The northern galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1844-1848, 1845-12-16
THE INDIAN CHIEFS REVENGE

Written for the Age from the Note Book OF
an Officer in the Florida Campaign.l
AT the commencement of the war in Flor
ida, there were among the indians, many
slaves who had escaped from their masters
IN Floridn and Georgia, and taken refuge in
the erSlades and thickets with the Indians
In most cases they were more blood thirsty
and desperate in their attacks upon the whites
than the aborslnals themselves, and whenev-
er settlement was TO be burnt, or an oui
post attacked, they always led the van, and il
successful, wo TO every man. woman, or child
that fell in their power.
powerful and athletic negro, nickuamed
Jim Bowlegs, from a more than ordinary cur
Nature OF his lower limbs, had run away from
/ his master, DIR. S., of St. Augustine
and joined the Indians some three months
before the war broke out. lie was by nature
a cruel and bloody fellow, of great strength
and most brutal sensuality. Indeed the CHIEF
cause of his fight was for attempting an I'M
natural outrage upon defenceless W bite wo-
man, who was fortunately rescued, when
nearly exhausted, bv the approach of some
men who were drawn ,hither by her screams
| for aid.
| AtDade's massacre that will long be fam
d.
Jim fired the first shot that killed the com
mauding officer, and during the rest of the
conflict. SO CALAMITY maintained by the little
band Of one hundred and twelve resul RS a.
gainst thousand concealed Indians and nc
groes, the proves Of Jim was conspicuous,
and his voice pealed the loudest in the war
whoop of that bloody and fatal day. When
Passenger, the last surviving officer fell, Jim
led the indians over the temporary breast
work, erected by the soldriers. and his toma-
hawk Glove in twain many heart yet throb-
bling with life, for vain and idle was the cry
from the whites for quarter.
By his desperate valor, and his cunning on
hundred occasions, Jim gained great power
over the Indian bands, and from his knowl-
edge CT the whites, and their most defenceless
locations, he was truly an ally of no common
importance and pretensions. But Jim's sem
sualiiy and lust were destined to work his de-
struction even from his Iudian friends.
A Micanopy chief called Grey Wolf, had
tone daughter" about sixteen years old, re-
markable for her beauty. Jim's brutal pas
sions getting the better of his fears, he one day
surprised the maiden while gathering berries
alone on the edge of swamp, and by main
force violated her person. She escaped TO
her tribe, with sobs and shrieks, related her
melancholy fate, and then, like The Roman
matrou Lucretia. ended her life by plunging
into an adjoining lake, preterring death TO
surviving the loss Of her virgin purity.
Among the Indians, no crime is considered
so hideous and execrable as that of violating
a woman Of her tribe: no matter who the
criminal, bis death is certain. Jim knew this.
and fled; but the warriors of the tribe were
on his trail, and they tracked him as the wolf
follows the deer, until from sheer necessity,
he was obliged to fly into the power of his en-
emles' the whites, by taking refuge in small
advanced tort, or stockade, occupied by few
United States dragons, and two or three
hundred Georgia volunteers. Jim was too
well known for his nnrderous crueIties. 10 re-
ceive any mercy from those among whom he
sought shelter; a brief drum head court mar
tial convened, aud closed with sentencing him
to be hung in t,oo hours. After a consulta-
ton with his officers, Major H told Jim
that he would pardon him on coalition that
he would pilot two hundred picked men to
the shelter Of the tribe from which he fed
To this he consented.
The night but one ensuing. two hundred
volunteers issued from the stockade. led by
Jim, With file Of men prepared on the in