Miscellany: A Cruise In Lake Okachobee

Ifa toilsotne paddie of three days' continuance, through the dark gloom of a cypress swamp, so dense that the up and down raysof a tropical sun could neither penétrate nor remove the death-like chili which pervaded it; where no sound broke upon the ear, save the mournful moaning of the breeze, as it swept among the mosshung and gnarled branches of the tall trees, which ';In many a sadd'nuigsyllable, repeated Thcir wild and savage legenda lo the wimls;" the distant thunder-like moan of the alligator, or the startlinghissof the speckled moccasin, which would slide from thetree roots down into its slimy bed, - where everything combined lo account for the indian's belief, that siíiníng souls are doomed eternally to wander through the cypress shaded bog, a kind of mudwrapped purgatory; (and indeed the fai tastic shapes assumed by the gnarled, branch-modelled masses of pendant moss, would give rise to strange ideas in the brcastsof more civilized and less supcrstitious persons than the 'untutored savage,' especially wtíen alone in the dimness of twilight, rendered darker by perpetual shade;) if all this wóuld prepare one to gáze appreciatingly on Nature, ciad in her loveliest robes, revelling in her fairest bowers, we were fully prepared to appreciate her thrilling beauty, as we emerged "frb'm the "big Cypress" into lake Okachöbèe. Frorh the narrow, muddy channel, which meanders in manya winding bay ou through 'this vast swamp, we opened into a broad and beautiful lake, on the clear light bluewaves of which, the first soft rays of a spring morning's sun were .glitteving like tear-bedewed lashes over a : beautiful womans' azureeye, and whose bbso.m was dotted with islands from which arose as monuments of Nature's taste and power, the lofty magnolia, its snow-white flowers lying in the scooped-out bosom of its dark green lenves, the orange and thefragrant lemon, while luscious grapes hung teniptingly from their lofty climbing vinesj and beneath, the timid violet, the airscenting myrtle and honeysuckle, -vvith a thousand other tropical fruits and flowers, carpeted the productive earth. Ás I gazed on the fairy-like land and mpst beautiful scène, I feit that with one loved and loving companion, I could liere dreanj away existence, without a wish forchange - our liearts rendered pure and innocent by the quiet and beauty ot this second Eden; and involuntarily my heart's visión threw a retrospective glance towards the "dark-eyed Spanish maid," who had before-time stood with me on the parapet of the old castle at St. Augustine, listening to the impassioned vows of a young and adoring heart, while from her lustrous eyes the glittering pearls of joy dropped like nectar-dew from heaven on the envied earth. But my mind soon turned agoin to the scène before me; and then I thought of ihe original (should I not say rightful?) owners of thesoil, those whose rights of inheritance we were ruthlessly trampling upon, whom with blood-stained hands we were even now pursuiug; and I sighed as "I 'hought hovv man had cursed Wliaf heaven liad mdeeo gloriou8!" My rêverie was interrupted by the discovery of a smoke on one of the distant islands. We wellknew that our friends in this neighborhood were few, and at once began preparing for a duty, which, to our sorrow and loss, we had before found fraught with danger - that of advancing in our boats upon an island fringed with hemlock to the water's edge, whero an ambushed foe could lie in perfect safety and concealment, while theypoured dealh and destruction in our ranks. The men, urged by excited feelings, drove our little boats swiftly over the placid surface of the lake, towards the smoke. Now, however, signaL smokes were seen to ascend from the different parts of the lake, and we inferred from this, that we were not only discoveren, but were runningourselves nto a 'scrape' as fast as possible. Canoes were darting along in our advance towards the largest island of the group, and it was evident that the lndians there intended en masse to dispute our irruption into their domain. As we approached island, at a distance we could see their dark red forms glaneing about among the trees, and every now and then a shiH and prolonged yell would come across the waters, sounding like the petrei's cry before a storm. - But as we neared the island, all again became still and quiet; not a was visible on theflowery banks,.but thejy waving to and fro of the green branches in the breeze, and not a sound was ; heard, save the cries of circling birds which driven frorn their nests beneath. - We well knew the meaning of thisominous stillness: we liad before feit its force. With our arms prepared, slowlyand firmly we rowed in extended line towards the treachcrous hammock. We were soon almost within riflc-shot, when the order, "spring to your oars," was given; and, swiftly as the arrow speeds from thé twanging bow, our light boats parted the water. While iheir.keels grated on the sand, the silence of the hammock was broken. It seemed to be one perfect sheet of fire for an instant; and then loud above the groans of wounded dy ing, the sharp crack of rifles, and the heavier roar of their musketry, rose the shrill war-whoop, ringing like heli's charivari in our ears. The Ímpetus given to our boats, drove them high on the shore, and in an instant tho battle was over. One volley of our musketry, which hailed buck-shot and ounce bullets through the hammocks, and with a cheer the men rushed to the charge with the bayonet; but the wily foe had fledj and when in the hot pursuit, we gained the opposite side of the island, we beheld them already far out on the lak e en route for the main land. While the warriors were engaged in opposing our landing, the women and children had mustered in their canoes, for flight; and the men with a savage, yet keen-sightcd policy used through the war, had fled as soon as their first firc had been delivered, they having done all the harm they could without endangering the defeat of their party. I may safely say, that of all the actions during the war, öne-half ended without the loss of a man on the side of the enemy, while many of the whites were killed. This I do not attribute to any want of skill or bravery on the side of the whites, but to the fact of the Indians being better acquainted with the country - thereforc advancing or retreating with g reate r facility, and also that for the first three years of the war, the whites too ofren fought in sohdranks, insteadof "treeing it," after theprespntapprovecl style. But I begyour pareion, reader, for digressing. Let us return to the yarn. v In this instance the Indians had not escaped -cntirely unscathed, for five of their .warriors lay strotched upon the field, and the tracks of the f u git i ves werc marked with blood, while one yoting girl, wound ed mortally by some random shot, lay weltering in agony. Tears ftlled every eye, as shs uttered, probably the onlyEnglish words slie knew - "me sick" Of our party, some whose hearts, but an hour before, beat lighily and free in bosoms filled with glonous aspirations, now were cold and stilled forever; otliers yet living, wnose angliish was too great to be concealed beheath the veil of silent fortilude, with eyes rolling in agony, clammy brows and blanched lips, broke forlh in piteous groans, praying fordeath to eáse them of their pain. The misery of that young girl wrung hcarts that wcre used to death in all its various shapes. As she lay extended upon the green grass, among her kindred wild-flowers, her head pillowed upon the jackets of our commiserating tars, her full black eyes spoke a touching reproach to evcry heart; and when at last her tortured soul from the encumbering clay, we feit that it took its flight, to be a witness against the actors in this dreadlul tragedy; before the tribunal af a just God. Like nearly all the Seminóle women, her form was delicately perfect in symmetry; her skin, though dark, clearand transparent as the rind of the pomegranate her hair long, black, and silken; her features regular, and her large melting black eye - shall never forgetit! Our forces being too much fatigued and crippled to pursue the enemy, took uptheir quarters in the desefted huts; and while our surgeon was engaged in alleviating the sufFerings of the wounded, with a slight guardl strolled over the island. The Indians apparently had long cultivated the rich soil, and in their fields I found corn, meions, bananas, plantains, sugar-cane, pine-apples, and tobáceo, all growing luxuriantly. The fields showed the marks of neither hoe nor plough. The undergroivth was removed; the larger trees having been girdled, were leafless, and thereforedid not injure the crops with shade. The setting sun mingled his raellow purple with the liquid blue of the western sky, when the bugle's swelling notes echoed over the still, calm surface of the beautiful lake, calling together our saddened.band, for the purpose of burying the dead, preparatory to making an early start in the morning. At the foot of an oíd índian inound, beneath the wide-spread, drooping branches of a large cypress, our men haded out a shallow pit; and there in the still solemn hour of twilight, we laid them friend and foe, coffinless and unshrouded, with no funeral service but the inward heart-wrought prayer, or the long drawn sigh, that pumped from many a fearless eye the tears, which, stranger-like coursed down the furrowed channels of weatherbeaten, time-rnarked cheeks. Than sailors, none more deeply or keenly feel the loss of beloved fricnds and comrades, to whom by long association, amid the buffetings of the gal e, the varyings of life, the pleasures few and fer between of their existence, and their many dangers, they become attached; and though at the burial scène no formal or outward appearance of "mourning" - ? - "outspread its cold unmenning gloom around," there were those who feil and mourned their loss as deeply as silence that true portraiture of grief, could teil. After the last sad rights had been thus hastily performed, I wandcred out from the camp. The moon rose, casting its melancholy-wrapping light upon our sleeping men; and, tired with exertion and excitement, T wrapped the folds of my boat cloak closer around me, casting myself upon a grassy bank, while my mind roamed far and wide, among distant friends and scènes that were daguerreotyped upon my heart's tablet. Looking up at the pale orb, which sailed in queenly majesty through the blue, cloud-islanded ocean of ether, I thought of Moore's beautjful idea: "Sweetmoon! if like Crotona's snge, Éy any spell my hand could dareTo mnke ihy oistí its ampie page, And write niy thoftghts, my wishes ll.ere; How many a frieud whoge carèless eye Now wanderso'er the starry sUy, Should sjnilc upon the orb, to meet The recojleciion knd and swcct; The reveries of fond regret, The promise nevcr to forget; And all my hcart and soul would send To many u dcar-lovetl, disiani friend." My senses, drovned in the dreamy rêverie producqd by thestrange yet beautiful wish of the poet, gradually gave way to tho advances of i;Tir'd Nature's sweel restorer, balmy sleep,"(rom which the sweet carrolling of birds and the bugle's cali arousecl me, tó look upon the first rosy blush of the young day, as it timidly stole from its night shadowed couch, kissing the pearly dew drops from the monopolising flowers, and applying the last finishing color-touch of perfectiontoDame Nature's toilet. Hastily we made our dejeune, which delicate repast consisted of raw pork and ship'sbiscuit, and manning our boats,ared to leave this sadly beautiful i and. Ere I took my seat in the boat I pulled ip a young magnolia, and planted it ïvpn the grave of the young Indian maiden, i vhom, I had forgotten to state, we had uried separately from the sterner and ïarsher sex, - feeling that the pure and i lelicate lily would not be a fitting mnion for the decaying oak; that there i vas something too pure in her to be conaminated by the touch, even in death, )f the blood-stained warrior. Some other hand had rudely carved on he bark of the overhanging cypress, a ',ross, the symbol of a religión probably inknown to her who had so lately been ¦ummoned to witness the dread reality of dl it teaches. But however ignorant of )ur religious forms that poor girl might lave been, I doubt not that she had a reigion, a pure and moral one too; for 1 ïave yet to meet an Indian who does not jelieve in the power and goodness of a 'Great Spirit," who will reward thegood md punish the wicked; l have yet to see thé savage who believes not in some -noral teaching faith; and for many years l have occasionally met with the unschooled aboriginies, in their own terrilories and in those far southern climes, where from the time of Cortez and Pizarro up, they have been slaves and bonds- men, held benealh a rod and yoke of i ron. We left the island, and bent our course towards that part of the main land, to which the Indians had on the preceding day retreated. Our boats moved as lightlyover the rippling waters as if their crews hai not been diminished, and the careless smile, the merry eye, and lively chat, told how soon the chili thrown by death around men who are used to his presence, can be melted away - how light ïts effect on such as have feit and i refelt his shadowy gloom. It is like a transient shade thrown upon the surface of the blue ocean by a passing cloudj feit or seen but for a moment, while the shadow intervenes, then traceless past forever. As we rowed on, gliding over a lake that had never before to our knowledge borne a white man's keel, unless in the early days of enterprise, when Spain's noblest cavaliers, emulous of Methusaleh's reel of time, sought"Through tangled brake and forcst glen," the fountain of perpetual youth - passing j among the flowery islands, which, like ! brilliant gems of many hues in azure ' ting, were scattered around us; the lively ! paroquet, the flamingo, with its coat of crimson down, and the pink curlew would rise in whirling circles above our heads, i screaming forth their alarm, appearingto ' know that we were strangers and intruders there. Jn the distance, the greybrown buzzard hovered over the pine-barren, seeming with his ever hungry eye to be watching for the victirns of the battle. The part of the main land towards which we were now approaching, was thickly wooded with heavy live oaks, and here and there a few moss hung, spectral looking cypress trees. Fromour reekoning, we supposed ourselves near the spot, where Colonel (now Brigadier General) Taylor had engaged an immense body of the enemy, on Christmas eve, 1836, whom afteï a severe and bloody fight, he drove from their position, with the loss of near 150 men on his side, while so far as kncwn, the loss on the side of the enemy was comparatively trifling. In this action, the hardest fought during the war, the gallant 6th Regiment of United States Infantry suflered greatly, one cotnpany being almost entirely annihilated; its oificers all-slain, with one exception, and hardly a man escaped uncrippled. Here in the foremost rank feil the gallant Col. Thomson, Lieut. Van Swearingen, anda host of others whom at present we have neither space nor time to enumérate.-The Indians, for weeks prepared for the contest, had by many acunning wile and stratagem, drawn Col. Taylor to the spot, and after delivering a few fatal fires, when the bayonet opened the branches of covert, fled to the lake, where the Colonel, having no boats, could not pursue them. Had the cool, calm, delibérate bravery here exhibited, been displayed upon a civilized. field, the gallant 6th woulcl have been lauded to the skies, but it is thought by many that little glory can be gained in an Indian war. Is itcause one cannot see t-ne hand wliicli (lings dcath through the ranks, thal less bravery need be displayed in the combat with the suvage, he who has no ear fov mercy, and thinks it a crime to give even thehelpless Woman quarter? False! unjust and mean are such ideasí Men can gaze upon an advancing column, when it moves upon the sameground as that which they occupy5 formed of men moulded and framed as they, with much more coolness than they can stand bip deep in a muddyswamp, where every tree and shrubby i bush contains a deadly foe; where the 1 whiz of a rifle-ball istheir only warning, 1 their music, unearthly yells, which are echoed on" every sicie by the groans of j those who are falling unavenged around, I by hands invisible. In sucli a place, at 1 such a lime. I have stood, and the tremor ' of every leaflet would send a chili cold I nsdeath tony heart; every whoop ed the laugh of a demon, waiting lo drag i me to my grave, and gladly would I then hatro changed my situation to an open plain with thrice the number of my foes around me, where I could meet them : accompanied by the horrors which their mode of warfare causes the imagination to paint. True, alas for many of the brave and already forgotten fallen; too true is the far-echoed idea that there is no honor, no credit to be gained in such a war. - There in the distant forest they have fallen unwept, oftentimes unknown; there they have found unshrouded, a soldier's shallow grave, no monument hut thè hoary trees above them, no friend to teil their virtues, their history, or dealh, or to mourn their loss - there forgotten they lie in the damp morass, their memory already covered with the mould of oblivion. We neared the shore cautiously, expecting and fearing a reception similar to that which I have before described, but not a sound or motion indicated the existence of a human being. A small herd of red deer standing on the bank, quietly gazing at us, satisfied us that there was was no danger to be apprehended, and at once we landed. On gaining the shore, we found that. we were indeed on the "battle ground;" - the breken and deac branches of trees, shattered by balls scraps of clothing and stumps of smalsapliñgs which had been cut down for lit ters, all betokened the place. A shor distance from Ihe thickut, a few larg mounds, on which the young grass had just begun to form a sod, and wild violets to bloom, showed where laid all that was earthly of thegallant fallen. The Indians had apparently been avvaiting an attack in lhis place for days, judging from the ashes of their numerous camp fires. They had even cut notches in the large live oak trees whichskirted the open ground, in which5 to ensurea fatal alm, they had restcd tbeir I les. Dreadfully fata] was that fi re which i lit up the glooni of the dark hammock, i ike lightning in a storm, making the ucceding darkness doubly horrible. Now, however, all was quiet and peaceful. The deer and its light-limbed fawn grazed and gamboled upon the late scène of battle, the wild flowers threw their fragrant breath upon the air, and the clear waters of the sparkling streamlet poured forth brightly into the as if they had not been tinged with the ruddy life-tide which had been shed upon their pebbly banks. The sweetsingingof birds echoed through the forest, where lately hells own music had rung its wildest notes, freezing the half-curd!ed veins of the dying, and startling the bravest of them all. Seeing nothing of the ei.emy, we reembarked in our boats and returned lo the island, where we set to work, according to lt orders f rom hcad quarters," at destroying the half ripened crops of the natives, and burning their palm-thatched huts. While the work of destruction was in progression - while their corn and fruits were fa-Hing beneath our all devouring han3s, and were tearing down their lovely arbors, treading in paths where the young ond tender infant reminded me of the joyous summer hours of barefooted childhood. I thought that there was almostan excuse for their savage excess of revenge. While I thought of their homes made desolate, their crops destroyed; their fathers, sons, luisbands, and even tender women, and childrcn, falling before the sweeping scythc of persecution, with reflection at my side, I could scarce wonder that their cvery wish should be,'Vengeance! diré vengeance on wrciohcs who liad cast O'er thein and .il! tliey lovcd, that ruinous blaat." I feit that they wcre fighling for idglUs derived from a comniun Father, and wben I tliought of their oppression, I wondered that a just, mcrciful, and allpowerful God, could look down on this black injustice; sufiering its originators, or even its perpetrators to go free upon the earth, enjoying blessings which they have snatched from the hands of the poor aborigines, glorying in the possession of blood-bought, hunor-damning, infamystained property. But all in His good time, we are born to obey, and should not cavil at the mysteries which lie beyondíbe incomprehensible grasp of our feeble minds. In saying these things, I would not have a reader think that I mean toflect aught against the characters o! my t bravo cornrades in arms, who scrved ' through that periloux, ill-starred and ' paid war. No, in doing th'em ihat injustice, ï myself would suffer. It was not they who were blamable for ihe war, or the sufferings of the abused savage; it was the black-hcarted, no souled poücy of , the men who raised the war by oppressing and driving the Indians mad with 1 ings; the men who siole their property, í burncd their homes, desfroyed their crops, ' and when the injured cameto them for ' redress, gare it at the u-hipping post, in ' irons on the stocks. These are no false or unfounded ( charges. My heart burns with indiguation as I cali to mind the innumerable i rages, some of which this paper would i blacken to hold, that I know were ' trated upon the Indians, and which gave rise to the war. We were ordered there ' by our superiors, and our daty was to obey their orders. I will not attempt at present either to justify or condemn ihe management of a war which cost our country nearly fifty millions of dollars, and three thousand Valuable lives; but shall in my future numbers attempt only to eke out my yarns vith fact and truth, deduced from personal observation made during four years of hard service in that land of birds and illigators, mud and flowers, deer and catamounts, wherein, according to the chronicles of Ponce de Leon, Hernandes de Soto and others, bubbles up m secrecy the revivifying "fountain of eternal youth." A[ropos to ''fountains," there is a fresh water fountain rising out of the sea, ofFthe entrance of the Mantanzas pass of St. Augustine Bay. It lies about S. by W. from the old Spanish fort, and is nbout three miles from the shore. The wateris perfeclly fresh, and boils up to the height of twenty-five to thirty inches above the surrounding ocean. This is a matter for philosophers and scientific men to cogítate upon, especially as" the highest land within some hundred miles of the spot, is only one nundred and seventy-eight feet above sea level. This is not the iountain of youth, however - for though we have tasfed of iTs clear waters, we find that oíd Time has us fully under-weigh, and is fanning us along a few knots faster than we think pleasant. or even right. He has our hair by the "forelock," and he pulls so hard that we fear he'U spon stretch the color out of it. That celebrated fount may lie among the sulphur springs, in which the rivers St. John's and Suwanee head.