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Show 404 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF hoped to do, I should have redeemed my promise to the Crows, and poss.ibly have finished my days with them. But, being mistaken in my calculations, I was led on to scenes wilder and still more various, yet dignified with the name of greater utility, because associated with the interests of civilization. CHAPTER XXIX. Return to St. Louis.-Interview with General Gaines.-The Muleteers' Company.-Departure for Florida.-Wreck of the "Maid of New York. "-Arrival at Fort Brooke.-Tampa Bay.-Bearer of Dispatches to General J essup.-Battle of 0-ke-cho-be.-Anecdotes and Incidents. I HAD speedy passage to St. Louis, and arrived there after an absence of five months. I mentioned that I had left some business unsettled at the time of my sudden leave. This was none other than an affair matrimonial; but on my return I had some misunderstanding with my fair dulcinea, and the courtship dropped through. At this time the Florida war was unfinished. General Gaines was in St. Louis for the purpose of raising a company of men familiar with Indian habits. Mr. Sublet had spoken to him about me, and had recommended me as being particularly well acquainted with Indian life. The general sent a 1·equest that I would call upon him at his quarters. I went accordingly, and was introduced by Sublet. The general inquired of me how I would like to go to Florida to fight the Indians. I replied that I had seen so much of Indian warfare during the last sixteen years that I was about tired of it, and did not want to engage in it again, at least for the present. He re- JAMES P. BECKWOUR'fH. 405 marked that there was a good opportunity there !or renown. He wished, he said, to raise a ~omp~ny whiCh would go down as muleteers; that their duties would be light, and so on through the stereotyped benefits peculiar to a soldier's life. Sublet recommended me to engage. Florida, .he said, was a delightful country, and I should find a Wide difference between the cold region of the Rocky Mountains and the genial and salubrious South. . The general then inquired if ~ could not rais~ a company of mountain-boys to go With me. I repheq that I thought I could, or that, at any rate, I would make the effort. The trapping business was unusual~y dull a: that time and there were plenty of unoccupied men In the city 'ready to engage in any enterprise. I went amo.ng my acquaintance, and soon collected a company of sixty- four men. I went and reported my success to the general. l-Ie wished to see the men. I brought them all forward, and had their names enrolled. . I was appointed captain of the company, with three heutenants elected from the men. On the ninth day of my stay in St. Louis, we '":ent on board a stean1er going down stream, and were quickly on our way to the Seminole country. We had a delightful journey to New Orleans, where we were detained five days in waiting for a v~ssel to. ~ran~port us to the fields of " renown." While waitmg In New Orleans I fell in with several old acquaintances, who gave me an elegant ~ar~ing dinner: I then sported the commission of captain In the service of Uncle .Sam. Our vessel, the Maid of New York, Capt~1n Ca~·, being at length ready for sea, my soldiers,. With thmr horses, were taken on board, and we set sa1l for Tam- |
