Osceola the Seminole

✒ Author	Thomas Mayne Reid
📖 Pages	589
⏰ Reading time	23 hours 30 minutes
💡 Originally published	1858
🌏 Original language	English
📌 Types	Biography and memoirs , Novels
📌 Genres	Detective, Children's literature, Historical, Adventure, Prose, Social
📌 Sections	Historical novel , Adventure novel , Social novel

Content

Table of contents
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Chapter One. The Flowery Land	1
Chapter Two. The Indigo Plantation	5
Chapter Three. The Two Jakes	11
Chapter Four. The Hommock	16
Chapter Five. Yellow Jake	22
Chapter Six. The Alligator	26
Chapter Seven. The Turtle-Crawl	31
Chapter Eight. The King Vultures	40
Chapter Nine. The Bath	48
Chapter Ten. The “Half-Blood.”	54
Chapter Eleven. The Chase	61
Chapter Twelve. A Severe Sentence	68
Chapter Thirteen. The Chase	75
Chapter Fourteen. Ringgold’s Revenge	83
Chapter Fifteen. Maümee	89
Chapter Sixteen. The Island	97
Chapter Seventeen. West Point	106
Chapter Eighteen. The Seminoles	113
Chapter Nineteen. An Indian Hero	121
Chapter Twenty. Frontier Justice	126
Chapter Twenty One. Indian Slaves	132
Chapter Twenty Two. A Circuitous Transaction	137
Chapter Twenty Three	143
Chapter Twenty Four. A Strange Apparition	148
Chapter Twenty Five. Who Fired the Shot?	154
Chapter Twenty Six. A Frontier Fort	159
Chapter Twenty Seven. The Council	167
Chapter Twenty Eight. The Rising Sun	177
Chapter Twenty Nine. The Ultimatum	182
Chapter Thirty. Talk over the Table	190
Chapter Thirty One. The Traitor Chiefs	198
Chapter Thirty Two. Shadows in the Water	207
Chapter Thirty Three. Haj-Ewa	213
Chapter Thirty Four. A Pretty Plot	222
Chapter Thirty Five. Light after Darkness	228
Chapter Thirty Six. In Need of a Friend	236
Chapter Thirty Seven. The Final Assembly	241
Chapter Thirty Eight. Cashiering the Chiefs	247
Chapter Thirty Nine. The Signature of Osceola	256
Chapter Forty. “Fighting Gallagher.”	264
Chapter Forty One. Provoking a Duel	269
Chapter Forty Two. The Challenge	274
Chapter Forty Three. The Assignation	280
Chapter Forty Four. An Eclaircissement	287
Chapter Forty Five. Two Duels in One Day	295
Chapter Forty Six. A Silent Declaration	301
Chapter Forty Seven. The Captive	307
Chapter Forty Eight. The War-Cry	312
Chapter Forty Nine. War to the Knife	319
Chapter Fifty. Tracing a Strange Horseman	324
Chapter Fifty One. Who was the Rider?	330
Chapter Fifty Two. Cold Courtesy	336
Chapter Fifty Three. My Sister’s Spirit	341
Chapter Fifty Four. Asking an Explanation	345
Chapter Fifty Five. The Volunteers	352
Chapter Fifty Six. Mysterious Changes	357
Chapter Fifty Seven. My Informant	361
Chapter Fifty Eight. Old Hickman	367
Chapter Fifty Nine. A Hasty Messenger	373
Chapter Sixty. A Lover’s Gift	377
Chapter Sixty One. The Route	385
Chapter Sixty Two. A Knock on the Head	391
Chapter Sixty Three. An Indian Executioner	396
Chapter Sixty Four. A Banquet with a Bad Ending	404
Chapter Sixty Five. “Dade’s Massacre.”	411
Chapter Sixty Six. The Battle-Ground	415
Chapter Sixty Seven. The Battle of “Ouithlacoochee.”	420
Chapter Sixty Eight. A Victory Ending in a Retreat	428
Chapter Sixty Nine. Another “Swamp-Fight.”	433
Chapter Seventy. The Talk	438
Chapter Seventy One. Mysterious Disappearance of an Army	444
Chapter Seventy Two. The Condition of Black Jake	449
Chapter Seventy Three. A Bad Spectacle	453
Chapter Seventy Four. To the Trail	458
Chapter Seventy Five. The Alarm	463
Chapter Seventy Six. A False Alarm	467
Chapter Seventy Seven. “A Split Trail.”	471
Chapter Seventy Eight. Crossing the Savanna	477
Chapter Seventy Nine	481
Chapter Eighty. Signal Shots	487
Chapter Eighty One. An Empty Camp	493
Chapter Eighty Two. A Dead Forest	497
Chapter Eighty Three. A Circular Conflict	504
Chapter Eighty Four. A Dead Shot by Jake	510
Chapter Eighty Five. A Meagre Meal	516
Chapter Eighty Six. A Bullet from Behind	521
Chapter Eighty Seven. A Jury Amid the Fire	527
Chapter Eighty Eight. Quick Executioners	532
Chapter Eighty Nine. An Enemy Unlooked For	538
Chapter Ninety. A Conflict in Darkness	543
Chapter Ninety One. The Black Plumes	551
Chapter Ninety Two. Buried Alive	555
Chapter Ninety Three. Devils or Angels	562
Chapter Ninety Four. The End of Arens Ringgold	569
Chapter Ninety Five. The Death Warning	578
Chapter Ninety Six. Osceola’s Fate—Conclusion	583

Work in other languages

Osceola the Seminole in Russian

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Chapter One. The Flowery Land

Linda Florida! fair land of flowers!

Thus hailed thee the bold Spanish adventurer, as standing upon the prow of his caravel, he first caught sight of thy shores.

It was upon the Sunday of Palms—the festival of the flowers—and the devout Castilian beheld in thee a fit emblem of the day.

Under the influence of a pious thought, he gave thee its name, and well deservedst thou the proud appellation.

That was three hundred years ago.

Three full cycles have rolled past, since the hour of thy baptismal ceremony; but the title becomes thee as ever.

Thy floral bloom is as bright at this hour as when Leon landed upon thy shores—ay, bright as when the breath of God first called thee into being.

Thy forests are still virgin and inviolate; verdant thy savannas; thy groves as fragrant as ever—those perfumed groves of aniseed and orange, of myrtle and magnolia.

Still sparkles upon thy plains the cerulean ixia; still gleam in thy waters the golden nymphae; above thy swamps yet tower the colossal cypress, the gigantic cedar, the gum, and the bay-tree; still over thy gentle slopes of silvery sand wave long-leaved pines, mingling their acetalous foliage with the frondage of the palm.

Strange anomaly of vegetation; the tree of the north, and the tree of the south—the types of the frigid and torrid—in this thy mild mid region, standing side by side, and blending their branches together!

Linda Florida! who can behold thee without peculiar emotion? without conviction that thou art a favoured land? Gazing upon thee, one ceases to wonder at the faith—the wild faith of the early adventurers—that from thy bosom gushed forth the fountain of youth, the waters of eternal life!

No wonder the sweet fancy found favour and credence; no wonder so delightful an idea had its crowds of devotees.

Thousands came from afar, to find rejuvenescence by bathing in thy crystal streams—thousands sought it, with far more eagerness than the white metal of Mexico, or the yellow gold of Peru; in the search thousands grew older instead of younger, or perished in pursuit of the vain illusion; but who could wonder?

Even at this hour, one can scarcely think it an illusion; and in that age of romance, it was still easier of belief.

A new world had been discovered, why not a new theory of life?

Men looked upon a land where the leaves never fell, and the flowers never faded. The bloom was eternal—eternal the music of the birds. There was no winter—no signs of death or decay.

Natural, then, the fancy, and easy the faith, that in such fair land man too might be immortal.

The delusion has long since died away, but not the beauty that gave birth to it.

Thou, Florida, art still the same—still art thou emphatically the land of flowers.

Thy groves are as green, thy skies as bright, thy waters as diaphanous as ever. There is no change in the loveliness of thy aspect.

And yet I observe a change.

The scene is the same, but not the characters!

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