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. [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 Trai]l 285
XXXV. [Fate of the Slave-Catchers] 296
XXXVI. [Peace is again Proposed] 306
XXXVII. [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]

[A great sheet of flame leaped from the roadside]
[Then with a vicious hiss the raw-hide swept down with the full force of the arm that wielded it]
[It sunk deep into the wood of the table and stood quivering as though with rage]
"[To leab behine de onliest fedderbed she done got]"
[The girl stepped close to the young chief and spoke a few words]
[Hadjo lost his hold of the rope and came tumbling down the whole distance]
[Nita sat by her favorite spring]
"[All is lost and the war is about to break forth with greater fury than ever]"