As to their present situation, we can give the reader but little further information. In the summer of 1852, Wild Cat suddenly appeared among his friends, the Seminoles, who yet remained in the Indian Country. His appearance excited surprise among the Creeks. They at that time maintained a guard, composed of mounted men: these were at once put in motion for the purpose of arresting this extraordinary chieftain. But while they were engaged in looking for him, he and a company of Seminoles, attended by a number of Exiles and black persons, previously held in bondage by the Creeks, were rapidly wending their way towards their new settlement.[141]
This visit of Wild Cat to the Western Country occasioned much excitement in that region, as well as astonishment at Washington, and constituted the occasion of a protracted correspondence between the War Department and our Military Officers and Indian Agents of that country. Wild Cat was denounced as a “pirate”—“robber”—“OUTLAW;” and nearly all the opprobrious epithets known to our language were heaped upon him, for thus aiding his fellow men to regain those rights to life and liberty with which the God of Nature had originally endowed them.
During the year 1852, while our commissioners, appointed to establish the boundary between the United States and Mexico, were engaged in the discharge of their official duties, a small party of armed men was in attendance for their protection. Some eight of these were said to have been engaged in patroling the country, when they fell in with Wild Cat and a portion of this band of Exiles, who were at all times prepared for friends or foes. The whites were made prisoners without bloodshed, and taken to their village. A council was called. Abraham was yet living, and the white men declared that he was regarded as a ruling prince by his people. They were evidently suspicious of the intentions of our men; but upon inquiry and consideration, they became satisfied that no hostile intentions had brought our friends to that country; they were accordingly treated with becoming hospitality, and dismissed. These brief statements appeared in some of the newspapers of that day, which constitutes our only authority for stating them.
1853.
Complaints were subsequently made through the Texan newspapers, that slaves escaped from that region of country and found an asylum in Mexico, on the other side of the Rio Grande; and intimations were thrown out that a party of volunteers, without authority from the United States, were about to visit the settlement, which thus encouraged slaves to seek their freedom. The suggestion was so much in character with the slaveholders of Texas, that it excited attention among those who were aware of the settlement of Exiles in the region indicated. It was believed that those men who were about to visit Wild Cat and Abraham and Louis and their companions, for the purpose of seizing and enslaving men, would find an entertainment for which they were not prepared.
Some few months subsequently, a brief reference was made in the newspapers of Texas to this expedition, giving their readers to understand that it had failed of accomplishing the object intended, and had returned with its numbers somewhat diminished by their conflict with the blacks.
As was naturally expected, after the lapse of some six months, great complaint was heard through the public press of Indian depredations upon the frontier of Texas. Plantations were said to be destroyed; buildings burned; people murdered, and slaves carried away. This foray was said to have been made by Camanche Indians, led on by Wild Cat. He appears yet ready to make war upon all who fight for slavery; and many of the scenes which were enacted in Florida, will most likely be again presented on our south-western frontier, where the same causes exist which formerly existed in Florida, and the same effects will be likely to follow.
| Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: |
|---|
| General Call at Talahasse=> General Call at Tallahasse {pg 125} |
| visited Fort Mellen=> visited Fort Mellon {pg 141} |
| Any inteference with the negroes=> Any interference with the negroes {pg 147} |
| Members of familes=> Members of families {pg 174} |
| prefering to have them=> preferring to have them {pg 195} |
| arrrangements were privately making=> arrangements were privately making {pg 237} |
| Acting Commmissioner=> Acting Commissioner {pg 241} |
| to those gentleman to enable them=> to those gentlemen to enable them {pg 241} |
| he was in Forida at the time=> he was in Florida at the time {pg 245} |
| all prisoner captured in war=> all prisoners captured in war {pg 246} |
| This feelng was=> This feeling was {pg 252} |
| betrayed, treachererously=> betrayed, treacherously {pg 255} |
| This Message was=> This message was {pg 263} |
| that Territoy=> that Territory {pg 282} |
| outnumbered the asssailants=> outnumbered the assailants {pg 289} |
| disppointment and chagrin=> disappointment and chagrin {pg 289} |
| died of sicknes=> died of sickness {pg 303} |
| sense of gatitude=> sense of gratitude {pg 306} |
| were sacrified=> were sacrificed {pg 315} |
| Blount’s Fourt=> Blount’s Fort {pg 318} |
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Vide Bancroft’s and Hildreth’s Histories of the United States.