It was a party of Seminole warriors, led
by their chief the gigantic Cat-sha. With him was Chitta the Snake,
and behind them walked three bound prisoners. Two of these were
Frenchmen, and the third was an Indian lad who had escaped with his
chief from the doomed village of Seloy, only to share the fate of the
equally doomed fort in which he had sought shelter. These had thrown
themselves from the walls of the fort upon its capture by the
Spaniards, and had reached the forest unharmed.
There they had fallen into the hands of these Seminoles who had not
fled from this part of the country upon the return of the French, as
the latter had supposed, but had lingered in the hope of capturing any
white men who might incautiously stray beyond the protecting walls.
They desired to capture these that their tortures might form part of
the festivities with which they proposed to celebrate their return to
their stronghold in the great swamp, and to which the rest of the band,
bearing the plunder taken from Fort Caroline after it was abandoned,
had already gone. The Seminoles, rejoicing greatly over the fortune
that had thrown three victims thus easily into their hands, were now on
their way to their canoes, which they had hidden near the foot of this
high bluff.
Directing the others to proceed to where the canoes lay, Cat-sha,
accompanied by Chitta, ascended the eminence for the purpose of taking
a sweeping view of the river and the surrounding country.
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