General Jessup at length consented to permit the chief of the Cherokees to explain these facts to the Seminoles, in the presence of himself and officers; but would not suffer any other member of the delegation to attend him.[104]
The Seminoles were sent to San Augustine; and that portion of the Cherokees who had accompanied them to General Jessup’s camp, at once refused all further efforts to restore peace, and returned to their homes; leaving, however, some four or five of their brethren in the Seminole country, who, ignorant of the occurrences just related, continued to urge other Seminoles to make peace upon such terms as they believed just—assuring them that the Americans demanded nothing more.
CHAPTER XIII.
VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OF THE WAR.
General Zachary Taylor—His character and past service—His expedition—Battle of Okechobee—His loss—Returns to Withlacoochee—Repudiates the work of catching Slaves—Exiles delivered over to bondage—Regular Troops despise such Employment—Indian prisoners indignant at the outrages perpetrated against the Exiles—Separated from Exiles—Are sent to Charleston—Exiles to Tampa Bay—Further efforts to re-enslave Exiles—General Jessup moves South—Skirmish of Loca Hatchee—Erects Fort Jupiter—Is persuaded to propose peace on basis of permitting Indians and Exiles to remain in Florida—Sends one of the Exiles to the enemy with these propositions—He returns with Hallec Hajo—Parties agree to hold Council and endeavor to form Treaty on that basis—Indians and Exiles meet for that purpose—Letter to Secretary of War—His answer—Indians and Exiles treacherously seized—Their numbers—Alligator and others surrender—Exiles sent to Fort Pike—Indians sent to Charleston.
1837.
General Zachary Taylor was in command of an efficient force in the western part of Florida, holding his head-quarters at Tampa Bay. He had been thirty years in service; had distinguished himself in battle, and was regarded as an officer of great merit. Looking to the honor of our flag and the prestige of the service, he appears to have borne himself entirely above all efforts to prostitute the powers of the nation to the reënslavement of the Exiles. He was particularly opposed to the plan of General Jessup, directing that all negroes captured should be the slaves of the captors.[105]
It now became evident that there was hard fighting to be done. General Taylor was at all times ready for such service. It is one of the imperfections of human government, that the men who conceive and direct the perpetration of great national crimes are usually exempt from the immediate dangers which beset those who act merely as their instruments in the consummation of transcendent wrongs. Had General Jackson and General Cass been assured they would have been the first individuals to meet death in their efforts to enslave the Exiles, it is doubtful whether either of them would have been willing to adopt a policy which should thus consign them to premature graves. Or had Mr. Van Buren, or his Cabinet, at the time of which we are now writing, been conscious that, in carrying on this war for slavery, they would fall victims to their own policy, it may well be doubted whether either of them would have laid down his life for the safety of that institution; yet they were evidently willing to sacrifice our military officers and soldiers, to maintain the degradation of the African race.
General Jessup had written General Taylor, that all hope of terminating the war through the agency of the Cherokees, was at an end; that Sam Jones and the Mickasukies had determined to fight to the last. He, therefore, directed General Taylor to proceed, with the least possible delay, against any portion of the enemy he might hear of within striking distance. General Taylor at once concentrated such force as he deemed necessary for the contemplated expedition. His little army was composed of regulars and volunteers, including nearly one hundred Delaware and Shawnee Indians, who had been induced to join the army under the expectation of obtaining plunder by the capture of slaves. His whole force amounted to nearly eleven hundred men. Conscious that he was expected to encounter the full force of the enemy, if he could succeed in bringing them to action, he left his artillery; divested his troops of all heavy baggage, and prepared, as far as possible, for a rapid movement. With him were some of the most valued officers in the service of Government; men on whom he could rely with confidence, and who were worthy to command veteran troops. With this force, he left his encampment on the morning of the nineteenth of December, and directed his coarse southeastwardly in the direction where, it was said, Sam Jones and his forces were encamped. As he advanced into the interior, he discovered signs of Indians; and, through the efforts of Captain Parks, a half-breed chief, who commanded the Delawares and Shawnees, he induced Jumper, and a few families of the Seminoles and some few Exiles, to come in and emigrate under the articles of capitulation of March previous. On the twenty-second of December, being the third day of their march, they found conclusive evidence that they were in the vicinity of the enemies’ principal force, but found it difficult to bring them to action. That night every precaution was taken against surprise. The necessary patrols were kept out, sentinels doubled, and the troops slept upon their arms. They confidently expected to engage the enemy the next day.
But the allies were cautious; they passed from swamps, through hommocks, and over prairies, constantly keeping too far in advance of our army to incur any danger. In this manner the whole of that day was occupied.
At night the troops bivouacked as on the previous night. They were in the deepest recesses of the Indian Country, surrounded by swamps, everglades and hommocks: through these they had groped their way for a hundred miles. Up to this time, the mounted volunteers had managed to keep their horses with them, knowing they might be useful in battle. But the enemy indicated an unwillingness to encounter our troops with the advantages which the mounted men would possess over them.