d by a record trip of the steamboat "Great Western," which
steamed from Bristol, England, to New York in fifteen days. Among those who
lived to witness this event was John Stevens, one of the pioneers of modern
steamboat building. Shortly afterward he died in his eighty-ninth year.

[Sidenote: Indian truce broken]

[Sidenote: Betrayal of Osceola]

[Sidenote: Zachary Taylor in Florida]

Within a short time after suing for peace, the Southern Indians broke the
truce and made a determined effort to take Fort Mellon. In this they were
unsuccessful. In March, at Fort Dade, five of the chiefs signed an
agreement, in which they stipulated to cease from war until the government
decided whether they might remain in Florida. Some seven hundred Indians
and negroes were taken by the government before its decision was announced,
and were sent off to Tampa for shipment. In violation of a flag of truce,
Osceola and several of his principal chiefs were seized and sent to Fort
Moultrie as prisoners. Their treatment there was such that Osceola soon
died. In May, Colonel Zachary Taylor succeeded Jesup. The remaining forces
of the Indians were now wary. They scattered in the swamps, eluding
attempts of organized troops to capture them. In December, Colonel Taylor
set out with over a thousand men for their almost inaccessible haunts. On
Christmas Day they found the Seminoles prepared to receive them near
Okeechobee Lake. After a hard fought battle, in which Taylor lost 139 men,
the Indians once more retreated into the swamps of Florida.

[Sidenote: Boers in Natal]

[Sidenote: Pretorius]

In South Africa during this year, the new community of Dutch settlers, who
had evaded English jurisdiction, soon revived their peculiar institutions
in the region that is now Natal--from the Drakensberg to the sea at Durban,
and from the Tugela River to the Umzimbolbu. The fight against the African
savages continued. Early in the spring, a Boer expedition was defeated by
the Zulus, who followed up their advantage by an attack on the nearest Boer
laager. Seventy Boers, with their Kaffir servants, were massacred. A large
Boer settlement, numbering some 800 persons, was saved from extermination
only by a timely relief expedition under Pretorius, in December. On the
other side troubles arose between the Boers and the Bechuanas in
consequence of King Moroka's prohibition of the importation of spirituous
liquors into Bechuanaland. The growth of a new Dutch