Outdoor Life and Indian Stories / Making open air life attractive to young Americans by telling them all about woodcraft, signs and signaling, the stars, fishing, camping, camp cooking, how to tie knots and how to make fire without matches, and many other fascinating open air pursuits. Also, stories of noted hunters and scouts, great indians and warriors, including Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, General Custer, Pontiac, Tecumseh, King Philip, Black Hawk, Brandt, Sitting Bull, and a host of others whose names are famous; all of them true and interesting

by Edward Sylvester Ellis

He was the commandant at Fort George, had placed the ironed prisoners in their wretched quarters, and treated them with brutality. The continued confinement of the hostages enraged the Indians who laid siege to Fort George. It did not take Great Warrior long to learn he could make no impression on it, and he gave up his design for another, more subtle one.

He hid a number of his bucks in a dense cane-brake at the river side, and sent a squaw, who was well known at the garrison, to the captain, with a request that he would come to the water where the chief was waiting to tell him important news. Captain Coitmore was rash enough to accept the invitation and went to the place named with two of his officers as companions. He soon saw Great Warrior standing on the other side of the Savannah with a bridle in his hand. This was to give color to his statement that he was going to Charleston to secure the release of the Cherokees held as hostages. As the distance was great, he hoped to be able to obtain a horse.

As he said this, the chief turned about and swung the bridle over his head. The act was the signal to his hidden men, who instantly fired at the three officers. The captain was killed and his companions wounded. The garrison immediately started to put all the hostages in irons, they having been released a short time before. They resisted fiercely, killing one of the soldiers and wounding several. The prisoners expected their comrades outside to come to their help, but that was beyond their power, and the troops completed their crime by putting every one of the imprisoned hostages remorselessly to death.

By a strange fatality the victims were related to nearly all the principal families among the Cherokees, who were driven to a frenzy against the whites. Great Warrior became as determined in his hostility as was ever Pontiac or Philip, while Little Carpenter, as grieved and angry as he, still saw that a war would only add to the sufferings of his people. He strove to keep them from taking the war path, but it was in vain. He stood almost alone. The scenes that followed were such as have spread woe and desolation times without number along the frontier.

The truth was driven home at last upon the Cherokees that only one way of escaping destruction was left to them: that was to make peace with the whites on the best terms they could get. When the force reached Fort George, twenty chiefs begged a meeting with the colonel. The proud Great Warrior was not with them, for he would have died before asking mercy of the invaders, but Little Carpenter was at the head of the party. He was known to the commandant who received him and his companions with fitting honors, and accepted the statement that he spoke for his whole people. Addressing the officer, Little Carpenter said:

"You live at the water side and are in light. We are in darkness, but hope that all will yet be clear. I have been going about all the time doing good, and though I am tired, yet I come to see what can be done for my people who are in great distress."

At this point the chief handed over the belts of wampum which he had brought from the different towns as prayers for peace. "As to what has happened," continued Little Carpenter, "I believe it has been ordered by our Father above. We are of a different color from the white people. They are superior to us. But one God is father of us all, and we hope what is past will be forgotten. God made all people. There is not a day that some are not coming into and others going out of the world. The Great King told me the path should never be crocked, but open for every one to pass and repass. As we all live in one land, I hope we shall all love as one people."

Anxious as the Cherokees were for peace, and strongly as Little Carpenter had striven from the first to bring it about, it must not be thought that he was lacking in personal or moral courage. None but the bravest of men would have dared to withstand the terrible Great Warrior and the large majority of his tribe, as this chief did again and again. So at the present time, when the English leader of the expedition stated terms on which he would give peace to the Indians, Little Carpenter rejected one condition: that was the surrender of four Cherokees, specially noted for their cruelties, and their execution in front of the camp.

The chief closed his lips and shook his head. The colonel persisted. It was the only condition over which there was any hitch.