With only an oral tradition, with their unwritten but priceless history of an ancient race, with the white man daily encroaching on their last domain, the time for studying this primitive people in their purity will soon be over, and of their customs and usages, where is the Œdipus at this day who shall solve the riddle of their origin?
SEMINOLES AT HOME
The Everglades
The characteristic of the Seminole is to make his camp in some secluded spot where the white man would least expect to find his habitation.
The peculiar physical formation of Florida makes this very possible. The Everglade region, which is the immediate environment of the Seminoles, is a watery prairie, with here and there high points of ground, and because land-grabbers, corporations and state officials are already clamoring for these watery wastes, and selling thousands of acres from paper plats, with the land still under water, a more detailed description of the Everglade region would be better appreciated. This vast region contains about 4,000 square miles of marsh lands and tropical forests, interlaced with thick clustering vines and is the greatest area of unexplored country in the United States.
The accounts of the interior of the mysterious swamp is to be found only in dim tradition or Indian legends.
However fast the door of the swamp may be locked, it opens quickly enough to whomsoever carries the key. The Seminole is the true key-bearer and with moccasined foot he enters when and where he will.
A writer, in a Miami paper, gives the following interesting account of his approach to the Indian camps: