frequently exhausted in hunting up the haunts of a sunset and informed us that he had just discovered few marauders, and the toil rarely resulted in any the main trail of the Indians, and that they passed success having the remotest bearing upon the gen that morning within two miles of us. The Comeral subjection of the Indians; and the reports of manding officer at once issued his orders; men scouts and minor military movements, as a general were seen cleaning their guns and filling their ha rule, after accurate details of hardship and priva-versacks, and the camp presented a scene of the tion endured, unheard of swamps, big and little cy- utmost activity and good humor. Powell's boals, presses explored,-Chiefs with unpronounceable managed by expert paddlers, and with all the well names, Tus-tee-huggee Had-jos and Ho-tal-coo- men of his command, started in the advance at chees, almost seen, usually concluded with the cap- about 10 o'clock at night, and moved up the ture of a squaw, a child, or an old negro. smooth and silent river under the shadows of the The slightest prospect of getting at the enemy overhanging oaks and cypresses, stealthily and never failed to infuse alacrity and vigor into the noiselessly, like so many dark and deathly river movements of the troops; and it is needless to say, gods upon a midnight foray. Not a sound escaped that when it was known in the camp at New River them; the paddles were dipped into the water with that a large body of the Indians had escaped from a long, regular, and skilful stroke, without contact General Jessup and was in our immediate neigh with the boats, and nothing but the low ripple of borhood seeking shelter in the Islands of the Ev- the gentle current against their stems told of their erglades, all were on the qui vive. On the very progress. A part of the force on the left bank, evening of the day on which this news was receiv- about two hundred men, marched about the same ed, the presence of the enemy was felt. The en-hour through the open pine barren along the course gineer of a Government Steamer, with the master of the stream; catching occasional glimpses of of a small sloop, against the admonition and advice its placid surface reflecting the beautiful tracery of of the officers, went on the river to fish, taking with the forest, the tall pine, melancholy cypress, and them a boy belonging to Col. English; and had moss-crowned oak. Their gray uniform and unhardly progressed three hundred yards from camp burnished arms rendered them visible but at a short before they were fired upon by a party of Indians distance; and they moved silently and rapidly, in concealed near them. The two whites fell from open order by the right flanks of companies, with the boat dead, but Joe was untouched. Two of a few Tennessee horsemen thrown out as flankers, them then ran to the bank and told him to land, the firmness of the earth and the cool bracing air but with a few strokes of his sculling oar the boat of a starlight night enabling them to move at a flew to the opposite bank, a distance of but a few quick pace. Not a word was spoken; every change yards, and he sprang to the shore. Before his feet of direction was indicated by a motion of the guides touched the ground the enemy fired, and he fell and taken up by the leading officers; and nothing to the ground with two balls in his body. Gather- broke upon the stillness of night but that mournful ing strength from his terror, he fled, bleeding at music of the wind in the leaves of the tall pines, every bound, and closely followed by a warrior, so perceptible and agreeable to a novice, but which who, with his knife between his teeth, had swam the southern woodsman never notes. In this manthe narrow stream when Joe's attempt at escape ner they approached the point designated as the was observed, and who did not relinquish the chase rendezvous of the boats, and never shall I forget until within sight of the camp's sentinels. Then that midnight introduction to the Everglades of brandishing his knife aloft, he gave the well known Florida. The pine trees had begun to decrease in scalp whoop, which came up through the piny number and size, and we entered upon a damp, woods upon the gentle evening breeze, a clear and spongy soil, covered by a growth of scattered cysonorous announcement of the savage warrior's press, and followed a tongue of land jutting well success. Joe's statement left no doubt that this out into them; and thus suddenly emerged upon s was the work of a small war party scouting for wet, grassy plain, when a boundless view of the the advance of the larger body under Sam Jones; Glades was at once presented on three sides. Their and in one hour scouts were sent out in all direc-first appearance, as they lay spread out before us tions. The mutilated bodies of the murdered men in the still starlight, was that of an immense wheatwere found drifting in the river; but so skilfully field ripe for the sickle, flooded, and studded with had the Indians approached and left the camp, by countless green Islands of every extent, from one following the beds of small running streams and to ten thousand acres, and intersected by a thouponds, that not the slightest clue to their move-sand devious creeks and channels. In reaching ments could be discovered after a search of twen- the boats, through a dense border of cocoplumòs, ty-four hours. Powell had in his command, sev- custard apples, and dwarf cypress, that fringed eral volunteers, whose knowledge of the country, them near us, myriads of birds, whose homes we gained in hunting and fishing through it, was of thus rudely invaded, were frightened from their great service. Three days after the event above coverts; and flocks of the stately flamingo, the recited occurred, he came over the river just before beautiful white ibis, the cormorant, crane and cor

file, forming a line of a mile long, until daylight, when a halt was made and a reconnoitring party was sent out on the nearest Islands. They ascended trees and soon returned with inforu ation that we were within about ten miles of the enemy, but that a dense field of saw grass, with but few channels or passages for the boats had to be crossed to reach him. This infused new vigor into all hearts; we at once sprang out to lighten the boats; and, holding on to their sides, and floating and dragging them, we put them boldly into the tall grass, every blade of which is armed, and cuts like a miniature saw. After one hour's strenuous exertions, sometimes plunging them into deep water-holes and at others hauling them over the slippery mud, we struck the trail of the enemy, which at once revealed his strength and character. The tracks of his tub-like, cowhide boats, the easy

lew, were circling and screaming over us. This seemed to be a well understood signal; for in an in stant the deathlike stillness of the forest, so perfect that the rippling waters as they flowed gently among the opposing cypress trunks could be distinctly heard, was broken by the strangest combination of unearthly sounds that ever fell upon the ear. The shrill cries of the screech owls, whose varied volume and discords indicated performers of every age and sex, were mingled with the cackling and screaming of Indian pullets, water turkies and cranes; and the free open shout of the large laughing owl, so abundant in South Florida, whose unearthly midnight merriment is calculated at all times to inspire terror, fell upon the ear at short intervals like the wild and savage de fiance of some nocturnal guardian of the forest, and was taken up and prolonged by a thousand echoes; the croaking of acres of frogs-of count-stages of his trail, and his numerous stopping less varieties, from the innocent little yellow legs, that hop about the damp cypress picking up truant flies, to the lethargic and aldermanic patriarch of the Glades, chimed in to swell the general alarm; and when I add that the opposition roar of contending alligators came, far and near, over the tremulous waters, as over a sounding board, some idea of this strange feature of the Everglades of Florida may be entertained. Some of the new recruits were more alarmed than they could ever be under the enemy's fire; and so strange and remarkable was the scene, that the entire command halted for a moment to observe it.*

places, showed that he was encumbered by his women and children,—and gave us assurance, as a Tennessean observed, of a "first rate fight." We never deviated from the trail, but followed on as truly as a pointer warming with the scent. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon we were within half-a-mile of Sam Jones' Island; and here the old chief, (called by the Indians Ap-pi-ac-kee,) then sixtyeight years old, had at length fixed himself permanently, as he conceived, beyond the utmost efforts of the white man. The saw grass was at least four feet above the heads of the men seated in the boats; but by standing up on the thwarts, the dense green hammocks near us and the distinct and separate curls of smoke from each little Indian encampment struggling up through it,—were visible. This sight reanimated the whole command, for a struggle with the enemy and his capture seemed inevitable. The men were cautious and active, expressing their

The great Pi-a-o-kee, or Grassy Water, was spread out before us; its deep ponds, rivulets, lakes, and basins, reflecting sweetly the twinkling stars, and set round with a dense forest of dark green cypress and venerable oaks, whose giant limbs and mossy drapery were distinctly sleeping in shadow upon its glassy bosom. As far as the eye could gratification, by significant gestures to each other, reach to the south and west, the fires of the enemy, that they were going to "pitch right into them Inkindled in his fancied security as signals to scat- dians." Unusual and joyous animation beamed in tered warriors, were faintly visible; and our em- every face. Every man examined and reprimed barkation upon his dark and unknown lake seemed his arms; the Tennesseans patted their rifles and to be heralded and forbidden by guardian birds of brought their knives a little more to the front; and evil omen. In less than twenty minutes the hor- Powell's sailors had the happy "devil-may-care" ses of the Tennesseans were secured and the en-air of seamen going ashore on liberty. We were tire command entered the canoes, which began to evidently undiscovered, and were rapidly gaining a thread the narrow channels leading to the open position which would cut off the enemy's retreat waters. Noiselessly they crept along, in single

and ensure his destruction. Mutual congratulations were whispered among the Tennesseans, as they reminded each other of some poor comrade whose blood had been shed. Powell's own boat,

This is no fiction. Indeed, so far is it from conveying an adequate idea of what I have vainly essayed to sketch, that I venture to say that he must possess extraordinary under his immediate command, led the advance, perceptive and descriptive powers, whose tongue or pen in the confident belief, that he was about to recan truly describe it. Just before Indian hostilities com- turn the compliment which the Indians had paid menced, the gallant Dade, then at Key West, was ordered him a short time before at Jupiter. He was

to the Peninsula to hold a talk with the Indians. He as- about entering a clear reach of water which would cended the river in a barge with ten men and a guide, and have carried him to the most favorable position for reached the head waters of New River late that night, and he pronounced it the strangest scene he had ever passed cutting off their escape, when an order from the through. commanding officer was passed along the lines that

he designed to try the efficacy of a white flag, and and the flag had hardly advanced fifty steps, which not a shot was to be fired. This, as was subse-it required at least half an hour to do, through quently understood, was enjoined by the command mud nearly waist deep, before they opened a brisk ing General; but be that as it may, it is certain fire on the bearer and the command generally. The that no military order was ever more ill-timed, or officers ordered all the men to lie down and the ever fell upon the ear more unpleasantly, or crea- balls passed harmlessly over them; and the flag ted in subordinates more hearty and thorough dis- gave away and returned with one man wounded. gust; a disgust of which the sailors and Tennes- Their firing continued unremittingly for about three seans made no concealment; and at this distant quarters of an hour, during which time they were day with much additional light before me, I am getting their women and children off the other end forced to believe that a more injudicious order was of the Island towards the main land. Lieutenant, not issued during the whole Florida war.-and this now Captain John ———, of the artillery, whose tall is saying much. A halt was at once made by the ad- and graceful person, white jacket and shining eap, vance, and an active messenger waded back to learn made him rather a conspicuous mark, attracted the distinctly if it was forbidden to attack the enemy; attention of a negro who took four or five deliberwhen the order was returned that not a gun should ate shots at him with a musket, or shot gun, even be fired, or a hostile movement made before the flag wading out into the glades to obtain a nearer view. had been sent. We then slowly advanced, and After enduring these compliments until he was suf when skirting within a hundred fifty yards of the ficiently amused, he threw a cover off the bow of Island, the leading boat, suddenly turning a grassy his boat and pointed a small gun at the enemy. He knoll, came upon two young warriors, clad in loose was promptly reminded of the order not to fire, calico shirts belted about the waists, their right but declaring that he must have one crack at all feet advanced and leaning well over the turbid hazards, he waited for the reappearance of his stream, sustaining themselves by their hold upon the black friend and made a capital shot, the ball tearreedy grass. They stood for an instant with dis-ing up the mud immediately beside him. The or tended eyes gazing upon us. enchained by astonish- der was now given to charge;—but it is needless ment; and their position and whole appearance to say that it could only be done by literally dragwere in keeping with the wild and desolate fea-ging one foot after another in heavy mud and wa tures of the " Grassy Water." A dozen rifles ter three feet deep, and that the enemy did not wait were at once levelled at them, but as soon lowered, our coming. Groups of men were seen here and as the men were reminded of the white flag; and there lending their aid to extricate some poor felleaping back through the mud and grass, they were low in danger of being lost in an alligator's bole, soon lost to sight, when their clear and sonorous or swallowed up in the oozy mud. The hammock war whoop went up as a warning to their fellows was reached and charged in the dusk of the eventhat the foe was upon them; and in an instant it ing. Twenty-four cowhide boats, or tubs, togethwas answered by a hundred shouts from the Island. er with the enemy's entire camp equipage, conHe who has not heard the Seminole war-whoop sisting of game, supper in process of being from the throats of a war party in all its savage cooked, a half-a-dozen gourds, skins, moccasins, ferocity, the enthusiasm of its grim and painted hor- blankets and old clothes, were the spoils of the rors, can gather but a faint idea from mere descrip- victors. Great was the mortification and chation. It rarely fails to depress, if it does not in-grin at this absurd conclusion of one of the best timidate, when heard for the first time; but it had conducted affairs of the war. The enemy, howno terror for the gallant men in whose ears it now ever, was beyond our reach, and every man turned rung familiarly-and they answered it with a his attention to making a comfortable bivouac for cheer such as never before swept over that waste the night. With the aid of a few seamen 1 squatof waters. We had completely surprised them; and, ed upon the most comfortable looking Indian camp, embarrassed as they were by the presence of their to which every man of my party soon brought his women and children, the probabilities were that they would have surrendered at once rather than expose their loved ones to capture. But we were now discovered; concealment was no longer possible; and the halt being ordered, and a white flag sent in, carried by a young West Pointer at the head of thirty men, the soldiers crowded upon the boats' thwarts and every little muddy knoll to view the enemy. A low open pine Island, three miles long, terminated abruptly in a rich live oak hammock of about 100 acres; and here, within 150 yards of eating the first food they had tasted for twenty us, the Indians lay. The limbs of the branching oaks overhanging the water were covered by them;

plunder, among which were some twenty dry hides for beds and several pots of game; and in a few minutes our ears and noses were regaled with the grateful simmering and odor of tempting stews. Four immense live oaks, about fifteen or twenty feet apart, formed the landmarks of my domain, to which I notified all intruders that I had a pre-emption right. Large fires in every direction for a hundred yards around us, at which groups of men were drying their clothes, cleaning their arms and

hours, now illuminated the hammock; and as the blaze began to burn more and more brightly, opos

sums, raccoons, wild cats, turkeys and squirrels, from the dead! Come, sir, you must take the first the spoils of the Indian hunters, were revealed, sip of it," handing me the filled cup which formed hanging about the camps, about six feet from the the top of the flask. I excused myself, saying ground, beyond the reach of their dogs. The fire that I did not drink it, but merely brought it to put soon communicated with the saw grass, and in- into my boots. Put it into your boots, sir! What! stantly the glades were on fire. The wind rose as put this whiskey into your boots; why"-the last the fire increased and in less than an hour a flood sounds were drowned as with his head slightly of flame had swept far to the southward and con- thrown back he slowly enjoyed the draught. My sumed in its desolating path every blade above the flask then went the rounds. It is needless to say water. The burning was accompanied by the sharp that a quart of whiskey afforded but a thimble full cracking of the reedy stalks, resembling the ran-to each of the numerous partakers, after the comdom firing of a thousand rifles. The song, the manding officer had been served; but still it was jest, the loud bursts of laughter or applause at some enough to infuse amiability and merriment into the merry story of men thus grouped, began to awa- party; and I remember indistinctly that between ken the echoes of the woods; and as they flitted sleeping and waking I heard Lieut. L, of the about among the different little camp fires, or lay artillery, "lining off" certain verses on the Floristretched before them upon the Indian pallets in a da war, in the style of the hundredth Psalm. The strange variety of costume, position and humor, I command returned next day to New River and thought that bivouac in Sam Jones' Island the wild-soon engaged in another scout, which will be found est I had ever seen. Clothes were dried, arms were on another page of my note book.

cleaned and supper was consumed; and the extraor

dinary fatigues of the scout disposed the command generally to slumber. The noisy clamor of the bivouac had subsided to a low murmur and after a glorious supper, stretched upon a dry luxurious cow hide before the fire, I was enjoying my "otium cum dignitate," my thoughts wandering to the one bright particular star that ruled my destiny, and reflecting that her coldness was plunging me deeper and deeper into adventure and excitement, when I heard the commanding officer bitterly lamenting the loss of a certain favorite flask, and declaring that he felt extremely ill.

"Mr. ——," said he, addressing one of his aids, "do me the favor to look around among the gentlemen-surely some of them must have brought something. I feel that this march, these wet clothes and damp ground will be the death of me. I'll have the scoundrel that lost that flask punished." The young officer inquired at several camp-fires, but he soon returned expressing his belief that there was not a drop of any thing to drink in the whole command. A deep groan followed from his afflicted superior, who predicted a thousand evil consequences to result from the loss of that flask. recollected at once that I had brought with me a metal quart flask filled with whiskey, a little of which I was accustomed to put into my boots before lying down with wet feet; and slinging it around my neck and approaching the unhappy inquirer, I said, "my flask is at your service, Col.,

I

contains either vinegar or whiskey; but I am ot entirely certain which." With an expressive glance of surprise and pleasure, he said, "My Dear sir, I am infinitely obliged to you :-good eavens, sir, how could you let such a question remain in doubt." Then unscrewing the top and applying his nose to the flask, he exclaimed in tones of unfeigned happiness,-" Whiskey, sir,—most excellent whiskey; why sir, you have raised me

NOONTIDE.

I.

On the skirt of the wood,
Beside the shimm'ring stream,
It doth my spirit good,
To stand and idly dream,
Of what I will.

Blue are the heavens above,
Green is the earth and fair,
And like a wearied dove,
Flutters the soft-winged air,
Is it so still?

II.

O close thine eyes and hear,
What music Nature makes,

Be thou a while all ear,

And catch each sound that breaks,
From her vast choir.

The gush of yon glad waves

Drowns not the madrigal,
Of tinkling rill that laves,
The pebbles round and small,
Its simple lyre.

III.

The leaves that bung aloft
Greet the winds as they pass,
Drown not the rustle soft,
Of the tall meadow grass,

So dimly heard.

Glad insects, far and near,
On murmuring winglets float,

And now and then so clear,
Is heard the sudden note,
Of unseen bird.
IV.

The zephyr's passionate wail
Hath more of joy than woe,
As some old harper's tale,
That makes the tear-drops flow,
Yet endeth well.

Here no harsh discords fall,

To mar the melody;
But blended voices all

In full wild harmony

Together swell.

C. C. L.

Staunton, Va.

dence. The distinguished prosecutor of the gov ernment, George Hay-and the no less distinguished Benjamin Botts are both in my "minds eye;" the former stern and unbending, but courtly and noble-and the latter cold in exterior, but in fact, as I afterwards learned, the possessor of a radiant and profound intellect. There were others in that bright galaxy of talent, whom I cannot now endmerate, either from indistinct memory or want of materials.

Ogilvie's Academy building was the same veritable and venerable wooden structure which now stands at the junction of Sixth and Grace streets; and is owned and occupied by one of our most enterprising merchants. The centre and right wing, (left as you view it from the street) was the part dedicated to learning; the other wing was privately tenanted. I was about my fifteenth year when I belonged to that school, and although time has

RECOLLECTIONS OF JAMES OGILVIE, been since busy with its revolutions, and the period

EARL OF FINLATER.

BY ONE OF HIS PUPILS.

of youth is always full of illusion, I have a very distinct remembrance of many things that occurred not only then, but before and afterwards. The grove of fine foliage and shrubbery which now I cannot remember the precise period when I en- shades the foreground of Mr. G's dwelling, tered Ogilvie's Academy; but I remained there contrasts quite strangely with the down-trodden from two to three scholastic years, during which and blighted green-sward of 1807,--and the buildtime the celebrated drama of Aaron Burr's trial, ing itself, though in point of fact forty years older with its scenery and decorations and its various than it was then, looks decidedly that much youninteresting incidents, more thrilling by far than the ger with the aid of paint, and as I presume condrama of fiction, was acted before a Richmond au- stant care and superintendence. This now beauti dience. When play-time, or recess came, many of ful spot, notwithstanding its former denuded aspect, the students, who in years ranged from boyhood to is hallowed in my memory; and I suppose there twenty,hurried down to the Capitol with the keen are many besides, even in this generation of pelf, curiosity of youth, to gaze upon the several dra- who revisit with a sort of mournful pleasure the matis persone who figured in that representation. scenes of their school-boy days, where they passed Of course the hero of the scene with his low sta- so many sportive hours,-formed so many early ture, piercing black eye and easy address, was friendships, and where so many germs of thought generally the first object of attraction. The next first sprung into existence. I doubt whether one was that plain, simple and unostentatious great man in a hundred, perhaps one in five hundred of those who sat on the bench, but whose form was so fa- who daily pass this place, knows that less than for miliar and so well known that most of the spectators ty years ago it was the residence of James Ogilvie, regarded him pretty much as Partridge looked upon a Scotchman of noble birth, a teacher by profes Garrick in the play; he was so natural, it was impos- sion, and a man of singular endowments; and whatsible that he could be any thing uncommon. Then ever may be said of his faults and eccentricities.— came the distinguished counsel on both sides, whose one who unquestionably exercised an important inpersons made a great impression, at least upon my fluence over many of the young men of that day mind, even at that early age. Wickham, the Ajax, in Virginia. Some of the most distinguished of as well as Chesterfield of the bar, was then in the those whom the old Commonwealth ever sent into meridian of his genius and accomplishments. For the battlefield or to the federal and state councils, the first time, I was startled and delighted by the were enrolled among his pupils, and were moulded magical voice of Wirt, and I remember I was pre-in a greater or less degree by the plastic hand of sent at the delivery of that pathetic passage in one the teacher. Whatever may be the true estimate of his speeches in which he introduced Blennerhas- placed upon his real merits or the precise amount set's almost enchanted island, and described the of his acquirements, it is certain that he managed serpent winding his way into Paradise, and the sad with consummate skill to fashion the minds of those wife mingling her midnight tears with the freezing over whose feelings and faith he once obtained the Ohio. I remember, too, the famous Luther Mar- ascendant. On this point I speak with something tin, who although coarse and uncouth in his man-like personal experience. Humble as I know my ners, was considered a very lexicon of jurispru- pretensions to be, I remember that before I enter