characters
stamped upon it, was worth nothing to the Indian. He declined the
offer. Speaking a little broken English, he inquired, "You got any
powder? You got any bullets?" Crockett told him he had. He promptly
replied, "Me will swap my corn for powder and bullets."

Eagerly the man gave a hatful of corn for ten bullets and ten charges
of powder. He then offered another hatful at the same price. Crockett
took off his hunting-shirt, tied it up so as to make a sort of bag,
into which he poured his two hatfuls of corn. With this great treasure
he joyfully paddled across the stream to rejoin his companions. It is
pleasant to think that the poor Indian was not shot, that his wigwam
was not burned over his head, and that he was left with means to
provide his wife and children with many luxurious meals.

The army reached Fort Decatur. One single meal consumed all the
provisions which the garrison could by any possibility spare. They had
now entered upon a rough, hilly, broken country. The horses found but
little food, and began to give out. About fifty miles farther up the
Coosa River there was another military station, in the lonely wilds,
called Fort William. Still starving, and with tottering horses, they
toiled on. Parched corn, and but a scanty supply of that, was now
almost their only subsistence.

They reached the fort. One ration of pork and one ration of flour were
mercifully given them. It was all which could be spared. To remain
where they were was certain starvation. Forty miles above them on the
same stream was Fort Strother. Sadly they toiled along. The skeleton
horses dropped beneath their riders, and were left, saddled and
bridled, for the vultures and the wolves. On their route to Fort
Strother they passed directly by the ancient Indian fort of Talladega.
It will be remembered that a terrible battle had been fought here by
General Jackson with the Indians, on the 7th of December, 1813. In the
carnage of that bloody day nearly five hundred Indians fell. Those who
escaped scattered far and wide. A few of them sought refuge in distant
Florida.

The bodies of the slain were left unburied. Slowly the flesh
disappeared from the bones, either devoured by wild beasts or
decomposed by the action of the atmosphere. The field, as now visited,
presented an appalling aspect. Crockett writes:

"We went through the old battle-ground, and it looked like a great
gourd-patch. The skulls of the Indians who were killed, st