[32] Great Ockli-Waha.
[33] Alluding to his tail.
CHAPTER VII.
On my return to the trading house, from my journey to the great savanna, I found the trading company for Little St. Juan’s preparing for that post.
My mind yet elate with the various scenes of rural nature, which as a lively animated picture had been presented to my view; the deeply engraven impression, a pleasing flattering contemplation, gave strength and agility to my steps, anxiously to press forward to the delightful fields and groves of Apalatche.
The trading company for Talahasochte being now in readiness to proceed for that quarter, under the direction of our chief trader, in the cool of the morning we sat off, each of us having a good horse to ride, besides having in our caravan several pack-horses laden with provisions, camp equipage, and other necessaries. A young man from St. Augustine, in the service of the governor of East Florida, accompanied us, commissioned to purchase of the Indians and traders some Siminole horses. They are the most beautiful and sprightly species of that noble creature, perhaps any where to be seen; but are of a small breed, and as delicately formed as the American roe-buck. A horse in the Creek or Muscogulge tongue is echoclucco, that is the great deer, (echo is a deer and clucco is big). The Siminole horses are said to descend originally from the Andalusian breed, brought here by the Spaniards when they first established the colony of East Florida. From the forehead to their nose is a little arched or aquiline, and so are the fine Chactaw horses among the Upper Creeks, which are said to have been brought thither from New-Mexico across Mississippi, by those nations of Indians who emigrated from the West, beyond the river. These horses are every where like the Siminole breed, only larger, and perhaps not so lively and capricious. It is a matter of conjecture and enquiry, whether or not the different soil and situation of the country may have contributed in some measure, in forming and establishing the difference in size and other qualities betwixt them. I have observed the horses and other animals in the high hilly country of Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and all along our shores, are of a much larger and stronger make, than those which are bred in the flat country next the sea coast. A buck-skin of the Upper Creeks and Cherokees will weigh twice as heavy as those of the Siminoles or Lower Creeks, and those bred in the low flat country of Carolina.
Our first day’s journey was along the Alachua roads, twenty-five miles to the Half-way Pond, where we encamped: the musquitoes were excessively troublesome the whole night.
Decamped early next morning, still pursuing the road to Alachua, until within a few miles of Cuscowilla, when the road dividing, one for the town, and the other for the great savanna, here our company separated. One party chose to pass through the town, having some concerns there. I kept with the party that went through the savanna, it being the best road, leading over a part of the savanna, when entering the groves on its borders, we travelled several miles over these fertile eminences, and delightful shady fragrant forests, then again entered upon the savanna, and crossed a charming extensive green cove or bay of it, covered with a vivid green grassy turf, when we again ascended the woodland hills, through fruitful Orange groves and under shadowy Palms and Magnolias. Now the Pine forests opened to view. We left the magnificent savanna and its delightful groves, passing through a level, open, airy Pine forest, the stately trees scatteringly planted by nature, arising straight and erect from the green carpet, embellished with various grasses and flowering plants; then gradually ascending the sand hills, we soon came into the trading path to Talahasochte; which is generally, excepting a few deviations, the old Spanish highway to St. Mark’s. At about five miles distance beyond the great savanna, we came to camp late in the evening, under a little grove of Live Oaks, just by a group of shelly rocks, on the banks of a beautiful little lake, partly environed by meadows. The rocks as usual in these regions partly encircle a spacious sink or grotto, which communicates with the waters of the lake: the waters of the grotto are perfectly transparent, cool, and pleasant, and well replenished with fish. Soon after our arrival here, our companions who passed through Cuscowilla joined us. A brisk cool wind during the night kept the persecuting musquitoes at a distance.
The morning pleasant, we decamped early: proceeding on, rising gently for several miles, over sandy, gravelly ridges, we found ourselves in an elevated, high, open, airy region, somewhat rocky, on the backs of the ridges, which presented to view, on every side, the most dreary, solitary, desert waste I had ever beheld; groups of bare rocks emerging out of the naked gravel and drifts of white sand; the grass thinly scattered and but few trees; the Pines, Oaks, Olives and Sideroxylons, poor, mishapen, and tattered; scarce an animal to be seen or noise heard, save the symphony of the western breeze, through the bristly Pine leaves, or solitary sand crickets screech, or at best the more social converse of the frogs, in solemn chorus with the swift breezes, brought from distant fens and forests. Next we joyfully entered the borders of the level Pine forest and savannas, which continued for many miles, never out of sight of little lakes or ponds, environed with illumined meadows, the clear waters sparking through the tall pines.
Having a good spirited horse under me, I generally kept ahead of my companions, which I often chose to do, as circumstances offered or invited, for the sake of retirement and observation.