Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1846-03-05

AT the commencement of the war i'm Flori-
da there were among the Indians manv slaves
who had escaped from their masters in Flori
ola and Georgia, and taken refuge in the ever
glades and thickets with the Indians. In mos,
cases they were more blood-lhirsty and des-
Peiate in their attacks upon the whites than
The aborigines themselves, and whenever
settlement was TO be burnt or an OUTPOST at
tackled, they always led the van and If sue
cessiul, woe TO every man, woman or child
tina, fell into their power.
powerful and athletic negro named Jim
Bowlegs, from more than ordinary curvi,ure
oil his lower limbs, had rur away from his
master, DIR. S., of ST. Augustine, and
joined the Indians some three months before
The war broke out. He was bv nature. n
cruel and bloody fellow, OF great strength
and most brutal sensualitv. Indeed the chief
cause of his flight was Tor attempting an IN
natural outrage upon delenceless woman
who was fortunately rescued when nearly
exhausted, by the approach of some men, who
were drawn thiiher by her screams for aid.
AT Dade's massacre, massacre that will
long be famous i'm the annals of the Florida
peninsula, Jim fired The first shot that killed
the commanding officer, and during the rest
of the conflict so CALAMITY maintained by the
little band of one hundred and twelve regn-
lars against thousand concealed Indians and
negroes, the power of Jim was conspicuous.
and his voice pealed the loudest in the war
whoop on that bloody and fatal day.-When
Passenger, the last surviving officer fell. Jim
led The Indians over the temporary breastwork
erected by the soldiers, and his tomahawk
Glove in twain many heart, throbbing 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 know
ledge OF the whites, and their most defenceIess
locations, he was truly an ally of no common
Importance and pretensions. But Jim's sem
sualIiy and lust were destined TO work his
destruction, even from his Indian friends.
A Micanopy chief, called Grey Wolf, had
some fair daughter" about sixteen years old,
remarkable for her beauty. Jim's brutal pas
sion getting the better Of his fears, he one day
surprised the maiden while gathering berries
along the edge Of a swamp, and by main force
Violated her person. She escaped TO her tribe,
with sobs and shreks related her melancholy
fate, then, like the Roman matron, Lucretia,
ended her life by plunging into an adjoining
lake, preierrng death to surviving the loss of
her virgin purity.
Among the Indians no crime is considered
so hideously execrable, as that of violating a
woman of their tribe; no matter who the
criminal, his 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 10 fly into the power Of his
| enemies, the whites, by taking refuge in a
small advanced fort, or stockade occupied by
few United States Dragons, and two or three
hundred Georgia volunteers. jim was too
well known for his murderous crueitles, to
receive any mercy from those among whom
he sought shelter; brief drum court-martial
convened, and closed with sentencing him to
be hung in two hours After consultation
with his officers, Major IL told Jim
that he would pardon him OIL condition tina,
he would pilot two hundred picked men TO
the shelter Of the tribe from which he fled.
To this he consented
The night but one ensuing, two hundred
volunteers issued from the stockade, led by
Jim with file oil men prepared TO shoot him
dead, if he led them into an ambuscade.
The second morning after, at daylight, they
reached the lastness OF the Indians on the
borders Of Lake Micanopy. The attack was
instantly commenced Ivy the soldiers, and a
very bloody slaughter ensued, for the tribe
little expected the discovery Of their retreat