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We reached that place at nightfall, but found no wood there for making a fire. We were 4 miles then from any good camping ground. Captain Hendry asked our Indian companion whether he could take us through the darkness to a place called the “Buck Pens.” Ko-nip-ha-tco said he could. Under his guidance we started in the twilight, the sky covered with clouds.
Ko-nip-ha-tco, by no means a brilliant member of his tribe, is much to be commended for his patient, persistent, intellectual industry. I kept the young fellow busy for about a fortnight, from half-past eight in the morning until five in the afternoon, with but an hour and a half’s intermission at noon.
He told me that his people believe in a “Great Spirit,” whose name is His-a-kit-a-mis-i. This word, I have good reason to believe, means “the master of breath.” The Seminole for breath is His-a-kit-a. I cannot be sure that Ko-nip-ha-tco knew anything of what I meant by the word “spirit.” I tried to convey my meaning to him, but I think I failed.
Diplomacy seems, as yet, to be an unlearned art among them. Ko-Nip-Ha-Tco. Here is another illustration of their frankness. F. A. Hendry, at Myers, and asked permission to live with him. Permission was willingly given, and when I went to Florida this “Billy” had been studying our language and ways for more than a year.
But, in talking with Ko-nip-ha-tco, he told me that his people believe that the Koonti root was a gift from God; that long ago the “Great Spirit” sent Jesus Christ to the earth with the precious plant, and that Jesus had descended upon the world at Cape Florida and there given the Koonti to “the red men.” In reference to this tradition, it is to be remembered that during the seventeenth century the Spaniards had vigorous missions among the Florida Indians.
I pressed the question upon Ko-nip-ha-tco, but his answer was, “Me don’t know; Indian no tell me much.” All the light I obtained upon the subject comes from Billy’s first reply, “He left her.” In fact, desertion seems to be the only ceremony accompanying a divorce. The husband, no longer satisfied with his wife, leaves her; she returns to her family, and the matter is ended.
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