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Show 408 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF necessary instructions, and I started alone on my errand. It was my acquired habit never to tr~vel along any beaten path or open trail, but rather to give such road a wide berth, and take the chances of the open country. I observed my invariable custom on this occasion, merely keeping in view the bearings of the position I was steering for. I started from Major Bryant's post about sunrise, and reached the colonel's head-quarters at nightfall the following day. I passed through the camp without seeing it ; but the sound of a bugle falling on my ear, I tacked about, and finally alighted upon it. As I rode up I was hailed by a sentinel, " Who come dere ?" '' An express." "Vat you vant in dish camp?" .. " I wish to see Colonel Jessup. Call the officer of the guard." "Vat for you come from dat way vere ish de Schimy-noles ?" "Call your officer of the guard," said I, impatiently. The officer of the guard at length appeared. " What are you here again for?" he inquired of me. " I wish to see the commanding officer," I replied. "Yes, you are always wishing to see the command-ing officer," he said; "but he will not be troubled with you much longer ; he will soon commence hang- ing you all." " I demand to be shown to the commanding officer sir," I reiterated. . ' " Who are you, then ?" " I am a bearer of dispatches." " Give them to me." • /' JAMES r. BECKWOURTH. 409 " I was not instructed to give them to you. I shall not do it, sir." " I believe you came from the Seminoles ; you came from that direction." " You believe wrong, sir. Will you show me to Colonel Jessup, or will you not?" This very cautious officer of the guard then went to the marquee of the colonel, and addressed him: " I-Iere is another of those Seminoles, sir, who says he has dispatches for you. What shall I do with him ?" The colonel came out, and eyed me scrutinizingly. "Have you brought dispatches for me?" he inquired. " I have, sir." "From where?" "From r_rampa Bay, sir." "He came from the Seminoles, colonel," interposed the officer of the guard . " You are mistaken again, sir," I said, giving him the look of a Crow in the midst of a battle ; for I was not yet hireling enough not to feel aggravated at being called by implication a liar. " Let me see your dispatches," said the colonel. I handed him the documents ; he took them, and passed into his tent. This did not suit me. I resolved to return instantly. I had not been treated with common civility; no inquiries had been made about my appetite; I was not even invited to alight from my horse. I had neither eaten nor slept since I left Tampa Bay. I was on the point of turning my horse's head, secretly resolving that these were the last dispatches I would bear in that direction, when the colonel called, "Captain Beckwourth, alight ! alight, sir, and come into my quarters. Orderly, have Captain Beckwourth's s |