were chiefs,
and they were all noted men,--some as murderers, and others in less
important ways. They had been here for some years, and a few of them
could speak a little English.

He then took us all over the fort,--up an inclined plane to the top of
the ramparts, and into the Indian barracks on one of the wide walls,
where we saw a lot of Cheyennes and Kiowas, and Indians from other
tribes, sitting around and making bows and arrows, and polishing
sea-beans to sell to visitors. At each corner of the fort was a "lookout
tower,"--a little box of a place, stuck out from the top of the wall,
with loopholes and a long, narrow passage leading to it, with a high
wall on each side to protect from bullets and arrows the man who went to
look out. One of the towers had been knocked off, probably by a
cannon-ball. These towers and slim little passages took our fancy
greatly. Then Mr. Cholott took us downstairs to see the dungeons. He got
the key and gave it to a big old Indian, named Red Horse, who went
ahead with a lighted kerosene-lamp.

We first saw the dungeon where the Indian chief, Osceola, was shut up
during the Seminole war. It was a dreary place. There was another chief,
Wild Cat, who was imprisoned with Osceola, and one night Osceola
"boosted" him to a high window, where he squeezed through the bars and
got away. If Osceola had had any one to give him a lift, I suppose he
would have been off, too. Rectus and I wondered how the two Indians
managed this little question of who should be hoisted. Perhaps they
tossed up, or perhaps Wild Cat was the lighter of the two. The worst
dungeon, though, was a place that was discovered by accident about
thirty years ago. There was nothing there when we went in; but, when it
was first found, a chained skeleton was lying on the floor. Through a
hole in the wall we crept into another dungeon, worse yet, in which two
iron cages were found hung to the wall, with skeletons in them. It
seemed like being in some other country to stand in this dark little
dungeon, and hear these dreadful stories, while a big Indian stood
grinning by, holding a kerosene-lamp.

Mr. Cholott told us that one of the cages and the bones could now be
seen in Washington.

After Mr. Cholott went home, we tramped all over the fort again by
ourselves, and that afternoon we sat on the outer wall that runs along
the harbor-front of the fort, and watched the sail-boats and the
fishermen in their "dug-outs." There were