ians. It was very important for them to maintain this neutrality
strictly, that they might not draw down upon themselves the vengeance
of either party. Some of the Cherokees now began to feel anxious lest a
war-party of the Creeks should come along and find them entertaining a
war-party of whites, who were entering their country as spies. They
therefore held an interview with one of the negroes, and requested him
to inform Mr. Crockett that should a war-party come and find his men in
the Cherokee village, not only would they put all the white men to
death, but there would be also the indiscriminate massacre of all the
men, women, and children in the Cherokee lodges.

Crockett, wrapped in his blanket, was half asleep when this message was
brought to him. Raising his head, he said to the negro, in terms rather
savoring of the spirit of the braggadocio than that of a high-minded
and sympathetic man:

"Tell the Cherokees that I will keep a sharp lookout, and if a single
Creek comes near the camp to-night, I will carry the skin of his head
home to make me a moccasin."

When this answer was reported to the Indians they laughed aloud and
dispersed. It was not at all improbable that there might be an alarm
before morning. The horses were therefore, after being well fed, tied
up with their saddles upon them, that they might be instantly mounted
in case of emergence. They all slept, also, with their arms in their
hands.

Just as Crockett was again falling into a doze, a very shrill Indian
yell was heard in the forest, the yell of alarm. Every man, white and
red, was instantly upon his feet. An Indian runner soon made his
appearance, with the tidings that more than a thousand Creek warriors
had, that day, crossed the Coosa River, but a few leagues south of
them, at what was called the Ten Islands, and were on the march to
attack an American force, which, under General Jackson, was assembling
on another portion of the Coosa River.

The friendly Indians were so greatly alarmed that they immediately
fled. Crockett felt bound to carry back this intelligence as speedily
as possible to the headquarters from which he had come. He had
traversed a distance of about sixty miles in a southerly direction.
They returned, by the same route over which they had passed. But they
found that a general alarm had pervaded the country, Radcliff and his
family, abandoning everything, had fled, they knew not where. When they
reached the Cherokee to