Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/45



a runaway boy among the Cherokee Indians in the HiWassee Country, Sam Houston was adopted as his son by Oolooteka, the chief, who gave him shelter and protection. In the course of events this Cherokee chief had removed to Arkansas and had become principal chief of his tribe, resident there. Tokens of fond recollection passed between this chief and the subject of this memoir. Eleven eventful years had passed, but their attachment knew no abatement. Resigning the gubernatorial chair of Tennessee he determined to wend his way to the wigwam of the old Cherokee chief. That chief was his adopted father, and he was assured that he would greet and welcome him with a hearty blessing. Embarking on a steamer on the Cumberland River, he separated from his devoted friends amid evidences of warm affection, presenting a scene of touching tenderness. The chief honors of the State had crowned him. He had filled its highest stations. In the strength and vigor of early manhood, he stood forth in his thirty-fifth year, a man of the people, toward whose future promotion all his friends had looked with eager anticipations of a brilliant career. Nor were they to be disappointed, for that career, although it did not culminate among the mountains and plains of Tennessee, still it reached the acme of its glory amid the grandeur of Texan scenery.

From Nashville he went, by steamer, to Little Rock, Arkansas, thence four hundred miles to the north-west, to the falls of the Arkansas. He travelled alternately by land and water. Near the mouth of the Illinois, on the east side of the Arkansas, the old Chief Oolooteka had built his wigwam. Above Fort Smith, on both sides of the river, the Cherokees were settled. The falls were two miles distant from the chief's dwelling. It was night when the steamboat reached the landing. A message was sent to the old man as the boat passed the mouth of the river, that Coloneh (the Rover, the Indian name given Sam Houston on his adoption,) was on board. Bringing with him all his family, he came to meet his adopted son. Throwing his arms around him and embracing him with great affection: "My