Osceola now rapidly urged forward preparations for war, which, however, he did not wish actually started until after the crops were gathered.  By the fall he was ready, and one day in October when he and some other warriors met Charley Emathla, who had upon him the gold and silver that he had received from the sale of his cattle preparatory to migration, they killed this chief, and Osceola threw the money in every direction, saying that no one was to touch it, as it was the price of the red man’s blood.  The true drift of events became even more apparent to Thompson and Clinch in November, when five chiefs friendly to migration with five hundred of their people suddenly appeared at Fort Brooke to ask for protection.  When in December Thompson sent final word to the Seminoles that they must bring in their horses and cattle, the Indians did not come on the appointed day; on the contrary they sent their women and children to the interior and girded themselves for battle.  To Osceola late in the month a runner brought word that some troops under the command of Major Dade were to leave Fort Brooke on the 25th and on the night of the 27th were to be attacked by some Seminoles in the Wahoo Swamp.  Osceola himself, with some of his men, was meanwhile lying in the woods near Fort King, waiting for an opportunity to kill Thompson.  On the afternoon of the 28th the agent dined not far from the fort at the home of the sutler, a man named Rogers, and after dinner he walked with Lieutenant Smith to the crest of a neighboring hill.  Here he was surprised by the Indians, and both he and Smith fell pierced by numerous bullets.  The Indians then pressed on to the home of the sutler and killed Rogers, his two clerks, and a little boy.  On the same day the command of Major Dade, including seven officers and one hundred and ten men, was almost completely annihilated, only three men escaping.  Dade and his horse were killed at the first onset.  These two attacks began the actual fighting of the Second Seminole War.  That the Negroes were working shoulder to shoulder with the Indians in these encounters may be seen from the report of Captain Belton,[1] who said, “Lieut.  Keays, third artillery, had both arms broken from the first shot; was unable to act, and was tomahawked the latter part of the second attack, by a Negro”; and further:  “A Negro named Harry controls the Pea Band of about a hundred warriors, forty miles southeast of us, who have done most of the mischief, and keep this post constantly observed.”  Osceola now joined forces with those Indians who had attacked Dade, and in the early morning of the last day of the year occurred the Battle of Ouithlecoochee, a desperate encounter in which both Osceola and Clinch gave good accounts of themselves.  Clinch had two hundred regulars and five or six hundred volunteers.  The latter fled early in the contest and looked on from a distance; and Clinch had to work desperately to keep from duplicating the experience of Dade.  Osceola himself was conspicuous in a red belt and three long feathers, but although twice wounded he seemed to bear a charmed life.  He posted himself behind a tree, from which station he constantly sallied forth to kill or wound an enemy with almost infallible aim.