The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-17

he would be with his white frieuds who had gonebefore. Ills last reQuest was that he should be buried with the. medal with which he had been dec- orated by the French king. The good chief died on the 18th of December, 1763. showin gto his laef' sigh the same heroic constancy and nrmness that he had always mani Tested in life.
 "I have lived" he said, 'Tike . mani shall die like man."
 By order of M. Annibal dc velle, Commandant of Mobile. military hon. ors were paid to his remains by the French troops. such as were acccrded only to a General of the army He was buried with the discharge Of all the artillery of the place. The SOL dfers of the garrison formed the fun- eral escort and fired volleys of mus ketry over his grave. He lies proba- bly, with his medal on his breast. In the old French cemetery which Mn. Hamilton (ColoniaI Mobile) places on the present Conception Street. back of Christ Church
 A few of the last words of Tama- thle-mingo have been preserved inft the uttered. They form the epigraph or motto or French tragedy written by Le Blanc de viiIeneuve, New Orleans author Of the last century: "Okchaya achukma kiaba. file uil-s chiba yobat."
 The language Is pure choctaw. or Mobilian. which was the court Ian- guage of the Southern Indians. The words may be freely translated thus: Though life Is sweet, yet when tho appointed time of death shall come, one must greet 1t as 6 real blessing. v-- . beautiful thanatopsis or contempla- ton of death beautiful in its lofty 1Y1t fxy "a 1 al af fyr Sf n @h song in some Greek tragedy. when the hero. fast-clutched in the embrace cf
 unrelenting Destiny. Is drawing nigh unto his end.
 The Fates. dark-scowling, At our side attend:
 Of youth and life
 Each points the destined end--- Old age and death.
 The fruit of youth remains Brief as the sunshine Scattered OCT the plains. And. when these fieeting hours Have passed away,
 To die were better
 | Than to breathe the day. 1 It would be pleasant task to follow the fortunes of Tamathle mingo's band through the one hundred and forty
 years that have elapsed since the death
 of their leader; but this would extend
 this story far beyond the assigned limits. It must be sufficient to say
 here briefly that they were pressed gradually westward by the vanguard
 of civilization marching ever from the
 east, across the Mississippi. across the
 Red River, acros the prairie or 0pe- louas, across the Sabine river, unffl they found an abiding place at lnel near the Trinity river in Polk County
 Texas, where the republic of Texa: granted them reservation of ianf
 many years ago. Their descendants g
 some two hundred fin number. absn- lutely unmlxed either with the wfffe race above them or the black race be- low them. are living there today.
 If thea were any truth in tho hoary lgend which informs us that the word Alabama means Here we
 rest" these Indians might now cry out
 with the old chief in the legend: Ala
 bama: Here we rest" As 1t is, they
 may, i'm they please. exclaim "He-yun | He-fo-sc- kel-kos.' 2 for this is the gem uine jawbreaking expression for Here
 we rest" in the Alabama dialect. By
 the unselfsh Iabors of Presbyterian
 missionaries they have been christian ized and instructed in the ways of civ- l ilized life. Many, perhaps, the ma- 1 pority of them. are members of the
 Southern Presbyterian church. Oid
 Celestine. their venerable chief, who 1 died few years ago. was a ruilnr, ] elder in the church of their village.