them I was thrown into the company of many old white men called "Indian country men," who had for years conducted a commerce with them. Some of these men had come to the Creek nation before the Revolutionary War, and others, being tories, had fled to it during the war, and after it, to escape from whig persecution. They were unquestionably the shrewdest and most interesting men with whom I ever conversed. Generally of Scotch descent, many of them were men of some education. All of them were married to Indian wives, and some of them had intelligent and handsome children. . . . I often conversed with the chiefs while they were seated in the shades of the spreading mulberry and walnut, upon the banks of the beautiful Tallapoosa. As they leisurely smoked their pipes, some of them related to me the traditions of their country. I occasionally saw Choctaw and Cherokee traders, and learned much from them. I had no particular object in view, at that time, except the gratification of a curiosity which led me, for my own satisfaction alone, to learn something of the early history of Alabama. CHARLES WENTWORTH UPHAM. 1802-. (Manual, pp. 490, 532.) From the "History of Witchcraft and Salem Village." 114. DEFEAT OF THE INDIAN KING PHILIP. THE Indians were carrying all before them. Philip was spreading conflagration, devastation, and slaughter around the borders, and striking sudden and deadly blows into the heart of the country. It was evident that he was consolidating the Indian power into irresistible strength. From other scouting parties it became evident that this opinion was correct, and that the Indians were collecting stores and assembling their warriors somewhere, to fall upon the colonies at the first opening of spring. Further information made it certain that their place of gathering was in the Narragansett country, in the south-westerly part of the colony of Rhode Island. There was no alternative but, as a last effort, to strike the enemy at that point with the utmost available force. . It was between one and two o'clock in the afternoon, and the short winter day was wearing away. Winslow saw the position at a glance, and, by the promptness of his decision, proved himself a great captain. He ordered an instant assault. The Massachusetts troops were in the van, the Plymouth, with the commander-in-chief, in the centre, the Connecticut in the rear. The Indians had erected a block-house near the entrance, filled with sharpshooters, who also lined the palisades. The men rushed on, although it was into the jaws of death, under an unerring fire. The block-house told them where the entrance was. The companies of Moseley and Davenport led the way. Moseley succeeded in passing through. Davenport fell beneath three fatal shots, just within the entrance. Isaac Johnson, captain of the Roxbury company, was killed while on the log. But death had no terrors to that army. The centre and rear divisions pressed up to support the front, and fill the gaps, and all equally shared the glory of the hour. Enough survived the terrible passage to bring the Indians to a hand-to-hand fight within the fort. After a desperate struggle of nearly three hours, the savages were driven from their stronghold, and with the setting of that sun their power was broken. Philip's fortunes had received a decided overthrow, and the colonies were saved. In all military history there is not a more daring exploit. Never, on any field, has more heroic prowess been displayed. CHARLES GAYARRÉ. 1S05-. (Manual, p. 490.) From "Louisiana: its Colonial History and Romance. 115. ST. DENIS, A FRENCH EXPLORER IN LOUISIANA. ST. DENIS is one of the most interesting characters of the early history of Louisiana. "He hither came, a private gentleman, He was a knight-errant in his feelings and in his doings throughout life, and everything connected with him, or that came within the purview of his existence, was imbued with the spirit of romance. The noble bearing of his tall, well-proportioned, and remarkably handsome' person was in keeping with the lofty spirit of his soul. But what an animated picture might be drawn of that little band of Canadians, with St. Denis, and his friend Jallot, the eccentric surgeon, when they crossed the Sabine, and entered upon the ocean-like prairies of the present State of Texas! How they hallooed with joy when they saw the immense surface which spread before them blackened with herds of buffaloes that wallowed lazily in the tall, luxuriant grass, which afforded them such luscious food, and such downy couches for repose! For the sake of variety, the travellers would sometimes turn from nobler to meaner game, from the hunch-backed buffalo to the timid deer that crossed their path. Sometimes they would stumble on a family of bears, and make, at their expense, a delicious repast, which they enjoyed, comfortably seated on piled-up skins, the testimonials of their hunting exploits. O, there is sweetness in the prairie air — there is a richness of health and an elasticity of spirit— JOHN W. MONETTE. (Manual, p. 490.) "1 From "The History of the Valley of the Mississippi.” 1 116. TRIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. To protect themselves from midnight slaughter, they were compelled to secure themselves in forts and stations, where the women and children could enjoy comparative security, while the men, armed always in the Indian manner, went out to meet the enemy in their secret approach and in their hiding-places, whether in the recesses of the mountains or in the dense forests. . . None but the strong, the active, and the courageous dared engage in these excursions; the remainder occupied the stations and forts as permanent garrisons, and as guards to protect those who were engaged in the labors of the field or in the avocations of domestic employment. Every residence, however humble, became thus a fortified station; every man, woman, and child, able to raise a gun, or axe, or club, in case of assault, became a combatant in defence of their castle, and every able-bodied man or youth was a soldier of necessity. During hostilities, every day was spent in anxious apprehension; and each night was a time of suspense and watching, uncertain who might survive the night... The private paths, the springs, the fields, and the hunting-grounds were all waylaid by parties of Indians, who remained quietly in their hiding-places for days, to secure the devoted victim who might incautiously frequent those places. To cut off supplies, the gardens and the fields were laid waste at night, the stock were killed in the woods, and the game was destroyed around them by lurking savages. The bear, and the panther, and the most ravenous beasts of prey, were less an object of dread than the Indian, thirsting for human blood, and bent on extermination. 1 This interesting book was published in 1846; but we are unable to give any information respecting the author. BRANTZ MAYER. 1809-. 117. (Manual, p. 490.) From "Mexico, Aztec," &c. REKINDLING THE SACRED FIRE. AT dark, on the last dread evening, as soon as the sun had set, as they imagined, forever, a sad and solemn procession of priests and people marched forth from the city to a neighboring hill to rekindle the "new fire." As soon as the melancholy array reached the summit of the man. hill, it reposed in fearful anxiety until the Pleiades reached the zenith in the sky, whereupon the priests immediately began the sacrifice of a human victim, whose breast was covered with a wooden shield, which the chief flamen kindled by friction. When the sufferer received the fatal stab from the sacrificial knife of obsidian, the machine was set in motion on his bosom until the blaze had kindled. The anxious crowd stood round with fear and trembling. Silence reigned over nature and As the sparks kindled into a blaze, and the blaze into a flame, and the flaming shield and victim were cast together on a pile of combustibles which burst at once into the brightness of a conflagration, the air was rent with the joyous shouts of the relieved and panic-stricken Indians. Far and wide over the dusky crowds beamed the blaze like a star of promise. .. At regular intervals, Indian couriers held aloft brands of resinous wood, by which they transmitted the " 'new fire" from village to village and town to town throughout the Aztec empire. And when the sun rose again on the following morning, the solemn procession of priests, princes, and subjects, which had taken up its march from the capital on the preceding night with solemn steps, returned once more to the abandoned capital, and, restoring the gods to their altars, abandoned themselves to joy and festivity, in token of gratitude and relief from impending doom. JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. 1814-. (Manual, p. 532.) From "The History of the United Netherlands." 118. CHARACTER OF Alva. FERDINANDO Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, was now in his sixtieth year. He was the most successful and experienced general of Spain, or of Europe. No man had studied more deeply, or practised more constantly, the military science. In the most important of all arts at that epoch he was the most consummate artist. In the only honorable profession of the age he was the most thorough and the most pedantic professor. Having proved in his boyhood at Fontarabia, and in his maturity at Mühlberg, that he could exhibit heroism and headlong courage when necessary, he could afford to look with contempt upon the witless gibes which his enemies had occasionally perpetrated at his expense. "Recollect," said he to Don John of Austria, "that the first foes with whom one has to contend are one's own troops with their clamors for an engagement at this moment, and their murmurs about results at another; with their 'I thought that the battle should be fought,' or, 'It was my opinion that the occasion ought not to be lost.'” On the whole, the Duke of Alva was inferior to no general of his age. As a disciplinarian, he was foremost in Spain, perhaps in Europe. A spendthrift of time, he was an economist of blood; and this was, perhaps, in the eye of humanity, his principal virtue. Such were his qualities as a military commander. As a statesman, he had neither experience nor talent. As a man, his character was simple. He did not combine a great variety of vices; but those which he had were colossal, and he possessed no virtues. He was neither lustful nor intemperate ; but his professed eulogists admitted his enormous avarice, while the world has agreed that such an amount of stealth and ferocity, of patient vindictiveness and universal bloodthirstiness, were never found in a savage beast of the forest, and but rarely in a human bosom. ALEXANDER B. MEEK.' 1814-1865. (Manual, p. 523.) From "Romantic Passages in South-western History." 119. EXILED FRENCH OFFICERS IN ALABAMA. UPON the colony they bestowed the name of Marengo, which is still preserved in the county. Other relics of their nomenclature, drawn similarly from battles in which some of them had been distinguished, are to be found in the villages of Linden and Arcola. Who that would have looked upon Marshal Grouchy or General Lefebvre, as, dressed in their plain, rustic habiliments, the straw hat, the homespun coat, the brogan shoes,—they drove the plough in the open field, or wielded the axe in the new-ground clearing, would, if unacquainted with their history, have dreamed that those farmerlooking men had sat in the councils of monarchs, and had headed mighty armies in the fields of the sternest strife the world has ever seen? “Do you know, sir," said a citizen to a traveller, who, in 1819, was passing the road from Arcola to Eaglesville,—“ do you know, sir, who is that fine-looking man who just ferried you across the creek?" "No. Who is he?" was the reply. "That," said the citizen, "is the officer who commanded Napoleon's advanced guard when he returned from Elba." This was Colonel Raoul, now a general in France. " is a book of great in 1 One of the few authors of Alabama. The "Romantic Passages terest. 120. THE YOUTH OF THE INDIAN CHIEF WEATHERFORD. BUT the mind of the young Indian, though grasping with singular readiness the knowledge thus imparted, was subject to stronger tastes and propensities; and he indulged in all the wild pursuits and amusements of the youth of his nation with an alacrity and spirit which won |