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Show 200 WESTERN WILDS. one lieutenant and four privates; these act as sheriff and deputies under orders of the District Courts, and are subject to a general call from the Principal Chief to execute the mandates of the High Court, or sup-press extensive disorders. In hundreds of instances these light- horse companies and the District Judge simply make the law as they go, calling court on each particular case, following the statute if there is one, and if not, assigning such penalty as in their judgment fits the case. The laws are singularly plain and unambiguous. No space is wasted in definitions, it being taken for granted, apparently, that every body knows the meaning of such terms as " steal" and " murder." After a few days at the Agency, where we were handsomely enter-tained, and assisted in our researches by Major J. G. Vore and his as-sistant, Mr. A. S. Purinton, who were in charge, we determined to visit the Tallahassee Mission, a sort of high school for the Creeks. Starting afoot, Mr. De Bruler and I soon reached the Arkansas, and, after half an hour's vigorous shouting, the ferryman came over, with two negroes. A sudden storm drove us to the nearest hut. A bright mulatto soon appeared, who informed us that he was a slave to the Creeks " afoh de wah ; run away and went off den, which I larnt Ingliss, sah." So, with him for interpreter, we succeeded in an hour in extracting half a dozen remarks from Charon the Silent, as we named the determinedly reticent Creek. The storm passed, and we were set across the river, for which Charon demanded " pahly- hok-kolilen hoonunvy, pahly osten " rendered by our linguist to mean " twenty cents a man forty cents all." This we disbursed, and footed it across the bottom over a road rendered very toilsome by the rain. At dark, splashed and weary, we reached the Mission, which is beau-tifully situated in an open grove, appearing to us a Very haven of rest fitting emblem of the faith and hope which planted it in this wilderness. There we spent a most delightful Sabbath, entertained by the Su-perintendent, Rev. W. S. Robertson, and family. This mission has been thirty years in existence, and has educated all the leading men of the Creek Nation. The teachers are selected and paid by the - Pres-byterian Board of Home Missions ; the material interests are looked after by the Nation, which sends a boy and girl from each of the forty towns, a new one being selected for every departure. Supper was called soon after our arrival; we took " visitors' chairs," and watched with much interest the orderly incoming of some seventy young Creeks, of every age from eight to twenty- two. Nearly all |
