Читать книгу The Seminoles of Florida онлайн

55 страница из 60

“De sojers wuz so skeered dey couldn’t load der guns when de Indians would gib dat Satan screech.

“An’ den de poor sojers jest dropped guns an’ run in ter de lake an’ de woods an’ dem savages would go an’ take de guns an’ de ammunition offen de dead bodies an’ den go runnin’ like a deer.

“Lord a mercy, hit seems ter me I heah de wind blowin’ ghosts an’ de sperits ob de brave gem’men what wuz killed on dat field ebbery time I talks ’bout dat day.

“Yes, Mistis, dat scrummage wuz called de battle ob Payne’s Prairie. When de Colonel found out de Indians killed so many ob de sojers, he tore roun’ like a wild bear an’ clar ’foh de Almighty dat he wuz gwine ter sen’ off an’ fetch de whole United States troops ter come down an’ kill ebbery Indian in Florida.

“But what good wuz all dat big talk; dey hab two regimen’s stayin’ der den, and ’foh dey could git outen de garrison de sly ole Indians wuz all gone an’ didn’t leave a track behin’ dem, nuther.

“Dem wuz days ob ’struction, ter be shure! but dey mought ha’ knowed dat war wuz a comin’, kase Daddy Charles see dem divisions in Virginia an’ tell de white people great ’struction ob war wuz a comin’, he tell dem dat hit gwine ter wrestle wif a foreign country, an’ den ’sides de divisions, de wild pigeons come an’ dey wuz so thick you couldn’t see de trees and de slaves kill ’em wif der hoe handles in de corn field.