the story of Coacoochee, as related in the following pages, are historically true. The Seminole War, the most protracted struggle with Indians in which the United States ever engaged, lasted from 1835 to 1842. At its conclusion, though most of the tribe had been removed to the Indian Territory in the far west, there still remained three hundred and one souls uncaptured and unsubdued. This remnant had fled to the almost inaccessible islands of the Big Cypress Swamp, in the extreme southern part of Florida. Rather than undertake the task of hunting them out, General Worth made a _verbal_ treaty with them, by which it was agreed that they should retain that section of country unmolested, so long as they committed no aggressions. From that time they have kept their part of that agreement to the letter, living industrious, peaceful lives, and avoiding all unnecessary contact with the whites. They now number something over five hundred souls, but the tide of white immigration is already lapping over the ill-defined boundaries of their reservation, while white land-grabbers, penetrating the swamps, are seizing their fertile islands and bidding them begone. They stand aghast at this brutal order. Where can they go? What is to become of them? Is there nothing left but to fight and die? It would seem not.

KIRK MUNROE.

BISCAYNE BAY, FLORIDA, 1896.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. A BIT OF THE FLORIDA WILDERNESS 1

II. MR. TROUP JEFFERS PLOTS MISCHIEF 9

III. THE SLAVE-CATCHERS AT WORK 17

IV. CAPTURE AND ESCAPE OF NITA PACHECO 26

V. A FOREST BETROTHAL 34

VI. CRUEL DEATH OF UL-WE, THE STAGHOUND 43

VII. COACOOCHEE IN THE CLUTCHES OF WHITE RUFFIANS 52

VIII. RALPH BOYD THE ENGLISHMAN 60

IX. MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF A SENTINEL 67

X. FONTAINE SALANO'S TREACHERY AND ITS REWARD 74

XI. "THE SEMINOLE MUST GO" 82

XII. CHEN-O-WAH IS STOLEN BY THE SLAVE-CATCHERS 88

XIII. "WILEY THOMPSON, WHERE IS MY WIFE?" 96

XIV. OSCEOLA SIGNS THE TREATY 102

XV. LOUIS PACHECO BIDES HIS TIME 111

XVI. OSCEOLA'S REVENGE 119

XVII. ON THE VERGE OF THE WAHOO SWAMP 126

XVIII. COACOOCHEE'S FIRST BATTLE 133

XIX. RALPH BOYD AND THE SLAVE-CATCHER 141

XX. AN ALLIGATOR AND HIS MYSTERIOUS ASSAILANT 148

XXI. BATTLE OF THE WITHLACOOCHEE 156

XXII. THE YOUNG CHIEF MAKES A TIMELY DISCOVERY 165

XXIII. SHAKESPEARE IN THE FOREST 171

XXIV. BOGUS INDIANS AND THE REAL ARTICLE 181

XXV. A SWAMP STRONGHOLD OF THE SEMINOLES 190

XXVI. TWO SPIES AND THEIR FATE 200

XXVII. ANSTICE SAVES THE LIFE OF A CAPTIVE 211

XXVIII. THE MARK OF THE WILDCAT 222

XXIX. TREACHEROUS CAPTURE OF COACOOCHEE AND
OSCEOLA 233

XXX. IN THE DUNGEONS OF THE ANCIENT FORTRESS 245

XXXI. A DARING ESCAPE 255

XXXII. NITA HEARS THAT COACOOCHEE IS DEAD 264

XXXIII. TOLD BY THE MAGNOLIA SPRING 274

XXXIV. FOLLOWING A MYSTERIOUS TRAIL 285

XXXV. FATE OF THE SLAVE-CATCHERS 296

XXXVI. PEACE IS AGAIN PROPOSED 306

XXVII. COACOOCHEE IS AGAIN MADE PRISONER 316

XXXVIII. DOUGLASS FULFILS HIS MISSION 326

XXXIX. THE BRAVEST GIRL IN FLORIDA 336

XL. A DOUBLE WEDDING AND THE SETTING SUN 346

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING
PAGE

A GREAT SHEET OF FLAME LEAPED FROM THE ROADSIDE
_Frontispiece_

THEN WITH A VICIOUS HISS THE RAW-HIDE SWEPT DOWN
WITH THE FULL FORCE OF THE ARM THAT WIELDED IT 58

IT SUNK DEEP INTO THE WOOD OF THE TABLE AND STOOD
QUIVERING AS THOUGH WITH RAGE 100

"TO LEAB BEHINE DE ONLIEST FEDDERBED SHE DONE GOT" 174

THE GIRL STEPPED CLOSE TO THE YOUNG CHIEF AND SPOKE
A FEW WORDS 216

HADJO LOST HIS HOLD OF THE ROPE AND CAME TUMBLING
DOWN THE WHOLE DISTANCE 260

NITA SAT BY HER FAVORITE SPRING 276

"ALL IS LOST AND THE WAR IS ABOUT TO BREAK FORTH
WITH GREATER FURY THAN EVER" 324

THROUGH SWAMP AND GLADE