“No, Mistis, hit wuzn’t de Indians dat did de skirmishin,’ hit wuz de white rapscallions what wuz hankerin’ foh dem government rations.
“Our people wuz rich den wif de big sugar plantations an’ cotton fields an’ a heap o’ slaves an’ cattle an’ horses; our folks didn’t want no war, but hit wuz de poor white people dat rousted ’roun’ at night an’ kill de cattle an’ put moccasins on der ole foots, what look as rough as alligators’ hides, den dey go an’ make tracks all roun’ like a hundred Indians been a spyin’. Hit sholy did skeer our people, but twan’t de Seminoles, kase de Indian is a debbil, but he ain’t gwine ter stay ’roun’ Fort King when he done promise Colonel Worth he gwine go ’way.
“Dem white men keep up dat debbilment till de United States find out ’bout hit, an’ she say if dey any moh o’ dat meanness foun’ out dat dey will hang ebbery rapscallion what prowlin’ ’roun’ we alls white folks houses.”
PART II
The Florida Seminoles of To-day
PART SECOND
The Present Condition and Attitude of the Seminoles
To-day the Seminoles of Florida are a beggared and spectral type of a once powerful race. And in their swamp homes we find these brown-skinned people, living in the primeval customs of their fathers, little changed from the Indians De Soto found in the “Land of Flowers,” or Columbus upon the little island upon which he landed the weary and anxious cargo of the frail Pinta, and of whom he wrote to his Queen, “Because they showed much kindliness for us, and because I know they would be more easily made Christians through love than fear, I gave to them some glass beads for their necks, some red caps with which they were so delighted and entirely ours, it was a marvel to see.”