THROUGH SWAMP AND GLADE

CHAPTER I

A BIT OF TRE FLORIDA WILDEBRNSS

THE scene is laid in Florida, that beautiful landof the far south, in which Ponce de Leon locatedthe fabled Spring of Eternal Youth. It is a landof song and story, of poetry and romance; but onealso of bitter memories and shameful deeds. Itsvery attractiveness has proved its greatest curse,and for weary years its native dwellers, who lovedits soil as dearly as they loved their own lives,fought desperately to repel the invaders whosought to drive them from its sunny shores.

Although winter is hardly knwn in Florida,still there, as elsewhere, spring is the fairest andmost joyous season of the year, and it is withthe evening of a perfect April day that this storyopens.

The warm air was pleasantly stired by a breezethat whispered of the boundless sea, and the glowing

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sun would shortly sink to rest in the placid bosomof the Mexican Gulf. From the forest came sweetscents of yellow jasmine, wild grape, and floweringplumes of the palmetto mingled with richer perfumesfrom orange blossoms, magnolias, and sweet bays.Gorgeous butterflies hovered on the edge of thehammock and sought resting-places for the nightamid the orange leaves. Humming-birds, like living

jewels, darted from flower to flower; bees goldenwith pollen and freighted with honey winged theirflight to distant combs. From a ti-ti thicket camethe joyous notes of a mocking-bird, who thus unwit-tingly disclosed the secret of his hidden nest. Abevy of parakeets in green and gold flashed frombranch to branch and chattered of their own affairs;while far overhead, flocks of snowy ibis and whitecurlew streamed along like fleecy clouds from feed-ing-grounds on the salt marshes of the distant coastto rookeries in the cypress swamps of the crookedOcklawaha. Some of these drifting bird-cloudswere tinted or edged with an exquisite pink, denot-ing the presence of roseate spoonbills, and the effectof their rapid movement against the deep blue ofthe heavens, in the flash of the setting sun was inde-scribably beautiful.

Amid this lavish display of nature's daintiesthandiwork and in all the widespread landscape ofhammock and savanna, trackless pine forest that hadnever known the woodman's axe, and dimpled lakes

A BIT OF THE FLORIDA WILDERNESS 8

of which a score might be counted from a slight ele-vation, but one human being was visible. A youthjust emerged from boyhood stood alone on the edgeof a forest where the ground sloped abruptly downto a lakelet of crystal water. He was clad in a loose-fitting tunic or hunting-frock of doeskin girdedabout the waist by a sash of crimson silk. In thiswas thrust a knife with a silver-mounted buckhornhandle and encased in a sheath of snakeskin. Hishair, black and glossy as the wing of a raven, wasbound by a silken kerchief of the same rich color ashis sash. The snow-white plume of an egret twinedin his hair denoted him to be of rank among his ownpeople. He wore fringed leggings of smoke-tanneddeerskin, and moccasins of the same material. Thelad's features were handsome and clear cut, but hisexpression was gentle and thoughtful as might be-come a student rather than a mere forest rover.And so the lad was a student, though of nature, anda dreamer not yet awakened to the stern realitiesof life ; but that the mysteries of books were un-known to him might be inferred from a glance athis skin. It was of a clear copper color, resemblingnew bronze; for Coacoochee (little wild cat) belongedto e most southern tribe of North American Ind-ians, the Seminoles of Florida. Indian though hewas, he was of noble birth and descended from along line of chieftains; for he was the eldest sonof Philip Emathla (Philip the leader), or "King

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Philip," as the whites termed him, and would someday be a leader of his tribe.

Now, as the lad stood leaning on a light rifle andgazing abstractedly at the glistening clouds of home-returning birds that flecked the glowing sky, hisface bore a far-away look as though his thoughts hadoutstripped his vision. This was not surprising;for to all men Coacoochee was known as a dreamerwho beguiled the hours of many an evening by thecamp-fire with the telling of his dreams or of the folk-lore tales of his people. Not only was he a dreamerof dreams and a narrator of strange tales ; but he

was a seer of visions, as had been proved very re-cently when death robbed him of his dearly lovedtwin sister Allala.

At the time Coacoochee was many miles awayfrom his father's village, on a hunting-trip with his

younger brother Otulke. One night as they sleptthe elder brother started from his bed of palmettoleaves with the voice of Allala ringing in his ears.All was silent about him, and Otulke lay undis-turbed by his side. As the lad wondered and wasabout to again lie down, his own name was utteredsoftly but plainly, and in the voice of Allala, whileat the same moment her actual presence seemed tobe beside him.

It was a summons that he dared not disobey; so,without rousing Otulke, the young hunter sprangon the back of his pony and sped away through

A BIT OF THE FLORIDA WILDERNESS 5

the moonlight. At sunrise he stood beside thedead form of the dear sister whose fleeting spirithad called him.

Since then he had often heard Allala's voice in thewinds whispering through tall grasses of the glades,or among nodding flags on the river banks; in watersthat sang and rippled on the lake shore; fromshadowy depths of the hammocks, and amid thesoft sighings of cypress swamps. Fus-chatte thered-bird sang of her, and pet-che the wood dovemourned that she was gone. To Coacoochee, sheseemed ever near him, and he longed for the timewhen he might join her. But he knew that he mustbe patient and await the presence of the GreatSpirit, for he believed that the hour of his owndeath had been named at that of his birth. He alsoknew that until the appointed time he would escapeall dangers unharmed. He felt certain that Allalawatched over him and would warn him of eitherdeath or great danger. Being thus convinced, thelad was absolutely without fear of dangers visibleor unseen; and, dreamer that he was, often amazedhis companions by deeds of what seemed to themthe most reckless daring.

At the moment of his introduction to the readerCoacoochee, bathed in the full glory of the settingsun, wondered if the place to which Allala had gonecould be fairer or more beautiful than that in whichhe lingered.

SROUGHSWAMP AND GLADE

Although he was without human companionshiphe was not alone; for beside him lay Ul-we (the tallone), a great shaggy staghound that the youngIndian had rescued three years before from thewreck of an English ship that was cast away on thelonely coast more than one hundred miles from thenearest settlement. Coacoochee with several com-panions was searching for turtle-eggs on the beach,and when they boarded the stranded vessel, awretched puppy very nearly dead from starvationwas the only living creature they found. The Indianboy took the little animal for his own, restored it tolife through persistent effort, nursed it through theills of puppyhood, and was finally rewarded by hav-ing the waif thus rescued develop into the superbhound that now lay beside him, and whose equal forstrength and intelligence had never been known inFlorida. The love of the great dog for his youngmaster was touching to behold, while the affectionof Coacoochee for him was only excelled by that feltfor hs dearest human friend.

This friend was a lad of his own age named LouisPacheco, who was neither an Indian nor wholly apaleface. He was the son of a Spanish indigoplanter and a beautiful octoroon who had been given

her freedom before the birth of her boy. The SefiorPacheco, whose plantation lay near the village of

King Philip, had always maintained the most friendlyrelations with his Indian neighbors; and, Louis have

A BIT OF THE FLORIDA WILDERNESS 7

ing one sister, as had Coacoochee, these four wereunited in closest intimacy from their childhood.

At the death of the indigo planter his familyremoved to a small estate owned by the mother, onthe Tomoka River, some fifty miles from their oldhome; but this removal in nowise weakened theirfriendship with the red-skinned dwellers by the lake.Frequent visits were exchanged between the youngermembers of the two families, and when Allalawas taken to the spirit land, none mourned her losslonger or more sincerely than Louis and NitaPacheco.

Louis, being well educated by his father, taughtCoacoochee to speak fluently both English andSpanish in exchange for lessons in forest lore andwoodcraft. The young creole was as proud of hislineage as was the son of Philip Emathla, and borehimself as became one born to a position of freedomand independence.

It was some months since he and Coacoochee hadlast met, and at the moment of his introduction tous the latter was thinking of his friend and medi-tating a visit to him. It would seem as thoughthese thoughts must have been induced by some sub-tle indication of a near-by presence; for the youthwas hardly conscious of them ere Ul-we sprang tohis feet with an ominous growl and dashed into thethicket behind them. At the same moment the youngIndian heard his own name pronounced in a faint

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voice, and wheeling quickly, caught sight of a white,wild-eyed face that he instantly recognized. Ul-wehad but time to utter one joyful bark before his

young master stood beside him and was supportingth fainting form of Nita Pacheco in his arms.