The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-17
MAI. JONES' ADVENTURE.
HOW THE GEORGIA MILITIA
CHASED BILLY BOWLEGS.

Got Out at Last.
From the Evening Post.
TRADERS HILL, Ga, June 14-If you
will refer TO your map, you will see re-
spectacle looking black dot right here,
near what would be the center of Charlton
county, Ga, if Charlton county was laid
off in such way that any Que could ever
locate the center. Unfortunately it is not.
It is bounded by lines that run in every
conceivable direction, with a series of
twists and curves in the middle that are
bewideringly complicated.
Mai Jones had venison for breakfast,
sweet, juicy venison, fattened in the i'm
nerishable pastures of nature, and jolly old
Saniacks and black coffee After breakfast
we started out into the little struggling
village, and under the influence of big
brier- wood pipe, filed with extra fne-cut,
the ma or grew communicative.
Eyes, " said he, replying to half-interrog-
atlve sentence of mine, TRADERS Hill is an
old-timer. 1t was town long afore some
o. them big western cities was thought on
The settlers and the Injuns used to meet at
this pint to do their trading, and that's
why they called it Traders Hill That
crooked swamp line yonder is the Saint
Mary's river, and the boats used to run
regular up to Traders Hill, but since they've
built that railroad from Waycross to Jack
sonville, they don't come any further than
the bridge, nigh Folkston, four miles from
here.
81 could tell you some strange and curious
tales about these ere woods. Do you see
them swamps toward the west? Them's
the surbibs of the Okeefenokee. That's
what makes our country so desper't'ly laid
off. That ERE swamp's regular buldozer,
tell you. Why, when the old gov'ment
surveyors came to the swamp mean the
main old swamp itself-they just couldn't
T qGglR had to go take 'n set9 after ls
set-otP, till they got monstrous tired of it.
They say that sometimes when they struck
a big saw grass marsh. where there wern't
neither tree nor stump to make a blaze on,
they just went to the highlands and cut
some bilIets of wood, and at every place
where mark was required they cut the
fgger on a billet and throwed it down, and
went on with their cOmperses and chains
"a big part of that swamp amt neither
land nor water. It's inst a purity good
mixture of the two; and in summer time
there's enough gators to make a ten-rail
fence around it; enough snakes to stake and
rider the fence, and plenty of cooters to
stop all the cracks. And muskeeters and
gallinippers why, ding my skin if they
won't turn white boss black afore you can
bat your eyes.
The most curious feature of the swamp
to me is that, in spite of the fact that it is
so low and marshy, two big black rivers
run out of it on either side which shows
that it must be considerable higher than
the country east or west. That's what
makes the bigger part of Florida an island
II went with Giner'l Floyd through that
ERE swamp with the Georgia militia in the
Injun times. We had run the Injuns from
pint to pint for a good while, and at last
we struck the swamp on the west side, in
what they call the Pocket because the
Suwannee river comes out low down the
swamp and keeps close alongside of it for a
good long ways, leaving tongue of land
between EN-. Finally we struck dim trail
IN Injun or a bear could foller that ERE
path through thckets and reed brakes from
tussock to tussOck. But the old
Giner'l weren't to be backed out, so he put
some O the boys to cuttin' chunks of wood
about three foot long, and he commenced
crossway. Each feler throwed his chunk
about step ahead of the last one, and in a
few hours we had a purity good crossway
built to che edge of an island in the swamp.
We all crossed over to this island, and
struck camp, all the time keepin' our eyes
skinned for Injuns. We knowed old Billy
Bowlegs, and we were mighty feared he'd
git us in there and massacre the whole up
shot and biln' of us.
"The scouts weren't gone long afore they
come back and reported that they'd found
the lniun town, but there weren't nary
lnJun to be found on the island They'd
evidently packed up in hurry and left, for
their trail was found leadin' out towards
the east through muddy swamp. Next
molnln' we marched into the town, and
there were some o. the fire pits still
smoulderin, where the Injuns had left EN-
There was good big clearin' and a right
smart of huts where they lived, and scat
folds where they smoked meat; and YOU
never seed the like of little red pumpkins in
all your horned days. They were small and
red as an orange, inside and out, and when
We baked them in the ashes, they were as
sweet as your potatoes. Some o the boys
brought out seed with them, and them
Bowlegs punkins got scattered all over
Georgia
The weather was hot, and the muskeet-
ers bit us terribly, bnt Ginerl Floyd had
sent some of the boys round to toe Traders
nm side o the swamp, and he swore he'd
drive every lnjun out of the Oketenokee ii
II took month. The boys were ordered to
meet US at the eastern side of the swamp
with supplies, and packn' our haversaclls
with what little grub we could scare up, we
were ordered forward.
Then came the tug. 1t was swamp and
marsh, mud and muskeeters, for a long
ways, and the sun br'ilin' down on us till
we we're all but scalded. Finally we struck
solid ground again, and found that we were
Oh an island good deal bigger than the
lrst; but there wernt no lniuns on
It. The land was as fine hummock
rs ever a crow few over, and look ID like
1t would fetch anything that could be
produced anywhere in the way of farm
truck We weren't none of us in tho notion
10 settle there, however, for there weren't
no neighbors that we could git along with.
After tindin' sever'l bee trees and KILN
oushel or two of snakes, we started
early in the mornin' of the third day
70 make our way toward the east. / tell
you was mighty sick of it, After we passed
through a little skirt of swamp, We come
70 big openin' half covered with water,
and full of that blamed old three cornered
su"-grass, that cut our breaches all to
pieces before we got half mile. Some
times little short Teller would come to
Where the water was over his head, and
N hedgo, kerchugr Some tall man would
nave to help him out, and finally Giner'l
rloyd ordered the tallest men to march in
tWoS, with n short man betwixt each cou-
PIE aud IN that way we went spla3hin' and
splaterln, kiekin' and cussin's through the
Okeelenokee.
=" Way long late in the evenin' we saw
!ahd ahead, and we give a whoop, for we
thought we'd come to dry grit, but we were
o1dly out Of it. In the dusk we crawled out
VI tne saw-grass into as nasty a swamp as
ever seed and eoch Teller btlntpd "A tusSOck