the necessity, on the part of
the people living there, for a struggle for existence. As I have already
stated, the soil is quite barren over a large part of the district; but,
on the other hand, there is also in many places a fertility of soil that
cannot be surpassed. Plantings are followed by superabundant harvests,
and the hunter is richly rewarded. But I need not repeat what has
already been said; it suffices to note that the natural environment
of the Seminole is such that ordinary effort serves to supply them,
physically, with more than they need.

Man.

When we consider, in connection with these facts, what I have also
before said, that these Indians are in no exceptional danger from wild
animals or poisonous reptiles, that they need not specially guard
against epidemic disease, and when we remember that they are native to
whatever influences might affect injuriously persons from other parts of
the country, we can easily see how much more favorably situated for
physical prosperity they are than others of their kind. In fact, nature
has made physical life so easy to them that their great danger lies in
the possible want or decadence of the moral, strength needed to maintain
them in a vigorous use of their powers. This moral strength to some
degree they have, but in large measure it had its origin in and has been
preserved by their struggles with man rather than with nature. The wars
of their ancestors, extending over nearly two centuries, did the most to
make them the brave and proud people they are. It is through the effects
of these chiefly that they have been kept from becoming indolent and
effeminate. They are now strong, fearless, haughty, and independent.
But the near future is to initiate a new epoch in their history, an era
in which their career may be the reverse of what it has been. Man is
becoming a factor of new importance in their environment. The moving
lines of the white population are closing in upon the land of the
Seminole. There is no farther retreat to which they can go. It is their
impulse to resist the intruders, but some of them are at last becoming
wise enough to know that they cannot contend successfully with the white
man. It is possible that even their few warriors may make an effort to
stay the oncoming hosts, but ultimately they will either perish in the
futile attempt or they will have to submit to a civilization which,
until now, they have been able to repel and whose injurious
a