The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1883-12-04
CHARGE OF THE ROUNDS.

|
A terrible bit of news was carried from
mouth to mouth through the region that
is now Alabama, at the beginning Of
September, 1913. The country was al
the time in the midst of the second wa,
with Great Britain, and for long time
the British agents had been irving to per
suade the Creeks-a powerful nation oi
half civilized but very war-like Indians
who lived in Alabama-to Join in the
war and destroy the settlement in the
Southwest.
For some time the Creeks hesitated
and were uncertain what to do But dur.
ing the summer of 1918 they broke out
In hostility, and on the 3Oth of August
their great leader, Weatherford, or the
Red Eagle, as they called him, stormed
Fort Minis, the strongest fort in the south
west. He took the tort by surprise, with
thousand warriors behind him, and after
five hours of terrible fighting, destroyed
| 1t, killing about 500 men, women and
| children.
This was the news that startled the set
tiers in the region where the Alabama
and Tomblgbee rivers come together 1t
was certain, after such massacre as that
that the Indians meant to destroy the
settlements and kill all the white people
without mercy.
In order to protect themselves and their
families, the settlers built rude forts by
setting timbers endwise in the ground,
and the people hurried to these for safety.
Leaving their homes to be burned, their
crops to be destroyed and their cattle to
be killed or carried off by the Indians,
the settlers hastily got together whatever
food they could, and took their families
into the nearest forts
One Of the smallest of these stockade
forts was called Sinque6eld. 1t stood in
Clarke county, Ala, and, as that region
was very thinly settled, there were not
enough men to make strong force for
| tho defonce of tho fort. But tho bravo
farmers and hunters thought that they
could hold the place, and so they took
their families there as quickly as they
could.
Two families, numbering seventeen per-
sons, found it was not easy to 90 to Sin
quefield on the I'd Of September, and So
as they were pretty sure that there were
no Indians in their neighborhood, they
made up their minds to stay one more
night at house few miles from the fort
That night they were attacked, and all
but five of them were killed. Those who
got away carried the news of what hap
pened to the fort, and party was sent
out to bring in the bodies.
The next day all the people in Fort
Sinquefeld went out to bury their dead
friends in valley at some little distance
from the fort, and, strange as it seems,
they took no arms with them. Believing
that there were no Indians near the
place, they left the gates Of the fortress
open, and went out in body without
their guns.
AS a matter Of fact, there was large
body Of Indians not only very near them,
but actually looking at them all the time.
The celebrated prophet Francis was in
command, and in his sly way he kept as
near the fort as possible to look for a
good chance to attack it. Making his
men lie down and crawl like snakes, he
had reached point only few hundred
| yards from the stockade without alarming
the people; and now while they stood
around the graves Of their friends with
out arms to defend themselves with, a
host of their savage enemies lay looking
at them from the grass and the bushes on
the hill
AS soon as he saw the right moment
had come, Francis sprang up with a saw
age war cry, and at the head Of his war
riors made a dash at the gates. He had
seen that the men outside were unarmed,
and his plan was to get to the gates be-
foro fhoxy could roooh than, ouA <hua rpo<
all the people of the place at his mercy
in an open field and without arms to fight
with.
The fort people were quick to see what
his purpose was, and the men hurried for
ward with all their might, hoping to reach
the fort before the savages could get
there. By running at the top Of their
speed they did this, and closed the gates
in time to keep the Indians out. But to
their horror they saw that their wives
and children were shut out too. Unable
to run as fast a. the men, they had fallen
behind, and now the Indians were between
them and the gates
Seeing that he had missed his chance
of getting possession Of the fort, Francis
turned upon the women and children with
savage Ia GuC tuOukAt Va
ing these helpless creatures in the sight of
their husbands, fathers and brothers.
1t was a moment of terror. There
were not half enough white men in the
fort to master so large force of Indians,
and If there had been it was easy to see
that by the time they could get their
rifles and 60 to the rescue it would be too
late.
At that moment the hero of this bit oi
history came upon the scene. This was
a Young man named Isaac Haden. He
was notable huntsman, who kept f.
nous pack Of hounds-herce brutes, thor.
oughly trained to run down and seize any
living thing that their master chose to
chase. The young man had been out in
search of stray cattle, and just at that mo
ment when matters were at their worst
he rode up to the fort followed by his
| - 40 "a Gol4. -i.'t
Isaac hadeh' had 4 JoOf head and q
very daring spirit. He was In the habit
of taking in : sitnation at glance. decid'