weapon across the neck of his horse, and proclaimed that the first man who moved in the ranks should be shot down. Mute astonishment seized on the whole army-no one moved-no one spoke. What was one emaciated and wounded man to a thousand-one musket to a thousand in the hands of unerring marksmen? It was not fear that awed these brave men, but astonishment and admiration at the daring, the magnanimity, and heroic self-sacrifice of the man that stood before them. A murmur of applause ran along the lines, and they signified their willingness to return.* It is very certain that but for the firmness of the general at this critical moment, the campaign wonld for the present have been broken up, and would probably never have been recommenced.

HILLABEE TOWNS-DESERTIONS AND

MUTINY-GEORGIA VICTORIES.

who had formed the principal strength of the enemy, offering to make peace; and expressing their willingness to agree to any conditions he might think proper to impose. He informed them, in answer to their request, that the war had only been waged to defend the frontiers from the aggressions of the Indians, and to bring to a proper sense of duty a people to whom his government had ever shown the utmost kindness, and who, nevertheless, had committed against her citizens the most unprovoked depredations; and that it would end only when it should become certain that this object was attained.

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Upon those," continued he, "who are disposed to become friendly, I neither wish nor intend to make war; but they must afford evidences of the sincerity of their professions; the prisoners and property they have taken from us and the friendly Creeks must be restored; the instigators of the war, and the murderers of our citizens, must be surrendered; the latter must and will be made to feel the force of our resentment. Long shall they remember Fort Mimms in bitterness and tears."

These propositions would doubtless have been acceded to, had not the course pursued by General Cocke broken off all the negotiations. That officer was informed by General Jackson of the applications of the Hillabees, and the nature of the answer he had sent to them; but he had previously detached General White, with orders to proceed against and destroy their towns. He commenced his march on the 11th of November; his force consisting of a regiment of mounted infantry under Colonel Burch, a battalion of

DESTRUCTION OF THE HILLABEES.

161

cavalry under Major Porter, and three hundred Cherokees commanded by Colonel Morgan. On his route he passed and destroyed the towns of Little Oakfusku and Genatga, consisting, the first of thirty, the second of ninety-three houses. The town called Nitty Choptoa was preserved, in the supposition that it might be useful at some future period. On the 17th, after marching more than one hundred miles, he arrived in the vicinity of a town containing a considerable force of Indians. Colonels Burch and Morgan were sent forward by General White, with the infantry and Cherokees, to surround the town and prevent any of the enemy from escaping. They not only executed their orders, but captured it before the arrival of the rest of the detachment, without losing a single man. Sixty of the Hillabee warriors were killed, and about two hundred and fifty of their women and children taken prisoners. The fact of such slaughter being committed among them, while the American troops sustained no loss, and had not even a man injured, can only be accounted for by the supposition that the Hillabees considered it dishonourable to fight with those with whom they were negotiating for peace. Regarding the detachment under General White as a part of Jackson's army, and believing the attack upon them to have been made by his direction, they lost confidence in him, and refused ever afterwards to make any terms of peace. From this time they would never give or receive quarter, preferring death to submission, and revenging upon those who fell into their power the treachery, as they deemed it, of the American general.

In the meantime General Jackson proceeded to Deposit and Ditto's Landing, where the most effectual means in his power were taken with the contractors for obtaining regular supplies in future. There also he learned that the whole of the detachment from Tennessee had been received by the president into the service of the United States, and he began to think that the difficulties he had hitherto encountered would not recur, and that now his operations could no more be impeded by a want of supplies. He was mistaken. The volunteers at Deposit were only restrained from breaking out into open mutiny by an animated address of the general, who, having assembled them together, painted in the most glowing colours, all the consequences that were to be apprehended, if from any defection of theirs, the campaign should be abandoned, or ineffectually prosecuted.

On his return to Fort Strother, he found the volunteers, now that they no longer had any reason to clamour for bread, were as noisy and earnest in calling for their discharge. They insisted that having volunteered to serve one year out of two, they would be entitled to their discharge on the tenth of December, that being the termination of a year from the day they had first entered the service; and that although they had been a greater part of the time disengaged and unemployed, that recess was, nevertheless, to be taken into computation. Jackson replied that the law of Congress under which their services had been accepted could contemplate nothing less than actual active service of twelve months out of twenty-four; and until