tion, who would have taken all their slaves from them. As,
therefore, the Pawnees would have stolen all their cattle, and the
Creeks have taken all their slaves, they considered that utter
destitution would be the consequence of the removal as proposed by the
American Government. To get over the latter difficulty, the government
proposed that the Seminoles should sell their slaves previous to their
removing, but this they objected to. The American author I have quoted
says:--

"It was then suggested to them that, by a sale of these negroes before
they left Florida, they would augment their resources, and could go into
their new country without the dread of exciting the cupidity of the
Creeks. But these Indians have always evinced great reluctance to
parting with slaves: indeed the Indian loves his negro as much as one of
his own children, and the sternest necessity alone would drive him to
the parting: this recommendation was, therefore, viewed with evident
alarm, and as the right of retaining possession of them was guaranteed
by the commissioner, strong doubts were raised as to the sincerity of
the pledge.

"The Seminole Indians are poor agriculturists and husbandmen, and withal
too indolent to till the ground, and, without their negroes, would
literally starve: besides, should they dispose of them they could not be
replenished in a new country. Again: the opposition of the slaves
themselves to being sold to the whites would excite all their energies
to prevent emigration, for they dread the idea of being transferred to
sugar and cotton plantations, where they must be subject to the
surveillance of the overseer. The life of a slave among the Indians,
compared with that of negroes under overseers, is one of luxury and
ease; the demands upon him are very trifling, scarcely ever exceeding
eight or ten bushels from the crop, the remainder being applied to his
own profit: they live separate, and often remote, from their owners, and
enjoy an equal share of liberty. The negro is also much more provident
and ambitious than his master, and the peculiar localities of the
country eminently facilitate him in furnishing the Indian with rum and
tobacco, which gives him a controlling influence over the latter, and at
the same time affords him an immense profit; so that it can be easily
imagined that the negroes would in no manner be benefited by the
change."

On the 23rd of October, 1834, being two years and a half after th