The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-03-14

such person Is likely to receive rude treat
ment. The cowboys who go among them
SIMPLY to barter goods. get along with them
the best, for this reason.
When the first survey was made on the
border of the glades, the suspicious Semi
noles did not like the invasion, and they
showed it by their manners and rude
treatment Of the party. The survey was
made, however, without any quarrel, but
two years later, when one of the surveyors
went over the same ground, he made an
amusing discovery. In trying to reach the
most westerly township line he I'M
dertook to do it by following
the surveyors posts. This should have
taken him due west, but his compass pointed
out to him that he was going northwest.
After going out of his way for some dozen
of miles he detected the fraud that the In
dams had played upon him. Not liking the
looks of the square posts which marked out
the townships, the willy Indians had taken
them up after the surveyors departure two
years before, and placed them in line
leading off in another direction. The sur
prised surveyor had thus been following
false guide for some days.
About 100 miles southeast of Kissimmee,
on Cow Creek Slew, is one of these typical
Indian villages, situated on a small round
hammock" of fifteen or twenty acres. The
village consists of eight or ten houses, built
of cypress poles, three on a side, about
feet high. They are about is feet square
on the ground, with floors elevated about
feet from the ground, and the roofs are
matched with palmetto leaves. The village
consists of about thirty Indians, ten of whom
are men, and the remainder women and
children. The place is called Parkertown
after the chief, whose name is
Parker They have gained an
imperfect knowledge of English from the
cowboys. and in conversation they only
speak the leading words of a sentence. On
Cypress creek, ten miles south of Cow Slew,
is another Seminole village of eighty inhab-
itants 1t is not laid down on any map, but
is known as Kotuckiwekaga. which means
the place where the Flatheads live The
chiefs name is Old Tiger, of the Seminole
war fame, They have fields of corn and
and pumpkins, which are cultivated by the
women, while the men hunt and fis1. They
cure their meat without the use of salt
They use Winchester rifles to kill their
game.
Down near the Big Cypress swamp, on
the west side of the Everglades, are several
other Indian villages that have been visited
by tbs white man. "If you go down there
pou had just better take a niger with
you" one will hear now and then from the
lips Of a cowboy. The reason, according to
their explanation, is very good one, too
Tor you can sell tne negro TO the Indians FOR
enough to pay all your expenses. Not a
few negro slaves are owned by the Indians
in this region, who know moth
ing about the war that was fought
to set them free. They have boon
brought up as slaves among the Indians,
and they are little better than brutes. The
Indian women will occasionally comb each
others hair with their fingers, but the negro
slaves in this wilderness never think of such
a thing. Their wool becomes filthier and
more repulsive-looking than that on the
back of sheep before they are washed for
the clippers shears. They are far below
the Indians in their living and habits, and
it is hard work to call them human beings
Occasionally the Indians get hold Of more
civilized black and carry him away to their
forest home, where they make him work
their gardens and fields Of corn and vegeta-
bles. Whether they have been stolen or
bought, it is not an easy question to an
swer, but certain it is that the stories have
been circulated around SO freely about the
negro slaves among the Indians that a
stranger cannot get darky to accompany
him in a journey to the Everglades. They
are suspicious of one at once when asked to
make such trip, and probably it is due to
this fact that South Florida has SO very few
negroes.