floods, swollen by many tributaries, into Pensacola Bay. It was several
miles above the point where the detachment struck the river that the
Indian encampment, to which the two murdered men had alluded, was
located. But the provisions of the party were exhausted. There was
scarcely any game to be found. Major Russel did not deem it prudent to
march to the attack of the encampment, until he had obtained a fresh
supply of provisions. The main body of the army, which had remained in
Florida, moving slowly about, without any very definite object, waiting
for something to turn up was then upon the banks of the Scambia.
Colonel Blue was in command.

David Crockett was ordered to take a light birch canoe, and two men,
one a friendly Creek Indian, and paddle down the stream about twenty
miles to the main camp. Here he was to inform Colonel Blue of Major
Russel's intention to ascend the Conecuh to attack the Creeks, and to
request the Colonel immediately to dispatch some boats up the river
with the needful supplies.

It was a romantic adventure descending in the darkness that wild and
lonely stream, winding through the dense forest of wonderful exuberance
of vegetation. In the early evening he set out. The night proved very
dark. The river, swollen by recent rains, overflowed its banks and
spread far and wide over the low bottoms. The river was extremely
crooked, and it was with great difficulty that they could keep the
channel. But the instinct of the Indian guide led them safely along,
through overhanging boughs and forest glooms, until, a little before
midnight, they reached the camp. There was no time to be lost. Major
Russel was anxious to have the supplies that very night dispatched to
him, lest the Indians should hear of their danger and should escape.

But Colonel Blue did not approve of the expedition. There was no
evidence that the Indian encampment consisted of anything more than
half a dozen wigwams, where a few inoffensive savages, with their wives
and children, were eking out a half-starved existence by hunting,
fishing, and digging up roots from the forest. It did not seem wise to
send an army of two hundred and sixteen men to carry desolation and woe
to such humble homes. Crockett was ordered to return with this message
to the Major. Military discipline, then and there, was not very rigid.
He hired another man to carry back the unwelcome answer in his place.
In the light canoe the three men rapidly ascended th