The Yamese Indians, who shifted back and forth between the borders of Florida and South Carolina, defeated first by the whites and then by the Creeks, found a refuge for the remnant of their tribe among the Seminoles, in whom they merged and disappeared as a distinct tribe[170]--the fate of most of these fragmentary peoples.

[See map page 54.] [Sidenote: Dispersal in flight.] When the fugitive body is large, it is forced to split up in order to escape.

Hence every fugitive movement tends to assume the character of a dispersal, all the more as organization and leadership vanish in the catastrophe.

The fissile character of primitive societies especially contributes to this end, so that almost every story of Indian and native African warfare tells of shattered remnants fleeing in several directions.

Among civilized peoples, the dispersal is that of individuals and has far-reaching historical effects.