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LIFE 
 
 AMONG 
 
 THE INDIANS 
 
 BY GEORGE CATLIN. I *7 <? fe 
 
 Indian ' Medicine Man.' p. 84. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 GALL AND INGLIS, 25 PATERNOSTER SQUARE; 
 
 AND EDINBURGH. 
 
PRINTED 
 AND BOUND BY 
 
 GALL AND INGLIS 
 
 LUTTON PLACB 
 BDINBl'RQH 
 
Bancroft Library 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ON my recent return from & long and toilsome campaign 
 amongst the Indian tribes of South and Central America, 
 as well as those on the Pacific side of the Rocky Mount- 
 ains in North America, I was requested to prepare a book 
 of facts for youthful readers on the character and condi- 
 tion of the American Indians. I at once embraced the 
 suggestion made to me, and am here entering upon the 
 plan, the results of which will be met and judged of 
 in the following pages. 
 
 As the youthful readers of this volume will scarcely 
 have read my work on the North American Indians, pub- 
 lished some years since, they may reasonably expect me to 
 give some introduction of myself before we start together, 
 which I will here do in a few words, and leave them to 
 learn more of me when I may incidentally appear in scenes 
 and scenery to be described. 
 
 The place of my nativity was Wilkesbarre, in the Valley 
 of Wyoming, rendered historically famous by its early and 
 disastrous warfare with the Indians whom the civilized 
 races had driven out of it, and celebrated in lore by the 
 popular poem by Campbell, " Gertrude of Wyoming." 
 
 In my early youth I was influenced by two predominant 
 and inveterate propensities, those for hunting and fishing. 
 My father and mother had great difficulty in turning my 
 
VI PRSFACk 
 
 attention from these to books. But when, at the proper age, 
 I commenced reading the law for a profession, I attended 
 the law school of the celebrated Judges Reeve and Gould, 
 in Connecticut, for two years, and after reading for a 
 couple of years longer, passed my examination, was admit- 
 ted to the Bar, and commenced the practice of the law, 
 which I followed for several years. 
 
 During this time, fortunately or unfortunately, another 
 and a stronger passion was getting the advantage of me, 
 that for painting, to which all my love of pleading soon 
 gave way ; and after having covered nearly every inch of 
 the lawyers' table (and even encroached upon the judge's 
 bench) with penknife, pen and ink, and pencil sketches of 
 judges, juries, and culprits, I very deliberately resolved to 
 convert my law library into paint-pots and brushes, and to 
 pursue painting as my future, and apparently more agree- 
 able profession. 
 
 I thus took leave of professional friends and my pro- 
 fession, and immediately commenced portrait-painting in 
 the city of Philadelphia; and after a few years, in the 
 midst of success, I again resolved to use my art, and so 
 much of the labours of my future life as might be required, 
 in rescuing the looks and customs of the vanishing races of 
 native man in America from that oblivion to which I 
 plainly saw they were hastening before the approach and 
 certain progress of civilization. 
 
 To do this I was obliged to break, with apparent great 
 cruelty, from friends the most dear to me, who could not 
 appreciate the importance of my views, and who all mag- 
 nified the apprehended dangers before me. With these, 
 and many other obstacles to encounter, I started in 1832 
 with canvas and colours, and penetrated the vast solitudes 
 from whence I have brought the information to be given 
 in the following pages. 
 
 I devoted eight years of my life in visiting about fifty 
 
PREFACE. Vil 
 
 tribes iii North America, and brought home a collection of 
 more than six hundred oil paintings (in all cases made 
 from nature) of portraits, landscapes, and Indian customs, 
 and every article of their manufacture, of weapons, cos- 
 tumes, wigwams, etc., altogether forming an extensive 
 museum, which was exhibited for several years in the 
 Egyptian Hall, in London, and afterwards in the Salle du 
 Stance, in the Louvre, in Paris, at the invitation of His 
 Majesty, Louis Philippe, who paid it many visits, with the 
 Queen and the rest of the Royal Family. 
 
 Not content with the collection I had thus made and 
 shown to the world, I started again in 1853 for Venezuela, 
 in South America, and subsequently traversed British and 
 Dutch Guiana, the Valley of the Amazon, and other parts 
 of Brazil, the Andes, Peru, Equador, Bolivia, California, to 
 Kamtschatka, the Aleutian Islands, the Pacific Coast to 
 the mouth of the Columbia, across the Rocky Mountains 
 to Santa FC", by the Rio de Norte to Matamoros in Mexico, 
 to Guatemala, to Yucatan, to Cuba, and back to the start- 
 ing point. 
 
 These last roamings, which have been performed in 
 three successive campaigns, have been in some parts 
 extremely difficult and hazardous, but full of interest, 
 which was sufficient to enable me to overcome all obsta- 
 cles ; and from incidents, and people, and customs, and 
 countries, that I have met with in these and my former 
 campaigns, I shall endeavour, in this little work, to select) 
 and describe for the instruction and amusement of the 
 youthful readers, such as will the most forcibly and 
 correctly illustrate native man and his modes, on the 
 American continent. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. THE INDIANS OF AMERICA, . . . 17 
 
 II. MY ADVENTURE WITH THE FIRST INDIAN 
 
 I EVER SAW, . . . . .27 
 
 III. HOW THE INDIANS BUILD THEIR WIGWAMS, 53 
 
 IV. INDIAN WARFARE SCALPS AND SCALPING, . 68 
 
 V. MEDICINE MEN " DRAWING FIRE FROM 
 
 THE SUN," 83 
 
 VI. HOW THE INDIANS PAINT THEMSELVES 
 
 THE PRAIRIES, 99 
 
 VII. CATCHING WILD HORSES A BUFFALO HUNT, 108 
 
 VIII. AN ADVENTURE WITH BEAKS, . . .121 
 
 IX. THE MANDAN INDIANS THE CHIEF'S TALE, 132 
 
 X. THE SIOUX INDIANS A CHALLENGE ! .148 
 
 XL PIPE -STONE QUARRY "THE THUNDER'S 
 
 NEST" "STONE MAN MEDICINE," . 164 
 
 XII. A RIDE TO THE CAMANCHEES A FALSE 
 
 ALARM, 177 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XIII. A SOLITARY BIDE ON " CHARLEY " ACROSS 
 
 THE PRAIRIES, 196 
 
 XIV. A JOURNEY DOWN THE ORINOCO THE 
 
 "HANDSOME DANCE," . . . .219 
 
 XV. EN ROUTE FOR THE AMAZON THE "MEDI- 
 CINE GUN," 237 
 
 XVI. RIO TROMBUTAS ADVENTURES WITH A TIGER 
 
 AND A RATTLESNAKE, . . . .253 
 
 XVII. STILL EN ROUTE FOR THE AMAZON AN 
 
 ADVENTURE WITH PECCARIES, . . 273 
 
 XVIII. ON THE AMAZON, 295 
 
 XIX. THE INDIANS OF THE AMAZON POISONED 
 
 ARROWS, 310 
 
 XX. RED INDIANS IN LONDON, . . .325 
 
 XXI. RED INDIANS IN PARIS, . . . .347 
 
LIFE AND ADVENTUKES 
 
 AMONG THE 
 
 AMEBICAN INDIANS. 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 The Name "Indian" General CharacterIndian Civilisation 
 National Character. 
 
 | HE native races of man, occupying every 
 part of North and South America at 
 the time of the first discovery of the 
 American continent by Columbus, and still existing 
 over great portions of those regions, have generally 
 been denominated " Indians" from that day to the 
 present, from the somewhat curious fact that the 
 American continent, when first discovered, was sup- 
 posed to be a part of the coast of India, which the 
 Spanish and Portuguese navigators were expecting 
 to find, in steering their vessels to the west, across 
 the Atlantic. 
 
 To an appellation so long, though erroneously 
 applied, no exception will be taken in this work, in 
 which these races will be spoken of as Indians, or 
 
 17 
 
18 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 savages, neither of which terms will be intended 
 necessarily to imply the character generally conveyed 
 by the term " savage!' but literally what the word 
 signifies, wild (or wild man), and no more. 
 
 These numerous races (at that time consisting of 
 many millions of human beings, divided into some 
 hundreds of tribes, and speaking mostly different 
 languages ; whose past history is sunk in oblivion 
 from want of books and records; three-fourths of 
 whom, at least, have already perished by fire-arms, 
 by dissipation, and pestilences introduced amongst 
 them by civilized people ; and the remainder of them 
 from similar causes, with no better prospect than 
 certain extinction in a short time) present to the 
 scientific and the sympathising world, one of the 
 most deeply interesting subjects for contemplation 
 that can possibly come under their consideration; 
 and I feel assured that parents will justify the incul- 
 cation of just notions of these simple and abused 
 people, into the minds of their children, as form- 
 ing a legitimate part of the foundation of their 
 education. 
 
 Confident in this belief, my young readers, for 
 whom I have said this book is intended, we will now 
 start together myself upon my task, and you for 
 your own instruction and amusement ; halting but 
 for one impression more, which I deem it important 
 you should start with, and never lose sight of for a 
 moment when you are estimating the character, the 
 thoughts, the actions, the condition, and the wrongs 
 of these poor people to be set forth in this little 
 
GENERAL CHARACTER. 19 
 
 book, that they are children like yourselves, in 
 many senses of the word. They are without the 
 knowledge and arts of civilized man ; they are feeble ; 
 they are in the ignorance of nature, but they all 
 acknowledge the Great Spirit. In their relationship 
 with civilized people they are like orphans. Govern- 
 ments who deal with them assume a guardianship 
 over them, always calling them their " red children ;" 
 and they, from their child-like nature, call all govern- 
 ment officials in their country, "Fathers;" and the 
 President of the United States, their " Great Father ;" 
 and whenever they can have the pleasure of shaking 
 the hand of a little white boy, or a little girl (as 
 would be the case if they could take you by the 
 hand), the relationship is always that of "brother 
 and sister." 
 
 The civilized races in the present enlightened age 
 are too much in the habit of regarding all people 
 more ignorant than themselves as anomalies (or 
 " oddities/' as they have been called), because they 
 do not live, and act, and look like themselves. They 
 are therefore mostly in the habit of treating the 
 character of the American Indians which, from 
 the distance they are from them, is more or less 
 wrapped in obscurity as a profound mystery; but 
 there, owing to their ignorance of them, they judge 
 decidedly wrong ; for, like everything else nearest to 
 nature, they are the most simple and easy of all the 
 human family to be appreciated and dealt with, if 
 the right mode be adopted. 
 
 I have said that these people are like children ; 
 
20 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 and from what I have seen, I am quite sure that if 
 you were amongst them you would learn their true 
 character and their feelings much sooner than your 
 parents would ; for with children they would throw 
 off the mask and the reserve which their justly- 
 founded suspicions of white men induce them to 
 wear in their presence. I believe, therefore, that 
 instead of the frightful impressions too often made 
 upon the youthful mind, your early days is the time 
 when the foundation of a lasting knowledge and just 
 appreciation of the true character of these simple 
 people should be formed ; and with that view, from 
 what I have learned in fourteen years of my life 
 spent in familiarity with them, I will try in this 
 little work to bring the condition and customs of 
 these children of the forest in a true light before 
 you. 
 
 Distributed over every part, and in every nook 
 and corner of North, and South, and Central America, 
 we find these people living in their rude huts, or 
 "wigwams," at present numbering something like 
 four millions, though, in all probability, their num- 
 bers were nearer twelve or fourteen millions at the 
 time of the discovery of America by Columbus ; and 
 yet the world is left (and probably will remain) in 
 profound ignorance of their origin, for want of his- 
 torical proof to show from whence they came. 
 
 It seems to be the popular belief that the two 
 Americas have been peopled from the Eastern con- 
 tinent by the way of Behring's Strait of this there 
 is a possibility, but no proof ; and I think there is 
 
INDIAN CIVILIZATION. 21 
 
 much and very strong presumptive proof against its 
 probability. The subject has been one of great 
 interest to me for many years past, and of so excit- 
 ing a nature, that I have recently made a tedious 
 and expensive tour to Eastern Siberia, to the Koriaks 
 and the Kamtschatkas, the Aleutians equi-distant 
 between the two continents and the natives on the 
 American coast opposite to them, and from all that 
 I could learn, there has been a mutual intercourse 
 across the strait, sufficiently proved by the resem- 
 blances in language and in physiological traits ; but 
 no proof of the peopling of a continent either way. 
 
 In the progressive character with which the Crea- 
 tor has endowed mankind, as distinguished above 
 the brute creations, the American savages have, in 
 several instances, made the intended uses of their 
 reason, in advancing by themselves to a high state 
 of civilization, but from this they have been thrown 
 back by more than savage invaders as seen in the 
 histories of Mexico and Peru and by the hand of 
 Providence, in some way not yet explained, in the 
 more ancient destruction of the ruined cities of 
 Palenque and Uxmal, in Central America. 
 
 All history on the subject goes to prove (and with- 
 out an exception to the contrary) that, when first 
 visited by civilized people, the American Indians 
 have been found friendly and hospitable ; and my 
 own testimony, when I have visited nearly two 
 millions of them, and most of the time unprotected, 
 without having received any personal injury or insult, 
 or loss of my property by theft, should go a great 
 
22 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 way to corroborate the fact, that, if properly treated, 
 the American Indians are amongst the most honest, 
 and honourable, and hospitable people in the world. 
 
 In their primitive and natural state they have 
 always been found living quite independently and 
 happily, though poor ; with an abundance of animals 
 and fish in their country for food, which seems to 
 bound nearly all their earthly wishes. As they know 
 nothing of commerce, and are totally ignorant of the 
 meaning and value of money, they live and act with- 
 out those dangerous inducements to crime; and 
 stimulated to honesty by rules of honour belonging 
 to their society, they practise honesty without any 
 " dread of the law ;" for there is no punishment 
 amongst them for theft or fraud, except the disgrace 
 that attaches to their character in case they are con- 
 victed of such crimes. 
 
 If these people, under such circumstances, would 
 guard my life and my property, as they have done, 
 and help me in safety through their country, of which 
 I shall give you many proofs in this little book, you, 
 my young readers, will at once decide with me, that 
 their hearts are good are like your own ; and that 
 their true character and modes are worth your 
 understanding. 
 
 The contemptuous epithets of " the poor, naked, 
 and drunken Indians/' are often habitually applied 
 to these people by those who know but little or 
 nothing about them. And these epithets are some- 
 times correctly applied ; but only so to those classes 
 of Indian society who, to the shame and disgrace of 
 
CHARACTER. 23 
 
 civilized people, have been reduced to these condi- 
 tions by the iniquitous teachings of white men, who, 
 with the aid of rum and whisky, have introduced 
 dissipation and vices amongst them, which lead 
 directly to poverty, and nakedness, and diseases which 
 end in their destruction. 
 
 In their primitive state, these people are all tem- 
 perate all " teetotallers ;" and sufficiently clad for 
 the latitudes they live in ; and their poverty, pro- 
 perly speaking, with their other misfortunes, only 
 begins when the treacherous hand of white man's 
 commerce and the jug are extended to them. 
 
 To estimate the Indian character properly, it 
 should be constantly borne in mind that these people 
 invariably have, as their first civilized neighbours, 
 the most wicked and unprincipled part of civilized 
 society to deal with ; and these white people, using 
 rum, and whisky, and fire-arms, in a country where 
 they are amenable to no law ; and amongst a people 
 who have no newspapers to explain their wrongs to 
 the world. 
 
 It should also be known that there are two classes 
 of Indian society; the one nearest to civilization, 
 where they have become degraded and impoverished, 
 and their character changed by civilized teaching, 
 and their worst passions inflamed, and jealousies 
 excited by the abuses practised amongst them. This 
 district being the first and most easily reached by 
 the tourist, who fears to go farther, he too often 
 contents himself by what he can there see, the semi- 
 civilized and degraded condition of the savage ; and 
 
24 LIFE AMONG TME INDIANS. 
 
 too often endorses what he sees, as the true defini- 
 tion of the appearance and modes of the American 
 Indians ; thus doing injustice to the character of 
 the people, and less than justice to those who read 
 for information. 
 
 My labours have generally commenced where that 
 state of civilization leaves off ; and, as I have always 
 believed, I have been in the greatest safety when in 
 the primitive state of Indian society. It has been 
 there, and there chiefly, where my ambition has led 
 me, and there where I have laboured, as the only 
 legitimate place to portray the true character of 
 Indian life. 
 
 The American Indians, as a race, a great and 
 national family, have a national character and appear- 
 ance very different from the other native races of the 
 earth. They differ in language, in expression, and 
 in colour ; and in their native simplicity they have 
 many high, and honourable, and humane traits of 
 character, which will be illustrated in the following 
 pages. 
 
 There are no people on earth more loving and 
 kind to their friends and the poor ; and yet, like all 
 savage races, they are correctly denominated cruel : 
 and what people are not so ? There is an excuse for 
 the cruelty of savages. Cruelty is a necessity in 
 savage life: and who else has so good an excuse 
 for it? 
 
 Indian society has to be maintained, and personal 
 rights to be protected, without the aid of laws ; and 
 for those ends each individual is looked upon as the 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTER. 25 
 
 avenger of his owii wrongs ; and if he does not 
 punish with cruelty and with certainty there is no 
 security to person or property. In the exercise of 
 this right, he not only uses a privilege, but does 
 what the tribe compel him to do, or be subjected to 
 a disgrace which he cannot outlive ; so that cruelty 
 is at the same time a right and a duty the law of 
 their laud. 
 
 The Indian's " cruelty and treachery iii warfare," 
 we hear much of, but cruelty and treachery in Indian 
 and civilized warfare are much alike. 
 
 The Creator has also endowed the North Ameri- 
 can Indians, everywhere, with a high moral and 
 religious principle, with reason, with humanity, 
 with courage, with ingenuity, and the other intellec- 
 tual qualities bestowed on the rest of mankind. 
 
 They all worship the Great Spirit, and have a 
 belief in a spiritual existence after death. Idolatry 
 is nowhere practised by them, nor cannibalism, 
 though you may read of many instances of both to 
 the contrary. 
 
 After these brief suggestions on their general 
 character and condition, which it has taken you but 
 a few minutes to read, you are now prepared to fol- 
 low me through scenes and events in which I shall 
 endeavour to show you how these interesting people 
 live, how they look, and how they act. I have told 
 you that they are children, that they call themselves 
 such, and that if you were amongst them they would 
 take you by the hand as brothers and sisters ; and I 
 believe, therefore, you are now fully prepared in 
 
26 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 estimating their character and actions, which I am 
 to explain to you, to make those allowances which 
 Nature prompts all kind hearts to extend to the 
 actions of all those who are oppressed, and are 
 ignorant and feeble, but who are doing the best they 
 can under their peculiar circumstances. 
 
CHAPTER IL 
 
 Wyoming Massacre Valley of the Oc-qua-go The Old 
 Saw-mill Lick A Chill, a Shiver, and False Alarm- 
 John Darrow Story of the Panther Deer in the Lick 
 A Huge Indian Red Indian at the Lick A Run from 
 the Lick Johnny O'Neil's " Gipsies "George's Indiana 
 The Saddle of Venison On-o-gong- way's Story The 
 Kettle of Gold My Tomahawk. 
 
 1HE first Indian I ever saw was in this wise. 
 I have before told you that I was born in 
 the beautiful and famed Valley of Wyom- 
 ing, which is on the Susquehanna River, in the State 
 of Pennsylvania. Not a long time after the close of 
 the Revolutionary War in that country, a settlement 
 was formed in that fertile valley by white people, 
 while the Indian tribes, who were pushed out, were 
 contesting the right of the white people to settle 
 in it. After having practised great cruelty on the 
 Indian tribes, and been warned from year to year by 
 the Indians to leave it, it was ascertained one day 
 that large parties of Indians were gathered on 
 the mountains, armed and prepared to attack the 
 
 white inhabitants. 
 
 27 
 
28 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 The white men in the valley immediately armed, 
 to the number of five or six hundred, and leaving 
 their wives and children and old men in a rude fort 
 on the bank of the river, advanced towards the head 
 of the valley in search of their enemies. 
 
 The Indians, watching the movements of the white 
 men from themountain tops, descended into the valley, 
 and at a favourable spot, where the soldiers were to 
 pass, lay secreted in ambush on both sides of the 
 road, and in an instant rush, at the sound of the 
 war-whoop, sprang upon the whites with tomahawks 
 and scalping-knives in hand, and destroyed them all, 
 with the exception of a very few, who saved their 
 lives by swimming the river. 
 
 Amongst the latter was my grandfather on my 
 mother's side, from whom I have often had the most 
 thrilling descriptions. This onslaught is called in 
 history, the " Wyoming Massacre" Some have 
 called it " treachery." It was strategy, not treach- 
 ery ; and strategy is a merit in the science of all 
 warfare. 
 
 After this victory, the Indians marched down the 
 valley and took possession of the fort containing the 
 women and children, to whom not one of the hus- 
 bands returned at that time. Amongst the prisoners 
 thus taken in the fort was my grandmother, and 
 also my mother, who was then a child only seven 
 years old. 
 
 These several hundreds of prisoners, though in 
 the hands of more than a thousand fierce and savage 
 warriors, were not put to death, but kept as prisoners 
 
VALLEY OF THE OC-QUA-GO. 29 
 
 for several weeks, when a reinforcement of troops 
 arriving over the Pokona mountains for their relief, 
 the Indian warriors left the fort, with the women 
 and children in it, having hunted for them and 
 supplied them with food, and painted their faces red, 
 calling them "sisters and children," and to the 
 honour of the Indian's character, be it for ever known 
 (as attested by every prisoner both men and women), 
 treating them in every sense, with the greatest pro- 
 priety and kindness. 
 
 These brief facts, which happened many years 
 before I was born, with a thousand others which 
 could be narrated, having become startling legends 
 of that region, will account for the marvellous and 
 frightful impressions I had received in my child- 
 hood, of Indian massacres and Indian murders, 
 and also for the indelible impression made on my 
 mind and my nerves by the thrilling incident I am 
 about to describe. 
 
 Whilst my infant mind was filled with these 
 impressions, my father, for the relief of his health, 
 impaired by the practice of the law, removed some 
 forty miles from the Valley of Wyoming to a 
 romantic valley on the banks of the Susquehanna 
 River, in the State of New York, where he had 
 purchased a beautiful plantation, resolving to turn 
 his attention during the remainder of his life to 
 agricultural pursuits. 
 
 This lovely and picturesque little valley, called by 
 its Indian name " Oc-qua-go," surrounded by high 
 and precipitous mountains and deep ravines, being 
 
30 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 nearer to the straggling remnants of the defeated 
 Mohawk and Oneida Indians, who had retreated 
 before the deadly rifles of the avengers of Wyoming's 
 misfortunes, I was in a position to increase rather 
 than to diminish the excitements already raised in 
 my mind relative to the Indians who had barricaded 
 and bravely defended in their retreat, one by one, 
 every defile and mountain pass, and whose paths 
 and other markings were still recent. 
 
 The ploughs in my father's fields were at this 
 time daily turning up Indian skulls or Indian beads, 
 and Indian flint arrow-heads, which the labouring 
 men of his farm, as well as those of the neighbour- 
 hood, were bringing to me, and with which I was 
 enthusiastically forming a little cabinet or museum ; 
 and one day, as the most valued of its acquisitions, 
 one of my father's ploughmen brought from his 
 furrow the head of an Indian pipe -tomahawk, 
 which was covered with rust, the handle of which 
 had rotted away. 
 
 At this early age, when probably only nine or ten 
 years old, I had become a pretty successful shot, 
 with a light single-barrelled fowling-piece which my 
 father had designated as especially my own, and 
 with which my slaughter of ducks, quails, pheasants, 
 and squirrels was considered by the neighbouring 
 hunters to be very creditable to me. . 
 
 But I began now to feel a higher ambition that 
 of killing a deer for which the rifles of my two 
 elder brothers were the weapons requisite, and 
 which (they being absent, and pursuing their 
 
THE OLD SAW-MILL LICK. 31 
 
 academical studies in a distant town) I began now 
 to lay temporary claim to. 
 
 In my then recent visits to the " Old Saw-mill" 
 on the " Big Creek " a famous place, to which my 
 co-propensity, that of trout-fishing, often called me 
 I had observed that the saw-mill lick was 
 much frequented by deer, and that I soon fixed as the 
 scene of my future and more exciting operations. 
 
 The "old saw-mill" was the shattered remains 
 of a saw-mill which had been abandoned for many 
 years, and consisting only of masses of thrown-down 
 timbers and planks, converted into piles by the force 
 of the water, under and around which I always had 
 my greatest success in trout-fishing. 
 
 This solitary ruin, about one mile from my father's 
 back fields, was enveloped in a dark and lonely 
 wilderness, with an old and deserted road leading to 
 it, following mostly along the winding banks of the 
 creek. Near by it, in a deep and dark gorge in the 
 mountain's side, overshadowed by dark and tall 
 hemlocks and fir-trees, was the "lick" to which 
 my aspiring ideas were now leaning. The paths 
 leading to it down the mountain sides were freshly 
 trodden, and the mud and water in the lick, still 
 riley with their recent steps, showed me the fre- 
 quency with which the deer were paying their visits 
 to it. 
 
 A "lick" (a "deer lick"), in the phrase of the 
 country, is a salt-spring which the deer visit in warm 
 weather, to allay their thirst, and to obtain the salt, 
 which seems necessary for digestion. Most of the 
 
32 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 herbivorous animals seem to visit these places as if 
 from necessity, and appear oftentimes under a sort 
 of infatuation in their eagerness for them, in 
 consequence of which they fall an easy prey to wild 
 beasts, as well as to hunters, which lie in wait for 
 them. 
 
 Stimulated by the proofs aboved named, and by 
 my recollections, yet fresh, of the recitals of several 
 of the neighbouring hunters of their great success 
 in the old saw-mill lick, I resolved to try my first 
 luck there. 
 
 A rifle for this enterprise was absolutely neces- 
 sary a weapon which I never had fired, and as yet 
 was not strong enough to raise, unless it was rested 
 upon something for its support. 
 
 For this I foresaw a remedy, and I had every con- 
 fidence in my accuracy of aim. But the greater 
 difficulty of my problem was the positive order of ' 
 my father that I was not to meddle with the 'arms 
 of my elder brothers, which were in covers and 
 hanging against the wall. This I solved, how- 
 ever, by a manoeuvre, at a late hour of the night, 
 by extracting one of them from the cover, and put- 
 ting my little fowling-piece in its place, and taking 
 the rifle into the fields, where I concealed it for my 
 next afternoon's contemplated enterprise. 
 
 The hour approaching, and finding the rifle loaded, 
 I proceeded, with a light and palpitating heart, 
 through the winding and lonely road, to the old 
 eaw-mill lick; creeping along through narrow 
 defiles, between logs and rocks, until, by a fair glance, 
 
A CHILL, A SHIVER, AND FALSE ALARM. 33 
 
 at the lick, I found there was no game in it at the 
 moment. I then took to a precipitous ledge of rocks 
 in the side of the hill partly enclosing the dark and 
 lonely place where the salt-spring issued, and where 
 the deer were in the habit of coming to lick. 
 
 The nook into which I clambered and seated my- 
 self was elevated some twenty or thirty feet above 
 the level of the lick, and at the proper distance for 
 a dead shot. I here found myself in a snug and sly 
 little box, which had evidently been constructed and 
 used for a similar purpose on former occasions by 
 the old hunters. 
 
 Having taken this position about the middle of 
 the afternoon, with the muzzle of my rifle resting on 
 a little breastwork of rock before me, I remained 
 until near nightfall without other excitement than 
 an occasional tremor from the noise of a bird or 
 a squirrel in the leaves, which I mistook for the 
 footsteps of an approaching deer ! The falling of a 
 dry branch, however, which came tumbling down 
 upon the hill side above and behind me, in the 
 midst of this silent and listless anxiety, gave me 
 one or two tremendous shivers, which it took me 
 some time to get over, even after I had discovered 
 what it was ; for it brought instantly into my mind 
 the story which I had often heard Darrow relate, of 
 ''killing the panther," which, it had not occurred tome 
 until that moment, took place, not long before, at 
 the old saw-mill lick ! 
 
 John Darrow, a poor man living in the neighbour- 
 hood of my father, often worked for him in bis fields, 
 
34 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 but was more fond of hunting, for which his success 
 had gained him a great reputation in that vicinity. 
 He often supplied my father with venison, and as 
 he took a peculiar fancy to me for my hunting pro- 
 pensities, one can easily see how I became attached 
 to this wonderful man, and how I came to take my 
 first lessons in deer-stalking and bear-hunting with 
 him. 
 
 Well, Darrow had been in the habit of "watching " 
 a great deal in the old saw-mill lick, and of 
 placing beyond the lick, at the height of the middle 
 of a deer's body a small bit of phosphorescent 
 wood (a rotten wood which often occurs in those 
 wildernesses, and called by the inhabitants "fox- 
 fire," probably from phosphor) and which is always 
 visible in the darkest night, looking like a small 
 ball of fire. Then secreting himself before dark on 
 the ground, on a level with his target, his rifle rest- 
 ing in a couple of crotches and aiming directly at 
 his phosphor light, at any time of the night when 
 he heard the stepping of the deer in the lick, and 
 his light was obscured, to pull trigger was a certain 
 death. 
 
 His story of the panther, which I was now 
 revolving in my mind, he had told on arriving at my 
 father's house one morning at an early hour from 
 one of these nocturnal hunts, himself covered from 
 head to foot with blood, and with a huge panther 
 slung upon his back, with a bullet hole between its 
 eyes, ran thus : " I was watching last night, Squire 
 (as he called my father), at the old saw-mill lick, 
 
STORY OF THE PANTHER. 5 
 
 and it getting on to be near midnight, I fell asleep. 
 Seated on the ground, and my back leaning against 
 a beech tree, I was waked by a tremendous blow, 
 like a stroke of lightning 'twas this beast, d'ye 
 see ; he sprung upon me, and landed me some ten 
 or twelve feet, and dropped me, and made only one 
 jump farther himself, as I knew by the noise when 
 he stopped. I knew it was a painter, though I could 
 see nothing, for it was total darkness. I was badly 
 torn, and felt the blood running in several places. 
 My rifle was left in the crotches, and feeling my way 
 very gradually with my feet, but keeping my eyes 
 set upon the brute, for I knew exactly where he was 
 lying, I at length got hold of the rifle, but it could 
 do me no good in the dark. My knife had slipped 
 out of the scabbard in the struggle, and I had now 
 no hope but from knowing that the cowardly animal 
 will never spring while you look him in tte face. 
 
 " In this position, with my rifle in both hands, and 
 cocked, I sat, not hearing even a leaf turned by him, 
 until just the break of day (the only thing I wanted 
 it was but a few hours, but it seemed a long time, 
 I assure you), when I could just begin to discover 
 his outline, and then the wrinkles betwixt his eyes ! 
 Time moved slowly then, I can tell you, Squire ; and 
 at last I could see the head of ' Old Ben:' there was 
 no time to be lost now, and I let slip ! The beast 
 was about twenty feet from me." 
 
 One can easily imagine my juvenile susceptibilities 
 much heightened by such reflections in such a place ; 
 and every leaf that turned behind me calculated more 
 
36 Lit E AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 or less to startle me. My resolve, of course, was 
 not to trust myself in that gloomy place in the night, 
 nor to wait much longer for the desired gratification, 
 which I was then believing I should have to forego 
 for that day at least. 
 
 The woodlark was at that moment taking its 
 favourite limb in the lofty and evergreen hemlocks 
 for its nightly rest, and making the wooded temple 
 of solitude ring and echo with its liquid notes, 
 whilst all else was still as death, and I was on the 
 eve of descending from my elevated nook and wend- 
 ing my way home. Just then I heard the distant 
 sounds of footsteps in the leaves, and shortly after 
 discovered in the distance a deer (a huge buck !), 
 timidly and cautiously descending the hill and ap- 
 proaching the lick, stopping often to gaze, and 
 sometimes looking me, apparently, full in the face, 
 when I was afraid even to wink, lest he should dis- 
 cover me. 
 
 My young blood was too boilable, and my nerves 
 decidedly too excitable for my business. Successive 
 chills seemed to rise, I don't recollect where from, 
 but they shook me, each one of them, until after 
 actually shaking my head, they seemed to go out at 
 the top of it. 
 
 The deer kept advancing, and my shakes increas- 
 ing, at length it entered the pool, and commenced 
 licking ; and the resolve that the moment had arrived 
 for my grand achievement, set my teeth actually 
 chattering. My rifle, cocked, was rested before me 
 on the surface of the rock, and all things, save my- 
 
IN THE LICK. 37 
 
 Self, were perfectly ready ; after several useless 
 attempts I got my aim, but before I could pull 
 trigger, from another chill and a shake, I lost it again. 
 I tried again and again, but in vain, and then 
 more prudently resolved to lie still a few moments 
 until I could get my nerves more steady, and at all 
 events, until I could see more clearly the forward 
 sight of my barrel, which, as yet, seemed to be en- 
 veloped in a sort of a mist. 
 
 Just at this moment also popped into my head 
 another idea that gave me one or two renewed 
 shivers. I had fired my little fowling-piece hun- 
 dreds of times without harm, but I never had fired 
 a rifle " It may be overloaded, or so long loaded as 
 to kick, or to explode ! but never mind, I must run 
 those risks." After checking my latter apprehen- 
 sions for a few moments, and feeling again more 
 calmed, I was getting my aim with tolerable accu- 
 racy, when away went another of those frightful 
 chills, like a snake running through me from my 
 feet to the top of my head, because I was just about 
 to pull trigger ! 
 
 The deer at this time seemed to have got enough 
 of licking, and, stepping out of the lick, disappeared 
 in the thicket. " Oh, what a loss ! what a mis- 
 fortune ! What a chance is gone ! What a coward, 
 and what a poor fool am I ! But if he had stopped, 
 though, one minute longer, I am sure I could have 
 killed him, for I don't tremble now." 
 
 Just at this cool moment the deer came gliding 
 through the bushes and into the lick again, much 
 
38 LIFE AMONG tflE 
 
 nearer than before. One little chill began ; but by 
 gritting my teeth tight together I succeeded in get- 
 ting a more steady aim, when bang ! went the 
 crack and the flash of a rifle, a little to the left of 
 me! and the deer, bounding a few rods from the 
 pool on to an elevated bank, and tumbling upon 
 the ground, quite dead, showed me that I was too 
 late! 
 
 My head and the breech of my rifle were instantly 
 lowered a little more behind my stone breastwork, 
 and then oh, horrid ! what I never had seen be- 
 fore, nor ever dreamed of seeing in that place the 
 tall and graceful form of a huge Indian, but half 
 bent forward, as he pushed his red and naked shoul- 
 ders, and drew himself slowly over the logs and 
 through the bushes. Trailing his rifle in his left 
 hand, and drawing a large knife with the other 
 from its sheath in the hollow of his back, he ad- 
 vanced to the carcase of the deer, which had fallen 
 much nearer to me than it was when it was shot. 
 
 His rifle he leaned against a tree, and the blade 
 of his bloody knife, which he had drawn across the 
 neck of the deer, he clenched between his teeth, 
 while he suspended the animal by the hind legs 
 from the limb of a tree to let it bleed. " Oh, horrid ! 
 horrid ! what what a fate is mine ! what am I 
 to do?" 
 
 No length of life could ever erase from my recol- 
 lection the impression which this singular and un- 
 expected scene made upon my infant mind, or the 
 ease, and composure, and grace with which this 
 
RED INDIAN AT THE LICK. 39 
 
 phantom seated himself upon the trunk of a large 
 and fallen tree, wiping his huge knife upon the 
 moss and laying it by his side, and drawing from 
 his pouch his flint, and steel, and spunk, with which 
 he lit his pipe, and from which it seemed, in a few 
 moments, as if he were sending up thanks to the 
 Great Spirit in the blue clouds of smoke that were 
 curling around him. 
 
 Who will ever imagine the thoughts that were 
 passing through my youthful brain in these exciting 
 moments ? for here was before me, for the first time 
 in my life, the living figure of a Red Indian ! " If 
 he sees me I'm lost ; he will scalp me and devour 
 me, and my dear mother will never know what be- 
 came of me I" 
 
 From the crack of that rifle, however, I had not 
 another chill, nor a shiver : my feeling now was no 
 longer the ebullition of childish anxiety, but the 
 awfully flat and stupid one of dread and fear ; and 
 every muscle was quiet. Here was " perhaps death 
 in a moment" before me. My eyeballs, which 
 seemed elongated as though they were reaching 
 half-way to him, were too tightly strained to 
 tremble. An instant thought came to me, when 
 his naked back and shoulders were turned towards 
 me " My rifle is levelled, and I am perfectly cool ; 
 a bullet would put an end to all my fears." And a 
 better one followed when he turned gently around, 
 and moved his piercing black eyes over and about 
 the ledge where I was sitting, and the blue streams 
 were curling upwards from his mouth and bis nos- 
 
 
 
40 LIFE AMONG THE INDIATTB. 
 
 tills ; for I saw then (though a child), in the momen- 
 tary glance of that face, what infant human nature 
 could not fail to see, and none but human nature 
 could express. I saw humanity. 
 
 His pipe burned out ; the deer, with its fore and 
 hind legs tied together, he slung upon his back, 
 and, taking his rifle in his hand, he silently and 
 quietly disappeared in the dusky forest, which at 
 this time was taking the gloom of approaching night. 
 
 My position and reflections were still like lead 
 that could not be removed, until a doubly reasonable 
 time had elapsed for this strange apparition to be 
 entirely out of my way. He having seemingly, at 
 last view, to have taken the direction of the " old 
 road" by which I had expected to return, my atten- 
 tion was now turned to a different but more difficult 
 route. By clambering the huge precipice still above 
 me, which I did as soon as perfect safety seemed to 
 authorise it, and by a run of more than a mile 
 through the woods, scarcely daring to look back, I 
 was safely lodged in my father's back fields, but 
 without hat or rifle, and without the least know- 
 ledge of the whereabouts in which either of them 
 had been deposited or dropped. The last of these, 
 however, was recovered on the following day, but 
 the other never came to light. 
 
 Such was the adventure, and such the mode of 
 " my first seeing an Indian." 
 
 Having seen him, the next thing was to announce 
 him, which I did without plan or reserve, but solely 
 with youthful impulse ; exclaiming as I approached 
 
JOHNNY O'NEIL'S " GIPSIES." 41 
 
 the vicinity of my father's house, and as pale as a 
 ghost, "I've seen an Indian ! I've seen an Indian !" 
 
 No one believed me, as no Indian had been seen 
 in the neighbourhood for many years. I related the 
 whole of my adventure, and then they thought " the 
 boy was mad." I was mad I went to bed mad 
 and crying ; and my poor dear mother came and 
 knelt by my bed, and at last comforted me a little 
 by saying, " My dear George, I do believe you 
 I believe your story to be true I believe you have 
 seen an Indian." I had a restless night, however, 
 and in the morning, when I awoke, Johnny O'Neil, 
 a faithful farm-labourer in my father's employment, 
 was at the door, announcing that, " Jist in the toother 
 eend of the bag whate-field, where ye sae thit lattle 
 smohk areesin, has kimmed thae japsies; sae ye 
 may be lookin' oot for yer toorkies, an' yer suckin'- 
 pigs, an' yer chahkins, for I tal ye ther'll be nae 
 gude o' 'em,' 1 
 
 Poor Johnny O'Neil ! he was not believed either ; 
 for, said my father, " That's almost a bull, Johnny, 
 for there are no gipsies in this country." " I bag 
 yer parthen," said Johnny ; and my father continued 
 " I'll be bound these are George's Indians !" and 
 putting on his hat, and taking me by the hand, he 
 and Johnny O'Neil and myself started off for the 
 farther corner of the " big wheat-field," where we 
 found my Indian warrior (poor Paddy's gipsy) 
 seated on a bear-skin spread out upon the ground. 
 His legs were crossed, his elbows resting on his 
 knees, and his pipe at his lips ; with his wife, and 
 
42 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 his little daughter of ten years old, with blankets 
 wrapped around them, and their necks covered with 
 beads, reclining by the side of him ; and over them 
 all, to screen them from the sun, a blanket, sus- 
 pended by the corners from four crotchets fastened 
 into the ground, and a small fire in front of the 
 group, with a steak of venison cooking for their 
 breakfast. 
 
 " There's the japsies !" said Johnny O'Neil, as we 
 were approaching. " There is the Indian, father !" 
 said I ; and my father, who had been familiar with 
 Indians, and had learned to sing their songs and 
 speak somewhat of their language in his early life, 
 said to me, "George, my boy, you were right, 
 these are Indians." " Yes/' said I, " and that's the 
 very man I saw." 
 
 He was smoking away, and looking us steadily in 
 the face as we approached ; and though I began to 
 feel something of the alarm I had felt the day be- 
 fore, my father's stepping up to him and taking 
 him by the hand with a mutual " How how 
 how/' and the friendly grip of his soft and delicate 
 hand, which was extended to me also, soon dissi- 
 pated all my fears, and turned my alarm to perfect 
 admiration. 
 
 Understanding and speaking a little English, he 
 easily explained to my father that he was an Oneida, 
 living near Cayuga Lake, some one hundred and 
 fifty miles distant, that his name was On-o-gong- 
 way (a great warrior). He asked us to sit down by 
 him, when he cleaned out his pipe, and, charging it 
 
SADDLE OF TENIBON. 48 
 
 afresh with tobacco, lighted, and gave it to my 
 father to smoke, and then handed it to me, which, 
 my father explained, was a pledge of his friendship. 
 
 My father then explained to him the story of my 
 adventure the day before at the old saw-mill 
 lick, to every sentence of which I was nodding 
 " yes," and trembling, as the Indian was smoking his 
 pipe, and almost, but not quite, commencing a smile, 
 as he was earnestly looking me in the face. 
 
 The story finished, he took me by both hands, 
 and repeated the words, " Good good good hun- 
 ter." He laid his pipe down, and very deliberately 
 climbing over the fence, stepped into the shade of 
 the forest, where he had suspended a small saddle of 
 venison, and brought it, and laying it by my side, 
 exclaimed, as he laid his hand on my head, " Dat 
 you, you half very good ;" meaning that I was a 
 good hunter, and that half of the venison belonged 
 to me. 
 
 The saddle of venison, though very small, was no 
 doubt a part of the animal I had seen in the lick, 
 though it had appeared to me the day before, as I 
 had represented it at home, a "buck of the most 
 enormous size," and the Indian a giant, though on 
 more familiar acquaintance, to my great surprise, he 
 proved to be no larger than an ordinary man. 
 
 This generous present added much to my growing 
 admiration, which was increased again as I listened 
 to his narrative, made to my father and myself, of 
 his history and of some of his adventures, as well as 
 the motive which had brought him some hundreds 
 
44 LITE AMONG THE INDIANS, 
 
 of miles over a country partly of forest and partly 
 inhabited by a desperate set of hunters whose rifles 
 were unerring, and whose deep-rooted hostility to all 
 savages induced them to shoot them down whenever 
 they met them in their hunting grounds. 
 
 His father, he said, had been one of the warriors 
 in the battle of Wyoming, and amongst them was 
 afterwards driven by the white soldiers, after many 
 battles and great slaughter, up the shores of the 
 Susquehana to the country where the remnant of 
 his tribe now lived, between the Oneida and Cayuga 
 Lakes. 
 
 During this disastrous retreat, he being a boy about 
 my size, his father made him assist in carrying many 
 heavy things which they had plundered from the 
 white people, where they fought a great battle, at 
 the mouth of the Tunkhannock ; amongst which, 
 and one of the most valuable, as one of the most 
 difficult to carry, was a kettle of gold. " What !" 
 said my father, " a kettle of gold !" " Yes, father," 
 said he, " now listen. 
 
 " The white soldiers came through the narrows 
 you see yonder " (pointing to a narrow gorge in the 
 mountains, through which the river passes) ; "and 
 on those very fields, which then were covered with 
 trees " (pointing to my father's fields, lying beneath 
 and in front of us), " was a great battle, and many 
 were the warriors that fell on both sides; but at 
 that time, father, another army of white men came 
 from the north, and were entering the valley on that 
 side, and the poor Indians had no way but to leave 
 
THE KETTLE OF GOLD. 45 
 
 the river and all their canoes, and to cross these high 
 mountains behind us, and make their way through 
 the forests to Cayuga. 
 
 " In passing these mountains, my father, they fol- 
 lowed the banks of that creek to its head " (pointing 
 to the creek on which the old saw-mill was built, 
 and which passed in a serpentine course through 
 my father's farm to the river). " On the banks of 
 that creek many things were buried by the Indians, 
 who were unable to carry them over the mountains ; 
 and amongst them, somewhere near that bridge, my 
 father, where the road crosses, on the farther bank, 
 I saw my father and my mother bury the ' kettle of 
 gold/ with other things, in the ground. 
 
 "When my father was old and infirm, I was 
 obliged to hunt for him, and I could not come ; but 
 since he has gone to the land of his fathers, I have 
 made the journey a great way, to dig up the ' kettle 
 of gold/ But I see this day, from where I now sit, 
 that there is no use in looking for it, and my heart 
 is very sad. 
 
 "My father we buried the 'kettle of gold' at 
 the foot of a large pine-tree that stood on the bank ; 
 but I see the trees are all gone, and all now is 
 covered with green grass ; and where shall I go to 
 look? This, my father, I kept a secret for many 
 years, but I see there is no use in keeping it a secret 
 any longer, and this makes my heart sad. I have 
 come a great way, my father, and my road in going 
 back I know is beset with many enemies. 
 
 " These green fields, my father, which are now so 
 
46 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 beautiful to look upon, were once covered with large 
 and beautiful trees, and they were then the hunting 
 grounds of my fathers, and they were many and 
 strong ; but we are now but a very few we live a 
 great way off, and we are your children." 
 
 My father asked him many questions about the 
 "kettle of gold," and in answering these, he ex- 
 tended both arms in the form of a circle, his fingers' 
 ends just touching each other. " There," said he, 
 "it was about thus large, and just as much as I 
 could lift ; and must be of great value." 
 
 My father, after a study of a few minutes, turned 
 to me, and said, " George ! run down to the house 
 and ask your mother to give you the ' little brass 
 kettle,' and bring it here as quick as you can." I 
 never, perhaps, had run more nimbly (but on one 
 occasion) in my lifetime, than I ran and scaled 
 the fences on this errand. 
 
 While this conversation was passing about the 
 " kettle of gold," it had occurred to my father that 
 Buel Rowley, one of his hired men, had ploughed up 
 a small brass kettle a few years before, on the bank 
 of the creek, and at the identical spot designated by 
 the forefinger of the Indian ; and that kettle being 
 brought by me from my mother's culinary collection, 
 was now under the eyes of the child of the forest. 
 
 Whilst he was in silence gazing upon it, and 
 turning it over and over, my father described to him 
 the manner and place in which it was found, and 
 that it was made of brass, which, to be sure, looked 
 like gold, but was much harder, and of much less 
 
THE KETTLE OF GOLD. 47 
 
 value. After a pause of a few minutes, and without 
 the change of a muscle, but drawing a deep sigh, 
 as ii he recognised the long-hidden treasure, and 
 trying his knife two or three times on the upper 
 rim of it, he laid it down, and drawing a deep breath 
 or two through his pipe, said to my father, that he 
 had no doubt but it was the same kettle, but that 
 two things troubled his mind very much the first 
 was, that the kettle should be so small; and the 
 other, that he found it was not a " kettle of gold" 
 The first error he attributed to his having carried it 
 when he was quite a small boy, as it was then a 
 heavy load for him ; and the other, from having 
 learned amongst the white people that a very small 
 piece of gold was worth ten dollars ; and having 
 estimated from this standard the probable value of 
 a " kettle of gold," not having as yet learned enough 
 from the white people to know the difference be- 
 tween gold and brass. 
 
 Poor ignorant child of the forest ! he had learned 
 from his teachers something of the value of gold 
 before he knew what it was ; and he had risked his 
 life, and those of his wife and his little daughter, in 
 wending his way for hundreds of miles through the 
 forests infested with hunters whose rifles were 
 levelled upon every Indian they could meet. His 
 long journey had cost him no gold, for he had none 
 to spend ; his rifle had supplied him and his family 
 with food, and he had thus far escaped his enemies, 
 and in this wise accomplished his object ; but his 
 dangerous steps, which were to be retraced, were 
 
48 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 rendered tenfold more dangerous from the vague 
 reports which had accidentally and unfortunately 
 got into circulation amongst the hunters and bri- 
 gands of the forests through which he had to pass, 
 that he had dug up, and was returning with, a 
 " kettle of gold" 
 
 My father and several of his neighbours paid 
 frequent visits to his little bivouac; and I spent 
 nearly all my time there, so completely were all my 
 fears turned into admiration. My rusty tomahawk 
 head I brought to him, for which he made me a 
 handle, and curiously carved it with his knife. The 
 
 (Ml 
 
 handle was perforated for smoking through, a mys- 
 tery which no one of the neighbours could solve, as 
 " there was no gimlet long enough to make such a 
 hole," little thinking, as he explained the secret to 
 me, that the handle was made of a young ash, the 
 pith of which is easily burned away with a heated 
 wire, or a piece of hard hickory wood. 
 
 The handle finished, my friend Johnny O'Neil 
 laid the head and blade of it on the grindstone 
 while I turned, until it was everywhere silvery 
 bright, and its edge as sharp as a knife. This 
 lighted the eyes of the child of the forest, and he 
 gave a new gleam to mine, when he filled the bowl 
 
lit TOMAHAWK. 49 
 
 of it with tobacco (or k'nick-k'neck, an Indian 
 substitute for tobacco) and commenced smoking 
 through it. 
 
 And yet the great charm and mystery of the 
 tomahawk was still to come yet to be learned. 
 My young readers must know that the tomahawk 
 (like the scalping-knife, which generally has the 
 Sheffield mark upon it) is a contrivance of civilized 
 invention and construction, too deadly and de- 
 structive to have been made by the poor Indian ; 
 combining the two essential requisites of being 
 capable of being used in war as the most efficient 
 and deadly weapon, by throwing or striking with, 
 and, when war is at an end, of being turned into a 
 luxury, for which it is equally valued, the smoke 
 passing through it when charged with tobacco. 
 
 The first of these characters of the tomahawk 
 having been illustrated as above stated, to my inex- 
 pressible delight, and the tobacco all burned out ; 
 my good and confiding friend now arose with the 
 tomahawk in his right hand, and raised my aston- 
 ishment and admiration still higher, by throwing it 
 at the trunk of a tree some rods distant, and bury- 
 ing its blade in the solid wood, explaining to me the 
 certain fate of an enemy within an equal distance. 
 I had not the power to draw it out ; but under his 
 practised hand it seemed to leave the tree like a 
 breath of wind. 
 
 He then stepped back again some ten or fifteen 
 steps, with the end of the handle in his hand, when 
 chick ! it seemed to pronounce, as quick as elec- 
 
50 LIFE AMOtfQ THE INDIANS. 
 
 tricity, and was there buried again ! This he did 
 more than twenty times, without failing once, to the 
 astonishment of my father and others looking on ; 
 the weapon revolving many times in the air, and the 
 blade, no matter what the distance, always entering 
 the tree. Here I was left in one of the several 
 inexplicable mysteries which I have met in Indian 
 life, and never have been able to solve, even to the 
 present day. 
 
 My flint arrow-heads I brought to him, which he 
 looked upon with an evident gloom. He made me 
 shafts (which he feathered) to a number of them ; 
 and from a young hickory he made me a beautiful 
 bow, and ornamented it with woodpeckers' feathers ; 
 and from the skin of the fawn (the " huge buck," 
 which I would have killed) he made me a quiver, 
 and, with the arrows in it, slung it on my back. 
 What could more completely have capped the climax 
 of my boyish ambition than this ? 
 
 The honesty and childlike simplicity of these poor 
 people gained them many friends in the neighbour- 
 hood, and yet there were, no doubt, murderous 
 enemies in disguise plotting and prowling around 
 them. My father made them many presents, and 
 my attachment to them laid my mother's pantry 
 under daily and heavy contributions. 
 
 My father was under constant apprehensions for 
 their safety, and while he was maturing a plan for 
 sending them home by a different route, and at his 
 own expense, it was discovered one morning that 
 their smoke was missing in the corner of my father's 
 
MY TOMAHAWK. 51 
 
 "big wheat-field;" and on the same morning was 
 found hanging in my father's wood-house, which was 
 always open on one side, a fine saddle of venison, 
 with one of the beautiful and well-known eagle 
 quills from the head of On-o-gong-way fastened 
 in it ! 
 
 Poor, honest, and harmless man ! he had left, to 
 meet the chances for his life on his long journey 
 home; and as an unmistakable evidence of his 
 friendship and gratitude, he had left this silent 
 parting gift, and with it, as he could not write his 
 name, his choicest plume, to identify the giver. 
 
 " The Indians are gone ! the Indians are gone ? " 
 was echoed everywhere, and through the neighbour- 
 hood, in the morning; and poor Johnny O'Neil, 
 when he looked upon the saddle of venison con- 
 taining the eagle's quill, exclaimed, "Upon my 
 word, squire, thase is nae japsies an' Til be shot if 
 thot mon's not a gintleman !" 
 
 A few days after the departure of the Indians, 
 two neighbouring boys and myself were practising 
 with my tomahawk, by throwing it at the trunk of a 
 tree ; and when thrown by the hand of one of the 
 boys, it glanced from the tree, by which I was 
 standing too closely, when the sharp blade struck 
 me on the left cheek, cutting deep into the cheek- 
 bone, and felling me to the ground, covered with 
 blood ; giving me a wound which was several months 
 in healing, and a scar which any one of my youthful 
 readers may always know me by, if they have the 
 opportunity of seeing me. 
 
52 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 This was the first catastrophe growing out of the 
 new and singular acquaintance thus recited, but not 
 the saddest ; that came to our knowledge a few days 
 later, and in this lamentable form that the dead 
 body of poor On-o-gong-way was found, pierced by 
 two rifle bullets, in Randolph Valley, a dark and 
 dreary wilderness, some eight or ten miles from my 
 father's plantation, which it was necessary for him 
 to cross in order to reach his own country and 
 friends. 
 
 What became of his poor wife and the interesting 
 and innocent little daughter, no mortal was ever 
 able (or willing) to say ; and the " kettle of gold," 
 which my father had confident hopes would have led 
 to the detection of so foul a murder, notwithstanding 
 his exertions from year to year, never furnished any 
 clue to the villainy. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Indian Tribes Portraits and Costumes The Sioux Sioux 
 Village Interior of Wigwams Drying Meat Indian 
 Slavery Scalp-Day Skin-builders Grass -builders Dirt- 
 builders Bark -builders Timber-builders. 
 
 ]N the foregoing chapter I have shown how I 
 received my earliest impressions of the 
 Indian character ; and skipping over the 
 intervening part of my life, from my boyhood to 
 the age of thirty-three, when, as I have said, I 
 entered the forests to learn more of it, we will now 
 enter upon scenes that I witnessed in those pursuits, 
 from which a more intimate knowledge of these 
 people and their customs may be gleaned. 
 
 The great valley of the Mississippi and Missouri, 
 containing nearly one-half of North America, with 
 its vast prairies, and mountains, and lakes, was the 
 first field of my roamings, which occupied some five 
 or six years of my life ; during which time I visited 
 many tribes, and some of the finest races of mankind 
 in America or in the world ; the principal, and most 
 numerous, and most interesting of these were the 
 Sioua the Blackfoot the Crows the Mandans 
 
 $3 
 
54 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 the Pawnees Ojibbeways Camanchees Osages 
 and Choctaws ; and in my subsequent travels west 
 of the Rocky Mountains, a few of the numerous 
 tribes, the Flatheads the Apachees the Shoshonees 
 the Arapahos, and others; and in South and 
 Central America, the Caribbees the Arowdks the 
 Chaymas the Gooagives the Macouchis the 
 Guarani the Tupi the Botocudos the Connibos 
 the Chiquitos the Moxos, and fifty others. 
 
 A connected narrative of my wanderings amongst 
 all of these remote people would require a very 
 large and perhaps tedious book; but, my young 
 readers, I will not fatigue you by travelling over the 
 whole ground I will take a shorter way. I will 
 introduce you at once to the people themselves and 
 their modes of living, and afterwards to their 
 customs, which you will then be better able to 
 appreciate. After knowing how they look and how 
 they live, you will more easily and correctly under- 
 stand how they act Will you not ? 
 
 We now take an immense stride of twelve 
 hundred miles in a moment, from the scenes of my 
 younger days just described, in the State of New 
 York, where the Indian tribes have all disappeared 
 many years since, to the centre and heart of the 
 great American wilds, where men and animals are 
 still roaming in their native beauty and independ- 
 ence, on the great and almost boundless grassy 
 plains of the Upper Missouri 
 
 In the absence of a pictorial illustration, let me 
 describe a painting from life, which my portfolio 
 
PORTRAITS AND COSTUMES. 55 
 
 contains, of a family group, comprising the head 
 war-chief of the great Sioux nation, with his daughter 
 (an unmarried girl) and his wife, with her infant 
 (papoose) slung in its pretty crib, or cradle, orna- 
 mented with porcupine quills, dyed of various bright 
 colours. The chief wore a robe made of the skin of 
 a buffalo, with the battles of his life painted on it. 
 His shirt (or tunic) and leggings were made of deer- 
 skins, and the seams embroidered with porcupine 
 quills and fringed with scalp-locks. His moccasins, 
 made of deer-skins, were handsomely embroidered ; 
 in his right hand he held his lance ; and his head- 
 dress, made of war-eagles' quills and ermine skins, 
 extended quite to the ground, and was surmounted 
 by a pair of horns, denoting his office as head war- 
 chief of his tribe, a curious mode, which I found to 
 be the same in most of the tribes. 
 
 The dress of the young woman was made of the 
 skins of the mountain sheep, more light and more 
 soft than deer-skins, and was very prettily embroidered 
 and painted. The costume of the wife of the chief 
 was much the same as that of the daughter ; her 
 leggings and moccasins being beautifully garnished. 
 
 It will be seen by this description that these 
 people are not always the * poor naked Indians ; " 
 for in their native state, before white men come to 
 destroy their game, they have an abundance of skins 
 and furs to clothe themselves with ; and, except in 
 very warm weather, when it is more agreeable to be 
 partly naked, they are abundantly and comfortably, 
 and oftentimes elegantly, clad. 
 
 D 
 
56 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 We discover in this family group, also, a good 
 illustration of the domestic relations existing amongst 
 these poor people. Here is the father, the mother, 
 the husband, the wife, the children ; clearly showing 
 that these people have the institution of marriage, 
 as we have it in the civilized world. By my observa- 
 tions amongst them I find that they feel and observe 
 those conjugal, those paternal and filial affections as 
 strongly as any people in more enlightened society, 
 some striking examples of which will yet be given 
 in this little book. 
 
 The Sioux* is one of the most numerous and 
 powerful tribes in North America, numbering about 
 twenty-five thousand, divided into forty bands, each 
 band having a chief at its head, which chiefs are 
 again subordinate to one head-chief ; and with him, 
 in council, they form the government of the nation ; 
 and such is the custom amongst most of the other 
 tribes. 
 
 There is no tribe better clad, who live in better 
 houses (wigwams), or who are better mounted, than 
 the Sioux. They catch an abundance of wild horses, 
 which are grazing on the prairies, oftentimes in 
 groups of several hundreds, and from their horses' 
 backs, at full speed, they deal their deadly arrows, 
 or wield their long and fatal lances in the chase of 
 the buffaloes, and also in war with their enemies. 
 
 These people, living mostly in a country of prairies 
 (meadows), where they easily procure the buffalo- 
 skins, construct their wigwams with them, in form 
 
 * Pronounced See-oo. 
 
SIOUX VILLAGE. 57 
 
 of tents, which are more comfortable than rude huts 
 constructed of timber, are more easily built, and 
 have the advantage of being easily transported over 
 the prairies ; by which means the Indians are enabled 
 to follow the migrating herds of buffaloes during 
 the summer and fall seasons, when they are busily 
 engaged in drying meat for their winter's consump- 
 tion, and dressing robes for their own clothing, and 
 also for barter to the fur traders. 
 
 From this view (Frontispiece) of a Sioux village, on 
 the Upper Missouri, my little readers will get a very 
 correct notion of the manner in which these curious 
 people live. There were in this village about four 
 hundred skin tents, all built much in the same 
 manner : some fifteen or twenty pine poles forming 
 the frame, covered with one entire piece of fifteen 
 or twenty buffalo-skins sewed together, and most 
 curiously painted and embroidered, of all colours ; 
 presenting one of the most curious and beautiful 
 scenes imaginable. 
 
 Inside of these tents, the fire is placed in the 
 centre, the smoke escaping out at the top ; and at 
 night the inmates all sleep on buffalo-skins spread 
 upon the ground, with their feet to the fire ; a most 
 safe, and not uncomfortable mode. When you enter 
 one of these wigwams you have to stoop rather 
 awkwardly ; but when you are in, you rise up and 
 find a lofty space of some twenty feet above your 
 head. The family are all seated, and no one rises 
 to salute you, whatever your office or your importance 
 may be. All lower their eyes to your feet, instead 
 
58 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 of staring you in the face, and you are asked to sit 
 down. 
 
 A robe or a mat of rushes is spread for you, and 
 as they have no chairs you are at once embarrassed. 
 It is an awkward thing for a white man to sit down 
 upon the ground until he gets used to it, and when 
 he is down, he don't know what to do with his legs. 
 
 The Indians, accustomed to this from childhood, 
 sit down upon, and rise from, the ground with the 
 same ease and grace fcnat we sit down in, and rise 
 from, a chair. Both men and women lower them- 
 selves to the ground, and rise, without a hitch or a 
 jerk, and without touching their hand to the ground. 
 This is very curious, but it is exceedingly graceful 
 and neat. The men generally sit cross-legged ; and 
 to sit down they cross their feet, closely locked 
 together, and extending their arms and head 
 forward, slowly and regularly lower their bodies 
 quite to the sitting posture on the ground : when 
 they rise they place their feet in the same position, 
 and their arms and head also, and rise to a perfectly 
 straight position, apparently without an effort 
 
 The women always sit with both feet and lower 
 legs turned under and to the right or the left, and, 
 like the men, lower and raise themselves without 
 touching the ground 
 
 When you are seated, to feel at ease your legs 
 must be crossed, and your heels drawn quite close 
 under you, and then you can take the pipe when it 
 is handed to you, and get a fair and deliberate 
 glance at things around you. 
 
INTERIOR OP WIGWAMS. 59 
 
 The furniture in these wigwams is not much, but 
 it is very curious in effect, and picturesque, when wo 
 look at it. The first startling thing you will meet 
 on entering will be half-a-dozen saucy dogs, barking, 
 and bristling, and showing their teeth, and often- 
 times as many screaming children, frightened at 
 your savage and strange appearance. 
 
 These hushed, you can take a look at other things, 
 and you see shields, and quivers, and lances, and 
 saddles, and medicine bags, and pouches, and spears, 
 and cradles, and buffalo masques (which each man 
 keeps for dancing the buffalo dance), and a great 
 variety of other picturesque things hanging around, 
 suspended from the poles of the tent, to which they 
 are fastened by thongs ; the whole presenting, with 
 the picturesque group around the fire, one of the 
 most curious scenes imaginable. 
 
 In front of these wigwams the women are seen 
 busily at work, dressing robes and drying meat. 
 The skin-dressing of the Indians, both of the buffalo 
 and deer-skins, is generally very beautiful and soft. 
 Their mode of doing this is curious : they stretch 
 the skin, as seen in the illustration, either on a 
 frame or on the ground, and after it has remained 
 some three or four days with the brains of the 
 buffalo or elk spread over the fleshy side, they grain 
 it with a sort of adze or chisel, made of a piece of 
 buffalo bone. 
 
 After the process of " graining," and the skin is 
 apparently beautifully finished, they pass it through 
 another process, that of "smoking/* For this, a 
 
60 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 hole of some two or three feet in depth is dug in 
 the ground, and a smothered fire kindled in the hole 
 with rotten wood, producing a strong and peculiar 
 sort of smoke ; and over this a little tent, made of 
 two or three buffalo-skins, and so closed as to pre- 
 vent the smoke from escaping, in which the grained 
 skins hang for three or four days. After this pro- 
 cess, the dresses made of these skins may be worn 
 repeatedly in the rain, and will always dry perfectly 
 soft a quality which, I believe, does not yet belong 
 to dressed skins in civilized countries. 
 
 "Drying meat" is done by cutting it into thin 
 slices and exposing it in the sun, hung upon poles 
 (as seen in the cut), where it dries, and is successfully 
 cured, without salt and without smoke. 
 
 Men are here seen also coming in from the hunt, 
 with their horses loaded with meat and skins, to 
 keep the poor women at work. It is proverbial in 
 the civilized world that " the poor Indian woman 
 has to do all the hard work." Don't believe this, 
 for it is not exactly so. She labours very hard 
 and constantly, it is true. She does most of the 
 drudgery about the village and wigwam, and is seen 
 transporting heavy loads, etc. This all looks to the 
 passer-by as the slavish compulsion of her cruel 
 husband, who is often seen lying at his ease, and 
 smoking his pipe, as he is looking on. 
 
 His labours are not seen, and therefore are less 
 thought of, when he mounts his horse, with his 
 weapons in hand, and working every nerve and 
 every muscle, dashes amongst the herds in the chase, 
 
INDIAN SLAVERY. 61 
 
 to provide food for his wife and his little children, and 
 scours the country both night and day, at the con- 
 stant risk of his life, to protect them from the 
 assaults of their enemies. 
 
 The Indian woman's life is, to be sure, a slavish 
 one ; and equally so are the lives of most women 
 equally poor in all civilized countries. Look into 
 their humble dwellings in all cities and towns, or in 
 the country, in civilized communities, and see the 
 industry and the slavish labour of poor woman ! 
 She works all the days of her life, brings water, 
 makes fires, and tends to her little children, like the 
 poor Indian woman ; and she may be a slave to an 
 idle husband, who is spending his time and his 
 money, as well as her own earnings, in a tap- room. 
 
 The civilized world is full of such slavery as this ; 
 but amongst the American Indians such a system 
 does not and cannot exist ; every man is a hunter 
 and a soldier ; he must supply his family with food, 
 and help to defend his country. 
 
 The education of woman in those countries teaches 
 her that the labours are thus to be divided between 
 herself and her husband ; and for the means of sub- 
 sistence and protection, for which she depends upon 
 his labours, she voluntarily assumes the hard work 
 about the encampment, considering their labours 
 about equally divided. 
 
 " Slaves to their husbands " is an epithet so often 
 and so inappropriately applied to the poor Indian 
 woman by the civilized world, and so frequently 
 reiterated and kept alive by tourists who have 
 
62 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 happened to see an Indian woman or two at work 
 when their husbands were asleep or smoking their 
 pipes, that I cannot, in common honesty to you, my 
 young readers, nor in justice to the Indian, consent to 
 pass it by in this place without some further comment, 
 
 One of the distinguishing natural traits of the 
 American Indian, that stamps his character as 
 mentally superior to that of the African and some 
 other races, is his uncompromising tenacity for un- 
 bounded freedom. All efforts made (and there 
 have been many) to enslave these people, have re- 
 sulted in failures ; and such an abhorrence have they 
 of the system, that they cannot be induced to labour 
 for each other or for white men for any remunera- 
 tion that can be offered, lest the disgraceful epithet 
 " slave " should be applied to them by their tribe. 
 
 In the relationship of man and wife, in which, as 
 amongst white people, " both are one," they can and 
 do labour for mutual interests and mutual subsist- 
 ence, without incurring this reproach ; and I do not 
 believe that, among the poorer class of any civilized 
 people on earth, a better and a more voluntary 
 division of the toils of conjugal life can be found 
 than exists amongst the American Indians. 
 
 By the custom in all the American tribes, the 
 person of every individual in society, either within 
 the pale of the domestic relations or out of it, is 
 considered sacredly protected from the lash or a blow, 
 which in themselves imply degradation or servitude, 
 and in all cases they may be revenged with death. 
 
 If this system should, by possibility, have its 
 
SCALP-DAY. 63 
 
 disadvantages, how much does it redound to the 
 credit of the Indian's character, and to the honour of 
 his race, and what a lesson is it for the civilized 
 world, that there never was known to exist amongst 
 them the unnatural brute that has beaten his wife 
 or his little child ! 
 
 But we left these poor women at their " slavish 
 work/' dressing robes and drying meat. Let us go 
 back to them for a few moments yet, lest we should 
 lose sight of a Sioux village before we know all 
 about it, and of course be unable to appreciate some 
 extraordinary and amusing Sioux customs, to be 
 explained further on as we advance. 
 
 We here see the Indian women in the full enjoy- 
 ment of their domestic happiness, with their little 
 children and dogs around them, the villagers dressed 
 in their ordinary costumes, and the little cupids 
 taking their first lessons in archery, which is the 
 most important feature in their education. This 
 happens to be "scalp-day;" the Sioux, like most 
 of the other tribes, having several days in the year 
 for " counting scalps," which are observed somewhat 
 as holidays. The chief on those days passes through 
 an aperture in the side of his wigwam, and erects 
 over it a pole called the " scalp-pole," from which 
 are suspended the scalps which he has taken, which 
 is the signal for all the warriors to do the same ; so 
 that the chief and every person in the village can 
 count them, and understand each warrior's standing 
 and claims to promotion, which are estimated by the 
 number of scalps he has taken. 
 
64 UFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 Amongst the Indian tribes every man is a mili- 
 tary man, a warrior, a brave, or a chief. All are 
 armed and ready to go to war if necessary. A 
 ivarrior is one of those who has taken one or more 
 scalps ; a brave is one who goes to war as a soldier, 
 but as yet has taken no scalps, has killed no enemy. 
 
 Taking the scalp is practised by all the American 
 tribes much in the same way, and for the same objects, 
 which, with the mode of taking it and using it, will 
 be more fully described hereafter. 
 
 From the Sioux mode of constructing their 
 villages, which I have thus briefly explained, and to 
 which we shall have occasion again to return, we 
 will now take a glance at some other modes practised 
 by other tribes living at great distances from 
 them. 
 
 The Assinneboins, the Crows, the Blackfoot, the 
 Omahas, the Shiennes, the Camanchees, and yet 
 several other tribes living in the vicinity of the herds 
 of buffaloes, build their wigwams, and live much 
 in the manner of the Sioux. All of these I would 
 denominate "skin-builders." There are also the 
 grass-builders, the dirt-builders, the bark-builders, 
 and the timber-builders, and yet other builders, all 
 of whom will be noticed in their proper places. 
 
 How curious it is that these ingenious people, who 
 have invented so many ways of constructing their 
 dwellings, never yet have adopted the mode of build- 
 ing with stone. This is probably not the result of 
 ignorance or want of invention, but from their 
 umversal policy of leaving no monuments. All tfce 
 
GRASS-BUILDERS. 
 
 65 
 
 American tribes are more or less migratory ; and 
 when they move, they destroy all their marks, by 
 burning their wigwams, if they cannot take them 
 with them, and " smoothing over the graves of their 
 parents and children." 
 
 The Pawnee-Picts (in their own language Tow-ee- 
 ahge), a numerous tribe living on the head waters of 
 the Red River, in Western Texas, build their wig- 
 wams by a sort of thatching of long prairie grass, 
 over a frame of poles fastened in the ground and 
 bent in at their tops ; the structure, when com- 
 pleted, having much the shape and appearance of a 
 straw beehive. 
 
 This singular mode, which is only practised by 
 that tribe, and partially so by the Kiowas and Wicos, 
 smaller tribes subjugated by the Pawnee-Picts, is 
 very convenient; they are comfortable dwellings, 
 
66 
 
 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 easily constructed, and easily demolished when they 
 are left, by putting a fire-brand to them. 
 
 The tribe of Mandans, on the Upper Missouri, the 
 Pawnees of the Platte, the Minatarees, and the 
 Riccarrees, are the only dirt-builders, and they all 
 seem to construct their wigwams much in the same 
 manner. 
 
 These tribes, unlike the Sioux and other tribes 
 living in skin tents, and who are constantly roaming 
 about the country, live in permanent villages, and 
 construct their wigwams with more labour and 
 more strength, and uniformly fortify them against 
 the assaults of their enemies, by the bank of a river 
 on one side, and a stockade on the other. These 
 wigwams are always made by excavating, in a cir- 
 cular form, some three or four feet into the ground, 
 for a foundation, from which they make a super- 
 structure of round timbers lying against each other, 
 
BAIiK-BUELDEBS AND TIMBEE-BU1LDEES. 67 
 
 the butt ends placed in the bottom of the excavation, 
 and the smaller ends concentrating near the top, and 
 supported within by beams resting on upright posts ; 
 the whole is covered with willow-boughs, to preserve 
 the dryness and soundness of the timbers; and 
 covered again with a foot or two in thickness of a 
 concrete of tough clay and gravel, permitting the 
 whole family, dogs and all, to recline and gambol on 
 the top of it in pleasant weather. 
 
 In the Mandan village I measured several of these, 
 and found the smallest to be forty-five feet, and 
 many of them sixty feet in diameter. The fire is 
 always built in the centre, with the smoke escaping 
 at the apex, as seen in the illustrations. 
 
 These, then, are the only modes of construction 
 which are confined to any uniform shapes ; the wood- 
 builders, and the bark-builders, and others, like the 
 timber-builders and palm-builders in Central and 
 South America, using a thousand different shapes in 
 constructing with those materials. 
 
 So much for the various modes in which these 
 curious people live. We will now take a little 
 further view of their personal appearance, and then 
 proceed to their actions and usages, from which I 
 intend you shall draw more amusement, and obtain 
 important information in support of the character of 
 these abused people, which, I have fearlessly said, 
 entitles them to a high position amongst the families 
 of the world. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Warriors War Dress and War Paint War Weapons 
 Smoking the Shield Warfare War-Whoop War- 
 Whistles Flags Scalps and Scalping Prisoners of War 
 Calumet (Pipe of Peace). 
 
 JOW, my little readers, we are soon coming to 
 scenes and events that will be more excit- 
 ing; skip over nothing, but read every 
 word as you pass along, for we are so far getting a 
 foundation for what is to follow. Don't get im- 
 patient for the description of Scalps and Scalping, 
 for the Buffalo-hunts, the Dog-feasts, the Stone- 
 man Medicine, the Thunders Nest, etc., but learn 
 how the people look first ; and then, as I have said, 
 we will more easily understand their actions. 
 
 In the last chapter I have described to you the 
 family of an American wild man, an officer of the 
 highest rank, the head war-chief of his tribe, in full 
 dress, with his wife and children around him ; and 
 I now present to your acquaintance (Plate No. III.) 
 three distinguished Indian warriors, in war dress and 
 war paint, and equipped for war. These I have 
 
 belected from amongst my numerous portraits painted 
 68 
 
WARRIORS. 69 
 
 from the life, and from them you will be able to get 
 faithful and lasting ideas of the appearance of that 
 class of citizens who are found in all the tribes of 
 the American Indians. 
 
 These gallant young men were all my familiar and 
 hospitable friends, whilst I was living amongst them ; 
 and ready at all times to afford me any aid or facili- 
 ties in their power ready to guard my property and 
 life, even at the hazard of their own. With these 
 fine young men I have smoked, wrestled, run races ; 
 and in hunting with them I have confidently and 
 safely trusted my life with them in our excursions 
 over the prairies, and places far distant from their 
 homes. 
 
 These young men are warriors. Warriors, I have 
 said, are those who have taken scalps. The leggings 
 of these men were fringed with scalp-locks taken 
 from their enemies' heads ; and yet they were the 
 last of all people on earth to meddle with mine. 
 
 Nothing, my young readers, that I can convey to 
 you of Indian character and Indian modes can pos- 
 sibly be more interesting and more important than 
 the chapter I am now entering upon, of Indian 
 warriors and Indian warfare the key, in fact, to 
 Indian life and Indian doings yet to be described in 
 the following chapters. 
 
 Every Indian tribe is a separate community, sur- 
 rounded by other tribes with whom they are generally 
 at war, owing to several cau.ses which don't exist to 
 the same extent amongst civilized nations. They 
 have no settled (but always disputed and imperfectly 
 
70 LIFE AMONG TILE INDIANS. 
 
 defined) boundaries, over which their fierce hunting 
 excursions often lead them, exposing them to the 
 attacks of their enemies : another, and more frequent 
 cause of warfare, is the popular ambition to signalise 
 themselves, which is felt amongst all Indian warriors, 
 who have but the one mode to rise to enviable dis- 
 tinction in their tribes, that of being a great warrior. 
 
 I have already said that every tribe has its civil 
 and its military, or war chief, and^that all the young 
 men are warriors and braves. In war, the war-chief 
 takes the command, and without the least compul- 
 sory power leads his warriors, who are all volunteers, 
 and at liberty to desert the chief at any time, if they 
 are willing to meet the disgrace that attaches to 
 them on their return. Of the three warriors shown 
 in Plate II. 
 
 No. 1 represents Om-pa-ton-ga (the Big Elk), an 
 Omaha warrior, dressed, and armed, and painted for 
 war with his bow and several arrows clenched in 
 his hand, and always ready at an instant his buffalo 
 robe, with his battles painted on it, wrapped around 
 him and his quiver slung on his back, filled with 
 arrows. 
 
 No. 2. Seekh-hee-de (the Mouse-coloured Feather), 
 a Mandan warrior, in war costume and war paint 
 his bow and arrows ready, and his quiver slung on 
 his back ; he wears a necklace made of the huge paw 
 of a grizzly bear, and his leggings are fringed with 
 scalp-locks. 
 
 No. 3. Loo-ra-wee-re-coo (the Bird that goes to 
 War), a Pawnee warrior, in war paint and war cos- 
 
WAR DRESS AND WAR PAINT. 71 
 
 tume with bow and arrows, and shield, and 
 quiver, and his spear in his left hand ; his body is 
 curiously ornamented with his war paint ; his ankle 
 ornaments are strings of antelopes' hoofs, which 
 make a frightful rattling noise when he dances or 
 walks ; he wears a beautiful kilt made of eagles' 
 quills, and his head is shaved (according to the 
 uniform custom of the tribe) and ornamented with 
 a beautiful red crest made of the hair of the deer'? 
 tail dyed red, and horse-hair ; in shape much re- 
 sembling a Grecian helmet. 
 
 " War dress and war paint" here, is something 
 very curious. It is the invariable custom of the 
 warriors of all Indian tribes in America, to go to 
 war in war dress and war paint ; the first consist- 
 ing in a mode of dressing the person just as each 
 individual may fancy for himself, so as to afford the 
 greatest facility for the free use of his weapons ; and, 
 in fact, most generally amounting to (nearly) no 
 dress at all And the second, his limbs being chiefly 
 naked, consisting of a thick daubing or streaking of 
 red and white clay, vermilion, and charcoal, mixed 
 with bears' grease, covering various parts of his 
 body and limbs, as well as his face, sometimes half 
 black and half red, and at other times the whole face 
 black, in such a manner as even to be disguised, 
 oftentimes, from his own familiar friends. 
 
 Each warrior has some peculiar and known way 
 of painting, by which he is recognised by his fellow- 
 warriors, at a distance at which they would not dis- 
 tinguish him from his comrades from the natural 
 
72 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 differences, so great is their resemblance in the open 
 air when naked and in action. 
 
 It was one of the curious and unaccountable facts 
 that I met with in my travels, that I never in any 
 instance was able to get a warrior to stand for his 
 portrait until he had spent the requisite time at his 
 toilette (oftentimes from sunrise until eleven or 
 twelve o'clock) to arrange himself in his war dress 
 and war paint. And I also everywhere learned that 
 all warriors apprehended through life, with thegreatest 
 solicitude, the possibility and the misfortune of losing 
 their lives when they are not in their war paint. 
 
 The principal arms (or weapons) of all the Ameri- 
 can tribes are seen in the portraits of these three 
 warriors their bows and arrows. Their bows are 
 short and light, for easy and effective handling on 
 horseback ; but they have great power, being mostly 
 covered on the backs with layers of buffalo sinews, 
 giving them great elasticity. Their arrows are 
 mostly pointed with flints, broken in so ingenious a 
 manner, with a point and two sharp edges, as to 
 enable them to enter the flesh of the buffaloes or 
 their enemies, on whichsoever they may use them. 
 
 These arrows are carried in a quiver slung on the 
 back, and generally made of the skins of animals 
 adapted in shape and size to hold them. When not 
 in service, their arrows are carried in the quiver 
 with the points downwards, for protection ; but when 
 they are going into battle, the arrows are reversed, 
 leaving the points standing out, being thus more 
 ready to be drawn suddenly and without obstruction. 
 
SMOKING THE SHIELD. 73 
 
 Besides the bow and arrow, the tomihawk, already 
 shown and explained, and war clubs of various 
 shapes and materials, and lances, are used in war- 
 fare, and shields carried on the left arm for protec- 
 tion. These shields are carried by every horseman, 
 completing his dress and equipments, completely in 
 the classic style of the ancient Roman and Grecian 
 cavalry. 
 
 These shields are invariably made of the skin of 
 the buffalo's neck, the thickest part of the hide ; 
 tanned and hardened in such a manner with the glue 
 remaining in them, that they are proof against 
 arrows, and even against a gun shot when held 
 obliquely, which they do with great skill. They 
 paint and ornament these shields in a great variety 
 of ways, and add to their picturesque appearance by 
 suspending eagle quills and other beautiful plumes 
 from them, and oftentimes painting the representation 
 of their medicine bags upon them. ("Medicine 
 bags " you will understand in a few moments.) 
 
 " Smoking the Shield" Have you ever heard of 
 " Smoking the Shield ? " I believe not. Why, it 
 is one of the grandest and most imposing ceremonies 
 to be seen in the Indian countries. Let's see. An 
 Indian lad is old enough to go to war he is sixteen 
 or eighteen years old he wants a shield must have 
 one can't go to war without one. Can he buy one ? 
 He might, perhaps, but " it won't protect him if he 
 does " he must make it for himself and how ? 
 He must kill the buffalo bull with his own hand. 
 With a gun? No ; a smaller boy than he can do 
 
74 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 that : he must kill it with an arrow, and take the 
 hide off with his own hand ; and then Well, then 
 what ? Why, he has got to make his shield. Can 
 he do this privately, and at his leisure ? No ; Indian 
 soldiers are counted by their shields. Indian war- 
 riors are the property of their nation. Can any 
 Indian lad secretly enlist, and make himself a war- 
 rior ? Have they any newspapers to announce their 
 enrolments ? No : the making of a warrior is a 
 public act, and must be made in a public way : the 
 warriors help in this. 
 
 In the great Camanchee village, in 1836, I was 
 invited to go and see the " Smoldng a, Shield." An 
 immense crowd was assembled a little out of the 
 village, within which a circle, of a hundred feet or 
 more in diameter, was preserved by a line marked 
 on the ground. In the centre of this circle a young 
 man had dug a hole in the ground, and over it, 
 stretched horizontally, a little elevated above the 
 surface, the bit of bull's hide, of which he was to 
 forge his shield, tightly strained by a great many 
 pins driven into the ground, and a fire burning in 
 the excavation underneath, while the glue extracted 
 from the buffalo's hoofs, and spread over the skin, 
 was frying and roasting into it, to give it the hard- 
 ness and stiffness required. 
 
 To witness this ceremony, which they call 
 "smoking (or roasting) the shield," in order to 
 insure its success, and legitimately to publish its 
 owner's change from the phase of boyhood to that 
 of warrior, all the warriors of the village had assem- 
 
WARFARE. 75 
 
 bled at his invitation, in full war dress and war 
 paint, with their shields on their arms, who formed 
 in rings within rings, and danced in circles around 
 the roasting shield; and each one passed it 
 brandishing their war clubs, their tomahawks, and 
 shields over it, vaunting forth the wonderful effici- 
 ency of their own, and invoking the " fire-spirit " to 
 give strength and hardness enough to that of the 
 young warrior, to guard and protect him from the 
 weapons of his enemies. Was he then a warrior ? 
 No ; his shield finished, he was a brave a soldier ; 
 and this ceremony his enlistment no more. He 
 can go to war, as you have been told. If he can 
 take a scalp, he then becomes a warrior. 
 
 All the American tribes may properly be said to 
 be warlike. I have explained the principal causes 
 of their wars, and a book might yet be written on 
 their modes of conducting and ending them. Their 
 arms, as I have shown, are not numerous, nor so 
 destructive as those used by civilized nations ; and 
 consequently their wars are not so devastating. 
 
 Warfare amongst those people is generally con- 
 ducted by small parties who volunteer under a war- 
 chief, to avenge some wrong or cruelty inflicted by 
 their enemy; and when a few scalps are taken, 
 sufficient for retaliation, they generally return, make 
 a great boast, and entertain the villagers with the 
 scalp dance and other ceremonies. 
 
 As these people have fewer and less efficient 
 weapons, they depend somewhat more upon strategy 
 to gain advantages than white men do ; and in these 
 
76 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 they are beyond all conception ingenious and 
 inventive. 
 
 In the warfare waged between these people and 
 civilized forces, the Indians are often condemned for 
 their strategy, as "cowardly," because they prefer 
 secret ambuscades and surprises, instead of coming 
 out into the open field and " taking a fair fight " 
 (i.e., coming out and standing before the cannon's 
 mouth, and being shot down like pigeons). This is 
 wrong; the poor Indians know the advantages 
 which white men have, with their rifles, and revolvers, 
 and cannons, in the open field ; and their refusal to 
 stand before them and be cut down, under such 
 circumstances, should be called prudence rather 
 than cowardice. 
 
 There are no people on earth more courageous 
 and brave than the American Indians, if they can 
 only be assured that they are contending with 
 an enemy with equal weapons. Their sagacity in 
 tracing or reconnoitring an enemy, and evading 
 pursuit if necessary, is almost beyond the reach of 
 comprehension for those not familiar with their 
 modes. 
 
 Their signals in war are many, and very intelligent 
 as well as curious. The world-wide notorious (but 
 partially appreciated) war-whoop (or war-cry) is one 
 of these, and is given by all the tribes, both in 
 North and South America, precisely alike, when 
 rushing into battle. It is a shrill and piercing note, 
 sounded long, and with a swell, on the highest key 
 of the voice, with the most rapid vibration possible, 
 
WAR- WHOOP WAR- WHISTLES. 77 
 
 made by the striking of the flat of the hand or the 
 fingers against the lips. 
 
 There is nothing so very frightful in the sound 
 itself, for many sounds can be produced by the 
 human voice, in themselves far more terrifying than 
 the war-whoop ; but none other, perhaps, that could 
 be heard so far, and so distinctly in the din and 
 confusion of battle. It is the associations of those 
 who know its meaning and its character, that give 
 it its terror; its being known to be the infallible 
 signal for attack the war-whoop never being 
 sounded until the rush is made, and weapons are 
 raised for shedding blood. 
 
 A person not accustomed to Indian modes might 
 listen to the war-whoop as the Indians were rushing 
 on to him, without alarm, when others, aware of its 
 meaning, would shudder at its sound. No Indian is 
 allowed to sound the war-whoop in time of peace, 
 except in the war-dance and other ceremonies 
 countenanced by the chiefs, lest it should be echoed 
 by their sentinels on the hill tops and their hunting 
 parties through their country, raising an unnecessary 
 and disastrous alarm. 
 
 Another signal is the war-whistle, which is very 
 curious. Every chief leading in war carries a little 
 whistle of six or eight inches in length, made of the 
 bone of a turkey's leg, the two ends of which have 
 two very different sounds, so shrill and so piercing, 
 and so different from the mingled war-cry and other 
 din in battles, that they can be distinctly heard an 
 immense distance ; blowing in one end is the signal 
 
78 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 for " advance on on ; " and in the other for 
 retreat. No chief goes into battle without one of 
 these little war- whistles suspended from his neck and 
 hanging on his breast ; and no warrior goes to war 
 without knowing the distinction and meaning of 
 these sounds. 
 
 Flags also are used as war-signals. The white 
 flag is in all tribes a flag of truce, an emblem of 
 peace, and a red flag the challenge to combat. How 
 curious is this! All savages are found using the 
 white flag, and advance with it even into their 
 enemies' ranks, in the midst of battle, their lives 
 sacred and protected under it, the same as in civilized 
 nations. How strange (not that the Indians should 
 use it, for civilized nations have brought the custom 
 out of savage life) ; but how strange that the native 
 races of all the world should use the same colour as 
 the emblem of peace ; and as sacred and inviolable, 
 even in the din and rage of battle ! Has an Ameri- 
 can Indian ever been known to violate the sacredness 
 of the white flag in time of war? No. Have 
 Christian nations ever done so in their wars with 
 the Indians ? We shall see. Such a disgraceful act 
 would be strategy ? No ; its better name would be 
 " treachery" 
 
 But then the "savage cruelty of scalping!" 
 savage, of course, because savages do it ; but where 
 is the cruelty of scalping ? A piece of the skin of a 
 man's head is cut off after he is dead ; it don't hurt 
 him ; the cruelty would be in killing ; and in the 
 Christian world we kill hundreds of our fellow beings 
 
SCALPS AND SCALPING. ?9 
 
 in battle where the poor Indians kill one ! Cutting 
 off a small piece of the skin of a dead man's head is 
 rather a disgusting thing ; but let us look. What 
 better can the Indian take? He must keep some 
 record. These people have no reporters to follow 
 them into battles, and chronicle their victories to the 
 world; their customs sanction the mode, and the 
 chiefs demand it. 
 
 If civilized warriors should treat their fallen 
 victims thus, it would be far worse. There would 
 be no motive or apology for it. It would be almost 
 as bad as taking their watch, or the gold from their 
 pockets ! 
 
 But the Indians scalp the living? Yes, that 
 sometimes happens, but very rarely. The scalp 
 being only the skin with the hair, a man might be 
 scalped without injuring the bone, and, of course, 
 without destroying life; and in the hurry and 
 confusion of battle, the wounded and fallen, sup- 
 posed to be dead, have sometimes been scalped, as 
 the Indians were rushing over them, and have after- 
 wards risen from the field of battle and recovered. 
 I have seen several such. These scalps, if the 
 Indian should ever be made aware of the fact, 
 would not be carried; but would be buried, as 
 things which warriors would not have a right to 
 claim, and which their superstitious fears would 
 induce them to get rid of. 
 
 The scalp, to be a genuine one, must be from an 
 enemy's head, and that enemy dead, and killed by 
 the hand of him who carries and counts the scalp. 
 
80 LI#E AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 An Indian may have sufficient provocation to justify 
 him, under the customs of his country, in slaying a 
 man in his own tribe ; but he would disgrace 
 himself in such case by taking the scalp. 
 
 Scalps are the Indian's badges or medals, which 
 he must procure by his own hand ; he can neither 
 buy nor sell them without disgracing himself; and 
 when he dies, they are buried in his grave with 
 him ; his sons can't inherit them ; if they want 
 scalps, they must procure them in the same way as 
 their father got his. 
 
 Prisoners of war are made in savage warfare as 
 well as in civilized nations. The cruelty of savages 
 to their prisoners is sometimes terrible, but this has 
 been much exaggerated. Their modes of torturing 
 prisoners of war, in the few instances that we know 
 of, have been cruel and diabolical, almost beyond 
 the reach of imagination ; but these occurrences 
 have been but very rare at any time, and for the 
 last half-century have not been heard of at all 
 
 All tribes exchange prisoners, precisely as is the 
 practice in civilized nations, as far as equal exchanges 
 can be made ; the remainder of those not exchanged 
 are adopted into the tribe, where they are captives ; 
 and as far as there are widows of warriors who have 
 been killed in battle, these prisoners are compelled 
 to marry them and support them and their children; 
 the surplus are adopted into the tribe, with all the 
 rights and privileges of other citizens, and go to war 
 with them, and make reliable and efficient warriors, 
 even against their own nation. 
 
CALUMET (PIPE OF PEACE). 81 
 
 The torturing si prisoners is therefore nowhere a 
 general custom, nor a frequent mode, as the world 
 has been led to believe. In the isolated cases 
 which have been known, the relations of persons 
 who have been cruelly tortured by the enemy's 
 tribe, have demanded of the chiefs one or two of the 
 prisoners taken, to wreak their revenge upon ; and 
 the chiefs, after a long deliberation and hearing of 
 the grounds of the claim, have handed over the 
 prisoners demanded, to the women related to the 
 person or persons who have suffered ; and their 
 modes of cruelty have, in some cases, no doubt, been 
 as cruel and fiendish as the accounts we have heard 
 of them. 
 
 Wars are ended, and treaties of peace made 
 amongst the Indian tribes, much in the same 
 manner as amongst civilized nations ; but from the 
 causes above named, peace establishments amongst 
 them are less solid, and of less duration. 
 
 The chiefs and warriors come together in treaties 
 under the white flag, and take their seats in two 
 semicircles on the ground, facing each other, each 
 warrior having his head decorated with two eagle's 
 quills, one white, and the other blood red, informing 
 their enemies that they are ready for war or for 
 peace. In these treaties the calumet (or pipe of 
 peace) is used. The calumet is strictly a sacred pipe, 
 differing in appearance and in its uses from all 
 others. It is public property, and always kept in 
 the possession of the chief, and only used on such 
 occasions. 
 
82 
 
 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 For this purpose, in the centre of the circle 
 formed by the chiefs and warriors seated in treaty, 
 the calumet rests in two little crotches, charged with 
 tobacco, and ready to be smoked when the treaty 
 stipulations are agreed upon ; when each chief, and 
 after him, each warrior of the two tribes, in turn, 
 draw one whiff of smoke through the sacred stem, 
 
 as the solemn engagement to abide by the terms of 
 the treaty. These treaties are all verbal, of course, 
 as they have no means of recording them ; and the 
 smoking through the sacred stem is equivalent to the 
 " signing " of a treaty, which they are unable to do 
 in writing. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Medicine Men Looking at the Sun Medicine Wedding 
 Rain Makers Rain Stoppers Medicine Lodge The 
 "Great White Medicine "Medicine Bag. 
 
 |NDIAN life has many phases, and here we 
 suddenly enter upon a new and a different 
 chapter. 
 
 Amongst ignorant, and consequently superstitious, 
 people, mysteries are so mixed up with the actions 
 and thoughts of their lives, that it is necessary we 
 should know something of them fully to understand 
 the people and their customs. 
 
 The American Indians are all more or less 
 superstitious, and all have their physicians, who 
 deal in roots, and herbs, and other specifics, and 
 also pretend to great and marvellous cures by 
 mysteries, or a kind of sorcery, which they practise 
 as the last resort with their patients, when all the 
 other attempted remedies have failed. 
 
 These Indian doctors were called by the French- 
 men, who were the first traders on the frontiers, 
 " Me'decins," the French word for physicians; and by 
 
 83 
 
84 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 a subsequent frontier population, "Medicine Men;" 
 and all mysteries, " Medicine" as synonymous with 
 mystery. We shall have, therefore, Medicine Men, 
 Medicine Drums, Medicine Rattles, Medicine 
 Dances, Medicine Rocks, Medicine Fire, and a 
 great many other medicine things to deal with 
 before we are at the end of this little book. 
 
 To begin. On the title-page we have an illus- 
 tration of a Medicine Man, a Professor of mysteries 
 (a Blackfoot doctor) in the full sense of the word ; 
 and in the full dress and performance of his 
 mysteries over a dying patient. Here is a gentle- 
 man who gains laurels without going to war who 
 stays at home and takes care of the women and 
 children. His fame and his influence, which often 
 exceed that of the chief of the tribe, are gained 
 without risk of life, by a little legerdemain and 
 cunning, which are easily practised upon a super- 
 stitious people, who are weak enough to believe 
 that his mystic arts often produce miracles. 
 
 Whilst residing in the American Fur Company's 
 Factory at the mouth of the Yellowstone Eiver, on 
 the Upper Missouri, I had an opportunity of witness- 
 ing a Blackfoot doctor's display, in this identical 
 costume (the skin of a yellow bear), over a dying 
 patient, whom he had placed on the ground, and 
 was hopping over and over, and pawing about with 
 his hands and his feet, in the manner that a bear 
 might have done, and who breathed his last under 
 his strange and even frightful gesticulations, and 
 growls, and groans. 
 
MEDICINE MEN. 85 
 
 The day after this pitiable farce, upon which 
 some hundreds of his tribe were looking, and crying 
 with their hands over their mouths, I painted his 
 portrait as here seen, and also purchased, at an 
 extravagant price, the extraordinary dress, with all its 
 appendages, which has formed an interesting object in 
 my Indian Collection, and been examined by hundreds 
 of thousands of persons in London and in Paris. 
 
 Every tribe has its physicians ; and all physicians 
 deal (or profess to deal) in mysteries (or medicine). 
 There is nothing but what they will attempt to do 
 by the powers of their medicine; and if they fail, 
 they have generally not much trouble in making so 
 superstitious a people believe that something was 
 wrong in the time of day in the weather or 
 (what is more probable) in their want of faith, to 
 interfere with their complete success. 
 
 Each one of these Indian physicians, during his 
 lifetime of practice, conjures up and constructs some 
 frightful conception for his medicine dress, strung 
 with skins of deformed animals, reptiles, and birds 
 the hoofs of animals the claws and toe-nails of 
 birds the skins of frogs, of toads, of bats, and 
 everything else that he can gradually gather to 
 consummate his ugliness, and the frightfulness of 
 the sounds made by their grating and rattling as he 
 dances, with his face hidden underneath them; 
 adding to them the frightful flats and sharps of his 
 growling and squeaking voice, and the stamping of 
 his feet, as he dances and jumps over and around 
 his dying patient. 
 
86 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 The doctor never puts on his frightful dress until 
 he goes to pay his last visit to his patient, and when 
 he moves through the village with this dress on, it 
 is known to all the villagers that the patient is 
 dying; and from sympathy, as well as from a 
 general custom, they all gather around in a crowd 
 to witness the ceremony; and all, with the hand 
 over the mouth, commence crying and moaning in 
 the most pitiable manner.. 
 
 All persons in Indian societies breathe their last 
 under the operation of these frightful mysteries, if a 
 doctor be near ; and all the crowd seem to have 
 more or less faith in the efficiency of this dernier 
 ressort. From what I have seen and learned (as 
 they are said in some instances to cure), these 
 ingenious jugglers sometimes put on the official 
 garb of monstrosities, and call the villagers together 
 to witness the miraculous cure of a patient whose 
 disease they alone have previously discovered to 
 have taken a favourable change. 
 
 One such success in presence of the whole village 
 is enough it gains him presents to last him his 
 lifetime, and a renown that nothing can shake. 
 And on the other hand, if his patient dies, which of 
 course is generally the case, he gets along by 
 condoling with the relations, and assuring them that 
 for some purpose which they are not allowed to 
 know, the Great Spirit has called their friend away ; 
 and that when such is the case, his medicines are of 
 no avail. 
 
 These jugglers, I have said, exist in every tribe, 
 
MEDICINE MEN. 87 
 
 and are invariably looked upon by the people as 
 oracles, as sorcerers, as soothsayers, as high priests. 
 They officiate in all religious ceremonies, of which 
 they have many ; and are entitled to a seat with the 
 chiefs in the councils of the nation. Their influence, 
 therefore, is very great, and for the traveller passing 
 through their country, it is as necessary to have the 
 good will and countenance of these dignitaries, as it 
 is to have his passport to travel on the continent of 
 Europe. They are a sort of octroi to every village, and 
 at one's first entry, after conversing, and smoking 
 a pipe with the chief, the next important inquiry 
 should be for the great medicine man ; with a little 
 present given expressly in compliment to " his great 
 fame, which you have heard of at a long distance/' 
 
 The results of this little prudence, at first inter- 
 view, will be sure to be a kind and friendly welcome 
 everywhere; and most likely, as the author has several 
 times experienced, a regular and formal installation, 
 in a convocation of medicine men, as Doctor (or 
 Fellow) of Mysteries, by the presentation of a shi- 
 shi-quoin ! a mystery rattle, the usual badge of 
 that enviable Order. 
 
 Some unaccountable cure, or other effect, it matters 
 little what, first entitles an Indian to the appellation 
 of mystery or medicine ; and once lucky enough to 
 gain the public confidence in this way, it requires 
 no very great degree of tact and cunning, amongst 
 those ignorant people, to keep it up through the 
 remainder of life. 
 
 Medicine men are perhaps more often made by 
 
88 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 some mere accident, than by any long and laboured 
 design, which often costs them great pain, with the 
 danger of a great failure, resulting in a disgrace as 
 lasting as their fame would be in case of success. 
 For instance, when I was residing in a large Sioux 
 village on the Upper Missouri, I was one day at- 
 tracted by a great crowd surrounding a man who 
 was endeavouring to show his people that he was 
 great medicine. The custom which is often practised 
 amongst them, and which he was trying, they call 
 " Looking at the Sun." 
 
 Here was a man, naked, with the exception of his 
 breech-cloth ; with splints about the size of a man's 
 finger run through the flesh on each breast, to which 
 cords were attached, and their other ends tied to the 
 top of a pole set firmly in the ground, which was 
 bending towards him, by nearly the whole weight 
 of his body hanging under it as he was leaning back, 
 with his feet slightly resting on the ground. He 
 held his medicine bag in one hand and his bow and 
 arrows in the other, and in this position was en- 
 deavouring to look at the sun, from its rising in the 
 morning until it set at night ; moving himself around 
 the circle, inch by inch, as the sun moved. 
 
 His friends were gathered around him, singing, 
 and reciting the heroic deeds of his life, and his 
 many virtues, and beating their drums and throwing 
 down for him many presents, to encourage him and 
 increase his strength; whilst his enemies and the 
 sceptical were laughing at him, and doing all they 
 could to embarrass and defeat him. If he succeeds, 
 
MEDICINE WEDDINO. 89 
 
 under all these difficulties, in looking at the sun all 
 day, without fainting and falling, " the Great Spirit 
 holds him up," and therefore he is great medicine, 
 and he has nothing else to do to make him, for the 
 rest of his life, a medicine man ; and compliments 
 and presents are bestowed upon him in the greatest 
 profusion. But if his strength fails him and he falls, 
 no matter how near to his complete success, shouts 
 and hisses are showered upon him, and his disgrace 
 not only attaches to him for the moment, for having 
 dared to set himself up as a medicine, but the scars 
 left on his breasts are pointed to as a standing dis- 
 grace in his tribe, as long as he lives. 
 
 It is easily seen that this is a somewhat dangerous 
 experiment to make, and is therefore more seldom 
 resorted to as the mode of making a doctor than 
 many others that might be named. 
 
 Whilst I was residing amongst the tribe of Pun- 
 cahs, living farther down, on the bank of the 
 Missouri, I witnessed another mode of the self- 
 creation of a medicine man, which one will easily 
 conceive to have been much more agreeable, and no 
 doubt equally efficient in its results. 
 
 Hongs-kay-de, a gallant little warrior of eighteen 
 years, and son of the chief, took it into his head 
 (when his father had told him he was a man, and 
 old enough to marry, and gave him nine horses, and 
 a handsome wigwam to live in, and other presents 
 to start him in the world) to marry four wives in 
 one day. Major Sanford, the government agent, and 
 myself were lucky enough to be present; on tb0 
 
90 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 merry occasion, and to witness the exciting scene 
 which took place on a little hill just back of their 
 village, where he had assembled the whole tribe to 
 witness the plan which he contrived, and which 
 they as yet but partly anticipated. 
 
 It seems he had gone to one of the subordinate 
 chiefs, who had a very pretty little daughter of thir- 
 teen or fourteen years of age, and made arrange- 
 ments for her hand in marriage, for which he was 
 to make him a present of two horses and other 
 things, and the chief was to meet him exactly at 
 noon on the top of that little hill, on a certain day, 
 with his daughter, where the horses would be ready, 
 and the exchange made, according to promise ; but 
 the condition of this was to be profound secrecy 
 until he asked for the hand of the girl at that place. 
 
 He then went to a second chief, who also had a 
 beautiful daughter about twelve years old, and made 
 with him a similar arrangement, and also on the 
 same condition of secrecy. He then went to a third, 
 and afterwards to a fourth chief, each of whom had 
 a beautiful daughter, and for whose hands he stipu- 
 lated precisely in the same manner as with the first, 
 enjoining in each case profound secrecy, and appoint- 
 ing the same hour and the same place for the cere- 
 mony, having thus disposed of eight of his horses, 
 keeping one for his own riding. 
 
 The appointed day arriving, he invited the whole 
 village to attend his wedding, which was to take 
 place at noon, on the top of the little hill, back of 
 the village, where all the villagers assembled. It 
 
MEDICINE WEDDING. 91 
 
 was a beautiful scene, the hill was completely covered. 
 The chiefs were all seated around on the ground, 
 leaving a little space in the centre, where the ceremony 
 was to take place. 
 
 At the moment appointed the gallant young and 
 new-made chief (for his father had that day abdicated 
 in his favour) presented himself with his waving 
 plumes, in the centre ; and addressing himself to 
 the chief whom he had first arranged with, and 
 whose little daughter was sitting by his side in a 
 very pretty dress " My friend, you promised me 
 the hand of your daughter in marriage this day, and 
 I was to present you two horses ; was this so ? " 
 " Yes," replied the chief. " The horses are standing 
 here and are ready. I now demand the hand of 
 your daughter." 
 
 The chief rose and led up his little daughter, 
 placing her hand in that of the young chief, which 
 was followed by a great shout of applause by the 
 multitude, who were then about to disperse. 
 
 The proud little fellow then said to the crowd, 
 " My friends, be patient ; " and, turning to the second 
 chief with whom he had arranged " My friend, you 
 agreed to give me the hand of your beautiful daughter 
 in marriage on this day and at this place, and I was 
 to give you two horses ; was this so ? " " Yes," 
 replied the chief. " Then I expect you to perform 
 your promise I demand the hand of your daughter 
 in marriage." The chief then arose and led up his 
 little daughter, and, like the first one, placed her 
 hand in that of the young chief ; and precisely in 
 
92 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 the same manner he demanded and received the 
 hands of the daughters of the other two chiefs whom 
 he had last arranged with, and, taking two in each 
 hand, he said to the chiefs, " This day makes me 
 medicine?" "Yes." "My father has this day 
 made me chief of the Puncahs ! Am I not a medi- 
 cine chief ? " to which the whole tribe shouted with 
 one voice, " How, how ! " (Yes, yes !) 
 
 Hongs-kay-de then descended the hill triumph- 
 antly, leading off to the village his four beautiful 
 little wives in their pretty dresses, two in each 
 hand, the crowd all following, to his own wigwam, 
 which was thenceforth the wigwam of the medicine 
 chief. 
 
 I have before said that the medicine men will 
 undertake to do anything and everything by their 
 mystic operations, however impossible or ridiculous 
 it may be. But in these efforts where the results 
 are in the least uncertain, the constituted medicine 
 men take especial care not to run any risk by making 
 a second attempt ; but they superintend and manage 
 the preliminary forms, leaving younger aspirants to 
 run the chances of failure or success. 
 
 In the Mandan tribe I found they had " Ram- 
 makers" and also "Rain-stoppers" who were re- 
 puted medicine men, from the astonishing fact of 
 their having made it rain in an extraordinary drought, 
 or for having stopped it raining when the rain was 
 continuing to an inconvenient length. 
 
 For this purpose, in a very dry time, when their 
 maize and other vegetables are dying for want of 
 
RAIN-MAKERS. 93 
 
 rain, the medicine men assemble in the Medicine 
 Lodge (a large public wigwam built expressly for 
 medicine operations, councils, etc.), and sit around 
 a fire in the centre, from day to day smoking and 
 praying to the Great Spirit for rain, while the 
 requisite number of young men volunteer to try to 
 make it rain. Each one of these, by ballot, takes 
 his turn to mount on the top of the wigwam at 
 sunrise, with his bow and arrows in his hand, and 
 shield on his arm, talking to the clouds and asking 
 for rain or ranting and threatening the clouds with 
 his drawn bow, commanding it to rain. 
 
 One of these young men, who flourishes through- 
 out the whole day in this manner, in presence of the 
 crowds gathered around him, and comes down at 
 sunset without having succeeded, can never, on any 
 occasion, again pretend to medicine, " his medicine 
 is not strong." 
 
 After several days of unsuccessful attempts have 
 passed off in this way, with a clear sky, some one 
 more lucky than the rest happens to take his stand 
 on a day in which a black cloud will be seen moving 
 up, it is reported through the village that "his 
 medicine is better," when the whole tribe will gather 
 round him to hear him boast, to see him strut and 
 bend his bow upon the clouds, commanding it to 
 rain ; and when he sees the rain actually falling in 
 the distance, to see him let fly his arrow (which by 
 his dexterity, as the string snaps, is turned into his 
 hand with the bow), and pointing with his finger, 
 " There ! my friends, you have seen my arrow go, 
 
94 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 there is a hole in that cloud, we shall soon have rain 
 enough." The rain begins to fall in torrents, the 
 gaping multitude are hidden in their wigwams, but 
 this successful debutant in mysteries still stands, 
 sawing the air and commanding it to continue rain- 
 ing, until he is completely drenched, that the Man- 
 dans may have no further cause to complain. When 
 he comes down he is a "medicine man" the doctors 
 give him a feast and a great ceremony, and a shi- 
 shi-quoin (a doctor's rattle). 
 
 These manoeuvres are very wonderful, and there 
 are two things about them that are curious the 
 one, that when the doctors commence "rain making" 
 they never fail to succeed ; for when the ceremony 
 is once begun, they are obliged to keep it up from 
 day to day until rain begins to fall ; and the other, 
 that those who once succeed in making it rain, in 
 presence of the whole village, never undertake it a 
 second time. "The whole village have seen me 
 make it rain, they all know what I can do, and I 
 would rather give other young men a chance." 
 
 Every Indian village has its medicine (or mystery) 
 lodge, a sort of town-hall, strictly a public building, 
 in which their councils are held, and all their 
 religious ceremonies performed. These sacred places, 
 which are closed most of the year, were generally 
 granted to me as the place to paint my portraits in, 
 which they always looked upon and treated as great 
 medicine, and myself as the greatest of medicine 
 men, for painting their chiefs and warriors, in whose 
 portraits they often discovered " the corners of the 
 
THE GREAT WHITE MEDICINE. 95 
 
 mouth and the eyes to move," considering, therefore, 
 that there must be life, to a certain degree, in them. 
 
 Amongst the Mandans I was soon the talk of all 
 the village, from the portraits I had made of the war- 
 chief and the great doctor. My wigwam was filled 
 with the chiefs and warriors from day to day, and 
 the whole village assembled in crowds around it. I 
 was styled the greatest of all medicine. I received 
 the doctor's badge, a beautiful shi-shi-quoin, and 
 was regularly named, " Te-hee-pe-nee Washed" 
 (the Great White Medicine). 
 
 The wives of several of the chiefs brought their 
 beautiful and modest little daughters to the door of 
 my wigwam in splendid, pretty costumes, and the 
 interpreter to explain, to know if I should like to 
 marry ; all of which complimentary and tempting 
 offers I was obliged, from various reasons, to decline. 
 My reasons seemed to be sufficient, and my answers, 
 though a disappointment, to give no offence. 
 
 My gun and pistols, with percussion caps, which 
 they had not seen before, were great mysteries, and 
 no one was willing to touch them. The remaining 
 half of a box of lucifer matches I had, was also great 
 medicine, and was soon exhausted by one of the 
 medicine men, who turned it to great account after 
 I had given it to him, by a mode he soon discovered, 
 of igniting the matches by drawing them between 
 his teeth, and " making fire in his mouth," which he 
 did with wonderful effect, amongst the astonished 
 villagers, until the box was unfortunately exhausted. 
 His medicine was much improved for the while by 
 
96 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 this little lift, but he told me he lost it all when 
 his matches gave out. The poor fellow seemed 
 losing caste by the unfortunate exhaustion of his 
 matches, and I presented him a little mn-glass 
 which I carried in my pocket, by which he could 
 light his pipe anywhere when the sun shone, and 
 which, I explained, he could never wear out. This, 
 therefore, was a greater wonder to him than the 
 other, and more highly valued. He gave me a very 
 beautiful pair of leggings for it, and until the day 
 that I left them he had crowds about him to see 
 him " draw fire from the sun ! " 
 
 Medicine Bag. This is one of the most important 
 and extraordinary medicine things in all Indian 
 tribes. This curious appendage to the person per- 
 tains not only to medicine men, but to every male 
 person in Indian society, whether warrior or brave, 
 over the age of fifteen or sixteen years, the usual 
 time of life when it is first instituted. 
 
 A lad of that age is said to be "making his 
 medicine" when he absents himself from his father's 
 wigwam for several successive nights and days, 
 during which time no one makes any inquiries 
 about him ; it is enough to know, or to suppose, 
 that he is "making his medicine." During this 
 absence he is fasting the whole time, and the first 
 animal, reptile, or bird, that he dreams of, he con- 
 siders the Great Spirit has designated, and introduced 
 to him in his dream, to be his mysterious protection 
 through life, his medicine. 
 
 He returns home, relates his dream to his parent^ 
 
MEDICINE BAG. 97 
 
 who make him a choice feast, to which he invites 
 his relatives and as many of his friends as he 
 chooses, who all compliment and congratulate him 
 on his success. After the feast he starts out and 
 traps or hunts for the animal or bird until he kills 
 it, and obtains the entire skin, which he prepares 
 and preserves as nearly in the size and shape of the 
 living animal as possible. This he carries about his 
 person the most of his life as his talisman, a charm 
 that protects him from all harm, and to which he 
 attributes all the good luck of his life ; and which 
 he confidently believes is to accompany and protect 
 him in the world to come ; it always being buried 
 with him with the greatest care. 
 
 To go to battle without his medicine bag would be 
 to go with a " faint heart," and under the conviction 
 that he would be killed. To lose it in battle is to 
 live in disgrace in his tribe, as "a man without 
 medicine" until he can procure another, in battle, by 
 adopting that of an enemy whom he has slain ; his 
 medicine is then reinstated ; but by no means can 
 he ever institute a second medicine if he loses his 
 first, no matter by what means. 
 
 No money therefore could purchase an Indian's 
 medicine bag, though such things have in several 
 instances been presented to me by warriors who had 
 taken them in battle, together with the scalps of 
 their enemies. 
 
 These talismans are of all sizes, from the skin of 
 a mouse, hidden under the dress, to the size of a 
 duck, a loon, an otter, a badger, and even sometimes 
 
98 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 to the skin of a wolf, and therefore exceedingly 
 awkward to carry. 
 
 I recollect that when I was painting the portrait 
 of a Camanchee chief, I inquired his name, which 
 another chief, sitting by, gave me, as Ish-a-ro-yeh 
 (he who carries a wolf). I expressed my surprise at 
 his getting such a name, and inquired if he had 
 ever carried a wolf ? to which he replied, " Yes, I 
 always carry a wolf," lifting up his medicine bag 
 made of the skin of a white wolf, and lying by the 
 side of him, as he was sitting on the ground. 
 
 Medicine men and mysteries I need say no more 
 of in this place. I shall therefore end this chapter 
 here, and have something more to say of them and 
 their doings in future pages. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Indian's Colour and Form Indian's Painting Wild Horses and 
 Buffaloes The Prairies. 
 
 |N the midst of those vast plains denominated 
 the valley of the Missouri, let us take a 
 little further look yet at the numerous 
 tribes and their modes, and the country about us, 
 before we sweep off across the Rocky Mountains, or 
 into the ever-green valleys of the Essequibo and the 
 Amazon, in South America. 
 
 Besides the Sioux and the Mandans, there are the 
 fierce and terrible Blackfoot, and the beautiful 
 Crows, with their long and glossy-black hair trailing 
 on the ground as they walk ; the Knistineux, the 
 Assinneboins, the Ojibbeways, the Shiennes, the 
 Pawnees, the Omahas, the loways, the Saukies, 
 the Winnebagos, the Osages, the Camanchees, and 
 yet many other tribes, all of whom I have lived 
 amongst, and studied their looks and their modes. 
 
 In general, in their ways of life, in the chase, in 
 war, and in their amusements, of which they have 
 many, they bear a strong resemblance to each other, 
 as well as in their colour and features. 
 
ioo 
 
 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 Their colour, which has often been described as 
 red, as yellow, and more often as copper colour, is 
 not exactly either ; but more correctly described as 
 cinnamon colour, the exact colour of cinnamon bark ; 
 sometimes a little more dark, and at others more 
 light ; but that may with truth be said to be the 
 standard of colour amongst the American tribes. 
 
 Their forms are generally very perfect and hand- 
 somely proportioned, much more so than those of 
 any civilized people, owing chiefly to the facts that 
 they are so constantly exercising their naked limbs 
 in the open air, free from the enervating and weak- 
 ening effects of heavy costumes, and also the rigid 
 manner in which all American Indian infants, 
 without exception, are reared in cribs (or cradles), 
 
 their backs lashed to straight boards for the space 
 of six months or a year, giving straightness to the 
 spine and the limbs, which last them through life. 
 
 All the American Indians have straight and black 
 hair, and generally (though contrary to the opinion 
 of the world), exceedingly fine and silky. Their 
 eyes (though their effect is black) are of a deep and 
 reddish-brown, and their teeth, almost without 
 
INDIAN'S PAINTING. 101 
 
 exception, uniform and regular in their arrangement, 
 and white and sound, even to old age. 
 
 These people have probably got the appellation 
 of " Red Indians " from their habit of using so much 
 red ochre and vermilion, their favourite colours, 
 in painting their bodies and faces, rather than from 
 their natural colour, which I have already said is 
 not red. 
 
 The habit of painting is much the same in all the 
 various tribes. They mix their colours with bears' 
 grease ; and, with the aid of a little bit of broken 
 looking-glass, which they buy of fur traders, they 
 daub the paint on with their fingers used for 
 brushes. Paint is considered by them as a part of 
 their dress ; and few Indians allow themselves to be 
 seen in the morning until they have spent an hour 
 or so at their toilette, oiling and arranging their 
 hair, and painting their faces and limbs, after which 
 they consider themselves in full dress, and ready for 
 society. 
 
 This would seem to be a great deal of trouble, 
 and to occupy much of their time uselessly; but 
 then it will be borne in mind that these people have 
 little else to do, and time is not so valuable to them 
 as it is to other people. They are excessively vain 
 of their personal appearance, and well they may be, 
 for, as I have said, their fine and manly figures, 
 reared in, and used to, the open air, without the 
 flabbiness and emaciation which overclothing 
 generally produces, have a roundness and beauty 
 which the civilized world cannot produce. 
 
 G 
 
102 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 The tribes which I have above named, living 
 chiefly in a country stocked with buffaloes and wild 
 horses, also hunt and go to war much in the same 
 manner. 
 
 The wild horses, which were no doubt first in- 
 troduced into America by the Spanish invaders of 
 Mexico, have in time wandered away and spread 
 over the prairies as high as the fifty-first degree of 
 north latitude, affording the Indians, who catch and 
 convert them to their use, the means of killing the 
 buffaloes and other game with more ease, and also of 
 carrying on their warfare with more effect; and 
 what is best of all, a pleasurable and healthful mode 
 of exercise in the open plains, so conducive to 
 strength and manly beauty. 
 
 The buffaloes, we have a right to believe, have 
 been created for the use and happiness of the Indian 
 tribes, who exist almost entirely on their flesh, 
 clothing themselves and constructing their dwellings 
 with their skins, and converting almost every part of 
 these useful animals to the supply of their various 
 wants and comforts. Their tongues, when cured, 
 are amongst the greatest of luxuries, and equally so 
 the hump (or fleece, as it is familiarly called) on 
 the shoulders ; the rest of the flesh is about equal 
 to the best of beef. Of their skins their comfortable 
 dwellings are made, and their beautiful robes, as 
 already explained. Their sinews are used for 
 strings to their bows, and many other purposes ; the 
 bones of the shoulders form the trees for their 
 saddles ; their brains are used for dressing their 
 
BUFFALOES. 103 
 
 skins; the bones of their legs are broken up for 
 their marrow, which resembles and equals the 
 richest of butter ; and their hoofs are boiled up for 
 glue, which they use in the construction of their 
 beautiful bows and other weapons. 
 
 These noble and useful animals roam over the 
 same vast and boundless prairies of green grass 
 where the wild horses graze, and are often seen in 
 herds of many thousands together. One can easily 
 imagine that here is the easiest and most independ- 
 ent region for the Indians to live in ; and it is here, 
 and from these causes, no doubt, that the healthiest 
 and most beautiful races of men are found that are 
 to be met with in America, or perhaps in the 
 world. 
 
 It is over these interminable carpets of green, 
 dotted with flowers of all colours where the Indian 
 gallops on his wild horse, his wants all supplied, 
 and his mind as free as the air that he breathes that 
 man, in the unshackled freedom of his nature, 
 extends, and has extended his hand in friendship, to 
 all strangers in his country, before he has been 
 ensnared by the craft and cunning of the mercenary 
 white man. 
 
 A few words must be said of the prairies, the 
 dwellings of savage steeds and savage beeves. But, 
 my anxious little readers, what shall I say ? I am 
 here beginning to fear that this little book is going 
 to be five times too small for all that I want to 
 describe to you. If we could together leap from the 
 deck of a steamer upon one of the grassy banks of 
 
104 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 the Upper Missouri, and clamber up the sloping 
 sides of the bluff, on our hands and feet, knocking 
 the bowing lilies of yellow, and blue, and of red, and 
 the gay sunflowers, from our faces; and leaving 
 the purple violets and gushing ripe strawberries 
 under our feet till we come back, and take a glance 
 from its rounded top over the vast- expanse of green 
 and of blue beneath and around us of the serpentine 
 windings of the river above and below us, with its 
 vast alluvial meadows alternating on one side and 
 the other; and, back of them, the thousands of shorn 
 and green bluffs sloping down like infinite ranges 
 of grass-covered ramparts and redoubts and, back 
 of them again, in the east and the west, an ocean of 
 green, enamelled with all colours at our feet, but 
 terminating in a horizon of blue you would get in 
 that glance, a partial knowledge of an American 
 prairie. But if at this point we could mount our 
 horses together, and gallop to the east or to the west ; 
 here a covey of grouse fluttering from under our 
 horses' feet ; next, the swift antelope bounding over 
 the surface ; the frightened deer rising and springing 
 from its lair ; and farther on, the huge white wolf, 
 with a dogged sauciness and reluctance, licking his 
 hungry chaps as he walks slowly out of our way, with 
 the bristles raised on his ugly back as he stands and 
 scans us as we pass, to smell and follow in our track 
 behind us we should then be gathering further 
 knowledge of the prairie. But we go on ; the noble 
 elks have " taken the wind," and are sweeping away 
 to the right or the left ; the stately moose, under his 
 
THE PKAIRIES. 105 
 
 long and unbroken trot, and his mighty horns, passes 
 out of sight ; the funny little prairie dogs in myriads, 
 barking from the tops of their mounds of dirt, 
 dart into their burrows, and our horses are brought 
 to the ground by breaking into their vaulted under- 
 ground villages ; and the huge and frightful rattle- 
 snakes are seen coiled and ready for a leap we are 
 still wiser. And yet farther on, a band of wild 
 horses, with their rising manes and tails, and starting 
 eyeballs glaring upon us, put off for a five-mile 
 heat before they stop ; and on on on again, and 
 far beyond, a straight black line forms all the 
 western horizon ! and over it, to the right, a cloud 
 of smoke is rising from the ground ! " That can't 
 be a fire ? " No, my young friends ; we are now 
 in the midst of a great and level prairie we are 
 " out of sight of land ; " the black streak you see is 
 formed by the backs of a large herd of buffaloes, 
 and the cloud of dust which you see, is raised by 
 their feet, which shows us they are in motion, with 
 a party of Sioux Indians with arrows and lances 
 pushing them up on the flanks and in their rear. 
 On on, farther yet ; and at length the black streak 
 disappears, they are all out of sight ; but the cloud 
 still rises and rises yet, as on we go. And at last 
 we discover, like mere specks in the distance, here 
 and there, individual objects moving in various 
 directions, and evidently nearing us, as we move on. 
 Next we find the green sward under our horses' feet 
 cut to pieces, and looking, in the distance, much 
 like a newly-ploughed field; the herd has here 
 
106 LltfE AMONG fHE INDIANS. 
 
 passed ; and in the distance we discover here and 
 there black specks lying upon the surface, and horse- 
 men galloping to them and dismounting. We will 
 rein up our horses to them don't be afraid : put on 
 a bold and calm front (the Indians always admire a 
 bold and daring man), and offer them your hand. 
 
 Smiling and exulting, as they shake their heads to 
 part their falling locks from before their eyes, come 
 dashing up from different directions, on their puffing 
 and snorting little horses, with inflated nostrils and 
 shaggy manes, a hundred warriors astride their 
 horses' naked backs, with bows and lances in their 
 hands; they rush up with the friendly hand ex- 
 tended ; but our horses, like civilized people, have a 
 dread of the savage and we must dismount, or be 
 dismounted. We are all upon our feet, Indians and 
 all, and our horses held ; a shaking of hands takes 
 place. Next moment we are seated on the ground, 
 and the pipe is lit and passed round. Here is a 
 pause and a rest for all, for all are tired. A conver- 
 sation takes places ; and in the midst of this, what 
 do we see ? In the distance, a moving, unintelligible 
 mass, of all colours. It approaches ; and, at last, we 
 see it is a phalanx of several hundred women and 
 children, with three or four times that number of 
 dogs, coming out from their village to skin the 
 slaughtered animals, and cut up the meat and trans- 
 port it to their village. We see no more, for the 
 refreshed hunters have invited us to their village; 
 and remounted, we fall in their wake, leaving the 
 women and children to do the rest. 
 
THE PKAIPJES. 107 
 
 Their village, as I have described, is built of skin- 
 covered wigwams. We are taken to the chief's 
 tent we smoke the pipe with him, seated on beau- 
 tifully-garnished robes and rush mats spread upon 
 the ground ; we feast with him and the hunters in 
 his hospitable dwelling, and lodge in it during the 
 night. Our horses have been well taken care of by 
 the chief's sons and relations, and brought to us in 
 the morning when we are ready to start back. 
 
 But where are we ? only one day in the prairie ! 
 And so we might go on from day to day, for a month 
 of days, before we should find its end. We have 
 yet to return ; have we seen all ? Not quite we 
 take a different route. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Catching Wild Horses Turning to the Left Walking the 
 Circle Buffalo Chase The Giant Bull. 
 
 |ILD horses, I have said, are the shyest 
 animals of the prairies, and oftentimes 
 run in immense herds. The wild horse 
 will generally run from the approach of a man at a 
 mile distance, without " getting the wind," such is 
 the power of his eye in distinguishing his enemy 
 man from wild animals, when the elk may be 
 approached within half-a-inile, and the buffalo and 
 deer oftentimes within dead-shot distance for a rifle, 
 before they take to flight. 
 
 The Indians have a hard struggle in capturing 
 these animals, which they generally do with the 
 lasso, thrown from the back of another horse, while 
 they ride at full speed. The lasso is a strong cord 
 made of raw hide, with a noose at the end of it, 
 which being open some four or five feet, the loop is 
 dropped over the horse's neck, and being drawn 
 tight chokes the animal ; and the Indian, checking 
 his own norse gradually, and drawing on the length- 
 
 108 
 
WILD HOUSES. 109 
 
 ened cord, at last brings the animal to the ground, 
 which falls for want of breath. 
 
 The horse is then completely at its captor's mercy, 
 who proceeds to secure his prey, and then to tame 
 it. For this he hobbles the animal's two fore-feet 
 together, and then fastens a short halter with a 
 noose around the horse's under-jaw, back of the 
 teeth, while its mouth is wide open and it is gasping 
 for breath. 
 
 At this moment the lasso is loosened, allowing the 
 animal to breathe ; by which, in a few moments, as 
 it is getting strength to rise, it finds the Indian at 
 the end of the halter, prepared to prevent its rising 
 on to its feet. The horse makes a struggle to rise, 
 getting only on to its fore-feet, which are fastened 
 together, and it still remains in a sitting posture. 
 
 Before it can rise on its hind feet, it requires to 
 throw its head quite back, which the Indian, stand- 
 ing in front of the animal, prevents it from doing, 
 by leaning back, with the weight of his body on the 
 halter. By a great many useless struggles to rise, 
 the horse remaining yet in its sitting posture, and 
 the Indian approaching nearer and nearer (inch by 
 inch) to its nose, on the shortened halter, and yell- 
 ing as loud as he can, the animal's fear is increased 
 to the highest degree. The Indian still advances 
 nearer on the tightened halter, and at length begins 
 patting the horse on the nose, and gradually slipping 
 his hand over its eyes, begins breathing in its nos- 
 trils, their noses being together. 
 
 After a few breaths exchanged in this manner, the 
 
110 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 relaxation of the horse's muscles and its other 
 motions, show that its fears are at an end that it 
 recognises a friend instead of a foe, in its captor ; 
 and this compromise being effected, the Indian is 
 seen stroking down its mane, and otherwise caresa 
 ing it ; and in fifteen or twenty minutes he is seen 
 riding it quietly off ! 
 
 From the moment of this unaccountable compro- 
 mise, the animal seems to make no further effort to 
 escape, but becomes attached to its master, whom 
 it recognises by the breath : which it always seems 
 fond of exchanging from that moment. 
 
 I have witnessed these exciting scenes on a num- 
 ber of occasions, and always have viewed them with 
 great surprise. It requires a severe effort to catch 
 the horse in the first place, and then a struggle 
 ensues which is cruel, and painful to look upon ; but 
 the excess of fatigue, of fright, and actual pain, fol- 
 lowed by soothing and kindness, seems to disarm 
 the spirited animal, and to attach it at once, in a 
 mysterious way, to its new master. 
 
 You have all read of Mr. Rarey's wonderful mode 
 of breaking and taming vicious horses, which I 
 believe, in some respects, is very similar ; but Mr. 
 Rarey has not the wild horse to catch. It is very 
 likely that an Indian could not break a vicious horse 
 as well as Mr. Earey ; and at the same time it might 
 be equally, if not more difficult, for Mr. Rarey to 
 take the lasso from an Indian's hand when he has 
 got it over the neck of a wild horse, and stop its 
 career, and conquer and break it, as an Indian does. 
 
CATCHING WILD HOfeStiS. Ill 
 
 The judgment of man in guiding his horse enables 
 him, on an animal of less speed, to get alongside of 
 a wild horse, though he seldom is able to overtake 
 the fleetest of them. But here is something more 
 surprising yet the Shiennes, who capture more 
 wild horses than any other tribe, catch a great pro- 
 portion of their horses without the aid of a horse to 
 ride ; they overtake the wild horse on their own legs ; 
 which is done in this way : Plunging into a band 
 of wild horses while on the back of his own horse, 
 the Indian separates some affrighted animal from 
 the group, and forcing it off to the right or to the 
 left, he dismounts from his own horse, and hobbling 
 its feet, or leaving it in the hands of a friend, he 
 starts upon his own legs, his body chiefly naked a 
 lasso coiled on his left arm, a whip fastened to the 
 wrist of his right hand, and a little parched corn in 
 his pouch, which he chews as he runs ; and at a long 
 and tilting pace, which he is able to keep all day, he 
 follows the affrighted animal, which puts off at full 
 
 Throwing himself between the troop and the 
 animal he is after, and forcing it to run in a different 
 direction, the poor creature's alarm causes it to over- 
 fatigue itself in its first efforts, and to fall a prey to 
 feebler efforts, but more judiciously expended. In 
 the beginning of the chase, the horse discovers his 
 pursuer coming towards him, when he puts off at 
 the greatest possible speed, and at the distance of a 
 mile perhaps, he stops and looks back for his pur- 
 suer, who is coming at his regular pace, close on to 
 
112 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 him ! Away goes again the affrighted steed, more 
 alarmed than ever, and at its highest speed, and 
 makes another halt, and another, and another ; each 
 time shorter and shorter, as he becomes more and 
 more exhausted ; while his cool and cunning pursuer 
 is getting nearer to him. It is a curious fact, and 
 known to all the Indians, that the wild horse, the 
 deer, the elk, and other animals, never run in a 
 straight line : they always make a curve in their 
 running, and generally (but not always) to the left. 
 The Indian seeing the direction in which the horse 
 is " leaning," knows just about the point where the 
 animal will stop, and steers in a straight line to it, 
 where they arrive nearly at the same instant, the horse 
 having run a mile, while his pursuer has gone but 
 half or three-quarters of the distance. The alarmed 
 animal is off again; and by a day's work of such 
 curves, and such alarms, before sun-down the animal's 
 strength is all gone ; he is covered with foam, and 
 as his curves are shortened at last to a few rods, his 
 steady pursuer, whose pace has not slackened, gets 
 near enough to throw the lasso over the animal's 
 neck. One must imagine the rest ; what kindness 
 and caressing through the night (for they encamp 
 upon the ground), and what compromise is effected, 
 for the Indian rides his captured horse into the 
 village the next morning, having attached his lasso 
 with a noose around its under-jaw, and having taken 
 up his hobbled horse in his way. 
 
 I have said that the horse and other animals 
 " generally turn to the left." How curious this fact, 
 
TURNING TO THE LEFT. 113 
 
 and from what cause? All animals "bend their 
 course." Why bend their course? Because all 
 animals have their homes their wonted abodes, and 
 they don't wish to leave them : but why bend to 
 the left? 
 
 I never have forgotten one of the first lessons that 
 I had from my dear friend Darrow, in deer-stalking 
 in the forest. " George," said he, " when a deer gets 
 up, if the ground is level, never follow him, but turn 
 to the left, and you will be sure to meet him ; he 
 always runs in a curve, and when he stops he is 
 always watching his back track" 
 
 But man "bends his course;" man, lost in the 
 wilderness or on the prairies, travels in a curve, and 
 always bends his course to the left : why this ? 
 
 While ascending the Upper Missouri, some years 
 since, on a steamer, the vessel got aground, and there 
 was no prospect of getting it off until the water rose, 
 which might not be the case for some weeks. I was 
 anxious to reach a Sioux village on the bank of that 
 river, about one hundred miles above where we were 
 detained, in order to be using my brushes amongst 
 them. I left the steamer with one man to accom- 
 pany me, and with my rifle in my hand, and my 
 sketch-book on my back, we started to perform the 
 journey on foot. In our course we had a large 
 prairie of some thirty miles to cross, and the second 
 day being dark and cloudy, we had no object by 
 which to guide our course, having no compass with 
 me at the time. 
 
 During the first day the sun shone, and we kept 
 
114 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 our course very well but on the next morning, 
 though we started right ("laid our course") we no 
 doubt soon began to bend it, though we appeared to 
 be progressing in a straight line. There was nothing 
 to be seen about us but short grass, everywhere the 
 same ; and in the distance a straight line, the horizon 
 all around us. Late in the afternoon, and when we 
 were very much fatigued, we came upon the very 
 spot, to our great surprise, where we had bivouaced 
 the night before, and which we had left on that 
 morning. We had turned to the left, and no doubt 
 travelled all day in a circle. The next day, having 
 the sunshine, we laid (and kept) our course without 
 any difficulty. 
 
 On arriving at the Sioux village, and relating our 
 singular adventure, the Indians all laughed at us 
 very heartily, and all the chiefs united in assuring 
 me that whenever a man is lost on the prairies he 
 travels in a circle ; and also that he invariably turns 
 to the left ; of which singular fact I have become 
 doubly convinced by subsequent proofs similar to 
 the one mentioned. 
 
 The Indian having taken his wild horse in the 
 manner above described, and broken it for the pur- 
 pose, we see him (Plate III.) in the chase, by which 
 means he supplies his family with food, and in the 
 same manner also he contends with his enemies in 
 battle. 
 
 The horse being the swiftest animal of the prairies, 
 the rider on its back is able to come alongside of any 
 animal ; and at the-little distance necessary to throw 
 
m 
 
 Plate I 
 
 Buffalo Chase. p. 114. 
 
BUFFALO CHASE. 11 5 
 
 his arrows, the first arrow is generally fatal ; being 
 sent with such force as to penetrate the heart of that 
 huge animal the buffalo, and oftentimes (as I have 
 myself witnessed) sent quite through the animal's 
 body, leaving a wound resembling that of a gun- 
 shot. 
 
 The bow used for this purpose is very short, being 
 more convenient for handling on horseback, and 
 generally not more than two feet and a-half in 
 length, but made of great strength, and with much 
 ingenuity : the main part frequently one entire piece 
 of bone, but more often of wood, and covered on the 
 back with buffalo's sinews, so closely glued together 
 as seldom to come apart. 
 
 Besides the bow, a long lance is often used, and 
 perhaps with more deadly effect in the chase than 
 the arrows ; for the Indian, with his horse trained 
 to " approach," easily rides near enough to the side 
 of the animal to give the fatal lunge of his lance, 
 which seldom fails to reach the heart, tumbling the 
 animal instantly to the ground. 
 
 In battle and in the chase, the Indian always has 
 dragging behind his horse a long cord of raw hide, 
 which is attached to its neck ; a different thing from 
 the lasso. The object of this cord is, in case he is 
 thrown from his horse, by the horse falling or step- 
 ping into holes, that he may grasp hold of it and 
 recover his horse, and be again upon its back. This 
 is called by the French, I'arrti (the stop), and by 
 some travellers and writers, larriette. 
 
 Now, speaking of buffaloes, I must be allowed to 
 
116 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 say a few words of myself, and some of ray own 
 exploits, amongst buffaloes in the prairie country. 
 
 The young reader will recollect that I commenced 
 my early career with a strong passion for guns and 
 fishing-poles, and will scarcely believe that my hunt- 
 ing propensities lay dormant during the gap that I 
 have mentioned, from the affair of the " kettle of 
 gold," to the age of thirty-three, when I have said, 
 I started on my Indian campaigns ; he will easily 
 believe that during that period, surrounded as I was 
 with all the temptations, and with my old Nimrod 
 companion, John Darrow, as my teacher, I was 
 making constant progress in the slaying art, and in 
 rifle-shooting; and that I had greatly increased, 
 instead of diminishing that passion which first led 
 me to the old saw-mill lick, and which eventu- 
 ally had its weight in leading me into the great 
 prairies of the Far West. 
 
 Poor Darrow ! he was good for nothing else but 
 hunting ; but what a veneration I had for him ! 
 How he could trace a deer or a bear ; and how deadly 
 the crack of his rifle ! What music it was to my 
 young ear when I heard it sing amongst the lofty 
 forest trees ; and how happy were those days when 
 John Darrow and I, in our white hunting shirts and 
 white caps, with our rifles trailed, entered the deep 
 and lonely forests to spend the day in a good " track- 
 ing snow ! " 
 
 But to fight off from these scenes in my native 
 valley and my boyhood, and to come back to where 
 I left you, my young readers, in the buffalo range, 
 
BUFFALO CfiASE. 117 
 
 and ready for my first buffalo hunt, on the prairies 
 of the Missouri. At the mouth of the Yellowstone 
 River, on the banks of the Missouri, two thousand 
 miles above St. Louis, where the American Fur 
 Company have a large factory, or trading house, I 
 was residing with Mr. M'Kenzie, the chief factor, 
 when it was announced one morning by one of his 
 men, that a large herd of buffaloes had arrived dur- 
 ing the night, and were then grazing on a beautiful 
 plain across the river, and but two or three miles 
 distant. 
 
 M'Kenzie instantly resolved that he "wanted some 
 meat," and invited me to join the hunt, for which he 
 turned out some five or six of his best hunters, on 
 horseback, and himself took the lead, with a small 
 and exceedingly light and short single -barrelled 
 fowling-piece in his hand. 
 
 They furnished me with a tremendously tall horse, 
 called "Chouteau" (for what reason I never knew), 
 said to be a very good animal in the chase. Several 
 others of his men were ordered to follow at a proper 
 distance, with one-horse carts, to bring in the meat, 
 and we all moved off, somewhat like a regular 
 caravan. 
 
 When we had arrived within half-a-mile or so of 
 the unsuspecting animals, we were called to a halt, 
 to decide upon the best mode of attack : that de- 
 cided, all hands started off upon a gallop, at the 
 signal given, ready to make the dash as soon as the 
 animals took the alarm. This done, the dust was 
 rising, and we were in the midst of them ! 
 
118 LIFE AMONG THE INDIAN& 
 
 M'Kenzie, Major Sanford, and Chardon were the 
 most experienced, and consequently the most suc- 
 cessful in the melde. The repeated flashes of their 
 guns I distinctly saw, as they seemed to be buried 
 in the moving mass of black and dust. These men 
 were hunting " for meat," and of course were select- 
 ing the fattest and the sleekest of the young cows 
 for that purpose ; but I had quite a different ambi- 
 tion ; I saw in the crowd the back and horns of a 
 huge bull towering so high above all the throng that 
 I resolved upon his scalp or nothing. 
 
 I made several desperate lunges with old " Chou- 
 teau" into the various openings which seemed to 
 afford me a chance of coming near to him : and as 
 often was closed in and jammed along with the 
 moving mass, no doubt with a most imprudent risk 
 of my life ; for hundreds on hundreds were plunging 
 along behind me, and ready to have trampled me to 
 death in a moment if I had lost my balance. 
 
 I at length saw my way clear, and made a desper- 
 ate rush for his right side, that I might get my shot 
 from the proper point. 
 
 My gun was a double-barrelled fowling-piece. My 
 first shot seemed to have no effect, but the second 
 one brought him down upon his knees, and the herd 
 passed on. I was swept along a great distance 
 before I could extricate myself from the throng, 
 having no further ambition than the capture of this 
 overgrown, and, in fact, giant of the band. 
 
 When I got relieved from the herd, I reloaded 
 and rode back to my noble prize, who had risen up 
 
THE GIANT BULL. 119 
 
 and stood balancing his huge carcass on three legs, 
 one of his shoulders being broken. His frightful 
 mane was raised, and his eyes bloodshot with mad- 
 ness and rage, as he was making lunges at me, and 
 partly tumbling to the ground at each attempt. 
 
 Here was just the subject I wanted, for all the 
 world : and having my sketch-book with me, I sat 
 upon my horse, in perfect safety, and made my model 
 change his positions as I wanted them. It is im- 
 possible to describe the demoniacal looks of this 
 enraged animal when he bristled up and was just 
 ready to spring upon me. 
 
 While I was engaged in this operation, M'Kenzie 
 and Sanford came riding up to me, and laughing 
 most excessively at me for attacking a poor old bull 
 which scarcely the wolves would eat. I claimed a 
 great victory nevertheless, and was perfectly satisfied 
 with my first exploit, which, however, had a little 
 drawback to it when Sanford asked me how it was 
 that my horse's head was covered with blood, which 
 I had not observed, and which was found to be 
 issuing from a round hole through one of old 
 "Chouteau's" ears, near to his head, where my first 
 ball had undoubtedly passed. 
 
 My sketches completed, I finished the old bull 
 with another shot in the head: and joining M'Kenzie 
 and Sanford, who were looking up and claiming their 
 victims left upon the ground they had run over, I 
 was astonished to find that the former, with a single- 
 barrelled gun, and with a flint lock, had selected and 
 shot through the heart, six fat cows in the run, which 
 
120 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 was probably not over a mile distance, in which time 
 he must have reloaded his gun five times at full 
 speed ! The carts were soon up, in the rear, and 
 conveyed the meat, with the head and horns of my 
 venerable bull, to the factory's larder. 
 
 I said at the end of the last chapter, that we had 
 not seen the whole of the prairies that " we should 
 return by another route." We are a great way from 
 home, so we will leave our horses and take a canoe. 
 
CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 Stores laid in The Tame Eagle Bivouacing Melting the 
 Coffee-pot Freaks of the Eagle Stoop of the Eagle 
 Grizzly Bears inspecting us Grizzly Bears overhauling us 
 Adieu to the Grizzlies. 
 
 ]EATED in a light and frail canoe in front 
 of the American Fur Company's Fort, at 
 the mouth of the Yellowstone River, Ba'- 
 tiste, Bogard, and I took leave of M'Kenzie and his 
 little colony, for a voyage to St. Louis, which, by 
 the winding course of the Missouri, was but about 
 two thousand miles ; and the whole of that way 
 without other habitations than the occasional villages 
 of the wild Indians ; and without inhabitants, ex- 
 cepting wild men and the wild animals that roamed 
 over and through it. 
 
 Jean Ba'tiste, a Frenchman, and Abraham Bogard, 
 a Mississippian, were two discharged hands who had 
 been for eight or ten years in the employment of the 
 Fur Company, trapping beavers and other furs at 
 the base of and in the Rocky Mountains, and were 
 now returning to St. Louis ; and of myself, more 
 will be learned hereafter. 
 
 121 
 
122 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 "We three, then the two first of whom with good 
 rifles, and knowing well how to use them ; and myself 
 with a good double-barrelled fowling-piece, for 
 ducks, and geese, and prairie hens, and a first-rate 
 rifle for long range, and a belt with two side pistols 
 for nearer quarters took our seats in our little 
 bark ; the first in the bow, the second in the centre, 
 and myself in the stern, with my steering-paddle, 
 with which I steered it in safety, but not without some 
 accidents, amid snags, and sand-bars, and sawyers, 
 and rocks, to the wharf in St. Louis, whilst the boil- 
 ing current swept us along, and Ba'tiste and Bogard, 
 and most of the time all three, paddled. 
 
 We had powder and ball in abundance laid in, 
 and our fishing tackle ; some good robes to sleep 
 upon and under ; a tin kettle, a coffee-pot, a frying- 
 pan, plenty of ground coffee, of sugar, and salt ; each 
 man a spoon, a knife, and a tin cup ; and though we 
 had no bread or butter, the little reader, whose 
 imagination is pretty strong, will easily see we had 
 a tolerable chance for enough to eat, and that there 
 was a glorious prospect for the indulgence of my 
 sportive passion, as well as the gratification of my 
 Indian propensities, ahead of me ; and he will be just 
 about as much disposed to skip over the now coming 
 part of this little book, as I would have been inclined 
 to have left my little outfitted canoe and the beauti- 
 ful shores of the Missouri, to have taken a nearer 
 cut, and footed it over land. 
 
 There are now ten thousand things of curious 
 interest before us, and I must needs again be brief; 
 
THE TAME EAGLE. 123 
 
 for we shall have other rivers, and a great many 
 other things to speak of. 
 
 At our starting, we had another " compagnon du 
 voyage," which I had almost forgotten to mention. 
 Mr. M'Kenzie had made me a present of a full- 
 grown, domesticated war-eagle, the noble bird which 
 the Indians so much esteem for its valour, and the 
 quills of which they so much value to adorn the 
 heads of chiefs and warriors. I had a perch erected 
 for it some six or eight feet high, over the bow of 
 the canoe, on which it rested in perfect quietude, 
 without being fastened, silently surveying all that we 
 passed above and below ; thus forming for our little 
 craft the most picturesque and appropriate figure- 
 head that could be imagined. 
 
 From day to day we thus passed on, surveying 
 the beautiful shores ; the grassy and rounded bluffs 
 rising in groups, sometimes hundreds on hundreds, 
 appearing in the distance as if green carpets of 
 velvet were spread over them ; sometimes speckled 
 with herds of buffaloes grazing on their sides, which 
 the crack of a rifle would set in motion : the 
 scattered herds grouping together and running in 
 little and winding paths, seemed in the distance like 
 black snakes drawing their long carcasses over and 
 around the hill sides. 
 
 The sand-bars in the distance sometimes seemed 
 as if they were covered with snow, from the quanti- 
 ties of pelicans and white swans that were grouped 
 upon them. The white wolves that were looking at 
 us from the banks got an occasional pill from one 
 
124 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 of our rifles, and sometimes the terrible grizzly beara, 
 that trace the water's edge for the carcasses of dead 
 fish, and the buffaloes often left fastened in the mud, 
 where large herds have been crossing the river. 
 
 We went ashore every afternoon a little before 
 sunset, where we could discover dry wood enough to 
 make a fire with, cooked and ate our supper ; and 
 then, leaving our fire, paddled on till some time after 
 dark, hauling our buffalo-skins out, and, scarcely 
 knowing what was around us, quietly spreading our 
 beds upon the grass, lest prowling war-parties mi^ht 
 be attracted by the smoke of our fires, and strike a 
 blow upon us in their sudden way, mistaking us for 
 their enemies or for some of the fur traders, against 
 more or less of whom these people have long and 
 just causes of complaint, and for which we are, in 
 such cases, liable to pay the forfeit. 
 
 We were generally off again at daybreak, and 
 usually stopped at eight or nine in the morning, to 
 make and to take our breakfast. 
 
 At one of these delicious breakfasts, after we had 
 been some days on our voyage, when we had just 
 finished, my two men, observing a herd of buffaloes 
 grazing on a hill at a short distance, took up their 
 rifles and went for some meat. 
 
 I remained by the fire, and while making a sketch 
 of a very pretty scene in front of me, I resolved that 
 I would have another cup of coffee before we started, 
 and placed the coffee-pot on the fire to make it hot. 
 The sound of their rifles soon announced to me that 
 they had got some meat (for they made it a rule 
 
MELTING THE COFFEE-POT. 125 
 
 never to lose a charge of powder for nothing), and the 
 next moment came the throng dashing down the hill 
 near by me. I seized my rifle and ran to a deep 
 and narrow defile where the whole herd were aiming 
 to pass, and placing myself in the bed of the stream 
 then dried up, and behind a small bunch of willows, 
 I stood unobserved, and probably unheard by them 
 (such was the thundering of the throng as they 
 came plunging down one side, and clambered up the 
 other, of the deep ravine), and reloaded and fired 
 until I had shot down some twelve or fourteen of 
 them, each one tumbling down within a few paces 
 from where he was struck, and several thousand 
 passing by me within gun-shot. 
 
 This wanton slaughter, which I always regretted, 
 was easy, was simple, and wicked ; because Ba'tiste 
 and Bogard had got meat enough to last us for 
 several days. Not even the skins, the tongues, nor 
 the humps, of these poor creatures were taken, but 
 were left for the wolves to devour. 
 
 My two men joined me, having heard my firing 
 and when we went to our little bivouac, I found my 
 coffee all boiled away, and the seams of my poor 
 coffee-pot all unsoldered, and the fabric falling to 
 pieces. Was not this retribution ? I shot not for 
 meat, nor in self-defence and I never shot for the 
 mere pleasure of killing after that. 
 
 Our tin kettle having fallen overboard a few days 
 before, I made a sort of coffee a few times in the 
 frying-pan, but this was excessively awkward, and 
 Droved a decided failure ; and Bogard, who had a 
 
126 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 rabid taste for coffee, had the privilege of filling his 
 pocket with ground coffee and sugar, which he daily 
 ate from the hollow of his hand, while it lasted ; and 
 thus was our luxury of coffee, with that of delicious 
 soup, which had vanished with the loss of our tin 
 kettle, for the rest of the voyage at an end. 
 
 Our noble and beautiful pet was a picture to look 
 at : he held to his perch, and could not have been 
 made to leave us. He was well fed with fresh 
 buffalo meat, and sometimes with fish. His eagle 
 eyes gazed upon all around him, and he seemed to be 
 owner and commander of the expedition. We always 
 found him on his stand in the morning ; and during 
 the day, as we were gliding along, when he became 
 tired of his position, he would raise himself upon his 
 long and broad wings, and spreading them over us, 
 would hover and soar for miles together, a few feet 
 above our heads, and in precise progress with the 
 canoe, looking down upon us, and fanning us at 
 times with fresh air, and at other times shading us 
 from the rays of the sun ! 
 
 Birds of all kinds and wild fowl, as they flew over, 
 this monarch of the air would gaze at from his 
 perch ; and whenever he discovered one of his own 
 species soaring in the sky, or even in the clouds, 
 which was sometimes the case, he commenced a 
 chattering of recognition which no other excitement 
 could bring forth, and which they invariably answered. 
 He knew them, and could easily have gone to them in 
 a moment, but the perch that he clenched in his feet 
 lie preferred, for there he was sure of his daily food. 
 
STOOP OF THE EAGLE. 127 
 
 One day, while we were passing through what is 
 called the * Grand Detour/' a deep gorge through 
 which the river passes, with precipitous clay banks, 
 some hundreds of feet in height, on each side, our 
 royal guest rose suddenly, and unusually high from 
 his perch, and flapping his long wings, flew back 
 some distance, and kept rising, when we all of one 
 accord exclaimed, " He has gone ! he has taken final 
 leave ! " but he made a circuit or two in the air, and 
 then a stoop, just grazing the side of the ragged clay 
 bluff, from which he lifted a huge snake, that was 
 writhing and twisting in his deadly grasp as he was 
 coming towards the boat. "Sonnette! sonnette!" 
 exclaimed poor Ba'tiste, as the snake, when the eagle 
 was on his perch, was to hang right over his head ! 
 
 It happened, luckily perhaps, not to be a rattle- 
 snake, but a harmless reptile, probably better known 
 to eagles than to us, which the eagle's eyes had dis- 
 covered basking in the sun as we had passed, and 
 which he had gone back for, and now on his perch, 
 directly over poor Ba'tiste's head, was regularly 
 making a delicious meal of. Ba'tiste soon got over 
 his fright, and admitted that "it was all right, 
 that we were all hunters and adventurers together." 
 
 Annoyed to agony, and sometimes almost to death, 
 by the mosquitoes that infest the shores of that 
 river in some places, we generally selected a barren 
 sand-bar or sandy beach as the place of our bivouac, 
 for they generally fly only as far as the grass 
 extends. 
 
 Having one night selected such a beach, and 
 
128 LIfi'E AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 drawn our canoe well on to it, we spread our robes 
 on the soft sand, and got a comfortable night's rest ; 
 and a little after daylight in the morning, I heard 
 Ba'tiste exclaim" Voila, Mr. Caltin ! voila Caleb !" 
 (as the trappers of these regions habitually call the 
 grizzly bear) " regardez, Mr. ! " I raised myself 
 up, and found Bogard and Ba'tiste rising gradually, 
 with their hands on their rifles, and their attention 
 fixed upon a monster of a grizzly bear, sitting a few 
 rods from us on the slope of the prairie, regularly 
 reconnoitring us ; and at a little distance farther, 
 the female with her two cubs ; about enough alto- 
 gether for us three to have furnished a comfortable 
 breakfast, for which they were no doubt, with some 
 impatience, waiting. 
 
 The time had passed heavily with them while 
 they had been waiting for us to wake up, for it is a 
 curious saying of the country, and probably a true 
 one, that " man lying down is medicine to a bear " 
 that grizzly bears will not attack a man when he 
 is asleep, although they are sure to attack him if 
 they meet him on his feet. We all alike knew the 
 motto of the country, yet I believe none of us were 
 quite disposed to go to sleep for our protection. 
 
 A council of war was the first thing that was 
 necessary ; and as we discovered, on looking around, 
 that these terrible beasts had been in our canoe and 
 hauled every article out of it on to the beach, and 
 pawed them open, and scattered them about ; and 
 that our poor eagle was gone, and swallowed, no 
 doubt ; and knowing the danger of attacking them, 
 
GRIZZLY BEARS OVERHAULING US. 129 
 
 we agreed that our canoe was the first thing ; the 
 scattered remnants of our property (if we could 
 have time to collect them) the next preferring 
 to have our battle afterwards. We simultaneously 
 arose, moved our canoe into the water, and got our 
 paddles into it, and our guns safe in our hands. 
 
 The animals made no move towards us in the 
 mean time, and we began to gather our robes and 
 other things which were strewed in all directions. 
 Some packages were carried several rods from the 
 canoe, and everything excepting a couple of large 
 portfolios of drawings which they could not untie, 
 and a roll of canvas which had stood the test, but 
 was sadly pawed about in the mud, were as regularly 
 unrolled and looked into (and smelled) as they 
 would have been in passing a custom-house in 
 France or in Brazil, with a doubtful and suspicious 
 passport. 
 
 We had three or four days' supply of fresh meat 
 laid in, and some delicious dried buffalo tongues, 
 and a quantity of pemican, all of which were de- 
 voured. My paint-box was opened, and nothing left 
 in it the brushes were scattered over the beach, 
 and many of the bladders with colours tied in them, 
 chewed, and the contents scattered and daubed, in 
 strange mixtures of red, and green, and all colours, 
 over everything. Two packs of Indian dresses, safely 
 tied with thongs, were as regularly untied as if done 
 by human hands ; and shirts, and leggings, and head- 
 dresses, and robes, were daubed in the mud and 
 spread out upon the beach as if to dry, or to be dis- 
 
130 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 posed of in lots at an auction sale. What an 
 unprincipled overhauling this ! 
 
 In taking up our sleeping robes, the enormous 
 footprints sinking two or three inches into the hard 
 sand, showed us that these stupid and terrible beasts 
 had passed many times around and between our 
 beds, which were not more, perhaps, than two or 
 three feet apart. Was not here enough to shake 
 one's nerves a little ? 
 
 Our things thrown in confusion into our canoe 
 for a better arrangement at a more agreeable place, 
 we pushed out a little from the shore, and felt again 
 at ease, knowing that the grizzly bear will never 
 enter the water for anything. 
 
 The moment our canoe was afloat, with the 
 accustomed flappings of his wings, the long and 
 yellow legs of our illustrious passenger were reaching 
 down for their perch, whilst he was drawing in his 
 long wings, and seemingly shrugging his shoulders 
 with satisfaction at being back to his old stand, and 
 out of danger, as he was casting his piercing eyes 
 around and over the gathered wreck, which he seemed 
 to be aware of. From what hill-top or ledge this 
 noble creature descended, or where he got his night's 
 lodging, no one had the least knowledge. 
 
 Now we were ready for the attack we were 
 brave we could flourish trumpets. Bogard and I 
 levelled at the male he being the nearest to us 
 Ba'tiste reserving his fire, which he gave to the 
 female as she came, in all fury and with horrid 
 growls, to the water's edge ; she received his ball in 
 
ADIEU TO THE GRIZZLIES. 131 
 
 her breast, and, galloping off, followed her companion, 
 which had got our two rifle balls, and entered a 
 thicket of high grass and weeds. 
 
 We were now floating down stream again, and 
 though I urged my two companions to go back with 
 me and complete the engagement, they both had 
 fears, and most likely very prudent ones, of following 
 those creatures into a thicket ; so we left them to 
 die, or to cure their wounds if they could, in their 
 own way. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Mandan Singularities Mandan War-ChiefLance of the 
 Biccarree Chief Mah-to-toh-pa and the Crow Chief 
 Indian Belles Singular Names Tradition of the Flood 
 Destruction of the Mandans Taking leave of the Mandans 
 A Silent Gift 
 
 [E are nowat thevillageof the kind and hospit- 
 able Mandans (or, as they call themselves, 
 See-pohs-ka Nu-mah-kah-hee, People of 
 the Pheasants), two hundred and fifty miles below 
 the mouth of Yellowstone, from which we started : 
 a tribe of two thousand, living in a village of clay- 
 covered wigwams, on the west bank of the Missouri. 
 My canoe and all my things are carried up by the 
 women to the chiefs wigwam, where they are to 
 be kept in safety until I want them, and I a welcome 
 guest while I stop not a sixpence to pay. 
 
 The Mandans (of whom I have shown you one 
 of their warriors in Plate No. III., and of whose 
 medicine operations in rain-making and rain-stop 
 ping I have before alluded to) I considered one of the 
 most interesting tribes that I visited, inasmuch as 
 their language and many of their customs, as well 
 132 
 
MANDAN SINGULARITIES. 
 
 as personal appearance, were so decidedly different 
 from all other tribes in America. 
 
 As they were not a roaming, but a stationary tribe, 
 they all lived in one village, which was effectually 
 protected against Indian assaults by a high and 
 precipitous bank of the river on two sides, and a 
 stockade of large timbers set in the ground, on the 
 back part. 
 
 This tribe, not following the migrations of the 
 herds of buffaloes, like the Sioux and other tribes, 
 secured themselves against want by raising consider- 
 able fields of maize (which they always kept hidden) 
 in sufficient quantities to answer them when the 
 buffaloes might for a time leave their vicinity. 
 
 The most striking singularities in the personal 
 appearance of these people were those of complexion, 
 and the colour of their hair and eyes. I have before 
 said that black hair, black eyes, and cinnamon colour 
 were the national characteristics of all American 
 savages ; but to my great surprise I found amongst 
 the Mandans, many families whose complexions 
 were nearly white, their eyes a light blue, and their 
 hair of a bright, silvery grey, from childhood to old 
 age ! 
 
 This singular appearance I can account for only 
 by the supposition that there must have been some 
 civilized colony in some way engrafted on them, but 
 of which neither history nor tradition seem as yet 
 to furnish any positive proof. 
 
 From having found several distinct Welsh words 
 in use amongst them ; their skin canoes round like a 
 
134 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 tub, and precisely like the Welsh coracle, and their 
 mode of constructing their wigwams like that in 
 use at the present day in the mountainous parts of 
 Wales, I am strongly inclined to believe that this 
 singularity has been caused by some colony of Welsh 
 people who have landed on the American coast, and 
 after having wandered into the interior, have been 
 taken into this hospitable tribe. 
 
 The Mandans I found to be a very peaceable 
 people, not engaging in warfare except to defend 
 their village and preserve their existence, for 
 which they have had many hard struggles with the 
 Sioux and Crow Indians. 
 
 When I was with the Mandans, there were living 
 amongst them two chiefs of great distinction, the 
 Wolf chief, head civil-chief, and Mah-to-toh-pa (the 
 Four Bears), head war-chief of the tribe. I painted 
 the portraits, at full length, of these valiant and 
 proud men ; and the latter, who became very much 
 attached to me, I shall always consider one of the 
 most extraordinary men who has lived amongst the 
 American tribes. 
 
 He was in every way graceful, elegant, civil, and 
 polite, and at the same time most gallant and 
 invincible as a warrior. After I had painted his 
 portrait, with which he was much pleased and 
 astonished, he presented me his robe, with all the 
 battles of his life painted on it, his wife being 
 allowed time to make him an exact copy of it. 
 
 On this extraordinary robe he was represented, at 
 full length, in fourteen battles in which he had been 
 
LANCE OF THE KICCARREE CHIEF. 135 
 
 victorious, and for which he had the scalps as proofs 
 which no one could deny. When he gave me the 
 robe, lest it should be unappreciated by me, he 
 spread it upon the ground, and inviting me to sit 
 down by the side of him, he proceeded to explain to 
 me each group, the place where the battle was 
 fought, and the manner in which he gained his 
 success ; and for each battle he showed me and 
 placed in my hand, the scalp. 
 
 Several of his most celebrated warriors, who were 
 familiar, of course, with his military exploits, were 
 listening to his explanations, and nodded assent to 
 every scene which he described, and which I wrote 
 down, word for word, in my note-book ; and amongst 
 those fourteen achievements there was one which he 
 described in this way : 
 
 " This spear," said he, taking it up from the 
 ground behind him, and laying it on the robe a 
 spear of some eight feet in length, and ornamented 
 with a number of red and white eagles' quills, and 
 with a long blade of steel, " this spear once be- 
 longed to the war-chief of the Biccarrees (a tribe 
 about equal in numbers to the Mandans, and living 
 two hundred miles below them on the same bank of 
 the river). The Kiccarrees have always been mak- 
 ing war upon us, and in one of their cowardly mid- 
 night attacks upon our village, when a great many 
 of our young men, as well as women and children, 
 were killed, my brother, younger than myself, was 
 missing ; and three days after the battle, in which 
 we had driven our enemies away, I found the body 
 
136 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 of my brother amongst the willows, with the blade 
 of this spear remaining in his body. I recognised 
 the spear as belonging to the treacherous war-chief 
 of the Elccarrees, having seen it and handled it 
 when we had sat together and smoked the calumet 
 in a treaty of peace but a few months before ; many 
 of my warriors also recognised the spear. I pre- 
 served it, with the blood of my brother's body dried 
 on its blade, and I then swore to avenge my brother's 
 death with my own hand. 
 
 " I kept this spear for three years, and no oppor- 
 tunity occurring, and unwilling to spill the blood of 
 the innocent by bringing the two tribes into conflict, 
 I resolved to get my revenge in another way. For 
 this purpose I put my body and face into war paint, 
 which a chief, by our custom, is not in the habit of 
 doing. I took parched corn in my pouch to last 
 me several days, and without other weapon than 
 this spear in my hand, I started off, unknown to 
 my people, for the Kiccarree village, travelling over 
 the prairies by night, and lying secreted during the 
 day. 
 
 "In this manner I came near to the Kiccarree 
 village on the sixth day. I secreted myself during 
 the last day, and when it was dark I approached 
 and entered the village without danger of being de- 
 tected. Knowing the wigwam of the war-chief, I 
 loitered about it, and often peeped in and saw him 
 seated by the fire smoking his pipe. 
 
 " His wife at length went to bed ; and after he 
 had sat and smoked out another pipe by himself, he 
 
LANCE OF THE RICCARREE CHIEF. 137 
 
 went to bed also. The time for me had then 
 arrived ; the fire was almost out, and the wigwam 
 quite dark. I gently opened the door and walked 
 in with the spear in my hand, and sat down by the 
 fire. There was a pot hanging over the fire with 
 some meat in it, which I commenced eating, as I 
 was almost starved to death. Whilst I was eating 
 I heard his wife ask him what man that was eating 
 from the pot in their wigwam ; to which the chief 
 replied, * No matter ; I suppose the man is hungry/ 
 After I had satiated my hunger, I very gradually 
 stirred the fire a little with my foot, until I just got 
 light enough to see my way to my enemy, when I 
 arose and drove the lance to his heart. I darted 
 from the wigwam with the lance in one hand and 
 his scalp in the other, and made my way as fast as 
 possible towards the Mandan village, without their 
 knowing where the enemy was from, or which way 
 he had gone. 
 
 " I travelled fast all that night, and lay secreted 
 during the following day, and so travelled night after 
 night until I entered the Mandan village in triumph, 
 with the scalp of the war-chief of the Eiccarrees 
 resting on the point of his own spear. This, my 
 friend," said he, " is the scalp of that enemy, and 
 this is the spear which I drew from the body of my 
 brother, and with which, I believe, it was the will of 
 the Great Spirit I should avenge his death. You 
 see, my friend, that I have done it, and the blood of 
 both is now dried upon its blade. 
 
 This, my friend, was unlike the deeds of Mah- 
 
138 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 to-toh-pa ; but I went to slay a dog, who died as he 
 deserved. Though he was a war-chief, and had 
 many scalps, he was not an honourable man; he 
 hung about our village like the sneaking wolves in 
 the night, and even scalped our women and children 
 when they were bathing on the shore of the river. 
 If he had been an honourable man, Mah-to-toh-pa 
 would have given him a chance for his life in equal 
 combat ; but as his life had been that of a coward, 
 it would not have been just that he should die the 
 death of a brave man." 
 
 Now, the rest of this little book might be filled 
 with the exploits of Mah-to-toh-pa ; but I will de- 
 scribe one more, and then we will pass on. While 
 sitting upon the robe, Mah-to-toh-pa showed me 
 the scalp of a brave man a celebrated chief of the 
 Crows; and, pointing to the illustration on the 
 robe, dictated while the interpreter described in this 
 way: 
 
 " The Crows have long been our enemies ; their 
 war-parties have often attacked our village and our 
 hunting-parties when they have been upon the 
 plains. A few years since, many hundred Crow 
 warriors appeared on the prairies, not far distant 
 from the Mandan village, when Mah-to-toh-pa, with 
 his warriors, went out to meet them. When the 
 two war-parties were coming near to each other, on 
 a level plain, and just ready for battle, they halted, 
 and the war-chief of the Crows sent a white flag 
 to the Mandans, with this message : ' Is Mah-to- 
 toh-pa, the war-chief of the Mandans, there ? He 
 
MAH-TO-TOH-PA AND THE CROW CHIEF. 139 
 
 is a brave man. If he leads the Mandan war-party 
 to-day, let him come out alone, and he and I will 
 decide this combat, and save the lives of our brave 
 warriors. Hora-to-ah, war-chief of the Crows, sends 
 this message/ 
 
 " To this Mah-to-toh-pa replied ' Hora-to-ah is 
 a chief and a brave warrior, and worthy of Mah-to- 
 toh-pa. Mah-to-toh-pa leads the Mandan war- 
 party this day. Mah-to-toh-pa is glad to meet the 
 war-chief of the Crows, and save the blood of his 
 brave warriors. It is Mah-to-toh-pa, war-chief of 
 the Mandans, who sends this reply/ 
 
 "After the messenger had returned, the Crow 
 chief was seen galloping out upon the plain, on a 
 milk-white horse, with a shield on his arm and a 
 gun in his hand. 
 
 " Mah-to-toh-pa was not slow to meet him. They 
 passed each other twice, and fired with their guns 
 without effect; but Mah-to-toh-pa's powder-horn 
 was shot away ; he held it up, and showing that he 
 had no more powder, the Crow chief drew his powder- 
 horn from his neck, and flung it to the ground and 
 his gun also, and drew his bow, his shield and quiver 
 being slung upon his back Mah-to-toh-pa did the 
 same, and the combat was now with bows and 
 arrows. Many were the passes that were made, and 
 many the arrows that were shielded off. Each chief 
 was wounded in the legs, and the horse of Mah-to- 
 toh-pa fell, with an arrow through its heart. Mah- 
 to-toh-pa was on his feet, but his bow and his shield 
 were before him. 
 
140 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 " The Crow chief was a gallant and brave warrior 
 and was worthy of Mah-to-toh-pa ; he sprang npon 
 the ground, and driving an arrow through the heart 
 of his horse, stood before his antagonist. The 
 battle here began again, but was near its end, for at 
 last the Crow chief raised and shook his empty 
 quiver, and throwing it to the ground, drew and 
 brandished his terrible knife. Mah-to-toh-pa's 
 quiver was also hurled to the ground, and he said 
 ' Yes ! ' as both were rushing on. His knife was 
 not in his belt ! but it was too late, they were in each 
 other's arms ! The wounds of Mah-to-toh-pa were 
 several ; the two-edged blade of his antagonist's knife 
 was twice drawn through his hand, but he at length 
 wrested it from his enemy's hand and plunged it to 
 his heart. Thus fell Hora-to-ah, the war-chief of 
 the Crows. The scalp of that chief and his war 
 knife, with his own blood dried upon it, belong to 
 Mah-to-toh-pa, and here they are; and the right 
 hand of Mah-to-toh-pa, as you see, is crippled for 
 the remainder of his days." 
 
 The women in the Mandan tribe, like those of 
 most of the neighbouring tribes, were comfortably, 
 and oftentimes very beautifully, clad with skins, 
 extending from the throat quite to the feet. They 
 were generally modest and timid, and observed ex- 
 ceeding propriety in their conduct Some of them 
 were very beautiful, of which the Indians seem to 
 have a correct and high appreciation. 
 
 Amongst the Mandans, the reputed belles when I 
 was there were Mi-neek-e-sunk-te-ca (the mink), and 
 
SINGULAR NAMES. Ul 
 
 Slia-ko-ka (mint), daughters of two of the subordi- 
 nate chiefs; amongst the Riccarrees, Pshan-shaw 
 (the sweet-scented grass); and amongst the Mina- 
 tarrees, a few miles above the Mandans, Seet-see-le-a 
 (the mid-day sun). These were all very beautiful 
 and (then) unmarried girls. I painted their por- 
 traits full length, in their soft and white dresses, 
 made of the mountain sheep-skins, and fringed, not 
 with scalp-locks, but with ermine, and beautifully 
 embroidered with porcupine quills. 
 
 How curious their names, and how pleasing! The 
 sweet-scented grass is a sort of grass with a delicious 
 odour which these little girls gather in the prairies, 
 and which they wear in braids amongst the strings 
 of beads on their necks. 
 
 And also amongst the Assinneboins, Chin-cha-pee 
 (the fire-bug that creeps, or glow-worm). Amongst 
 the Shawanos, Kay-te-qua (the female eagle); of the 
 loways, Ru-ton-ye-wee-me (the strutting pigeon); 
 and among the Puncahs, Hee-la-dee (the pure foun- 
 tain), and Mong-shong-shaw (the bending willow). 
 Among the Pawnee-Picts, Shee-de-a (wild sage) ; 
 and amongst the Kiowas, Wun-pan-to-mee (the 
 white weasel). 
 
 All of these have been brought to me to paint, by 
 the chiefs and braves, as their most beautiful and 
 modest girls, and whom I have painted, amongst 
 the hundreds of female portraits which I have made 
 in the various tribes. 
 
 And the names of the men also ; how infinitely 
 various, and sometimes how droll ! They have no 
 
LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 family names, as we have in the civilized world, nor 
 Christian names, like John and George, etc. ; but 
 every one has a name, especially and entirely his 
 own. As in the few examples selected amongst the 
 chiefs and braves whose portraits I have painted : 
 The Thunder The Thunderer The Roaring 
 Thunder The Whirling Thunder The Red Thun- 
 der The Yellow Thunder He who comes on the 
 Thunder The Cloud The White Cloud The 
 Flying Cloud The Black Cloud The Driving 
 Cloud The Strong Wind The Steep Wind The 
 Walking Rain The Hail-storm The Moonlight 
 Night The Deep Lake The Round Island The 
 Hard Hickory The Earth Standing Both Sides 
 of the River To fix with the Foot The Man of 
 Sense The Busy Man The Mouse -coloured 
 Feather The long Finger-nails The very sweet 
 Man He who sits everywhere He who travels 
 everywhere The Smoke There he goes No Fool 
 He who carries a Wolf New Fire Tobacco 
 Stone with Horns He who fights with a Feather 
 The Wolf tied with Hair Hair of the BuUs Neck 
 The Bow and Quiver The Handsome Bird 
 The Flying Gull The Bear's Fat The Bears 
 Shoulder The Buffalo's Back-fat The Bird of 
 Thunder The Grizzly Bear The Bear's Track 
 The Yellow Bear The White Bear He who drinks 
 the juice of the Stone The Grass, Bush, and Blos- 
 som. And yet ten thousand others, as they may 
 get them from some achievement, some resemblance, 
 or some whim or accident of their lives, and which 
 
TRADITION OP THE FLOOD. 143 
 
 are, from these circumstances, often changed and 
 new ones taken ; and it matters little to these poor 
 and happy people how often their names are changed, 
 or what their names are, as they are nowhere en 
 rolled in tax schedules, nor have they ever to sign 
 their names to contracts or promissory-notes or bonds. 
 
 The Mandans related to me a very curious and 
 distinct tradition they have of the Deluge, teaching 
 that all the human race were destroyed by the rising 
 of the waters, excepting one man, who landed his 
 big canoe on a high mountain, not far from their 
 village, and was saved, and that all the present 
 human family have descended from that man. 
 
 The name of this " first, or only man," was Nu- 
 mohk-muck-a-nah; and they held an annual religious 
 ceremony, lasting four days, in commemoration of 
 the event, lest it should happen again. This strange 
 ceremony they called 0-kee-pa, and have an immense 
 wigwam kept solely for this purpose, called the 
 Medicine Lodge. This strange man, Nu-mohk- 
 muck-a-nah, professes to come every season (about 
 the middle of June) and open the Medicine Lodge, 
 and to commence the celebration by appointing a 
 medicine man, whom they then call 0-kee-pa-ka-see-ka 
 (the conductor of the ceremonies), and then returns 
 over the prairies to the high mountains, where he 
 professes to dwell, telling the people they may be 
 sure he will reappear the next year, to open the 
 ceremonies again. 
 
 The appearance of this personage is very grotesque 
 and curious ; he, no doubt, is a medicine man who 
 
144 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 goes out upon the prairies the night before, and 
 enters the village at sunrise, from the mountains in 
 the west, where he tells them he has resided from the 
 time that he landed in his big canoe. He wears a 
 robe made of four white wolf-skins, his head-dress 
 is made of two raven-skins, and his body, otherwise 
 naked, is covered with white clay, and his face and 
 his cheeks painted, apparently, to personate a 
 white man. 
 
 I was fortunate enough to be present during the 
 four days' ceremony, in which the young men were 
 suspending their bodies by splints run through the 
 flesh on the shoulders, and breasts, and arms, and 
 otherwise torturing themselves in various ways, as a 
 religious penance, almost too shocking to describe, 
 and entirely too long to be fully explained in this 
 place. I consider it altogether the most extra- 
 ordinary and curious of all the customs I have met 
 in the savage countries. 
 
 It was pitiable to see so kind, so hospitable, and 
 apparently so happy a people, under the influence of 
 ignorant superstition, practising such self-inflicted 
 cruelties ; but it was a part of their religion, and, 
 like all religious customs, would have required time 
 and patience to have corrected But, poor un- 
 fortunate people, they are all gone, and their errors 
 are done away with ! 
 
 The second summer after my visit to them, one of 
 the American Fur Company's steamers, ascending 
 the Missouri River to trade with the various tribes, 
 and to supply their trading establishments with rum 
 
DESTRUCTION OF THE MANDANS. 145 
 
 and whisky, and other articles of commerce, im- 
 prudently stopped in front of the Mandan village 
 while there were two of their men sick with small- 
 pox on board. The disease was soon taken into the 
 Mandan village, and, in the space of three months, 
 the two thousand Mandans were reduced to the 
 exact number of thirty-two. This I give to the 
 world on the authority of a letter in my possession, 
 written by a Mr. Potts, formerly of the City of 
 Edinburgh, in Scotland, and at that time a clerk in 
 the Fur Company's factory at the Mandan village, 
 and who says " At the moment I am writing, there 
 are but thirty-two of these poor people in existence, 
 and they mostly women and children." 
 
 What an illustration is this of the wickedness of 
 mercenary white men, who push their commerce into 
 the Indian country, calling these poor people up to 
 trade under the cannon's mouth, and selling rum 
 and whisky to them, as these poisons were sold at 
 the Mandan village at that time, at eighteen dollars 
 per gallon, and other articles of extravagance and 
 luxury at similar ruinous prices ! 
 
 There was a government Indian agent on board 
 of the steamer when this unfortunate occurrence 
 took place, a staunch and hoc curable man Major 
 Dougherty who remonstrated against the steamer's 
 advancing to the Mandan village with the small-pox 
 on board, and ordered the commander to turn it 
 back ; but he was two thousand miles beyond the 
 reach of the laws, in a country where brute force 
 was the law of the land, and what could he do? He 
 
146 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 could do nothing against the weight of a solid cargo 
 of rum and whisky, and so the poor Mandans 
 suffered ; and the disease went to the Blackfeet, of 
 whom twenty-five thousand perished, and how much 
 farther towards the Pacific, and how many other 
 thousands perished, no one knows, for newspapers 
 are not received from those regions, and fur-traders 
 are not the most reliable sources for information. 
 
 The last I saw of my friends the Mandans, was at 
 the shore of the river in front of their village. My 
 canoe and all my packs were brought down in safety 
 to the water's edge my canoe placed in the water 
 the whole tribe upon the beach. My friend, Mah- 
 to-toh-pa, the Wolf chief, and the Great Medicine, 
 all successively embraced me in their arms ; the war- 
 riors and braves shook hands with me, and the 
 women and children saluted me with shouts of fare- 
 well ; and Ba'tiste, and Bogard, and myself were again 
 afloat, and on our way for St. Louis. 
 
 At this exciting moment, when we had got too 
 far into the current to stop, and well under way, a 
 gallant young warrior whom I recognised followed 
 opposite to us, at the water's edge, and, leaning over, 
 tossed safely into the canoe a parcel which he took 
 out from under his robe; and seeing me attempting 
 to unfold it, he waved his hand and shook his head, 
 and made a sign for me to lay it down in the canoe, 
 which I did. All now was done, and we were off. 
 
 After we had got a mile or so from the village, I 
 took in my paddle and opened the parcel by untying 
 a great many thongs, and, to my great surprise, 
 
A SILENT GIST. 147 
 
 found the most beautiful pair of leggings which I 
 ever had seen, fringed with a profusion of scalp- 
 locks, and handsomely garnished with porcupine- 
 quills. 
 
 These I instantly recognised as belonging to the 
 son of a famous chief, the "Four Men," and the 
 identical pair I had been for some time trying to 
 purchase, and for which I had offered the young 
 man a horse, but got no reply, excepting that " he 
 could not sell them, as the scalp-locks were so 
 precious as trophies, and his fellow- warriors would 
 laugh at him if he sold them." 
 
 What a beautiful trait this ! Having parted with 
 me without the least prospect of ever seeing me 
 again, he compels me to accept as a present what he 
 could not sell to me the day before for the price of 
 a horse ! and envelops it in an intricacy of thongs 
 which he had intended I should not be able to untie 
 until the current had wafted me beyond the possi- 
 bility of my making him any compensation for 
 them ! and how much like the gift of the saddle of 
 venison left in my father's wood-house, containing 
 the eagle plume, by the unfortunate On-o-gong-way, 
 and which so opened the eyes and the heart of poor 
 Johnny O'Neil I 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Indian Signal An Excitement Fort Pierre The Sioux 
 Doctor Sioux Portraits Jealous Sioux Chiefs Story of 
 the Dog Death of Mah-to-chee-ga Pursuit of the Dog- 
 Death of the Dog The Author Challenged. 
 
 |N on still glides our little boat, as Ba'tiste 
 and Bogard paddle and I steer ; the un- 
 ceasing banks of greensward, enamelled 
 with beautiful wild flowers, and the countless sloping 
 hills and knolls, with their verdant sides, are still 
 before, around, and behind us. The river still winds 
 in its tortuous course, and at every turn a new and 
 cheerful landscape is presented, with here and there 
 beautiful meadows, with tufts and copses of trees, 
 and many of the hill-sides dotted with solitary oaks ; 
 the whole presenting a continued and never-ending 
 view as of an old and beautifully cultivated country 
 greensward, instead of ploughed fields, with the 
 houses and hedges removed. 
 
 Such are yet the American prairies, and more must 
 still be said of them before they will be fully under- 
 stood. Night after night, and for weeks of nights, 
 148 
 
SHOOTING IN A RAVINE, 
 
 our little craft is hauled ashore, and our robes spread 
 upon the grass or upon the barren sand-bars, while 
 the silvery, but discordant notes of the bands of 
 howling wolves are hourly serenading us as we are 
 getting our night's rest. 
 
 The great tribe of Sioux are below us, and there 
 are probably some days yet between us. Our larder 
 was low, and a lazy little herd, quietly sleeping and 
 grazing on the right bank, tempted us ashore, where 
 we silently landed our canoe, and nicely approaching 
 in a deep ravine, we soon got our three buffalo 
 tongues and our three fleeces (or humps) without 
 the slightest trouble, and continued on; I having 
 stopped a few minutes to make a sketch of the snug 
 little box in which the band were luxuriating. 
 
 Whilst we had enough to eat, and our paddles 
 were constantly at work, it was natural to sing, and 
 to whistle, and to tell stories for amusement ; and 
 whilst Ba'tiste and Bogard were relating to me some 
 exciting and amusing stories about the Crows and 
 the Blackfeet, in whose countries they had been 
 trapping and trading, bang! went a gun on the 
 shore opposite to us, and skipping, skipping, came 
 a bullet across the water, a rod or so ahead of our 
 canoe! An Indian was standing at the water's 
 edge, alone, and making signs and calling to us to 
 come ashore. 
 
 The shot fired ahead of us was the usual friendly 
 mode of inviting parties ashore on that river, but is 
 generally the second invitation, the first being by 
 signals and by calling. Bogard was anxious to go 
 
150 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 ashore, but I did not exactly like the mode of invita- 
 tion, nor the position of things ; for this man could 
 scarcely be supposed to be there alone ; and he had 
 placed himself on the shore just above the sudden 
 bend in the river, where the current running in very 
 swift, would bring us in quite near to a rocky shore, 
 in case we drifted with it. In this place his com- 
 panions, if he had any, would naturally conceal 
 themselves in case they had any unfriendly design 
 upon us, as they might easily have ; there being then 
 existing many unsettled feuds between some of that 
 tribe and some of the fur- traders, for which I or any 
 other traveller might be liable to suffer. 
 
 The river was very wide where we were, and I 
 steered the canoe nearer to the opposite side, to pre- 
 vent floating with the current into the bend. Bogard, 
 who was a drunken fellow, and I believe thought it 
 might be an opportunity for getting something to 
 drink, said in rather an authoritative tone, " We will 
 go ashore ; " and Ba'tiste said, " Oui, oui ; " and I 
 said, " No ; the canoe is mine, and I won't go ashore 
 I don't like the look of things ashore ; " when both 
 drew in their paddles and violently threw them down 
 in the bottom of the canoe, and were evidently look- 
 ing over their shoulders for their rifles, which were 
 lying under a buffalo robe between them and me. 
 
 I instantly seized my double-barrelled gun, and 
 cocking both barrels, laid it across my lap, having 
 their backs, luckily, towards me. They perfectly 
 understood the meaning of this movement, and, from 
 my looks, what would have been the instant conse- 
 
AN EXCITEMENT. 151 
 
 quence if either of them had reached for his gun. 
 I then commenced paddling the canoe myself, and 
 succeeded, by a violent effort, in not allowing it to 
 fall into the current near the shore, and in forcing it 
 towards the opposite side. Just at this time, and 
 when the two men were snarling and growling at 
 me for " being afraid of one, poor, solitary Indian," 
 some twenty or thirty naked warriors, seeing that 
 we were not coming in, rose from behind the rocks 
 where we should naturally have landed if we had 
 gone ashore, raising the war-whoop, and running 
 down the shore to meet us below the bend. 
 
 " II faut combattre ! " exclaimed Ba'tiste, as he 
 seized his rifle. "No," said I, "on ne combattre 
 pas. II faut ramer ! ramer ! " " On rame ! " said 
 Ba'tiste, laying down his rifle and taking up his 
 paddle, and all three paddled with all our might. 
 
 Bogard, who was a desperate and sullen fellow, 
 said, " We must knock over some of those fellows." 
 I said, " No ; we have nothing to do but to row, and 
 every man to ply his paddle/' I kept the canoe 
 about in the middle of the river, in order to take 
 advantage of the strongest current, and the Indians 
 were running on the beach and sounding the war- 
 whoop, which showed us beyond a doubt what their 
 object was. Notwithstanding all our exertions, they 
 were in a little time some distance below us, when 
 some eight or ten of them sprang into the water and 
 came swimming towards us, holding their bows and 
 arrows in the left hand above the water. 
 
 Seeing them thus ahead of us, and nearing the boat. 
 
152 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 I then said to my men, " Now, take up your rifles, but 
 don't fire unless I give the word." We all took in 
 our paddles, and with our rifles in our hands, and 
 cocked, I beckoned to them to go ashore ; but still 
 coming nearer, and some of them within a few rods, 
 I raised my rifle as if to fire, when they sunk almost 
 entirely under the water, and commenced returning 
 towards the shore. Those on shore were still running 
 and yelling, and setting them on us again, when 
 several of them approached us a second time ; but 
 in a similar manner were turned back. Seeing that 
 they were armed with only bows and arrows, though 
 they use these with great effect in the water, I felt 
 no further alarm, and resolved not to use any un- 
 necessary cruelty upon them. If they had begun 
 upon us, however, we should have been obliged to 
 fire, and could easily have killed every one of them 
 as they approached our boat. 
 
 Getting ashore, the whole party followed opposite 
 to us for several miles, but finding the chase unprofit- 
 able, they turned back, and we paddled on till after 
 dark, and bivouaced on the opposite side of the 
 river without further molestation. 
 
 Who these people were, whether Sioux or Eiccar- 
 rees, or what was their design, I never was able to 
 learn ; but it has been a source of continual gratifi- 
 cation to me that we had the forbearance not to fire 
 upon them. 
 
 A few days more of paddling brought us to Fort 
 Pierre, a large trading establishment amongst the 
 Sioux, with fifteen hundred skin wigwams of Sioux 
 
PORT PIERRE. 153 
 
 Indians grouped upon the plains around it. Hundreds 
 on hundreds of horses were grazing on the prairies, 
 and as many children and dogs guarding them. 
 
 I have shown you how the Sioux Indians build 
 and ornament their tents, and you can easily imagine 
 now how picturesque and beautiful a scene was 
 around us. My canoe, as amongst the Mandans, 
 was carried by the squaws (as they call their women) ; 
 a tent was prepared for my painting operations, and 
 I was soon at work with my brushes, and plenty of 
 picturesque subjects to paint. 
 
 Ha-won-je-ta (the One Horn), head civil-chief of 
 the Sioux, was the first whose portrait I hit off, the 
 size of life, in a beautiful costume. All had been 
 quite silent about my wigwam, and my advent but 
 little cared about or known, until this private opera- 
 tion, known only to the chief and his doctor, was 
 finished, and his portrait, held by the corners of the 
 frame, was elevated above the heads of the crowd by 
 the great medicine, crying to the gathering multi- 
 tude in front of my tent : " Look, my friends ! we 
 have now got two chiefs when the one is dead the 
 other will live look at him and be ashamed I he 
 smiles upon you and is alive ; to-morrow you will 
 see me. Be patient, my friends ! I am but a little 
 boy." (I had made a dead colouring of the old 
 doctor, and set it by to dry.) " Mine is put in a 
 box, to grow over-night ; to-morrow, my face will 
 shine upon you. This is the wonderful work of a 
 great white medicine man; he is now sitting and 
 smoking with the chief ; you cannot see him, but 
 
154 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 perhaps he will sometime walk through our village, 
 and then you can look at him. The Great Spirit 
 has shown him how to do these things, and you 
 must make but little noise. He says I can do the 
 same thing, and I think so, my friends 1" 
 
 The doctor's harangue was long and very curious, 
 and, through some little crevices in my tent, the 
 astonished multitude was one of the most curious 
 sights I ever beheld an interminable mass of red 
 and painted heads, of eagles' quills, of ermine-skins, 
 of beads and brooches, spears, lances, shields, and 
 quivers. Some were mounted on horses, and others 
 raised upon the shoulders of their friends, and all 
 gazing in wonder and astonishment at the one 
 object the chief "that had a little life" (as they 
 said) ; the corners of whose mouth many of them 
 could see to move, and the eyes of which actually 
 turned and followed all as they changed their posi- 
 tions. Oh, for a photographic lens ! what a picture 
 or two I could have got ! 
 
 " My friends," said the doctor, " you see the chief's 
 eyes move ! if any doubts that, let him walk round 
 and look at the chief again. My friends, our chief 
 is a great chief! but here is a chief whose eyes are 
 on you all at the same time ; he sees you all at one 
 time alike. What chief can do that ? My friends, 
 put your hands over your mouths and be silent; 
 to-morrow you will see me!" 
 
 Mr. Laidlaw, the factor at that fort, in whose 
 house I was made welcome, brought into my wigwam 
 several of the most distinguished chiefs and warriors 
 
SIOUX PORTRAITS. 155 
 
 to be painted, and I had full employment. The 
 chiefs and warriors were seated round the sides of the 
 wigwam and smoking their pipes while I would be 
 at work at one, and each one waiting patiently for 
 his turn to come. 
 
 This time they seemed to while away very merrily, 
 relating all the anecdotes, creditable or otherwise, of 
 his life, whilst he was under the operation of the 
 brush, with his mouth shut, and unable to deny 
 anything that was said. The scene was one of con- 
 tinual merriment and laughter, and the laughing 
 and fun was increased when the operation was over 
 and the portrait placed before them, when they were 
 not sparing in criticisms on its good looks and in 
 anecdotes of his life, which " it reminded them of." 
 
 In the meantime the door of my wigwam was 
 guarded by a warrior with a lance in his hand, a 
 sort of police placed there by the chief, with orders 
 not to allow any one to enter except those whose 
 rank entitled them to admission ; and the facetious 
 old doctor had enough to do outside, magnifying my 
 wonderful powers, and the importance of medicine, 
 whilst he was keeping back the women and children 
 and dogs, and hushing them into respectful silence. 
 
 Thus progressed the mystery operations inside and 
 outside of my wigwam from day to day ; and I had 
 but one difficulty which I could apprehend before 
 me, which was this : It had been represented to these 
 chiefs and warriors that I was a great chief in my 
 own country, that I had heard they had some very 
 distinguished chiefs and warriors amongst them, and 
 
156 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 had come a vast distance to see who they were, and 
 to obtain their portraits to hang on the walls along- 
 side of the great men in the civilized world. This 
 made it necessary that they should be painted in 
 order, according to rank. I had begun with the 
 head chief, and gone on until I had painted nearly 
 the number that I cared about painting, and from 
 necessity, some of the ugliest looking men I ever 
 saw ; and finding new subjects waiting in my wig- 
 wam every day in full dress, and ready to take their 
 turn as decided by the chiefs, and knowing that the 
 Sioux tribe contained forty bands, with forty chiefs, 
 and ten times that number of medicine men and 
 great warriors, I began to apprehend a serious diffi- 
 culty approaching. Some remonstrances were also 
 being raised by several of the jealous chiefs, as to 
 the right of the great medicine being painted next 
 to the head chief; but that was a fait accompli, 
 and the chief decided that it was all right. 
 
 In the midst of these growing difficulties, and 
 amongst these jealous spirits, Mr. Laidlaw brought 
 into my wigwam a fine young man in his war dress 
 and war paint, and fully armed and equipped, and 
 said "Mr. Catlin, I have brought in a friend of 
 mine for you to paint Mah-to-chee-ga (the Little 
 Bear) ; he is not a chief, but he is a young warrior 
 of such distinction, and of so good a character, that 
 I am sure the chiefs will agree that he shall be 
 painted." To this the chiefs all agreed, and he 
 taking his position, I put a canvas on my easel and 
 commenced immediately. His first attitude was 
 
STORY OF THE DOG. 157 
 
 beautiful, and what I wanted. He was looking off, 
 towards the sides of the wigwam, as if gazing over 
 a boundless prairie; the face was, therefore, what 
 we painters call a " three-quarter face," one-half of 
 it thrown into shadow. 
 
 While I was painting, and had the portrait pretty 
 well advanced, one of the secondary chiefs, by the 
 name of Shon-ka (the Dog), and whose portrait I had 
 painted some days before, rather a surly-looking 
 fellow, and somewhat sarcastic, crept round behind 
 me, and for a while overlooked the operation of my 
 brush, having a full view of the portrait. Being an 
 evil-disposed man, disliked by most of his fellow- 
 chiefs, and jealous of this rising warrior, he addressed 
 to him this insulting remark " I see that you are 
 but half a man." " Who says that ?" said Mah-to- 
 chee-ga, in a low tone of voice, and without the 
 change of a muscle or the direction of his eye. 
 " Shon-ka says it," replied the Dog. " Let Shon-ka 
 prove it," replied Mah-to-chee-ga. " Shon-ka proves 
 it in this way ; the white medicine man knows that 
 one-half of your face is good for nothing, as he has 
 left it out in the picture." Mah-to-chee-ga replied, 
 " If I am but half a man, I am man enough for 
 Shon-ka in any way he pleases to try it." 
 
 Here a sharp repartee took place for a few minutes, 
 the Dog keeping his eyes upon the portrait, and 
 those of Mah-to-chee-ga still stretching over the dis- 
 tant prairie. In this dialogue, which was carried on 
 to the great amusement of the chiefs, Mah-to-chee- 
 ga seemed to have the advantage of his adversary, 
 
158 LIFE AMONO THE INDIANS. 
 
 who sprang upon his feet, and wrapping his robe 
 violently around him, suddenly darted out of my 
 wigwam, evidently in a rage. 
 
 The chiefs seemed, from the change in their man- 
 ner, to be apprehensive of the result, while my sub- 
 ject still stood without a change or apparent emotion, 
 and so stood until the portrait was finished, when he 
 deliberately took off from his legs a beautiful pair of 
 leggings, fringed with scalp-locks of his own earning, 
 and asked me to accept them as a present. 
 
 After sitting down and smoking a pipe with the 
 chiefs, and hearing their comments on his portrait, 
 with which they were all well pleased, he got up, 
 shook hands with me, and went out, passing into 
 his own wigwam, which was but a few paces 
 from mine. 
 
 Apprehensive of what might happen from the last 
 expressions of the Dog, as he had left my wigwam, 
 he took down his gun and loaded it in a hurried 
 manner, which excited the apprehensions and inquiry 
 of his wife, to which he made no reply, but set his 
 gun aside, and prostrating himself upon the ground, 
 his face to the dirt, according to their mode when 
 danger is near, he prayed a moment to the Great 
 Spirit; and during that moment, to prevent mis- 
 chief, his wife extracted the ball from his gun with- 
 out his knowing it, and set it down ; and at the next 
 moment, the voice of the Dog (who had gone to his 
 own wigwam, and returned with his gun in his 
 hand) was heard in front of his door " If Mah-to- 
 ohee-ga is man enough for Shon-ka, let -him come out 
 
PURSUIT OF THE DOG. 159 
 
 and prove it." Like a flash of lightning, Mah-to- 
 chee-ga was upon his feet, his gun in his hand, and 
 the instant he rushed out, the two guns, lapping over 
 each other, were fired ! Mah-to-chee-ga fell, welter- 
 ing in his blood, that side of his face entirely blown 
 away which had been "left out" in the painting, 
 and decided by the Dog to be " good for nothing ;" 
 and the Dog, with his face a little blackened, and 
 the thumb of his left hand carried away, fled to the 
 outer part of the village occupied by his band, where 
 he called upon the warriors of his band to protect him. 
 
 At the firing of the guns, the chiefs all rushed out 
 of my wigwam, each one raising the tent behind 
 where he sat, and disappearing in an instant. I was 
 left alone ; not a word for some time, but footsteps 
 running and leaping were heard in all directions. 
 I peeped through the crevices in my medicine house, 
 and saw women, and children, and men running in 
 all parts ; the horses were caught and brought in at 
 full gallop from the prairies, the twilight was ap- 
 proaching, and the dogs were howling. 
 
 I was slipping my pistols into my belt, and exa- 
 mining the caps of my double-barrel, when Laidlaw 
 dashed into my tent. " Now we shall have it ! " said 
 he ; t( now for the pictures ! That splendid fellow, 
 the Little Bear, is dead ! all that side of his face you 
 left out in the portrait is shot off ! Hang the pictures ! 
 I have been afraid of them. I have urged these 
 people to sit for these pictures, and they are saying 
 everywhere that you are the cause of the Little 
 Bear's death. The warriors of the Little Bear's band 
 
160 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 are all arming, and, if they can't kill the Dog, they 
 have said they will look to you for satisfaction." 
 
 At this moment guns were heard firing in the out- 
 skirts of the village. 
 
 " Leave your tent as quick as lightning," said 
 Laidlaw, " and come into the fort ; you know it is 
 all open ; it is but half-finished, and we may all be 
 cut off before morning." I followed with him, leav- 
 ing all behind me excepting my arms and ammuni- 
 tion. Most of Laidlaw's men were off on the prairies 
 at the time, and our position therefore was extremely 
 critical. 
 
 One of Laidlaw's clerks, by the name of Halsey, 
 and myself, took possession of one of the un- 
 armed bastions, a small log building, barricading the 
 windows and doors as well as we could, and receiving 
 from the Company's stores some two or three dozen 
 of muskets, which we loaded, and stood listening and 
 waiting results during the greater part of the night 
 in almost breathless anxiety. We kept our quarters 
 darkened, and could hear the constant trampling 
 and running in different parts of the village, and now 
 and then the flash of a gun or two, and at last a 
 rapid succession of flashes on and over the prairies, 
 convincing us that the Dog was retreating, protected 
 by his warriors, whilst the warriors of the Little 
 Bear's band were pursuing him into the country. 
 
 On the following morning all was quiet, but 
 the village and fort had assumed quite a different 
 appearance. All was silent, and seemed sullen. 
 Several fine young men on both sides were reported 
 
PURSUIT OF THE DOG. 161 
 
 killed, and the Dog, though wounded, was still re- 
 treating, and pursued. My wigwain was found 
 solitary and unentered, just as I had left it. My 
 paintings and all things were speedily packed. We 
 joined together in burying the remains of the fallen 
 warrior, raising an honourable monument over his 
 grave ; and made liberal presents to his widow and 
 all of his relations, which saved us perhaps from 
 violence. 
 
 The chiefs treated me with friendship afterwards, 
 apparently satisfied that I was in no wise to blame ; 
 but the medicine man was of a different opinion, 
 notwithstanding all his kindness and attachment to 
 me. He had "just learned that my medicine was 
 too great," and that I " must have known that that 
 side of the warrior's face was good for nothing, or I 
 would not have left it out in the portrait ; and if 
 I had not left it out there would have been nothing 
 said about it, and that therefore the Little Bear 
 would still have been alive." There was no meta- 
 physics amongst these people to rebut such con- 
 clusive reasoning as this ; and though we had 
 mended the breach as well as we could, I thought 
 the safest way was to be on the water again as quickly 
 as possible ; which it is easy to imagine I lost no 
 time in effecting.* 
 
 * I learned from Mr. M'Kenzie in St. Louis, who descended 
 the Missouri some months after this affair, that in pursuing the 
 Dog, the friends of Mah-to-chee-ga had, by mistake, killed 
 Tah-tech-a-da-hair, a brother of the Dog, but a very fine man, 
 and whose portrait I had also painted, and afterwards, near the 
 base of the Rocky Mountains, they succeeded in killing the Dog. 
 
162 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 Thus ended one of the most exciting and lament- 
 able affairs growing out of my interviews with these 
 curious people ; strongly illustrating, from its be- 
 ginning to its end, the high and chivalrous jealousy 
 existing in their society, and a striking instance of 
 the extent and certainty to which they are sure to 
 carry their revenge. 
 
 Another brief anecdote, growing out of the unac- 
 countable process of my portrait painting amongst 
 these people, will help to show further how far their 
 superstitions will sometimes carry them, and may be 
 worth relating. 
 
 While ascending the Missouri Kiver on a subse- 
 quent occasion, and stopping in the tribe of Omahas, 
 after having painted several of the chiefs and warriors, 
 I painted the portrait of a fine young man, who was 
 not a warrior, but a brave. The portrait was recog- 
 nised and approved by all ; but I had observed him 
 for several days afterwards, coming in and sitting 
 down, and looking at his portrait a while, and going 
 off, apparently in a somewhat surly and melancholy 
 mood. One day he brought in the interpreter, and said 
 " he did not like his picture ; it was not good; it looked 
 ashamed, because it was looking the other way." 
 
 The portrait was a three-quarter face, and the 
 eyes looking off. He said " I had painted all the 
 others right, looking straight forward. He had been 
 always in the habit of looking white men in the face ; 
 but here they would all see him with his face turned 
 the other way, as if he was ashamed." He requested 
 me to alter it, and make his eyes look straight for- 
 
THE AUTHOE CHALLENGED. 163 
 
 ward. The chiefs were all pleased with it, and 
 advised me not to do so. 
 
 He had learned a few days afterwards that I was 
 not going to change his eyes in the portrait, and the 
 interpreter came into my wigwam, and said I had 
 got to fight ; that the young man was in front of 
 my wigwam, and ready, and he believed there was 
 no alternative. 
 
 I went out with my palette in my hand, and to be 
 sure, here he was, entirely naked and ready. I ex- 
 plained to him that I was very much surprised, and 
 that I loved him too much to fight him ; and also, 
 that I had not thought he was so much offended 
 with his portrait, which the chiefs all liked so much ; 
 and if to alter the eyes of his picture was all that he 
 wanted, I would do it with the greatest pleasure the 
 next day. This prevented all necessity of our meet- 
 ing; and the next day, with some water colours 
 mixed on my palette with some dry white lead, and 
 he sitting a few minutes, I painted him a new set 
 of eyes, staring in a prodigious manner across the 
 bridge of his nose, which pleased him exactly, as 
 they were looking straight forward. He shook hands 
 with me, seeing what I had done, and made me a 
 present of a pair of leggings as an evidence of his 
 satisfaction. 
 
 On my return to St. Louis, a year afterwards, a 
 piece of sponge with some clean water took off the 
 new pair of eyes, and the portrait now stands as it 
 was originally made, one of the most interesting in 
 my collection. 
 
 L 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Canoe Stolen Pawnee War-Party Falls of St. Anthony - 
 Fox and Wisconsin Payers St. Peter's River Pipe-stone 
 Quarry Stone Man Medicine The Thunder's Nest- 
 Descent of St. Peter's Packs Stolen The Root Diggers. 
 
 ]UT, my little readers, we need not go on all 
 the way to St. Louis ; it is a long distance, 
 though Ba'tiste and Bogard and I did jog 
 on, through smoke and through fire, for the fall 
 season was approaching, and the broad prairie 
 meadows, with their waving grass eight or ten feet 
 high, were now in flames ; and our long beards in 
 constant danger, for my razors were lost in the 
 unfortunate affair of the tin kettle, and for six 
 months our beards had had their own way. 
 
 My poor little canoe, so safely taken care of by the 
 Mandans and the Sioux, was stolen from me at the 
 wharf at St. Louis within two hours after our arrival ; 
 and my beard being thoughtlessly shaved off, so that 
 my friends might know me, rendered me a laughing- 
 stock for the space of two or three weeks, until the 
 sunburnt redness of the upper half could be made to 
 164 
 
PAWNEE WAR-PARTY. 165 
 
 harmonise with the death-like paleness of the nether 
 portion of my face. 
 
 From the Sioux, on the Missouri, it is but a step 
 of two or three hundred miles to the Platte River, 
 on the banks of which dwell the numerous tribe of 
 Pawnees. Oh, what a terrible, and yet beautiful- 
 looking set of warriors they are ; their heads all 
 shaved, and painted blood-red, and surmounted with 
 the beautiful red crests, as I have before described 
 to you ! When a war-party of them, on their war 
 horses, are prancing along over the prairies in the 
 distance, with the blades of their long lances glisten- 
 ing in the sun, they look like a bed of red poppies 
 mingled with the silvery heads of barley, bowing and 
 waving in the wind. 
 
 These are the gentlemen who catch such vast 
 quantities of wild horses, their country abounding in 
 countless numbers of them, and also in the most 
 numerous herds of buffaloes. 
 
 Shon-ha-ki-hee-ga (the Horse chief), oftentimes 
 called Wee-tar-ra-sha-ro, is the head chief of this 
 tribe, a very dignified and hospitable man. It was 
 in this man's wigwam that the Hon. Charles Aug. 
 Murray was entertained, protected, and made wel- 
 come on his visit to the Pawnees in 1833. Mr. 
 Murray, for several subsequent years, was Master 
 of her Majesty's Household. (Have you read his 
 " Prairie Bird/' and his " Tour on the Prairies" ?) 
 
 We are now near the base of the Rocky Mountains, 
 but the smoke is getting too bad here too. All is 
 gloom ; the fires are all around us ; the prairie hens 
 
166 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 are flying in all directions ; the deer are all in motion ; 
 the frogs and reptiles are looking for their burrows ; 
 the black and smoking plains are strewed with 
 bleaching bones, and shrouded nature has lost its 
 charms. 
 
 Imagination (how lucky) can waft us in a single 
 moment to the falls of St. Anthony, on the Upper 
 Mississippi ; the distance is but a thousand miles, 
 where perhaps there is a clear sky. This dashing, 
 foaming cataract, second only to Niagara, which was 
 discovered and christened after his patronymic saint 
 by the good old Father Hennepin in 1860, has been 
 a dividing boundary line, and consequently hostile 
 ground, for centuries past between the Sioux and the 
 Ojibbeway tribes, and the vicinity around is strewed 
 with human bones, which indicate the destructive 
 scenes which have been enacted there. 
 
 With Corporal Allen, seated in a beautiful birch- 
 bark canoe, he paddling while I steered, I started 
 from this beautiful scene, in the summer of 1834, 
 wending our way amidst the towering cliffs and 
 grassy plains of the mighty Mississippi to St. Louis, 
 a distance of nine hundred miles, drawing our light 
 little craft upon the beach at night, and supplying 
 our little larder from day to day with rock bass 
 taken from the rocky eddies, and wild fowl and deer, 
 which we killed with our rifles. 
 
 The Indian tribes which we saw on the banks of 
 this river were the Sioux, the Winnebagos, the 
 Menomonies, the SauTcies, the Foxes, and loways. 
 My paintings were made, and we were treated by 
 
AND WISCONSIN KIVER8. 167 
 
 them all with kindness. My little bark canoe, 
 which was beautifully painted, was always taken 
 care of by them while we stopped, and placed in the 
 water when we were prepared to proceed on our way. 
 
 When we arrived at the wharf at St. Louis, our 
 luggage was lifted and sent to my hotel, and, for the 
 sake of safety, with the captain's permission, I had 
 my pretty little canoe lifted on to the deck of his 
 steamer lying at the wharf, to remain for a few 
 hours until I could find a place to store it; and 
 when I came for it it was gone. I never again could 
 hear of it. 
 
 In the next succeeding summer, with an English 
 gentleman, Mr. Wood (now residing in Philadelphia), 
 I ascended the Fox Eiver, from Green Bay to its 
 source, also in a bark canoe. At the head of that 
 river, in making the portage to the head of the 
 Wisconsin, which we were to descend to the Mis- 
 sissippi, we had but a distance of two miles over a 
 level prairie. 
 
 My companion said, "But what are we to do here?" 
 "Well," said I, "we have got to take turn about 
 with our little canoe ; it has carried us a great way, 
 now we have got to carry our canoe." 
 
 " Oh, but, my dear sir, what shall I do with my 
 dear little wife?" (meaning his beautiful little 
 guitar, which he played with great taste). " Never 
 fear," said I ; " if you will carry the pack which I 
 have now made up, I will take the canoe on my 
 shoulders and your guitar case under my arm." 
 Turning the canoe bottom upwards, raising it 
 
168 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 upon one end, and getting the middle beam on my 
 shoulders, I very easily carried it the distance, and 
 laying it on the clear waters of the Wisconsin, there 
 but a few yards wide, we took our seats, and, paddles 
 in hand, commenced our descent of some hundreds 
 of miles to the Mississippi, encamping at night upon 
 its grassy and picturesque shores. 
 
 After we entered the Mississippi we had some 
 hard work against its boiling current before we 
 reached Prairie du Chien ; and from that to the 
 Falls of St. Anthony, a distance of four hundred 
 and fifty miles, some "up-hill work" again. Men 
 in these regions sometimes have to use their arms 
 as well as legs in travelling. 
 
 " Up-hill work" we all know the meaning of, and 
 I have had much of it to mar my progress in life ; but 
 " up-river work," with a somewhat similar meaning, 
 is a term less perfectly understood. The difference 
 between them is, that the one may be very hard 
 work, and the other is sure to be ; but in the latter, 
 like the boy who drags his sled with hard labour up 
 the hill, we are encouraged by the pleasure we anti- 
 cipate in riding down. 
 
 From the Falls of St. Anthony we ascended the 
 St. Peter's Kiver one hundred miles, to visit the red 
 pipe-stone quarry on the Grand Coteau des Prairies, 
 where the Indians procure their red stone for making 
 their beautiful pipes. This place we found to be one 
 of great interest, not only from the Indians' tradi- 
 tions about it, but from the peculiar features of the 
 country, and the singular character of the pipe-stone, 
 
PIPE-STONE QUARRY. 1G9 
 
 a species of steatite, but differing from any other 
 sort found in America, or perhaps in the world. 
 
 Many of the contiguous tribes have no doubt been 
 in the habit of visiting this place to procure the red 
 stone for their pipes, protected from the weapons of 
 their enemies, under the belief they all have that the 
 Indians were made from the red stone, it being pre- 
 cisely their own colour " that it is a part of their 
 desh that the Great Spirit gave it to them expressly 
 for their pipes, and it having been given to them all 
 alike, the Great Spirit would be angry if they raised 
 their weapons against their enemies going to or 
 returning from the red pipe-stone quarry. The 
 Great Spirit told them it was their own flesh, and 
 must be used for no other purpose than the bowls 
 of their pipes." 
 
 The Sioux, in whose country this quarry is, 
 stopped and detained us several days, and made 
 great resistance to our going there, asserting that no 
 white people had been there, and that none were 
 permitted to go, because it was a sacred place. They 
 said they believed we were sent by the government 
 to see what it was worth, so as to try to buy it from 
 them, and they did not wish to sell it. 
 
 Assuring them, however, that we were but two 
 private persons, who had only curiosity to see it, and 
 that we would respect all their feelings, they per- 
 mitted us to go and see it, provided twenty of their 
 warriors could accompany us ; probably to see that 
 we committed no sacrilege about the place. 
 
 While at the pipe-stone quarry the Indians told 
 
170 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 us we were within twenty miles of the " thunder* & 
 nest!" "Thunder's nest! why, what on earth is 
 that?" " Why," said one of the medicine men, "it 
 is the place where the thunders are hatched out." 
 " The thunder comes out of an egg, then, does it ?" 
 " Certainly." " It must be a pretty large bird to lay 
 such eggs ? " " No, it's very small" " How large ?" 
 " Why, about as large as the end of your little finger ; 
 most of the medicine men of the Sioux have seen it." 
 " Well," said my friend Mr, Wood, " we must go and 
 see that by all means. I have heard a great deal 
 about it, and I venture to say it must be something 
 very curious to see." 
 
 Our interpreter and guide, a half-breed, told us 
 that this strange place was on the highest ridge of 
 the c6teau, and the Indians believed that in the very 
 hottest days, previous to the thunder-showers, the 
 bird was sitting on her eggs, and when they hatched 
 out it made the thunder. He told us that on our 
 way to the thunder's nest he would take us a little 
 to the west, and we would see the " stone man medi- 
 cine" "This," said he, "is a great curiosity a 
 place where every Indian who is going " " Never 
 mind," said Mr. Wood, " don't tell us all about it ; 
 that will spoil it all ; let's go and see it." So we 
 took an early start the next morning, on our way to 
 the " thunder's nest" and the "stone man medicine." 
 
 We rode off at an early hour with three of the 
 Indian party, and spent the day in looking at these 
 wonderful places, the last of which we found on the 
 top of a high and rounded bluff, covered with short 
 
BIONE MAN MEDICINE. 171 
 
 grass, and from the top of which no tree or bush 
 could be seen : all around was a mass of rolling and 
 sloping hills of green stretching off to the horizon. 
 On the top of this mound, which has, perhaps, a 
 couple of acres of slightly rounded surface, lay the 
 " stone man medicine" It was the figure, in toler- 
 ably good proportions, of a man lying on his back, 
 his arms and his legs distended, of some three or 
 four hundred feet in length, composed entirely of 
 flat stones, which had been brought by Indians, 
 probably through centuries, and deposited there; 
 and, what was singular, I could not discover another 
 stone the size of a pigeon's egg for several miles on 
 either side of it. 
 
 Whatever led to the beginning of this strange 
 monument no one knows ; but the Indians tell us 
 that no Indian going on a hunting excursion, or on 
 a war-party in that direction, has any confidence in 
 success unless he stops at the " stone man medicine" 
 and adds a flat stone to the figure ; no matter how 
 far it be out of his way, or how far he has to carry 
 the stone. 
 
 There is nothing of the character of a barrow in 
 this strange mass, no one stone lying on the top of 
 another, and the number may well be said to be 
 countless ; exhibiting, by size and different colours, 
 the features of the face, and even the fingers and 
 toes of a human figure. 
 
 Our Indian companions having each deposited 
 their stone offering, and explained all they could to 
 us, we started for the " thunders nest" 
 
172 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 This terrible-sounding mystery we reached after a 
 hard ride, and found it, like the other, on the top of 
 a high prairie mound, where we observed a small 
 bunch of hazel bushes, thickly matted, and as high 
 as a man's waist, occupying some two or three rods 
 of ground. 
 
 The leader of our little party at this time was a 
 very droll old fellow, called the " Blue Medicine" 
 extensively known to the officers of the United 
 States army in the vicinity of the Falls of St. Anthony; 
 and when we were ascending the side of the mound, 
 and near to the wonderful place, the doctor requested 
 us all to dismount and wait a little. The Indians 
 took all the plumes out of their heads, and placing 
 them under their robes, smoothed down their long 
 glossy-black locks, and with their little looking- 
 glasses took a squint at their own faces, to see if the 
 paint was all right, and then, with their robes wrapt 
 around them, and the doctor leading the way, all 
 marched slowly towards the bunch of bushes, leading 
 the horses by their halters. 
 
 Within some two or three rods of the bushes the 
 Indians halted, and each one tossed a plug of tobacco 
 into the grass, which, forward of us, showed no sign 
 of human trespass ; but, under our feet and behind 
 us, seemed much trodden down by the frequency of 
 passing visitors. 
 
 I gave the reins of my horse to my companion, 
 and with my gun in both hands, as if to shoot upon 
 the wing, I started to walk into the hallowed ground 
 and see if I could put up the little bird ; and hear- 
 
DESCENT OF ST. PETER'S. 1?3 
 
 ing a deep groan behind me, I looked back, and 
 seeing the poor Indians all with their hands over 
 their mouths, and evidently in great distress, I 
 retreated and came out without seeing anything 
 excepting some hundreds of bits of tobacco, lying 
 in the grass, that had been thrown by the poor 
 superstitious children of the forest as sacrifices to the 
 Spirit they there invoke " The Thunder Spirit" in 
 dread of whom they always live. 
 
 These are but two of the numerous shrines to 
 which the poor Indians travel out of their way, and 
 at which they throw their hard earnings as pro- 
 pitiatory offerings. 
 
 At the " Traverse de Sioux," at the base of the 
 coteau, Mr. Wood and myself left our horses, and 
 seated ourselves again in our little canoe, and down 
 stream (not down hill, but a little like it) we were 
 wafted off, and oh how happy ! for we could paddle 
 when we pleased, or fish when we pleased, or alter- 
 nately sleep when we pleased ; or listen to the sounds 
 of his "dear little guitar," accompanied with his 
 rich tenor voice, which he told me had echoed for 
 many years on the stage of the Italian Opera-house 
 in London. And our canoe was still going on on 
 on as the hills resounded and echoed with 
 " Away to the Mountain's Brow," etc. 
 
 Thus we descended the St. Peter's Eiver, to its 
 junction with the Mississippi at the Falls of St. 
 Anthony, and then the mighty Mississippi again, as 
 Corporal Allen and myself had descended it the 
 
174 LIFE AMONG THE tNDIAKS. 
 
 summer before ; spreading our robes upon the grass, 
 and supplying our larder in the same manner ; often 
 bivouacing on the identical spots, and as often 
 lifting our beautiful rock bass from the same eddies, 
 and from under the same rocks. 
 
 The day before we reached the city of St. Louis, 
 being fatigued with paddling nine hundred miles, 
 and having a strong wind against us, we hailed a 
 steamer descending the river, and with ourselves 
 had our little canoe and its contents lifted on board. 
 
 I related to the captain my former misfortunes 
 in losing my canoes at St. Louis, and told him I 
 should take more care of this. He laughed at me 
 heartily, and said, ''You have been very unlucky, 
 but you shall at least be sure of one." We arrived 
 at St. Louis too late in the evening to remove my 
 canoe, and in the morning I was saved the trouble ; 
 and on this occasion, with it had departed for ever 
 a large package which I had left in the cabin, with 
 my name on it, containing several very beautiful 
 articles of Indian costumes, pipes, etc. For the loss 
 of these things on his vessel I remonstrated with 
 the captain, and severely so, for the parcel taken 
 from the cabin of his steamer with my name on it. 
 For this he laughed at me in the face again, and 
 said, " Why, don't you know, sir, that if you leave a 
 box or a parcel in any steam-boat on the Missouri or 
 the Mississippi, with George Catlin marked on it, it 
 is known at once by all the world to be filled with 
 Indian curiosities, and that you will never see it 
 again unless it goes ashore with you ?" 
 
THE ROOT DIGGERS. 175 
 
 This accounted for the losses I had met with on 
 former occasions of boxes and parcels sent by steamers 
 and other boats, from various remote places in the 
 Indian countries, to St. Louis, containing one-third 
 at least of all the Indian manufactures I ever pro- 
 cured, after I had purchased them at exorbitant 
 prices ; and oftentimes the poor Indians had stored 
 them, and carried them over rivers, and transported 
 them over long distances in safety for me. What 
 a comment is this upon the glorious advantages of 
 civilization ! 
 
 But we are yet at the Falls of St. Anthony ; the 
 Indians are many around us, and their modes are 
 curious, but much like what we have seen. The 
 prairies are yet here, they are everywhere. Every- 
 thing here is gloom; the country is everywhere 
 steeping in smoke and ashes, and let us be off to 
 something new ; more fresh and more congenial. 
 Where shall we go ? 
 
 In the Rocky Mountains there are the funny little 
 fellows, the "Root Diggers," who burrow amongst 
 the rocks, and live by digging roots and killing 
 rabbits and pheasants with their short clubs (beng- 
 twas), which they throw very dexterously; they 
 have no guns and no horses, and therefore never 
 venture out upon the plains, nor can the horsemen 
 overtake or injure them amongst the rocks and crags 
 in which they live. 
 
 Beyond them are the Bandks, the Kayuses, the 
 KayuU, the Paunches, and the Snakes, on the Snake 
 
176 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 Eiver ; and below them, on the Columbia, the Flat 
 Heads, who squeeze the heads of their very young 
 infants between boards until an unnatural and dis- 
 torted shape is given, and their eyes stand out like 
 those of a rat caught in a dead-fall. 
 
 I can show these, and the Nayas, who wear great 
 round blocks of wood, several inches in diameter, 
 passed through their under-lips "to add to their 
 good looks." I can show you the terrible Apachees, 
 with their long lances, and their lasso always in 
 hand, before whom the Californian gold-diggers are 
 constantly trembling ; the Arapahos, the Navahos, 
 and half-a-dozen other "hos" living west of the 
 Rocky Mountains. Shall we take a look at these ? 
 no, not at present. If we have space, we may take 
 them on our way back ; their countries are all 
 prairies, and like those we have just seen, are pro- 
 bably, at this season, fuming in smoke and cinders. 
 
 I know of a country that is always fresh and 
 green, that has no smokes, no fires, no winters; 
 whose birds and insects always sing, and fruits and 
 flowers are always growing. 
 
 America has two hemispheres ; we have seen the 
 wild people and their modes in the one, why not 
 take a peep into the other ? Allans I 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Ride to the Camanchees Charley Bought- Deer Stalking 
 The Author Decoyed "Booh ! to you, too!" Story of 
 the Panther Walking the Circle Creasing a Wild Horse- 
 Indians About ! Stampado A False Alarm Indian 
 Honesty. 
 
 JUT stop! we are travelling very fast. 
 There are yet the bold and daring Caman- 
 chees, who hang on the sides of their 
 horses on their fields of battle ; the tall and manly 
 Osages, with their shaved and crested red heads 
 (like the Pawnees); the Konzas; the Pawnee-Picts 
 (who, I have before said, build their wigwams of 
 grass, in the shape of straw bee-hives) ; the Kiowas; 
 the Wicos, and a dozen other "os" and "was" iD 
 Western Texas. 
 
 And then the Senecas, the Oneidas, the Onon- 
 dagos, the Mohawks, the Mohigans, the Delawares, 
 the Potowatomies, the Kickapoos, the Kaskaskias, 
 the Weeahs, the Peorias, the Shawanos, the Musko- 
 gees, the Chocktaws, the Cherokees, the Seminolees, 
 and yet others, all of whom I have lived amongst, 
 
 177 
 
178 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 and of some of whom I must say a few words before 
 we wander too far away from them. 
 
 In the spring of 1836, a regiment of mounted 
 dragoons, under the command of Colonel Henry 
 Dodge, was ordered to start from Fort Gibson, on 
 the Arkansas River, seven hundred miles west of 
 the Mississippi, on a visit to the Camanchees, the 
 Pawnee-Picts, and other wild tribes on the western 
 borders of Texas, to make a first acquaintance with 
 those tribes, and to put a stop to border difficulties, 
 which were at that time becoming very alarming on 
 those parts of the frontier. 
 
 This favourable opportunity of seeing those remote 
 and hostile tribes I took advantage of, by obtaining 
 from the Secretary-at-War the privilege of travelling 
 under the protection of the regiment, with my faith- 
 ful friend, Joseph Chadwick, of St. Louis, a young 
 man who was strongly attached to me, and willing 
 to give his time and risk his life for me, for the 
 pleasure of shooting, and of seeing the Indians and 
 their country. 
 
 Armed and equipped, Joe Chadwick and myself 
 were on the spot, at Fort Gibson, and ready. We 
 had proposed to travel and maintain ourselves quite 
 independent of the regiment, only asking for their 
 protection. We had, therefore, supplied ourselves 
 with a mule to carry our packs and our culinary 
 and other requisites, and with our own weapons 
 and horses. 
 
 For this expedition I had purchased the finest 
 horse then known in that section of the country, 
 
CHARLEY BOUGHT. 179 
 
 belonging to Colonel Birbank, an aged officer of the 
 garrison at Fort Gibson, who had become a little 
 afraid to ride him on parade, where he attracted the 
 attention and admiration of all the officers ; but by 
 his flourishing gaiety and prancing, he had too much 
 excited the nerves of his rider, who was willing to 
 sell him for the price of two hundred and fifty 
 dollars, which I gave for him. 
 
 "Charley" (the name he answered to) was an 
 entire horse, a mustang, of cream colour ; his black 
 tail sweeping the ground, and his black mane nearly 
 so. He had been taken and broken by the Caruan- 
 chee Indians, who take great care never to break 
 the spirit of those noble animals. 
 
 I rode and galloped Charley about, gradually 
 beguiling him into the new relationship, for some 
 weeks before the regiment was ready to commence 
 the march ; and my friend Joe, on his nimble, 
 slender-legged little buffalo charger, which he had 
 bought of an Indian hunter, was everywhere my 
 companion. 
 
 Colonel Dodge had employed two famous Dela- 
 ware Indians, semi-civilized, with several of other 
 tribes, as hunters and guides for the regiment ; and 
 while resting in the encampment for the regiment 
 to start, they amused Joe and me by the ingenious 
 preparations they were making for their different 
 modes of decoying and entrapping game. 
 
 Amongst these there was one that attracted our 
 particular attention, a sort of whistle, made of the 
 bark of a young sapling, of two or three inches in 
 
 M 
 
180 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 length, and which they carried in their pouch, by 
 blowing in which they would precisely imitate the 
 bleating "ma!" of the young fawn; so that when- 
 ever they discovered a deer on the prairies at too 
 great a distance to shoot, by sounding this, and 
 lying secreted in the grass, they would invariably 
 bring the deer up to them, led to their certain 
 death by the natural sympathy which that animal 
 has for the calls of the young, and the perfect 
 imitation produced by that curious instrument. 
 
 Joe and I, from our impatience for the pleasures 
 ahead of us, became exceedingly fatigued with the 
 delay of the dragoons, and to shorten weary time, 
 we resolved to shorten one day at least, by taking a 
 day's amusement at deer-stalking on the " Maple 
 Kidge," a range of hills and heavy-timbered country, 
 some eight or ten miles from the garrison, which 
 was said to be full of deer and turkeys. So the 
 next morning, at an early hour, we mounted our 
 steeds and galloped off, rifles in hand and our 
 luncheons in our pockets. Leaving our horses with 
 a half-breed Indian who lived at the foot of these 
 mountains, we entered and traversed these dark and 
 solitary haunts, laying out and carrying out our 
 numerous drives and meets, and other schemes for 
 the accomplishment of our designs. 
 
 We drove, we approached, and we met, many 
 times, and without success ; we saw their white 
 flags a number of times, but had got no shot, and 
 about the middle of the day, having for a long time 
 lost sight and knowledge of Joe, I came to the edge 
 
THE AUTHOB DECOYED. 181 
 
 of a small prairie, and stepping a little into it, 1 
 heard the sudden bleating of a fawn, which was 
 several times repeated "ma ma ma!" From 
 its direction I was sure the little creature was in the 
 shade of a small copse of bushes farther in the 
 prairie, and at too long a distance for a dead shot, 
 so I dropped myself upon my knee in the grass, 
 reaolving to wait a while until it might come out. 
 
 I kept my eye fixed upon the place, and presently 
 it called again, and I then began to creep slowly and 
 carefully, on iny hands and knees, towards the 
 bushes, and getting near, it called again, and at last 
 again ; and believing that one or both of its parents 
 was with it, I felt sure that I was going to get a 
 shot. 
 
 I kept creeping on, but with greater and greater 
 caution, until I got quite close to the copse, with 
 my rifle cocked and drawn to my shoulder, when, 
 to my inexpressible surprise, the poor little thing 
 called out "ma!" right behind me, and on turning 
 my head slowly around, but without changing 
 my position, I beheld, within ten feet of where 
 I had passed, lying concealed in the grass, and 
 heartily laughing at me, the two Delaware Indian 
 hunters. 
 
 My hunting pretensions were a good deal cut 
 down by this little occurrence, but I sat down with 
 these good-natured fellows, and learning from them 
 that there was not the slightest use in stalking at 
 that hour, as " no game at that time of day was 
 moving," we spent an hour or so in the shade, and 
 
182 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 I then entered the timber again. I often sounded 
 iny whistle for Joe, but heard nothing of him. 
 
 I travelled on and on, and saw no game ; but 
 descending a gently-sloping hill, through an open 
 but dark and gloomy forest of large timber, I espied 
 Joe sitting on a large log, with his back towards me 
 and his rifle standing by his side, while he was 
 engaged eating his lunch, which he had brought in 
 his pocket. 
 
 As I had had my shock, and there seemed little 
 chance of getting any game, I thought jokes would 
 be better than nothing ; so I resolved on giving Joe 
 a little shock. I started in a straight line towards 
 him, and as slowly and cautiously as I could step, 
 not to make a noise in the leaves to startle him, and 
 thus advanced with my rifle in my left hand : and 
 after creeping in this manner for some thirty or 
 forty rods gradually and carefully setting one foot 
 and lifting the other, until I had got very near to 
 him, and laughing at the jump he was to make if I 
 could only get a step or two farther without his 
 hearing me which accomplished (as he was chew- 
 ing away), I let my right hand fall upon his 
 shoulder with a "booh!" at which instant came a 
 heavy red paw on my own shoulder, with a "booh ! 
 to you too /" Poor Joe ! he made his leap near 
 twenty feet, and I made mine nearly as far in a 
 different direction. And in the very tracts that I 
 had left, stood smiling at me, a huge Osage Indian, 
 with his rifle in his left hand, and his right still 
 remaining in the air where my shoulder had left it. 
 
STORY OP THE PANTHER. 183 
 
 We all straightened up, and the good-natured 
 expression of the Indian's face set us all right ; but 
 when he related to me, that, knowing my object, he 
 had stepped his foot into every one of my tracts in 
 the whole of that distance the instant that my foot 
 was lifted out, I felt more ashamed of my hunting 
 abilities than I ever had felt before in my life. 
 
 The Osage was a good-natured and harmless 
 Indian, and spoke a little English, and having 
 shared our lunch with him, and a little canteen of 
 brandy which Joe had in his pocket, he related 
 several of his hunting feats, which amused us very 
 much. 
 
 I told him that notwithstanding my friend and 
 myself had killed nothing that day, we had some- 
 times had better luck, and that we had hunted many 
 days together. "One day last winter/' said I, 
 "when this young man and I were on a steamboat, 
 going from the mouth of the Ohio to St. Louis, on 
 the Mississippi, one of the wheels got broken and 
 they stopped the boat at the shore, by the side of a 
 great and dark forest of cotton-woods, and the 
 captain told us it would take all day to mend the 
 wheel. 
 
 "My friend here and I both had our rifles with 
 us, and we went ashore into the woods to hunt; 
 there was a fine tracking snow, about four or six 
 inches deep, and there were a great many signs of 
 deer. My friend and I separated after we got a 
 little way into the woods, and took different direc- 
 tions. The day was very gloomy and dark, and 
 
184 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 after I had travelled a long distance without getting 
 a shot, I fell into the track of a man who had just 
 gone along ahead of me, with a large dog following 
 him : ' That can't be my friend Joe ? no ; he had 
 no dog with him/ I followed on, and walked pretty 
 fast, in order to overtake him. 
 
 " After a long walk I stopped, and brushing the 
 snow from a large log, I sat down, but the forest 
 being so dense, and the day so thick, I began to 
 think I had missed my bearing and was lost. I 
 then started on again, resolved to overtake the 
 person on whose track I was following, who could, 
 probably, put me on the right course. 
 
 "After walking a long distance farther, and 
 following the track, I at length found another man's 
 track coming into it. ' That's Joe ! Very likely ; 
 he is lost perhaps, and he is following that man with 
 the dog, as I am ; I'll push on and overtake him. 
 But stop ; this can't be my friend Joe, for lie has 
 got a dog also. Never mind, 111 push on and over- 
 take him, for I know I am lost and going wrong/ 
 I continued on, and at length came to a large log 
 where the snow was brushed off. ' The man has 
 been sitting down ! Yes ; and this is the very log 
 I brushed the snow from and sat upon half-an-hour 
 since ! It can't be it must be and that is my 
 own track ! I am lost ! I am walking in a circle ! 
 But that dog ? He steps in my track he is stalk- 
 ing me ! I have no dog ! a panther's track is like 
 a dog's !' I was at this moment sitting upon the 
 log, and had leaned my rifle against it by the side 
 
DEATH OP THE PANTHER. 185 
 
 of me. I took it deliberately into my hands and 
 cocked it, to lose no time if there should be need 
 for it behind me ; and rising slowly, and looking 
 back on my back track, at the distance of some six 
 or eight rods I discovered the head of a huge 
 panther raised over the top of a log, as he rested his 
 fore-paws upon it, and was staring me in the face, 
 without winking or moving a muscle ! 
 
 " One of my old, boyish ' shivers ' began to rise as 
 I was raising my rifle to my shoulder ; ' But/ said 
 I, ' that won't do it won't do to miss this time/ 
 And by the time I had got my barrel levelled, my 
 nerves were perfectly steady, and the little black 
 wrinkle between the gentleman's eyes so snugly took 
 the bead, that when he fell behind the log, I just 
 walked up as confidently as I would have walked up 
 to a target, knowing exactly where the bullet had 
 gone. This fellow made no more ' tracks' 
 
 " With his heels tied together, and slung on my 
 back, I was able to walk under his weight, heavy 
 as it was ; and hearing the carpenter's blows on the 
 boat at this time, I was enabled to lay my course to 
 it. I met Joe near the boat, coming in with a 
 saddle of venison on his back, and he told me he 
 had dressed and hung up two more, for which he 
 was just sending two men from the boat, on his 
 back track, to bring in. 
 
 "My panther was laid upon the deck of the 
 steamer, and its length, from the end of the nose to 
 uhe end of its tail, was measured, and found to be 
 nearly nine feet. Both Joe and I were compli- 
 
186 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 mented by the officers of the boat, and also by the 
 passengers, for our day's work." 
 
 My story pleased the good-natured Osage Indian 
 very much, and we shook hands and parted. Joe 
 and I got back to our horses, and galloped home. 
 So ended that day of our amusements. 
 
 The dragoons were at length on their march, 
 stringing off over the prairies and through the 
 timber two by two, their usual mode of marching ; 
 and Joe and I, with our little pack horse, were 
 hanging on one or the other wing, and so encamping 
 at night ; our buffalo robes spread upon the grass, 
 our saddles for our pillows, and our horses picketed 
 by our heads. 
 
 After a week or two of days and nights thus 
 passed, we had forded the " Little Blue," and swam 
 the " Canadian," and were now creeping along on 
 the dividing ridge between the Canadian and the 
 Red River, and near to their sources. Bands of 
 wild horses were running from us, and from herds 
 of buffaloes the rifles of our Delaware hunters were 
 supplying us with a daily abundance of fresh meat. 
 
 While moving on and on in this manner, from 
 day to day, Joe and I espied one day, at too great a 
 distance to the right to be frightened by the 
 dragoons, a band of wild horses grazing, and placing 
 our pack-mule in the leading of one of the soldiers, 
 we galloped off towards them for a nearer reconnais- 
 sance. On nearing them we discovered a ravine, 
 near the banks of which they were grazing, and 
 throwing ourselves into this, we rode till we sup- 
 
CREASING A WILD HORSE. 187 
 
 posed we were near their vicinity, and dismounting, 
 we fastened our horses to some alder bushes, and 
 commenced our ambuscade march on foot. We 
 successfully approached behind some tufts of hazel 
 bushes on the brink of the ravine, to within a fair 
 rifle-shot of them without being discovered, notwith- 
 standing their exceeding shyness. 
 
 I had always in my pocket a powerful opera- 
 glass, which gave us, as we lay concealed, a perfect 
 view of them, displaying all their blemishes and all 
 their beauty. There were perhaps some two or 
 three hundred in the group, and, like a kennel of 
 hounds, of all colours, from jet and glossy black to 
 snow white. Some were chestnut, some were iron, 
 and others silver, grey; others were pied and 
 spotted and striped, with two, and sometimes three, 
 different colours intermingled. Their tails generally 
 dragged on the grass, and their long and shaggy 
 manes, which seemed generally to cover their eyes, 
 fell from both sides of the neck, and oftentimes were 
 under their feet, and dragged on the grass as they 
 were feeding. 
 
 Poor Joe and I saw no way of encompassing or 
 appropriating this noble and beautiful stud ; nor 
 had we approached them with the least mercenary 
 view ; but a thought instantly suggested itself. We 
 both had heard of the mode which the Spaniards 
 and other frontier hunters often use, who cannot 
 take them in the usual way with the lasso, that of 
 " creasing " them, which is done by shooting them 
 with a rifle through the fleshy (or rather gristly) 
 
188 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 part of the neck, on the top of the shoulders, by 
 which the animal is stunned for the moment, and 
 falls ; and the hunter having advanced and fastened 
 the halter upon it, and hobbled its feet together, it 
 rises again, to be subjugated by its cruel master. 
 "Let's crease one!" whispered Joe. "Well," said 
 I. But here was a difficulty again : to travel light 
 and handy, both Joe and I had left our heavy rifles 
 at Fort Gibson, and armed ourselves with light 
 and short single-barrelled fowling-pieces, as better 
 adapted for our daily support, by throwing shot as 
 well as ball, and being more easily carried and 
 reloaded on horseback than our rifles. 
 
 There was no certainty of sufficient accuracy with 
 them, at that distance, for creasing, but we resolved 
 to try ; and one of the handsomest and noblest of 
 the troop, a beautiful silver grey, turning himself 
 round to a fair broadside, I fired, and he tumbled 
 down, as the herd were off, as if by a blast of wind. 
 "Beautiful! beautiful!" said Joe, as we arose and 
 approached the animal, to find, as we did to our 
 horror and shame, that the ball had fallen from my 
 aim, and passed through the animal's heart ! Poor 
 Joe ! his heart was too tender and too noble to stand 
 this ; he was younger than I, and had more tears to 
 shed, and he wept bitterly over the fate of this noble 
 creature, which we did not mean to injure, and leave 
 for the wolves to eat. We had the best of reasons 
 for keeping this adventure a profound secret, and it 
 was never known to any of the regiment. 
 
 Joe and I were soon remounted, and alongside of 
 
INDIANS ABOUT ! 189 
 
 the dragoons again ; and though in our long, long 
 travels over the prairies and through the oak open- 
 ings we had many a fine chance for a rifle-shot, our 
 light little fowling-pieces, which were easy to handle 
 and deadly in the chase from our horses' backs, were 
 but a poor reliance, and it became a motto in such 
 cases, " Crease him, Joe," or " Crease him, Cat." 
 
 About this time began to be heard through the 
 regiment, " Indians ! Indians ! Indians about !" 
 Their signs were fresh ; and at last their waving 
 plumes and the glistening blades of their long lances 
 began to be seen, now and then dodging about over 
 the tops of the grassy hills, announcing to us that 
 we were under the gaze and reconnoitring of a war- 
 party of Camanchees. 
 
 Most of the men in the command, and probably 
 many of the officers, never had seen an Indian, and 
 were now undergoing something like the pulsations 
 and vibrations which a certain little boy once under- 
 went at an old saw-mill lick. 
 
 The Camanchees one of the most powerful and 
 warlike tribes in America, and undoubtedly the most 
 bold and efficient warriors on horseback, and hereto- 
 fore considered hostile to the whites were now 
 hovering around us, and their villages, evidently not 
 a great distance ahead of us. For several days' 
 march, and as many uneasy nights of bivouac, these 
 hordes of mounted horsemen were gathering around 
 us ; and during the daytime, constantly more or less 
 in full view, in squads of flying cavalry, in front and 
 in rear of us, reconnoitring us at a distance, and dis- 
 
190 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 appearing over the hills as we approached them. 
 With ray glass, which brought them nearer to me 
 than they thought for, they were beautiful to behold; 
 the fierce and manly expression of their faces, the 
 grace and elegance of their movements, and the 
 fierceness and elasticity of their horses, were altogether 
 one of the most beautiful sights I ever beheld. 
 
 We kept moving on, and bivouacing in the nights 
 in the open prairies, the companies forming into 
 hollow squares, the men laying their knapsacks and 
 saddles on the ground, close by the side of each 
 other, for their pillows, with their horses picketed 
 inside the square, and each within its owner's reach, 
 in case of a sudden surprise. 
 
 A picket, in that country, is a small stake of iron 
 or of wood, made to be driven into the ground, to 
 which the horse is fastened, and is generally carried 
 during the day attached to the saddle or crupper, to 
 be always ready when the encampment is to be 
 formed. 
 
 " Stampado" Did you ever hear of a stampado, 
 my little readers? No; well, then, we'll have it. 
 Stampado is a Spanish word, meaning "a trampling," 
 or (what is much the same, and perhaps more intel- 
 ligible), a tremendous scrambling and scampering, 
 when a party of some hundreds of bold and furious 
 Indian warriors, mounted on their darting war- 
 horses, with brandishing lances and war-clubs in 
 hand, in the stillness and darkness of midnight, 
 when wearied soldiers and their horses are fast 
 asleep, dash at full speed, like a flash of lightning 
 
STAMPADO 191 
 
 with the thunder following, into and through an 
 encampment, mingling the frightful war-whoop with 
 the unearthly sound (not unlike theatre thunder) of 
 their parchment robes shaken in the hands to frighten 
 the horses. The instant flash of a few guns begins 
 the frightful mel^e, and in the confused escampette, 
 the affrighted horses, en masse, dash against and 
 over each other and their owners, and are off like a 
 whirlwind upon the prairies at the highest speed, 
 with their enemies behind them ; leaving the scien- 
 tific warriors with broken arms, with broken legs, 
 and broken guns, upon their hands and knees, gazing 
 through the dark in vain for some moving object to 
 " draw a bead" upon. 
 
 Such is a stampado. It is like a tornado that's 
 passed on. And where is it ? did it stop ? is it 
 coming back ? No. No scalp was taken, and none 
 was looked for ; none was wanted or thought of ; 
 horses were wanted; and where are they? Why, 
 twenty miles off run and pressed to the last breath, 
 and by the daylight next morning an easy prey, and 
 a play spell for the Camanchees' lassos before break- 
 fast. 
 
 A stampado had been apprehended and feared for 
 several nights past, from the surrounding appear- 
 ances as we learn from the dark and gathering 
 clouds and their electricity that a storm is gathering 
 and preparing to break forth. All were talking of 
 stampados, all preparing for them, and every pre- 
 caution in the regiment was made for the event. 
 Every man slept with his rifle in his arms, and his 
 
J92 LIFE AMONG IflE IKDIAJS 8. 
 
 horse picketed within his reach ; and poor Joe and 
 I, notwithstanding we were invited to sleep in the 
 officers' quarters, in the centre, preferred spreading 
 our robes, and laying our own saddles a little out- 
 side of all, and on the uphill side, for reasons which 
 the world will never guess. 
 
 These were trying times for Joe and me, for I 
 knew that the Camanchees were thirty thousand, 
 and had at least ten thousand of the most desperate 
 mounted warriors in the world ; and we resolved 
 whatever deaths we might die, not to be trampled 
 to death, nor to lose our horses if we could help it. 
 We therefore drove their pickets close to our heads, 
 and hobbled them at the same time, and took the 
 precaution while on dangerous ground, to spell each 
 other in our sleeps during the night one sitting 
 straight up and awake, whilst the other was taking 
 his nap. 
 
 My lorgnette was a pretty good night-glass, and 
 we doubtless had, therefore, a better sort of clair- 
 voyance of the vicinity of the bivouac than anybody 
 else in it. 
 
 About midnight, on one starlight night, a few 
 days after the Indians had ceased to show themselves 
 on the hill-tops, and the whole caravan, excepting 
 my friend Joe and I, had begun to think they had 
 left the vicinity, and therefore to relax a little in 
 their nocturnal discipline ; Joe happened to be ogling 
 with the spy-glass, and I was fast asleep when flash 
 and bang ! went a gun, close by a little bunch of 
 hazel bushes, within a few rods of where we were 
 
A FALSE ALABM. 193 
 
 lying, and where a sentinel had been walking his 
 rounds, instantly followed by a struggling and rust- 
 ling in the bushes, from which came a deep and 
 frightful groan ! And in the camp, oh, awful ! the 
 snapping of cords, the trampling of hoofs, the sounds 
 of grunting, of groaning ! Now and then the flash 
 of a gun, but no war-whoops nor rattling of parch- 
 ment skins, only a vanishing of steeds, that carried 
 terror and confusion as they fled and disappeared, 
 with their elevated tails and manes, like a fleet (but 
 swifter) under full sail disappearing in a mist ! 
 
 In the camp all were d genou, or " lying close," 
 cocked and ready, or groaning with their wounds. 
 When I awoke, my friend Joe had Charley's halter 
 in one hand, and that of his little charger in the 
 other. Charley stood, when I arose, with his mane 
 and his tail spread a picture in himself to look at ; 
 his eyeballs glaring and his nostrils raised, as he was 
 trembling and alternately glancing his eyes over the 
 flying mass, and turning his head to smell my breath, 
 to know if I was frightened. A moment of silence 
 ensued, and then said Joe, " Here, Cat, hold my 
 horse ; it's that fool of a fellow yonder who has done 
 all this he has shot a poor horse there, in the 
 bushes." Saying this, Joe walked into the camp 
 amidst pointing and aimed rifles and fixed bayonets, 
 exclaiming, "Don't shoot I don't shoot me! there 
 are no Indians !" Poor Joe, at some risk of his life 
 notwithstanding, succeeded in arriving at the officers' 
 quarters, where a sort of council of war was held, 
 and Joe made his report, to wit, that "a sorrel 
 
194 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 norse, belonging to the commissariat, had got loose, 
 and after he had observed the poor creature feeding 
 about for some time, it presented its head and breast 
 out of a little bunch of hazel bushes near to one of 
 the sentinels, who took it, of course, for a Camanchee 
 Indian, and after not learning ' Who's there ?' and 
 getting no countersign, blazed away and shot the 
 poor brute through the heart." 
 
 The sentinel was put under arrest, and also three 
 or four others, whose guns had gone off accidentally 
 or otherwise in the meUe, and also Corporal Nugent, 
 who fired at Lieut. Hunter and missed him, as he 
 was holding on to his horse, because he wore a fur 
 cap, and was mistaken for a Camanchee Indian. 
 
 Joe and I soon after, and our horses, went to sleep, 
 and the rest of the caravan, excepting those whose 
 wounds were being dressed during the rest of the 
 night by the surgeons and their assistants. Here, of 
 course, a halt for some days was ordered, and it 
 lasted for some weeks, as well as I can remember, 
 and that from necessity ; for the horses, though not 
 all gone, were so reduced in numbers that they 
 must be recovered or replaced before the regiment 
 could proceed. 
 
 The poor affrighted creatures had taken the direc- 
 tion of their back track in their flight. Some were 
 retaken within twenty miles, some within fifty miles, 
 some were never taken ; and a great many were 
 brought in by the Indians, taken with the lasso, and 
 carefully and most honestly brought to the camp, 
 and delivered to their owners, by the very people 
 
INDIAN HONESTY. 195 
 
 whom we had been sleeping, and even marching, in 
 dread of, and who knew by the flight of our horses 
 what had taken place, and that we stood in need of 
 friendly assistance. 
 
CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 Grand Review Pawnee-Picts Fort Gibson Charley saddled 
 for St. Louis Cherokees and Creeks Seminolee Treaty 
 Death of Seminolee Chief " Dade's Massacre "Capture 
 of Osceola A Sad Story Death of Osceola Charley's 
 Freaks A Shake and a Roll in the Grass Bivouac with 
 Charley Thunder Storm on the Prairies Shooting the 
 Buck Charley Tracking the Buck Crossing the Great 
 
 | HE reader can easily imagine, from the close 
 of the last chapter, that there was little 
 difficulty in making acquaintance with the 
 Camanchees after this ; for it was soon learned that 
 there was a mutual good feeling, and a wish on both 
 sides to " shake hands," which was done in a few 
 days, with two or three of the secondary chiefs who 
 were sent out to meet us with a hundred or more of 
 their most beautiful and celebrated warriors, all 
 mounted on fine horses, and fully equipped and 
 painted for war. As they came galloping and dash- 
 ing up, with their long lances in hand, and their 
 beautiful white shields on their arms, they presented 
 one of the most thrilling and exciting scenes that I 
 ever beheld. 
 
 196 
 
GRAND REVIEW. 1 97 
 
 After a general shake of the hand with the officers, 
 they invited us to the great Camanehee village, some 
 three or four days' march, to which they conducted 
 us, and showed us daily, as we passed along, their 
 astonishing feats in slaying the buffaloes, by which 
 they furnished the regiment with daily food ; and, in 
 the meantime, they gave also to the officers and 
 men, what they never before had seen, an exhibi- 
 tion of their powers of taking and breaking the 
 wild horse. 
 
 Arrived on the summit of a hill, overlooking an 
 extensive and beautiful valley, they requested the 
 regiment to halt, and pointing, showed us the great 
 Camanehee village, at the distance of three or four 
 miles, with eight or ten thousand horses and mules 
 grazing on the plains around it They then led us 
 into the valley, and at the distance of a mile or so 
 from the village, requested us to halt again, for the 
 chief and the cavalry of the tribe were coming out 
 to meet and welcome us. 
 
 Colonel Dodge formed his regiment in three 
 columns, himself occupying the front, with his staff ; 
 and after resting an hour or so in that position, two 
 or three thousand horsemen were seen, in real mili- 
 tary order, advancing towards us. The chief was in 
 advance, with his body-guard around him, and his 
 colours flying on each side the one a white flag, a 
 flag of truce, and the other blood red ; showing 
 that he was ready for either war or peace, whichever 
 we might propose. 
 
 The white flag was seen waving in the hands of 
 
198 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 each of our ensigns, and the red flag was lost sight 
 of. The chief now advanced, shook hands with 
 Colonel Dodge and the rest of the officers, and then 
 formed his army in a double column of nearly a mile 
 in length, dressed and manoeuvred with a precision 
 equal to any cavalry manoeuvre I ever saw, himself 
 and his staff taking their position in the centre, and 
 facing the officers of the dragoons. 
 
 After an exchange of friendly feelings between 
 Colonel Dodge and the chief, the whole Indian force 
 passed in review, each one extending his hand to 
 Colonel Dodge, and then to all the other officers as 
 he passed. 
 
 The chief then indicated a suitable spot for our 
 encampment, and we were soon settled for a residence 
 of two weeks, which afforded the writer of this and 
 his faithful friend, Joe Chad wick, amusement enough, 
 and plenty to do, in studying their manners and 
 customs, in a beautiful village of twelve hundred 
 skin tents, on the banks of a clear stream. 
 
 Here was material enough for the remainder of 
 this little book horse-racing, ball-playing, dancing, 
 buying and selling horses, councils, etc., but we 
 must go on. 
 
 Everlasting peace and commerce with the United 
 States was agreed on, and the pipe of peace was 
 smoked, and we went to the Pawnee-Picts, their 
 allies, eighty miles farther on, where I have said 
 their wigwams were made in the form of straw bee- 
 hives, and thatched with long grass. Peace was 
 made with them also, and the officers were embraced 
 
GIBSOtt. 199 
 
 in the arms of the venerable chief Wee-tar-ra- 
 sha-ro. We saw also the Kiowas, the Wicos, and 
 the Arapahos; all were friendly, and peace with 
 all was easy, and was established, as with the 
 Camanchees, " to last for ever." The mission of the 
 dragoons was accomplished, and also the far more 
 important designs of the author; for under the 
 treaty of friendship and commerce came rum, and 
 whisky, and a thousand abuses, the consequences of 
 which were, that in one year after, the whole ground 
 that we travelled over in peace and friendship 
 became hostile ground, and has remained so ever 
 since ; whilst the works that I did have not faded 
 or changed, but remain as fresh as the day they were 
 made. 
 
 Back to Fort Gibson was a long and yet an interest- 
 ing journey, but its incidents need not be recounted 
 here sufficit, that Charley was as fat and sleek on 
 our return as he was when we started, though I had 
 rode him more than two thousand miles ; and our 
 familiarity and mutual attachment, from a great 
 variety of circumstances, had grown to a perfection 
 which but few horses or few men have felt, or could 
 probably fully understand. 
 
 I at this time was taken extremely ill with bilious 
 fever, and went to bed, and Charley went to pasture 
 in a large field overgrown with white clover and 
 other delectables. 
 
 During my illness of two months, and until I was 
 in a convalescent state, my ever faithful friend and 
 companion, Joe, was constantly by me, and after- 
 
200 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 wards left for the Mississippi, where his business 
 called him. Charley I could not see during this siege 
 of two months ; but I heard reports of him often, 
 and learned that he was doing well, and that he 
 had got so wild and so independent that no one 
 could get near him. 
 
 I was anxious to take Charley to St. Louis, but to 
 send him down the Arkansas seven hundred miles, 
 and then up the Mississippi nine hundred, by steamer, 
 would be a heavy expense, and I resolved that just 
 as soon as I should be able to ride, Charley and 1 
 would start for St. Louis by a shorter route, by 
 crossing the intervening country of prairies, which 
 are entirely wild and without roads, a distance, in 
 a straight line, of five hundred and forty miles. 
 
 I knew the point of compass, and with a little 
 compass in my pocket, and a clear sky, and plenty 
 of ammunition, I felt no apprehensions whatever for 
 the result. So one morning in the beginning of 
 September, feeling sufficiently strong to mount 
 Charley with a little aid, and having prepared my 
 little outfit, I sent for Charley to be brought up and 
 saddled; but the answer was soon brought back, 
 that " Charley couldn't be caught, and that no one 
 could get near him." 
 
 An old schoolmate of mine, from the Valley of 
 Wyoming, Dr. Wright, then surgeon of the port, and 
 who had attended me through my illness, started 
 with me to the field where Charley was busily graz- 
 ing, and on entering the field I called " Charley ! " at 
 which the noble animal, evidently recognising my 
 
CHEKOKEES AND CREEKS. 201 
 
 voice after two months' separation, raised his head, 
 and also his beautiful black tail and mane, and with 
 his mouth full of grass, which he forgot to chew, 
 instantly replied with a " eegh-ee-e-hee !" and started 
 walking towards me, and soon increasing his pace 
 to a trot, and then to a gallop, came up to me with 
 another " eegh-ee-e-hee ! " etc., and with the grass 
 still hanging out of his mouth, commenced smelling 
 my breath, which had always seemed a pleasure to 
 him, and held his head down, and opened his mouth 
 for the bridle which I put upon him, and with 
 which I led him to my quarters. 
 
 In half-an-hour's time, with a couple of buffalo 
 robes for my bed, a small coffee-pot and a tin cup 
 tied to my saddle, with plenty of ground coffee and 
 sugar, and about the half of a boiled ham, and some 
 salt, my pistols in my belt, and my fowling-piece in 
 my hand, I was ready to mount Charley and be off; 
 but here were the Cherokee, the Choctaw, and the 
 Creek (Muskogee) chiefs assembled to take leave of 
 me. What have I told you of them ? Nothing. 
 
 The CheroJcees, of 25,000 ; the Creeks, of 21,000 ; 
 the Choctaws, of 15,000 ; and the Seminolees of 
 12,000 ; are located in this vicinity, 700 miles west 
 of the Mississippi, and 1200, and 1400, and 1800 
 miles from their former localities in the States of 
 Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. These people are 
 semi-civilized in their own countries many of them 
 were owning large plantations, and were raising 
 extensive fields of cotton and corn, and lived in com- 
 fortable houses, built school-houses and churches, 
 
202 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 and printed and published several newspapers in 
 their own language and English. But how came they 
 here, in this wild and desert region ? there's medicine 
 in this. No, not at all ; all is easily explained, but 
 is too long to be detailed in this place. 
 
 These people owned and occupied vast tracts of 
 the best cotton-lands in Georgia and Alabama, and 
 were therefore rich. " These lands were too valuable 
 for Indians to possess, and the Indians were bad 
 neighbours." General Jackson was elected President 
 at that time ; he decided that all the Indian tribes 
 should be removed west of the Mississippi, and it 
 was done. It took a long time, and was cruel ; they 
 were forced to leave the graves of their parents and 
 their children, and their houses and lands, and their 
 crops growing in their fields, for a country given to 
 them here, with a boundary line on the east, and the 
 north, and the south, but none at the west ; meaning, 
 that they must not trespass on their white neighbours 
 on the east, but that they might, with their rifles, 
 destroy as many of the buffaloes and wild Indians 
 to the west of them as they pleased. 
 
 With the Seminolees in Florida, the process of 
 moving them was a very disastrous one on both 
 sides. The draft of a treaty for the chiefs to sign, 
 by which they were to agree to exchange their lands 
 for a country west of the Mississippi, was laid before 
 the chiefs in council, who all refused to sign it, 
 assigning as their reason that their parents and their 
 children were buried around them, and that the 
 country was their own, given to them by the Great 
 
SEMiNOLEE TREATY. 203 
 
 Spirit, and that they would therefore never remove 
 from it. 
 
 The treaty was several times urged upon them 
 without success; but it being announced to the 
 eleven subordinate chiefs one day, that Charley 
 Omatla, the head chief, had agreed to sign the treaty 
 the next day which they could not believe they 
 all assembled, and went to the Government agent's 
 office, where it was to be done, with their rifles in 
 their hands, to see if their chief was going to do so 
 treacherous an act. With these chiefs came Osceola, 
 whose name you all have probably heard ; he was 
 not a chief, but a desperate warrior, and of great 
 influence in the tribe. The treaty was spread upon 
 the table, and Charley Omatla, according to his pro- 
 mise, supposing the other chiefs would follow him, 
 stepped forward, and leaning over the table, made 
 his signature to the treaty, and as he was rising up 
 from the table, the bullet from Osceola's rifle, and 
 then six others from the chiefs, were through his body 
 before it was to the ground, where he fell a corpse. 
 
 This treaty was sent by an express to Washing- 
 ton, " signed," (!) to be ratified by the Senate (then 
 in session) before the news of the manner of signing 
 should reach there, a distance of 1800 miles, and no 
 railroad or telegraph in those parts at that time. 
 The treaty was ratified; and though it was subse- 
 quently proved on the floor of the Senate that the 
 chief Charley Omatla had been bribed with 7000 
 dollars, still the tribe was removed by force under 
 the treaty, as we shall see. 
 
LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 Osceola fled into the wilderness, the chiefs follow- 
 ing him as their leader for, by the custom of all 
 American Indian tribes, he who kills the chief in his 
 own tribe is, de facto, chief, as long as they allow him 
 to live : if his act is approved, no one can object to his 
 lead ; and if it is not approved, he is at once destroyed. 
 
 One hundred United States troops were then sent 
 into the forest to commence a war upon the Semi- 
 nolees, and to move them, by force of arms, under 
 the treaty. Major Dade, a very meritorious officer, 
 had command of this invading force ; and in a few 
 days the news arrived that Major Dade and his 
 whole force, with the exception of one man, had 
 been destroyed by the Indians, who had lain in 
 ambush, and gained an advantage by springing upon 
 them before they could use their rifles ; much in the 
 manner of the " Wyoming massacre/' mentioned in 
 an early part of this little book. 
 
 This was echoed through all the newspapers in 
 the United States, and of course across the Atlantic, 
 as a " horrid massacre ; " and so was every successive 
 battle for six years afterwards when the Indians 
 had the best of the fight; and whenever, by an 
 equal or more cunning stratagem, a number of the 
 Indians were killed, the announcements were headed 
 " glorious victory ! " 
 
 The gallant Osceola, at the head of his Spartan 
 band of warriors, retiring before some 10,000 dis- 
 ciplined troops, kept them at bay for six years, 
 bravely disputing every foot of ground. He was at 
 last captured, however (or rather kidnapped), with 
 
CAPTURE of OSCEOLA. 205 
 
 four of his principal chiefs and 200 of his warriors, 
 by a stratagem too disgraceful to have ever been 
 practised by an Indian tribe. They were called up 
 by a flag of truce, and as Osceola advanced, with a 
 white flag in reply in his own hand, and their 
 weapons left behind them, they were encompassed by 
 an order from the officer in command, and, pinioned 
 and fastened on horses' backs, were made prisoners 
 of war, and sent to Fort Moultrie, at Charleston in 
 South Carolina. 
 
 Here, my little readers, we have arrived at last to 
 a definition of " Treachery in Warfare." This dis- 
 graceful act was condemned by every officer in the 
 United States army, and it is probable that the 
 shame and repentance of the one who was guilty of 
 it, have sufficiently punished him for it. The 
 Administration discountenanced the act, but the 
 chiefs were too valuable a prize to be released, not- 
 withstanding ; and all were sent, as " PRISONERS OP 
 WAR," through the States, to the wilderness frontier, 
 where we now find them. 
 
 Thus was broken the spirit of the Seminolees, and 
 thus ended the Seminolee war, after an expense to 
 the Government of 32,000,000 of dollars, the lives 
 of 28 officers and 600 soldiers, as many Indians, and 
 2000 innocent and defenceless men, women, and 
 children, living exposed on the borders of their 
 country, whose lives are always known to be im- 
 perilled when an Indian war is waging in their 
 vicinity. 
 
 From the city of New York to Charleston, a dis- 
 
206 LIFE AMONG 0?Hfc INDIANS. 
 
 tance of 1500 miles, I travelled with my canvas and 
 brushes to paint the portrait of this extraordinary 
 man, Osceola. Though a humble prisoner in the 
 fort, I found him an easy, affable, and pleasant man, 
 but broken-hearted. He was a half-caste, and spoke 
 English enough to describe to me many of the 
 interesting events of the war, and the shameful 
 manner in which he had been entrapped. I painted 
 his portrait full length, and also those of Mic-e-no-pa, 
 Co-a-ha-jo, Cloud, and King PhiUip, the four chiefs 
 captured with him. 
 
 There were at Fort Moultrie at this time 250 
 men, women, and children, who were taken with 
 Osceola, and all held as prisoners of war. 
 
 One of the young men of this party, and one of 
 the handsomest men I ever saw, was one morning 
 accused by a white man, a producer of poultry and 
 vegetables, living in the vicinity of the fort, of having 
 stolen a chicken from him the night before. The 
 complaint was laid before the chiefs, who took 
 cognisance of it, hearing the proofs advanced by the 
 accusing party, which he made out to be very con- 
 clusive, while the young man accused had no evidence 
 to give, only asking the chiefs, " Did any Seminolee 
 ever know Chee-ho-ka to steal?" However, the 
 white man's evidence was so strong that he was 
 convicted, and the sentence of the chiefs, though 
 prisoners of war (they being partly civilized), was, 
 by the custom of their country, that he should be 
 publicly whipped the next morning at nine o'clock. 
 At seven o'clock, however, the next morning, his 
 
DEATH OP OSCEOLA. 207 
 
 body was found suspended from a spike in the side 
 of the wall of the fort, by a thong of raw hide, with a 
 noose around his neck, and quite dead. And a little 
 time after, while the officers of the garrison and the 
 Indians were in a group around him, the fiend came 
 up who had sworn against him, with the chicken 
 under his arm, and alive, and confessed that it had 
 not been stolen ! 
 
 This wretch was standing right by my side at the 
 moment, and from an impulse quicker than thought, 
 I seized him with both hands by the throat with an 
 iron grip, that I never was capable of before or since ; 
 and lynching, without waiting, must have been 
 expressed in my face, for several of the officers 
 stepped forward and begged me to use no violence ; 
 and what had ten times more effect, the soft and 
 delicate hand of Osceola was laid lightly on my 
 shoulder, when he whispered, "Don't, don't, my 
 friend, don't hurt him ; don't strike a dog !" I let 
 the monster go, and the women and children hooted 
 and hissed him out of the fort, and gave him his 
 chicken to carry home. 
 
 After these events I returned to New York, and 
 to my great surprise on my arrival in that city, I 
 learned that Osceola was dead. The news, by 
 express, had passed me on the road. He died the 
 next day after I left the fort, and his disease was 
 announced as a sudden attack of the quinsey. 
 
 But this is an awful long time to keep poor Charley 
 waiting under the saddle, for, like myself, when he 
 
208 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 was ready, he was always impatient to be off. Well, 
 I took leave of my old friend, Dr. Wright, the officers 
 of the post, and the chiefs who, I said, had gathered 
 to bid me good-bye. These good-byes were for ever, 
 and therefore were sorrowful but my farewell to the 
 country was quite the reverse for the officers and 
 men of the garrison were dying at the rate of six or 
 eight per day, and of the Indian tribes in the vicinity 
 almost an equal proportion, from a deadly fever 
 raging at the time. 
 
 Charley and I mounted the grassy hills back of 
 the fort, and soon disappeared. The country for 
 five hundred and forty miles ahead of us (about 
 twice the breadth of England), of hills and dales, of 
 meadows and grassy plains, with brooks, and rivers, 
 and oak openings, was vast, and apparently tedious ; 
 but as my departure from the deadly atmosphere of 
 Fort Gibson was a sort of escape, and myself in a 
 state of convalescence, with the bracing air of 
 autumn around me, I entered upon it with a plea- 
 sure that few can appreciate who have seen and felt 
 but the monotones of life. 
 
 Charley and I, though heretofore the best of 
 friends, had always before had too much company 
 with us to know how much we loved each other ; we 
 both required the solitary and mutual dependence 
 we were now entering upon to fully develop the 
 actual strength of sympathies that had long existed 
 between us, and the extent to which such sympathies 
 may be cultivated between an animal that works for 
 an object, and another that labours without one. 
 
CHARLEY'S FREAKS. 209 
 
 There was another advantage we had that took 
 much of the apparent hardships of our coming cam- 
 paign from our shoulders ; that arising from the fact 
 that Charley and I were old campaigners together, 
 and knew exactly how to go at our work. And 
 there was yet another advantage that cheered the 
 way very much. Twenty-five days is a long time to 
 be entirely mum, without the power of speaking to 
 any one, or hearing the cheering sound of any one's 
 voice; and from a long familiarity and practice, 
 Charley and I had established a sort of language 
 which was at times very significant at all events 
 better than none and therefore very cheering in 
 breaking the awful monotony of a solitary campaign 
 on the prairies. As, for instance, when I went to 
 the field to catch Charley, as I have before men- 
 tioned, after a separation of two months, when I said, 
 *"' Charley, is that you ?" he instantly replied, " Eegh- 
 ee-e-eh" (yes); here was an affirmative, distinctly ; 
 some might call this gibberish, but still it had its 
 meaning ; and if he sometimes used it in a wrong 
 sense, he was nevertheless sure to be right, provided 
 I put him the right sort of questions ; and certainly 
 he had one agreeable peculiarity which by no means 
 belongs to all travelling companions in those desert 
 countries, that of answering immediately either 
 night or day, to any question I put him. But we 
 shall see. 
 
 I said we had set off; we were now wending our 
 way over the prairie hills and knolls, crossing beauti- 
 ful green fields, passing through forests of timber, 
 
210 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 leaping and wading brooks, and, when night over- 
 took us, bivouacing in the grass. By the sun, 
 while it shone, we easily kept our course ; and when 
 it was obscure, our little pocket compass showed it 
 to us. 
 
 I was feeble, having just risen from a bed of sick- 
 ness, but meeting a cool and bracing autumnal wind, 
 I was every hour gaining strength, though I had 
 every alternate day an ague chill and fever, and 
 for these, as I felt them coming on, I dismounted 
 from Charley, and lay in the grass until they 
 were over. 
 
 Charley profited by these halts, as his saddle and 
 packs were taken off, and he had an hour or two to 
 luxuriate on the prairie grass, of which he was very 
 fond. He got a good roll or two in the grass in the 
 meantime, which seemed to be a great luxury to 
 him ; and these rolls he took a peculiar pleasure in 
 performing as near to me as he could without roll- 
 ing on to me. The shake and the fever, the bait and 
 the roll all over, and Charley saddled again, we 
 would start on our course. 
 
 Carrying one of my barrels always charged with 
 shot, ready for grouse or other small game, and the 
 other with ball, our larder was easily supplied from 
 day to day with fresh food without the trouble of 
 dismounting, except to tie it to my saddle for my 
 supper and breakfast where I encamped. Grouse 
 were many times a-day rising under Charley's feet, 
 and now and then a fine fat doe was gazing at us, 
 little thinking that in five minutes the choicest part 
 
BIVOUAC WITH CHAELEY. 211 
 
 of her rump-steaks would be suspended from Char- 
 ley's saddle-strings. 
 
 With the exception of one night in the twenty-five 
 I managed to bivouac on the bank of some little 
 stream or river, where there was water to make my 
 coffee, and wood to make a fire. We generally halted 
 a little before sundown, so as to give Charley abund- 
 ance of time to get his supper before I took him up ; 
 that is, before I took up his picket and brought him 
 in. The moment his saddle was off I drove down 
 his picket where the grass was plenty and fresh, and 
 gave him the full length of his lasso to feed around. 
 
 I would then gather my wood and make my fire ; 
 and that well going, I would dress my prairie hen 
 or prepare my venison steak, erecting them on little 
 sharpened stakes before my fire, and get my coffee- 
 pot on the coals, and spread out all my little traps, 
 such as a tin cup, a bowie-knife, an iron spoon, a 
 little sack of salt, some sugar, and a slice or two of 
 cold ham. 
 
 I was in the habit (and this was a habit of long 
 standing with Charley and me) of leaving my little 
 bivouac just at such times and going to Charley with 
 a little treat of salt, of which he was very fond, and 
 which he no doubt took with an additional relish 
 from the fact that I always stood by him, while he 
 licked it out of my hand. This might perhaps have 
 been one of the causes of Charley's affectionate 
 attachment to me ; and on this occasion I had taken 
 care to lay in enough to keep up friendly feelings 
 between us during our campaign, 
 
 
 
212 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 Charley was in the habit, also, of receiving this 
 little attention at that particular time when his meal 
 was about half enjoyed and mine about ready ; and 
 he had learned the time so well, that if I was not 
 ready at the moment, his head was up and his tail 
 spread out like that of a turkey-cock, while he would 
 stand gazing at me. I did not ask him on these 
 occasions what he wanted, for he might have been 
 perplexed to answer emphatically, but I would say 
 to him, " Charley ! do you want your salt ? " " Eegh- 
 ee-e-eh!" (yes). He never failed to answer me in 
 the affirmative on these occasions, and I never failed 
 to carry it to him. 
 
 After finishing my supper, and just at dark, having 
 brought in and driven his picket close by the side of 
 me, I was in the habit of spreading one of my robes 
 upon the grass, and using my saddle for a pillow, 
 with the other robe drawn over me, head and all ; 
 thus sleeping soundly and comfortably until day- 
 light, when Charley became restive ; getting up and 
 moving his picket, I generally got another good nap 
 of an hour or so before rising for the day. Fire 
 built, breakfast eaten, and Charley saddled, we were 
 jogging along again. 
 
 In one instance we crossed a large prairie of many 
 miles in extent, without a tree or a bush in sight, all 
 the way covered with a short grass of some six or 
 eight inches high, and the country all around us, 
 when we were in the middle of it, perfectly level, 
 and the horizon a perfect straight line, " out of sight 
 of land," as it is termed in those regions. Night 
 
THUNDER-STORM ON THE PRAIRIES. 213 
 
 overtook us in the midst of this, and we were obliged 
 to bivouac without water, but not without fire. We 
 had no coffee, of course, that night ; but a venison 
 steak I cooked very nicely with a fire which I made 
 of dried buffalo dung, which I gathered on the 
 prairie. 
 
 I was awoke in the middle of the night by thunder 
 and lightning approaching in a terrible thunder- 
 storm. I got up and drove Charley's picket doubly 
 strong, and folding up my nether robe to keep it 
 dry, and laying it on the saddle, I took my seat upon 
 it, and spread the other one over my head ; it falling 
 to the ground all around me in the form of a tent, 
 sheltered me and all my things perfectly from the 
 rain. The rain fell in torrents, and the flashes of 
 lightning seemed to run like fiery snakes over the 
 surface of the prairie, as if they were hunting for 
 something to strike ; and I feared at every flash 
 that Charley and I might be snapped up for that 
 purpose. 
 
 The rain continued until morning, and I got some 
 sleep, but not of the most satisfactory kind, as I was 
 obliged to keep my upright position all night. 
 
 The monotony of these broad and level prairies 
 sometimes became exceedingly tedious, and even 
 doleful. I repeatedly fell asleep while riding, and 
 waking, I always found Charley not only going 
 along, but keeping on the course. Sometimes for 
 hours together, creeping along, without a moving 
 bird or beast in sight, while both were in deep 
 thought and contemplation, I have said, " Charley ! a 
 
LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 penny for your thoughts." " Eegh-ee-e-eh !" Charley 
 would reply ; both bracing up our nerves, and 
 evidently moved along with a new life, and conse- 
 quently increased speed. 
 
 One day, while we were thus jogging along, each 
 one wrapped up in his own thoughts, suddenly sprang 
 up from his lair, right before us, and within eight or 
 ten rods, a stately buck, with a pair of horns that 
 looked as if he had a great chair on his head ! 
 Charley raised his head suddenly and stopped, and 
 was gazing at him, while I was getting my left barrel 
 to bear upon him, and he was trembling so from 
 fear or anxiety, that I had difficulty in getting my 
 aim. When I fired the deer staggered back a little, 
 but recovered, and bounded off, but without " show- 
 ing his flag," by which I knew I had struck him 
 right. A few rods took him over the top of a little 
 hill, and he was out of our sight. I pushed Charley 
 up to the spot where he had stood, and I saw a pro- 
 fusion of blood on the grass, showing me that all 
 was right. While I sat reloading, Charley had his 
 nose to the ground surveying the bed where the 
 animal had been lying, and also smelling of the blood 
 upon the grass. 
 
 I then guided Charley along on the track, which 
 I could easily follow by the traces of blood. 
 Getting over the hill, the deer had gone into a 
 meadow of high grass which came quite to the top 
 of Charley's back. We entered the high grass on 
 the animal's track, and observing the extraordinary 
 excitement that Charley was under, which I could 
 
CftARLEY TRACKING frILfi BtJCK 215 
 
 feel by his motions as well as see, and observing also 
 his disposition to trace the deer, I had curiosity to 
 slacken the rein and let him take his course. He 
 went on in an unnaturally fast walk, snuffing and 
 smelling along at the blood, keeping the exact track 
 as precisely as a hound would have done, and so 
 followed it for half-a-mile or more; and finally 
 breaking out of the high grass at the foot of a small 
 hill, he suddenly turned his elevated head to the left, 
 and his ears pointing forwards, exclaimed, " Eegh-ee- 
 e-eh ! " (here he is, evidently) ; for I looked in the 
 direction, and at twenty or thirty rods from us, on 
 the side of the hill, lay our noble buck, with his 
 frightful horns, quite dead ! 
 
 I never straightened the rein even then ; but 
 Charley started upon a trot, with his head and tail 
 up (oh, I wish I had a picture of him!), and brought 
 me within a few paces, and stopped. I then pushed 
 him up, and he smelled of the animal's nose and 
 the bleeding wound. "Are you sorry," said I, 
 " Charley ? " " Eegh-ee-e-eh " (yes). " Oh, no," said I, 
 " Charley, you are not. I put the question wrong ; 
 didn't I, Charley?" "Eegh-ee-e-eh." "That's 
 right." I dismounted, and Charley looked on 
 while I cut out a nice steak, and looked and smelled 
 back at me as I was tying it to his saddle, and 
 knew, no doubt, as well as I knew, that he was 
 going to carry it, and that I was to cook it for my 
 supper. 
 
 The almost incredible attachment of this noble 
 animal, and the rest of the curious incidents of this 
 
216 LIFE AMONG THE 
 
 journey from Fort Gibson to St. Louis, enough for & 
 book of themselves, have been written, and must be 
 omitted in this place. One incident, however, may 
 be necessary here, to inform the young reader how 
 we travellers in those rude countries get across 
 rivers which we often meet, where there are no 
 bridges or boats. 
 
 The greatest difficulty Charley and I had appre- 
 hended on our route was the Osage Kiver, which it 
 was absolutely necessary to cross. We came to it 
 it was half-a-mile wide, its banks full with a freshet, 
 and its muddy and boiling current pouring along at 
 the rate of five or six miles an hour. Here poor 
 Charley and I both looked chapfallen give it up 
 we can't, we cannot go round it, and cross it we 
 must. 
 
 I got Charley's packs off, and put him out to 
 graze with his picket, and then, laying down my 
 gun, I followed up the river-shore for full a mile, 
 picking up drift-wood that I could find near it, and 
 laying these at the water's edge. Having gathered 
 enough in that way to form a raft sufficiently large 
 to carry my saddle and other things dry above the 
 water, I began following the shore down ; accumu- 
 lating and floating these as I advanced along, and 
 getting them all together, I formed them into an awk- 
 ward raft. I then took up Charley's picket, and 
 leading him to the water's edge and taking off his 
 lasso, I said, " Do you know what you have to do, 
 Charley ? " " Eegh-ee-e-eh." There was no mistake 
 about this, as it was a thing he was used ta 
 
CBOSSING THE GEEAT OSAGE. 217 
 
 I pointed to the other bank and drove him in, and 
 off he started for the other shore. The current 
 swept him down a considerable distance, but he got 
 to the bank and out upon the prairie, and then he 
 turned about and looked at me with a tremendous 
 eegh-ee-e-eh ! meaning this time, no doubt, " I am 
 safe over, and I wish you the same." Charley then 
 went to grazing, and I went to work, arranging my 
 things on my raft ; laying my saddle on it first, and 
 then my robes, and my gun, and my clothes, which 
 were all taken off. 
 
 I moved my raft into the stream, and swimming 
 behind it, with one hand on it I propelled it, 
 but very slowly, as the stream wafted us down. 
 I laboured steadily and hard, however, and was at 
 length nearing the other shore, but with two alarm- 
 ing apprehensions : the dried logs and sticks with 
 which my raft was constructed were many of them 
 rotten, and, absorbing the water, were sinking so low 
 as to bring some of my things into the river ; and the 
 shore where I was to land was lined with logs and 
 tree-tops extending into the water. 
 
 But I had no alternative ; " I must force it against 
 them and hold it from pulling to pieces, and get 
 myself, at all events, and, if possible, my things 
 ashore." Some of the long timbers of my raft, as I 
 had no axe to make them of equal lengths, caught 
 in the limbs of a tree lying in the water, whirling 
 it round, and thereby threatening to pull it to pieces, 
 and throwing me out again quite into the stream. 
 A second effort, however, brought me to a little bettei 
 
218 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 place for landing, and at length I got my feet upon 
 the ground and my traps all safely landed. 
 
 I was then in front of a dense forest, and full a 
 mile below where I had lost sight of Charley stand- 
 ing with his head and tail up, and watching me as I 
 disappeared behind the point of timber. Getting 
 my clothes on and all things ashore, and preparing 
 to start through the woods for Charley, I was startled 
 by a cracking noise in my rear, and as I turned 
 round, " Eegh-ee-e-eh ! " said Charley, as he was 
 crowding through the thick weeds and nettles 
 behind me. 
 
 I have said that Charley was a " noble animal," 
 and that " he loved me." Was he a noble animal ? 
 and for what ? Could I repay Charlie for such affec- 
 tion ? I gave him a double ration. "Kation! of 
 what ? " Of salt, of course. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Caracas The Scylla Plains of Venezuela Indians of 
 Venezuela The Handsome Dance The Bolas Catching 
 the Wild Horse Canoeing on the Orinoco Opening of a 
 Spathe Pirates at the Spathe Campanero (The Bell Bird) 
 The Wakened Sloth Mouths of the Orinoco Wigwams 
 in the Trees. 
 
 JOW for the fields and forests of everlasting 
 and never-ending green, of all Nature's 
 uninterrupted joy, of bloom, of gaiety, and 
 song ! where dreary winter's blasts are not known, 
 and leaves are dropping, and buds and flowers are 
 growing at the same time ! I have said that I knew 
 such a place as this. Who has breathed the delicious 
 air, seen the gaudy colours, and heard the sweet notes 
 of this flower-garden, this music-hall, this aviary of 
 the world the grand and boundless valley of the 
 Amazon and who will not, if his life and his purse 
 be long enough, go there and see it ? 
 
 But we are not quite in it yet Caracas is not in 
 the valley of the Amazon, nor is it the beginning, 
 exactly, of South America, but it is not a great way 
 from it. It is in Venezuela, on a sandy, scorching 
 
 219 
 
220 t LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 coast. It was there that I first landed, and it is 
 there we will begin. 
 
 From some unknown accident in the giant furnace 
 that is burning underneath that region of country, 
 a terrible shock and a shake were given in the 
 beginning of this century, destroying ten thousand 
 inhabitants ; and, back of the town, and for a long 
 distance on the coast, you may still see the frightful 
 chasms which were opened at that time. 
 
 Natural things are on a large scale in the country 
 now ahead of us. What is forged in the mighty 
 furnace underneath us, and how long it has been 
 worked, nobody knows. It formerly threw out its 
 smoke and its cinders at the top of Chimborazo, only 
 19,000 feet high. Chimborazo (Tchimboratho) is 
 " laid up ; " the chimney now at work is Cotopaxi 
 (Cotopassi), of equal height ; its groanings and 
 bellowings can be heard only 600 miles off! and a 
 l>lock of granite of 327 cubic feet it was able to pro- 
 ject a distance of only nine miles ! 
 
 The Orinoco is a large river not far from us the 
 Amazon is much larger larger than the Missouri, 
 but not quite so long ; at the head of tide water it is 
 but thirty miles wide ; it has but about 1500 islands, 
 and the largest of them, occupied by individual 
 nabobs, contain only 50,000 head of horses and 
 cattle ! Naval engineers who have surveyed the bed 
 of the Amazon at the expense of the United States 
 Government report that the " Pennsylvania," a 140 
 gun-ship, built in Philadelphia, could go only as 
 high as Tabatinga in low water ; that is, only 1800 
 
CARACAS. 221 
 
 miles from its mouth ! and ordinary passenger 
 steamers could go only 1000 miles higher, without 
 being liable to get aground, if the water was low ! 
 These distances are not very great ! The valley of 
 the Amazon is rather large ; but it could not pos- 
 sibly hold with comfort more than the populations 
 of England, France, Belgium, and the United 
 States put together: for putting more than that 
 number in might make some men's farms rather 
 too small ! . 
 
 The precipitous wall of rock just back of the 
 town of Caracas is only 6000 feet in height ! and 
 in the " shakes " it " shook and shuddered so that 
 the stones and trees were tumbling down from its 
 reeling sides in all directions." Can one climb it ? 
 No. But by a hard day's work you may get to its 
 summit by going a great way round. And then, 
 where is the town ? and where the ocean ? If the 
 day is perfectly clear and sunny, you can see neither. 
 If the weather is thick and overcast, you may see a 
 little strip of white sand and some little red patches 
 at your feet, if you can venture near enough to the 
 brink ; but the sky and the ocean are one, and you 
 can't divorce them; and on the top the cloud- 
 capped summit what's here? Here is a pebble! 
 a sea-shore pebble ! worn round by the waves on the 
 sea- shore ; not in the bottom of the ocean, for there 
 are no waves there, the waters lie still in that 
 place. What bird could have brought this here ? 
 but stop, here's another, and another, and then 
 thousands of others ! 
 
222 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 These pebbles are flint they contain silicified 
 zoophytes! Everything has a life and a death; 
 these have lived zoophytes live and grow only in 
 the sea ; their beds have been cretaceous. We are 
 only 6000 feet above the sea, and looking into it at 
 our feet. When were these pebbles rolled by the 
 waves of the sea ? Where, for thousands of years, 
 to be rounded as they are ? In what cretaceous bed 
 lay they for thousands of years, and perhaps for 
 thousands of centuries, to be changed from the 
 living animal, with all their curious and intricate 
 tentaculae, into silex before they were rolled? and 
 how long have they lain here ? and then, how came 
 they here ? or where has here been ? But don't let 
 us go mad ; let us get down from this place, we are 
 too high. No ; it's too much trouble to get back 
 again ; we are now on the top of the " Scylla/' the 
 grand plateau that sweeps off to the Orinoco. 
 There are Indians on these plains, and I, of course, 
 must cross them. Have any Indian tribes ever 
 escaped me ? Yes. Shall I ever see them all ? I 
 don't believe so. 
 
 How easily the reader travels ! how soon he is 
 across the Atlantic ! how quick upon the summit of 
 the Scylla and the plains of Venezuela I His sea 
 voyage don't cost him fifty pounds his knees don't 
 ache like ours. He sits at home, while he reads and 
 smiles at our tugging and groaning ; but he loses 
 much that we see. He carries no knapsack ; and the 
 escape from one rattlesnake, from one tiger, or from 
 one drowning produces, perhaps, in one minute, 
 
PLAINS OF VENEZUELA. 223 
 
 more pleasure than he enjoys in a month. This 
 may be so who can contradict it ? 
 
 My knapsack is heavy, but I have resolved to 
 carry it. Dr. Hentz, a German botanist, and his 
 man, are with me. We have no horses, but we 
 resolve to cross these beautiful plains on our legs ; 
 may be the Gauchos, with their mules, will help us. 
 Angostura is on the Orinoco ; it is but a hundred 
 and fifty miles that's nothing. 
 
 The prairies in this country are pampas; in 
 shape and distant appearance they are much like 
 those which Charley and I passed over between 
 Fort Gibson and St. Louis, rolling and sloping 
 about in all directions, with beautiful clear streams 
 winding through them, and copses and bunches of 
 timber and bushes on their sides and along the 
 banks of the streams. 
 
 But those bunches and copses when we come near 
 to them, oh, how lovely ! There are the beautiful 
 bananas, the pennated, lofty, and dwarf palms, and, 
 at their feet, palmettoes; acres on acres of geraniums 
 in flowers of all colours and of various odours ; of 
 wild roses, and fifty kinds of flowering plants. The 
 meadows are filled with lilies of various hues ; the 
 hedges are bending with wild plums and wild 
 grapes. The orange and fig-trees are on every little 
 hillock, and yellow with fruit, and still white with 
 sweet blossoms. Pinks of a hundred colours and 
 patterns, and violets of all hues are under our feet, 
 and now and then a huge rattlesnake ! 
 
 The busy little humming-birds are buzzing about 
 
224 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 us, and ten thousands of beetles and other clumsy 
 flyers, that no one stops to inquire about, are 
 knocking and butting against us. Spathes of palrn- 
 flowers are opening, and these swarm in myriads 
 about them. 
 
 The sun looks as it does at home, though per- 
 haps a little smaller, and more over our heads ; we 
 have to bend our necks more to look at it. Man 
 begins here to feel less than he does in England, 
 his shadow is shorter, it don't follow him so exactly, 
 and so far behind him. 
 
 The Indians; are there any? Yes; but not many. 
 Small-pox, and rum, and whisky have destroyed the 
 most of them. Here are the Chaymas and the 
 Goo -wa- gives, semi-civilized, mostly mixed with 
 Spaniards. Some full-bloods ; colour and character 
 much like the Ojibbeways in North America; 
 rather small and slight in stature, but quick and 
 powerful men, beautifully formed, and no deformities 
 amongst them. 
 
 Who is the happiest man in the world just at this 
 time ? Why, Doctor Hentz, while he is gathering 
 these beautiful plants and lovely flowers, and pack- 
 ing them in his large books, which a Chayma is 
 employed to help to carry to Angostura. And who 
 the next happiest? Why, I, of course, who am 
 putting these beautiful scenes into my portfolio ; and 
 yesterday, that beautiful dance! What dance? 
 Why, the mach-ee-o-a (handsome or glad dance), 
 glad, or thankful, because the Indians are pleased 
 with us, and perhaps have received some valued 
 
THE HANDSOME DANCE. 225 
 
 present, and also because the medicine man has told 
 them that I am great medicine. What ! medicine 
 men here too? in South America? Yes, exactly the 
 same as in North America. The chiefs portrait 
 was held up by .the corners in the same way, and 
 the medicine men had a grand dance around it. 
 And then the warriors danced the war-dance, and 
 gave the war-whoop. What ! the war-whoop here 
 too? Precisely the same. And then ; and then, what? 
 Why then came the handsome dance. The young 
 women dance in this country, but not often. Three 
 young and beautiful women were selected by the 
 chief to give this dance ; it was an extraordinary 
 compliment paid to my medicine; for many years 
 it had not been seen. Was it beautiful ? The most 
 beautiful thing I ever saw. How were these girls 
 dressed? Each one had a beautiful tiger- skin 
 spread under her feet, upon which she danced ; their 
 hair, fastened by a silver band passing around the 
 head, was falling down in shining tresses; long pins 
 of silver were run through their under lips, and 
 strings of blue and white beads were dangling from 
 them ; large and small beads hung in great pro- 
 fusion around their necks, and polished brass bands 
 were worn, with strings of blue and white beads on 
 their slender wrists and ankles ; their cheeks were 
 painted red, and their bodies were coloured white 
 with white clay. 
 
 Did they raise their feet from the ground when 
 they danced ? No, not quite, their toes were always 
 on the tiger-skins. Did they separate their big 
 
226 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 toes? Not an inch. Did they dance to music? 
 In perfect time to the beat of the drum and a chant 
 of the chiefs. Were they graceful ? Yes. 
 
 Nothing can be more beautiful of their kind than 
 the rolling plains between Caracas and the 
 Orinoco. They are abundantly stocked with wild 
 horses and wild (not buffaloes, but) cattle, which 
 answer all the same purposes for food to the 
 Indians as well as to white men. These are taken 
 both by the Indians and the Spaniards, not with 
 the bow and arrows or lance, but with the deadly 
 bolas. 
 
 The bolas is a cord of raw hide, branching three 
 ways from the centre, each branch being some eight 
 or ten feet in length, with a leaden ball of half-a- 
 pound or so in weight at its end. One of these 
 balls the rider holds in his right hand, while his 
 horse is at full speed, and the other two are swing- 
 ing around and over his head until he is in the 
 right position, when he lets go the ball in his hand, 
 giving them all a sling at the same time. The three 
 balls keep their respective opposite positions as they 
 are whirling about in the air, till one of the cords 
 strikes the neck of the animal, around which and its 
 legs the cords instantly wrap themselves, and the 
 animal falls upon its head and becomes an easy and 
 certain prey to its assailant, who, with a long lance 
 from his horse's back, or with his knife, by dis- 
 mounting, does the rest. 
 
 This mode is used only for "killing." The wild 
 horses are killed in this manner for their skins and 
 
CATCHING THE WILD HORSE. 227 
 
 their hair, aad the wild cattle for their flesh, their 
 skins, and their horns. 
 
 In taking wild horses for their use, this mode 
 would not answer ; for in nine cases out of ten the 
 fall of the horse while at full speed, and entangled 
 in the folds of the bolas, would break the animal's 
 neck, or disable it for life. 
 
 For catching the wild horse, therefore, the lasso is 
 used by these people much in the same way as it is 
 used by the Indians in North America, which has 
 been described ; only with the difference, that when 
 the horse is arrested by the lasso, and its speed is 
 stopped, they strike it with a short baton (loo-tank) 
 loaded with lead (something like a " life-preserver"), 
 on the back part of the head, which stuns the 
 animal, and it falls to the ground. The captor then 
 places a bandage around its eyes, and gets upon its 
 back. The horse, recovering from the blow, and 
 rising, soon yields to the wishes of its cruel master, 
 not daring to run with its eyes blinded. 
 
 By the effects of this mode of breaking, which I 
 have seen and closely studied, I believe the natural 
 spirit of the animal is irretrievably lost, to such a 
 degree as greatly to diminish its value. 
 
 At the small town of Chaparro, about sixty miles 
 from the Orinoco, we learned that a large armed 
 force of insurgents in the civil war at Venezuela, 
 which had suddenly broken out, was marching 
 on Angostura ; and by the aid of mules which we 
 employed of the Gauchos, we got posted on to San- 
 Diego, and from that to a point thirty miles below 
 
 P 
 
228 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 Angostura, to the banks of the Orinoco ; a canoe 
 took us to Barrancas, and from that we got a 
 steamer to Georgetown, Demerara, in British 
 Guiana. 
 
 But stop; we did not come to Demerara in a 
 moment, we could not, and why sJiould we ? What 
 did we see, and what did we do ? Why, we saw 
 from our little "dug-out" the stately and dark 
 forests overhanging the shores of the Orinoco. Is 
 there anything like them on earth ? I don't be- 
 lieve it. 
 
 "Stately," did I say? Yes, and lofty. The 
 towering mora, the miriti, with its tall and elegant 
 shaft, the tough hackea, the green-heart, the ebony, 
 the copal locust, the beautiful hayawa, and the olow, 
 with their sweet gushing resin, and the graceful 
 banana, the queen of the forest, and twenty others, 
 mingled and intermingled with cordage and ropes of 
 creeping, and climbing, and hanging vines ; with 
 clumps and bouquets of beautiful flowers of all colours 
 and at all heights ; and chattering monkeys leaping 
 from branch to branch, with their little ones on their 
 backs, cunningly ogling us as we passed. 
 
 The solitary tocanos bowing to us from the 
 withered tops of the lofty moras, and saluting us 
 " Tso-cano, tso-cano ! no, no, no ! go on there, go 
 on there!" The beautiful white swans by hundreds, 
 and pelicans also, as white as the snow, were flap- 
 ping their long wings and on the air before I could 
 get " Sam " to bear upon them. " Sam ! who's 
 Sam?" Why, Sam Colt, a six-shot little rifle 
 
CANOEING ON THE ORINOCO. 229 
 
 always lying before me during the day, and in my 
 arms during the night, by which a tiger's or an 
 alligator's eye, at a hundred yards, was sure to drop 
 a red tear but don't interrupt me. The last of 
 these were everywhere basking in the sun and 
 plunging off from their slimy logs as we approached. 
 The timid turtles were shoving down from the 
 banks of sand, and the tortoises, with their elevated 
 heads, came pacing out of the forest where they 
 roam, taking shelter under the waves whilst their 
 enemies passed. 
 
 It is easier to fly over the water and between 
 these hundreds of islands, with their matted, and 
 twisted, and almost wedged foliage, than through 
 them ; and these crooked avenues, for birds and wild 
 fowl, are what the Strand and London Bridge are 
 to the Londoners. 
 
 There are all sorts, and all sizes, and all colours 
 on the wing; some slow and some fast; some 
 actually loungers, and some evidently expresses, as 
 they dart through the crowds like a shot. Many 
 are gossipers, for they chatter as they travel So 
 there is din as well as motion ; and in the midst of 
 this, once in a while, a flock of wild geese must pass 
 (an omnibus !) ; the crowd must give way ! they fly 
 in a triangle; their leader is a "conductor" and 
 distinctly cries, "Get in, John! get in, John! 
 Paddington! Paddington!" while the beautiful 
 tocano turns his head sideways, and rolls his pierc- 
 ing eye down from the tops of the mora, as he 
 echoes, "Go on, John ! go on, John! go on! go on 1" 
 
230 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 " Here's a swarm of bees ahead of us," said Dr. 
 Hentz; "we shall be stung to death!'* "No, 
 Doctor, its only the opening of a spathe ; and you 
 know what a spathe is better than I ; that's in your 
 line, Doctor." "Well," said the Doctor, "that's 
 true, and I'll tell you." 
 
 " There are over two hundred different varieties 
 of palm-trees in this country, and each sort has its 
 blossoms and its fruits in its own shape. The fruit 
 of all palms grows just where the leaves and branches 
 start out from the trunk; and before the fruit comes 
 immense large sacks or spathes, containing the 
 flowers, are visible for weeks, and sometimes for 
 months, before they are sufficiently perfected to 
 open. These spathes on some palms are large 
 enough for the back-loads of three or four men, 
 and, when opened, present from ten to one hundred 
 thousand fragrant and honey-bearing flowers of 
 purple, of pink, and other colours, perfuming the 
 atmosphere for a great distance around them. 
 
 "The honey-sucking birds and insects generally 
 get a few days' previous knowledge of these im- 
 portant approaching events, and gather in myriads 
 around them, ready for the onslaught, when a 
 bright and clear morning shows them their feast 
 opened and spread before them. That is the scene 
 now before us. You see in the midst of that whirl- 
 ing cloud of insects the spadix of a palm in full 
 bloom, and here is now just going on the 'set-to,' 
 and pell-mell for honey. There's no danger of being 
 stung now, I admit. These busy little creatures, 
 
PIEATES AT THE SPATHE. 231 
 
 though most of them with stings, are all at work; 
 they have their little ones to feed, and no time now 
 to sting; let's step and look at them a while." 
 Thank you, Doctor. This was a short lecture in 
 botany ; the Doctor had given us many. 
 
 We stopped our canoe, and looked at the busy 
 group. Through my opera-glass the scene was 
 indescribably curious. Whilst thousands of honey- 
 bees, of humble-bees, of beetles, and humming-birds, 
 and other honey-sucking insects were whirling 
 around it, like all other riches and luxuries of the 
 world, it was easily seen that these were divided 
 amongst the lucky few. The surface of these clusters 
 of flowers seemed chiefly engrossed by the swift- 
 darting and glistening little humming-birds, of all 
 sizes and all hues, whose long and slender bills 
 entered every approachable cell, as they balanced on 
 their trembling wings, ready to dart away when 
 danger comes. These seemed masters of the feast. 
 But there were others apparently even more success- 
 ful ; the busy, fearless, little bees, and humble bees, 
 and others, that crept between and through the 
 winding maze of flowers, and culled their choicest, 
 freshest sweets, where others could not enter ; but 
 then, where were they? Like too many of the 
 world who enjoy the sweetest things, the nearest 
 to eternity. 
 
 The sharp claws of the bright-eyed little bee- 
 hawk suspended him from these mats of flowers; he 
 loves honey, but sucks it not; he gets it in a shorter 
 way ; he picks up these little labourers as they come 
 
232 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 out with their rich loads, and puts them in his crop. 
 His feast finished, he flies, but heavily, with his 
 plundered prey, and knows the gauntlet he too has 
 to run; his enemies are of his own kin, but stronger 
 and fleeter on the wing. They sit like silent 
 sentinels on the dry limbs of overhanging trees, 
 and stoop upon him and snatch him up as he passes 
 through the open air. Amidst these incongruous 
 masses of contending and jealous insects, with their 
 deadly weapons, many conflicts and many deaths 
 ensue; and many such, with their accumulated 
 treasure, drop to the ground beneath, in the grass, 
 and there ("Let's go ashore," said the Doctor, 
 " and I'll show you") and he did show me. "There, 
 do you see that little green snake, and that white 
 one too ? they are both of one species, though their 
 colours are different; they both are honey-eaters, 
 though the world don't believe it. They know just 
 as well as these insects when a spathe of flowers is 
 opened, and here they are. They take the honey- 
 loaded carcasses of the unlucky combatants that fall." 
 "How did you learn this curious fact, Doctor?" 
 "From the Indians." 
 
 " Doctor," said I, " next to the Indians, the thing 
 I wish most to see is a cocoa-nut tree, and to hear 
 your description of it." "I don't think there are 
 any near here," said the Doctor ; " the cocoa-nut is 
 not a native of America, but it has been introduced, 
 and we shall probably see many of them before long; 
 but I have not met one yet." 
 
 Well, we were jogging along on the Orinoco, were 
 
CAMPANERO (THE BELL BIRD). 233 
 
 we not ? Look, next time you go to the Museum, 
 for the beautiful cotingas ; there are several sorts 
 of them, a size larger than the humming-birds, and 
 equally beautiful in plumage. They are all here, and 
 in great numbers are darting about amongst us. 
 
 And the campanero (strange bird !), their notes 
 exactly like the tinkling or tolling of a bell. They 
 give the forest the most singular character. They 
 are solitary birds, I take it, for we never see them. 
 We hear their strange notes, and then, from some 
 mystery in sound not yet explained, we can't tell 
 which way they are ; if we go one way or the other 
 to look for them, it's all the same ; the sound is 
 equally near, and all around us ; it seems a mile 
 distant, but it may be within a few yards ; it tolls 
 only just at night, when it is too late to see it, or 
 just at daybreak, when the difficulty is the same. 
 There's medicine in this ! It's like the thunder- 
 bird of the "thunder's nest." I never could see 
 one, though I am a "medicine man" Is it a bird? 
 or is it some sort of mirage of sound ? Is it not 
 a distant cow-bell ? It's not a phantom; phantoms 
 "fly before us;" this does not fly; it's all around, 
 before, and behind us, and travels with us ; but we'll 
 drop it, and perhaps hunt for it again. 
 
 Though these forests and these lovely river-shores 
 are constantly ringing with song, still one -half of 
 animal nature seems to sleep during the day ; for 
 when one set of songsters are done, another begins ; 
 but how different I The songs of the day are all 
 joyous and cheering, if we could understand them, 
 
234 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 characteristic of the glow and warmth of sunshine ; 
 but in the dark, how emblematic of the gloom and 
 loneliness about us, and characteristic of that stealth 
 with which the animals of the dark steal upon their 
 sleeping, unprotected, prey ! The frequent roar we 
 often hear of the hungry jaguar ; the doleful howl- 
 ings of the red monkeys ; the hooting of owls ; and 
 every night the inquisitive goat-sucker, who lights 
 upon a limb as nearly over us as he can in safety, 
 and shocks our nerves, in his coarse and perfectly 
 masculine and human voice, "Who are you? go 
 away ! go away !" 
 
 Well, we'll go away ; well jog on ; we are stop- 
 ping too long in this place ; but then, one word 
 more before we start. What great ugly beast is 
 that I see yonder, hanging under a branch of that 
 hayama tree ? That ? That's a sloth, sir, the laziest 
 animal of all the world, and perfectly harmless ; it 
 hasn't the energy to stand upon its legs, but hangs 
 all day without moving, and, fast asleep under the 
 limb of a tree, hangs by his long toe-nails. What! 
 hangs and sleeps all day ? Well, that's easier than 
 to stand and sleep ; its like sleeping in a hammock. 
 What a gentleman ! Sleeps all day ! But he is a 
 fat looking fellow. I believe he is up all night ; 
 and if you have a hen-roost I advise you to beware 
 of him, he seems well fed ; the world is full of such 
 gentlemen. He can't move ha ! hand me " Sam." 
 I'll prick him up a little, and see what he's made of. 
 Bang ! he falls into the river I but he swims ! and 
 now upon the bank ! and at one leap upon the side 
 
MOUTHS OF THE ORINOCO. 235 
 
 of a tree! and at another of forty feet, upon 
 another tree ! and the next, out of sight ! That's 
 your lazy gentleman, ha ! Why, no alligator could 
 catch that fellow in the water; no dog could catch 
 him on the land; and amongst the trees, few monkeys 
 would be a match for him. I believe he is a great 
 rascal. 
 
 We are at Barrancas now ; Barrancas is a large 
 town ; but what are large towns to us ? London is 
 considerably larger. This steamer goes to Deme- 
 rara ; just where our little canoe can't go, and where 
 we must go. " A good chance to overhaul and air 
 your plants, Dr. Hentz." 
 
 "First-rate, Mynheer." 
 
 " This is a strange looking place, captain. What 
 a vast number of islands there are ahead of us ! We 
 are at the mouth of the Orinoco ?" 
 
 " Not quite." 
 
 " It has a hundred mouths, I am told ?" 
 
 "No; only fifty." 
 
 " How grand and magnificent the forests around 
 us ! Those thousands and tens of thousands of 
 lofty palms, their trunks standing in the water, 
 actually ! Why, they seem like a grand colonnade, 
 or portico of some mighty edifice !" 
 
 " Yes, they are truly so ; but they don't look 
 exactly so in low water. The tide is getting well 
 nigh up now. I see you are an Englishman, sir?" 
 
 " No, captain, not exactly ; I am an American ; 
 that's not far from it." 
 
236 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 " Give us your hand, stranger ; you know who I 
 am ; we'll have a long talk after a while." 
 
 " But, captain, before you go below, what sort of 
 birds' nests are those in those trees on the shore, 
 and on that island ahead of us ? They are too large 
 for rooks, I think." 
 
 " Well, don't now ! You'll make me smile, sir, 
 if you don't take care. They are a large sort of bird, 
 sir, and you'll see them hovering about us in a little 
 time. These birds fly upon the water, sir ; not in 
 the air ; they live upon fish and oysters ; and I ex- 
 pect some fresh supplies from them by-and-by. 
 
 "These, what you call birds, sir, are Indians, 
 Guaroanes (Caribbees) ; they build their houses in 
 the trees, and go up to them by a ladder from their 
 canoes, and never venture out except when the tide 
 is up, and that always in their canoes ; when the 
 tide is out, all is deep mud and slime about them, 
 which nothing can walk through." 
 
 "Captain, I would give almost anything if we 
 could stop near some of these for a little time." 
 
 "That's quite easy, sir, for I've got to lie-to a 
 little till the tide gets high enough to take us over 
 the bar, and you may have a first-rate opportunity 
 to see them, and visit them too, if you wish, for I 
 am going to send the yawl to one of them with that 
 Spanish gentleman and his two daughters sitting in 
 the bow yonder, who are going to them." 
 
 " Splendid ! captain, splendid ! M 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Demerara Paramaribo Rio Essequibo Howling Monkeys 
 Village Treachery of Interpreter Indian Hospitality- 
 Indian Superstition Showing Revolver to the Indians 
 The Old Minie* The Young Revolver Hill of the Shining 
 Stones Picking up a Rattlesnake A Bed of Poppies. 
 
 JEORGETOWN, Demerara, in British Guiana, 
 is a large and very flourishing town, where 
 coffee, and cotton, and sugar are raised in 
 great perfection, and in great abundance. 
 
 One could stop a long time, and, in fact, spend 
 his life here, with pleasure ; but, as I have said, we 
 are not travelling to see large towns and cities we 
 have no time, and everybody knows what they are ; 
 but it is not all the world who knows what's before 
 us. And no better key to that can be given at this 
 place than the following extracts made from a series 
 of letters written at Para, in Brazil, by a fine young 
 man of the name of Smyth, who (like my faithful 
 friend, Joe Chadwick, in North America) accompanied 
 me across the Acary (or Tumucumaque) Mountains 
 to the valley of the Amazon. These letters were 
 
 S37 
 
238 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 written to his brother in Berkshire several years 
 since ; and, since my return, I have been permitted 
 to make these extracts, which so graphically and 
 correctly describe scenes and country we passed, that 
 I consider them well deserving of this notoriety. 
 
 "PARA, BRAZIL, 1854. 
 
 "DEAK BROTHER, You will have thought, per- 
 haps, from my long silence, that I had been killed 
 by a tiger, or swallowed by an alligator before this. 
 I arrived in Georgetown, Demerara, one year since, 
 and I am sorry to say I found it not to be the 
 thing it was said to be. I lounged about there for 
 six months without making a sixpence. My tin 
 was about all out, without my knowing what to do, 
 when I fell in company with an old acquaintance 
 of London, Mr. Catlin, whom you will remember, 
 whose Indian Collection we went often to see in the 
 Egyptian Hall. * * * 
 
 " I one day espied a crowd in the street, amused 
 at the red heads of some Caribbee Indians, looking 
 out of a chamber window. I ventured in, and find- 
 ing myself at the top of the stairs, I got a peep in 
 and saw what was going on. There was a great 
 crowd in the place, and at the farther end of the 
 chamber I recognised the old veteran, with his 
 palette and brushes in his hands, painting the por- 
 trait of an Indian chief, who was standing before 
 him. He didn't observe me, and I backed quietly 
 out. 
 
 " An hour or so after, when the crowd had cleared 
 
PARAMARIBO. 239 
 
 chiefly away, aud the chamber was pretty much 
 empty, I entered again, and advancing, offered my 
 hand. I said, * You won't remember me, sir ; it is 
 over six years since you saw me ;' but he called my 
 name in an instant. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " There was a German Doctor with him, and they 
 had just arrived from Angostura, on the Orinoco 
 River, their noses and faces tanned and burnt almost 
 to the colour of Indians. A large table in the room 
 was loaded with plants and skins of animals and 
 birds, and the sides of the room around lined with 
 Indian portraits and views of the country. 
 
 " I soon learned they were going to start in a few 
 days for a journey across the Turaucumaque Moun- 
 tains into the valley of the Amazon, in Brazil, just 
 the place precisely where I wanted to go of all 
 others. I proposed to the gentleman, that if he 
 would pay my expenses and furnish me with powder 
 and ball, as I had a first-rate Minie' rifle with me, I 
 would go with him, hunt for him, and protect him, 
 at the risk of my own life if it was necessary. This 
 offer saved him the expense of hiring a worse man, 
 and suited him exactly, and the arrangements were 
 soon concluded. * * * * 
 
 "You know the ' old Minie' well, and what she 
 can do ; and you may easily imagine there was 
 enough now preparing for her. He spent some 
 little time in painting some tribes in this neighbour- 
 hood and in Dutch Guiana, at Paramaribo, and then 
 we were prepared to cross the mountains, and at last 
 
240 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 set out, after I had got pretty tired of waiting, in a 
 large canoe, with a family of Indians who had come 
 down to Georgetown to make their trade. Our 
 course was up the Essequibo, and our party con- 
 sisted of Mr. Catlin (or governor, as we called him) ; 
 the German Doctor and his servant ; an Indian half- 
 breed, whom the governor had hired as a guide ; a 
 Spaniard, our interpreter ; and myself. 
 
 " We ascended this magnificent river for a hun- 
 dred or two miles, to near the great falls, and then 
 took off to an Indian town, where we were told we 
 could get horses and mules to take us on to the base 
 of the mountains. 
 
 * * * . * 
 
 " The banks of this noble river, lined with its 
 stately palms and other evergreen trees, are beautiful 
 beyond anything that can be described or imagined. 
 The river is alive with wild fowl and alligators, and 
 the shores abound in wild animals as we pass along. 
 The old Minie' was almost constantly in my hands, 
 and the lead which she hove ashore was curious, I 
 assure you. 
 
 " The Indians in this country use no guns, and 
 the Indian party in our boat were constantly amused 
 and astonished at the distance at which I would 
 knock the alligators off their logs, and the manner 
 in which the scales would fly when I struck them. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " The whole shore on both sides was lined with 
 one immense forest of palms and other trees over- 
 hanging the river, and many of these, from the 
 
HOWLING MONKEYS. 241 
 
 ground to their very tops, were covered with white 
 and pink flowers. Their branches were constantly 
 shaken by squeaking monkeys looking out at us and 
 leaping from tree to tree, keeping opposite to us as 
 we passed along ; and parrots were chattering and 
 scolding at us as if we had no right to be there. 
 Peccaries, a sort of wild pig, were running on the 
 banks in great numbers; they are fine game, and 
 good eating. 
 
 " At night the Indians always slept in their canoe, 
 but we stretched our hammocks and slept upon the 
 high banks amongst the trees, lighting a strong fire, 
 and keeping it up all night. 
 
 "There is a sort of monkey that howls in the 
 night, making the most hideous noise that ever was 
 heard, and they seemed to gather around us every 
 night. As soon as it was nightfall, it was curious 
 to see the bats come out and sail about over the 
 shores of the river. Some of these were as large as 
 a leather apron ; and the mosquitoes, oh, horrid ! 
 they were the worst enemy we had ; the old Minie* 
 couldn't touch them. There was no such thing as 
 getting to sleep until ten or eleven o'clock at night, 
 when they always disappeared. 
 
 " When we left the canoe and our Indian party, 
 and took to the land, we had a hard siege of it; 
 each one had to carry his share of the luggage, and 
 we were all loaded down. We left in the morning, 
 and our guide brought us to a small Indian village 
 just before night, through swamps and quagmires, 
 with nothing but a footpath to follow. The Indian 
 
242 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 town, however, was upon an open plain, very beau- 
 tiful, with small palms in groups standing out 
 upon it. 
 
 " The huts of these people were all thatched over 
 with palni-leaves, and there were a great number of 
 horses and mules grazing around them ; and amongst 
 them some of the handsomest mules I ever saw. 
 
 " The guide led us to the chief's hut, who received 
 us very kindly; he was an oldish man, and was 
 seated on the ground. Some skins were placed for 
 us to sit upon, and, through the interpreter, the 
 governor soon commenced a conversation with him ; 
 telling him where we were going, and what our 
 object was. The chief was sitting cross-legged, and 
 was smoking a long pipe ; his head was cast down, 
 and he now and then gave a sort of grunt, and I saw 
 that the governor began to show a little concern. 
 
 " The conversation went on for some time, with- 
 out much change, when the governor commenced 
 making some sort of masonic signs with his hands 
 to the chief, who raised his head a little, very sud- 
 denly, and after watching them closely for a minute 
 or so, he laid down his pipe, and striking both his 
 hands quickly together, he began making signs in 
 reply. The governor began to smile, and the chief, 
 seeing they mutually understood each other, jumped 
 upon his feet as nimbly as a boy. The governor 
 arose, and the chief embraced him in his arms, call- 
 ing him his 'brother!' 
 
 " A further conversation then took place between 
 the two for some time, while the old chiefs limbs 
 
TREACHERY OF INTERPRETER. 24)3 
 
 trembled with pleasure and excitement. The gover- 
 nor then explained to him that he had come from a 
 great many tribes of red people exactly like himself, 
 living three or four hundred days' march to the 
 north (in North America), who all understood the 
 same signs, and smoked the pipe in the same 
 manner : to which the chief replied, ' These people 
 are our brothers, and you are their father/ 
 
 " The governor told the chief what our views 
 were, and that we wanted to hire some horses and 
 some of his young men to take us to the base of the 
 mountains. At this, the chief turned to the inter- 
 preter, who it seems had been giving him a different 
 interpretation, and told him he was a great scoundrel 
 to deceive the white men who had employed him, 
 and to try to deceive him also. 
 
 " The Spaniard, seeing himself detected, was in a 
 great rage, and demanded his pay for three months, 
 for which time he was employed. The governor 
 refused to pay him a sixpence, when he advanced up 
 suddenly in front of the governor, and placing his 
 hand upon the handle of a large knife which he wore 
 in his waistband, demanded his money again ; but 
 observing the muzzle of the old Minid about that 
 instant near his short ribs, and a click ! (a sort of a 
 hiccup she has when she is just about to speak), 
 he drew a little back 
 
 " The chief then said to him, as he had acted the 
 traitor in his house, it was for him, and not for the 
 white man, to pay him ; that he was known to many 
 of the young men of the tribe to be a great scoundrel, 
 
 V 
 
244 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 and the sooner and the more quietly he got out of 
 the way the better. The scamp then walked off, and 
 we never heard of him afterwards. 
 
 " All was now friendly and cheerful ; the pipe was 
 passed round several times for us all to smoke ; the 
 old chief holding the long stem in both hands, as he 
 walked round and held the pipe to our mouths. The 
 old man introduced us to his two sons, young men 
 about my age ; they were almost entirely naked, like 
 most of the tribe ; but I only wish that I had limbs 
 so round and beautiful as theirs. I often thought 
 how beautiful a racecourse of such young men 
 would be. 
 
 " The chief told us that his house was small, and 
 not very good, but he would do all he could to make 
 us sleep well, and we should be welcome. We were 
 placed, with all our things, in a small adjoining hut, 
 and passed the night very comfortably. 
 
 " The governor commenced the conversation the 
 next morning, by telling him he was going to show 
 him and his people how the red-skins looked in 
 North America, where he had come from, which the 
 good old man could not at all comprehend, until the 
 governor opened a large portfolio with a hundred or 
 more portraits of Indians, buffalo hunts, etc., all in 
 full blazing colours. Perhaps few men on earth 
 were ever more suddenly amused and astonished than 
 this old veteran was at that moment. 
 
 " We were seated at that time by the side of him, 
 and all upon the ground, with the German Doctor 
 and his man, and no other Indians in the hut. The 
 
INDIAN SUPERSTITION. 245 
 
 old man looked at them all, but very fast ; and when 
 he was done, began to howl and sing the most droll 
 song I ever heard in my life, which seemed at last 
 to be the signal for a strange-looking being to enter, 
 whose visage was filled with wrinkles, his face most 
 curiously painted, with a fan in one hand, and a 
 rattle in the other, which he was shaking as he 
 entered. 
 
 " This, I learned, was an Indian doctor, who took 
 his seat by the side of the chief, and after they had 
 hastily looked over the pictures, the old chief got up 
 and took down from quite up under the roof of his 
 hut a little round roll of bark, like a paper scroll 
 some eight or nine inches long, which had several 
 yellow ribands tied around it, and in the middle a 
 string of blue beads hanging down. He handed this 
 to the old doctor, who took it in his hands, and 
 raising it near his mouth, spirted upon it from his lips 
 at three or four efforts, at least a pint of some liquid 
 as white as milk, covering it from one end to the other. 
 Where on earth this was concealed, or what it was 
 none of us could tell. The chief then laid it on the 
 fire, which he sat by, and kindled up until it was 
 entirely consumed, while he in silence gazed upon it. 
 This done, both he and the doctor got up, and 
 smilingly gave us their hands in a hearty shake. 
 
 " The governor never could learn what was the 
 meaning of all this ceremony, but supposed it was 
 some offering to the Great Spirit. 
 
 " The whole village was by this time assembling 
 out-doors, where we went, and the rest of this day 
 
246 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 was spent in looking at the pictures, and also in 
 examining our guns. You know the 'old MinieY 
 and the governor had always in his hand one of 
 Colt's six-shot rifles ; this he had nicknamed ' Sam.' 
 
 " These people had but three or four light and 
 short guns in their village (and good for nothing), 
 their weapons being bows and arrows, and lances, 
 and the bolas. The governor's gun, therefore, was 
 the greatest of curiosities to them, as they never had 
 heard or thought of a revolver ; and I having given 
 out that the governor's gun would shoot all day 
 without stopping, made an exhibition of its powers 
 necessary. 
 
 " For this I took an old cow-skin, which was 
 stretched on a hoop, and had been the door of a hut, 
 and placing it at some sixty or eighty yards, with 
 a bull's-eye in the centre, the governor took his 
 position, and let off one ! two ! three ! four ! five ! 
 six ! By an understanding, I at that moment touched 
 him on the shoulder, till we could learn from the 
 chief, who was standing by the side of us, whether 
 that was enough ; at which, on having appealed to 
 the crowd, they were all perfectly satisfied. While 
 this little parley was going on, the governor, without 
 their observing it, had slipped off the empty cylinder 
 and placed another one on, which he always carried 
 in his pantaloons pocket, charged and ready with six 
 shots more. His rifle was raised and levelled at the 
 target, and he was about to proceed, when the chief 
 advanced and said it would be wrong to expend 
 more powder and ball, as we might want it all on 
 
THE OLD MTNTK. 24? 
 
 our journey, and that his people were now all con- 
 vinced that his gun would fire all day. 
 
 " The target was brought up, and the shots all in 
 the space of the palm of one's hand : they were still 
 more astonished, and myself a little so amongst the 
 number. 
 
 " Next came the ' old Minit.' I was anxious to 
 show them what she could do. And I carried the 
 target and set it up at about two hundred yards, and 
 when they saw me strike it the first shot, though it 
 could not fire so fast, my gun was an equal curiosity, 
 for hitting the target at such a distance. They were 
 both considered great mysteries, and there was not 
 a man in the tribe who was willing to touch the 
 triggers of either of them. 
 
 " But the funniest part of this scene now took 
 place. Some of the little boys standing near the 
 governor having discovered in his belt a revolver 
 pistol, which he always carried, had reported it to 
 some of the young men, who came up to him very 
 timidly to ask him if he hadn't a young rifle. The 
 governor not having thought of his pistol during the 
 excitement, began to smile, and drawing it out, said, 
 ' Yes.' Here the squaws, who had all along been in 
 the background, now began to come up, but very 
 cautiously, all with their hands over their mouths 
 as they gave a sort of a groan and a ' ya, ya.' This 
 was really amusing. 
 
 " The governor held the pistol by the side of the 
 rifle, and the exact resemblance, except in size, con- 
 vinced them that the pistol was a ' young one ;' and 
 
248 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 if it could have said ' mamma/ it would not have 
 created greater sympathy amongst the women than 
 it did. 
 
 " The governor explained that it was very young, 
 but notwithstanding, at a shorter distance, it had 
 got so as to do pretty well. At this he levelled it 
 at the trunk of a palm-tree, standing some six or 
 eight rods off, and fired a couple of shots, to their 
 great amazement. For these, the boys were cutting 
 and digging with their knives for several days, but the 
 report was they had not got to them before we left. 
 
 " All satisfied, the governor placed his pistol in 
 his belt, and wrapping his capot around him, the 
 squaws all raised a shout of approbation, ' Keep the 
 poor little thing warm/ 
 
 " The report of the ' medicine gun, that could fire 
 all day without reloading/ went ahead of us to all 
 the tribes we afterwards visited, and the moment 
 we arrived, all were waiting to see it. If these poor 
 people had had the shillings to give, I could very soon 
 have made all the fortune I ever wanted, by exhibit- 
 ing old Sam and ' the young one.' 
 
 " The governor having painted some portraits, and 
 his friend the German doctor having busied himself 
 in collecting his roots and plants, we were prepared 
 to move on. The doctor, however, who was a feeble 
 man, and was getting weak, and I think a little 
 afraid of the Indians, resolved, with his man, to go 
 back from this place, and we never heard anything 
 further how they got on. Here our party was split, 
 just half the number we started with gone back. 
 
BILL OF THE SHINING STONES. 249 
 
 " The chief gave us one of his sons and a nephew, 
 a fine man, and horses to ride until we reached the 
 base of the mountains, and we had yet the faithful 
 half- breed, who knew the route. The chief knew 
 him well, and told the governor he was a first-rate 
 and honest man. The governor bought a strong 
 mule to carry our packs, and we started off. 
 
 " The country we now passed over was beautiful 
 and delightful; most of the way rolling prairies, 
 with here and there little patches of timber. We 
 visited several villages of Indians, who all were 
 much like those we had left, and the chief's 
 son seemed to be acquainted with them all, and 
 conversed with them, the language being pretty 
 much the same. 
 
 " Immense herds of wild cattle were seen grazing, 
 and of all colours red, black, white, and striped, and 
 as wild as deer or any other animal. In one place 
 the governor was induced to go about thirty miles 
 out of our way to see the ' hill of the shining stones/ 
 that he had heard of from the Indians. We came 
 to a little village on the bank of a small lake, and on 
 the other bank, about a mile, were the * shining 
 stones/ They were glistening in the sun, and, to be 
 sure, were very beautiful to look at ; but when we 
 got to them the governor said they were crystals of 
 gypsum, sticking in the clay, and of no value. They 
 were in myriads, and in a hundred different shapes, 
 and very beautiful, perfectly transparent as water ; 
 but one could cut them with a knife, they were so 
 soft. 
 
250 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 " At another village much farther on, and nearer 
 to the base of the mountains, we stopped for several 
 days in a large town better built, on the bank of a 
 lake some four or five miles long. The western 
 shore of this had a broad beach of rounded pebbles, 
 resembling exactly the sea-beach, which I should 
 think it once had been. These pebbles were flint, 
 and of all colours, and some of them, when broken, 
 the most beautiful things I ever beheld. Many of 
 them were beautifully transparent, with figures of a 
 thousand shapes in them, some of which were exactly 
 like the rays of the setting sun. 
 
 " We gathered and brought away some ten or 
 fifteen pounds' weight of the most beautiful of them, 
 difficult as it was to carry them. 
 
 " The governor was in the habit of going along 
 this beach every morning and collecting these pebbles ; 
 and the little Indian children skulking about in the 
 bushes and watching him at a distance, and not fully 
 understanding what he was doing, but seeing him 
 picking up the stones and breaking them with a 
 little hammer which he always carried, and then 
 wetting them with his tongue to see the colours, and 
 when he found a right handsome one, putting it in 
 his pocket, ran back and told their parents that here 
 was the strangest man in the world ; declaring that 
 1 they had seen him every morning making his break- 
 fast on stones, and putting others into his pocket for 
 his dinner ! ' The Indians gave him the name of the 
 1 Stone Eater.' I forget the Indian for it. 
 
PICKING UP A RATTLESNAKE. 251 
 
 " Not long after we left this village, when we 
 halted to encamp one night in a beautiful little 
 valley filled with wild flowers and vines, and hand- 
 some enough for the lawn of an English gentleman's 
 house, after we had taken our supper, and it was 
 approaching nightfall, and we were preparing our 
 beds, I went for my saddle to make me a pillow, 
 having left it on the bank of the little stream a few 
 rods off. I took up the saddle, and reaching down 
 for what I took to be the girth lying on the ground, 
 it beginning to be a little darkish, I lifted up a huge 
 rattlesnake. He made a grand pass at my arm, but 
 just missed it as I flung him down ; and then coiling 
 himself up in a circle, he commenced buzzing his 
 rattle, and was ready for a spring! My outcry 
 brought up all the party, and I must say I never 
 beheld so frightful a beast before in all my life. We 
 heard the rattle of its mate, at a few rods' distance, 
 which was soon looked up by the Indians, and both 
 were knocked on the head. 
 
 * * * # 
 
 " As we were nearing the base of the mountains 
 we discovered ahead of us an unaccountably strange 
 appearance a streak of bright red, many miles 
 in length, and perfectly straight. The governor 
 thought it must be from some mineral substance, 
 and we steered towards it. Our Indians knew with- 
 out doubt what it was, but they had no word for it 
 which we could understand, and were obliged to 
 wait till we got to it for an explanation, when we 
 found it to be an immense bed of wild poppies about 
 
252 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 as high as the stirrups of our saddles, and so thick 
 that no vegetables whatever grew between them; 
 their red heads being so thickly grouped, that in 
 looking over them at the distance of thirty feet from 
 us, the flowers formed one complete mass of red, 
 without another colour mixed with it. 
 
 " It took us a mile or two to go through it, and 
 the quantity of deer that were jumping up and 
 trotting off through it was really surprising. We 
 could only see their heads and horns above the 
 flowers as they were moving along, when they looked 
 
 as if they were swimming in a lake of blood ! 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " At the base of these mountains the two Indians, 
 with their horses, went back, and we then took to 
 our feet, with our mule to carry our packs; but 
 before we started, the governor and I sat down and 
 looked over our pretty little stones, and selecting a 
 
 dozen or so, left the rest ' to be called for.' " 
 
 * * * * 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Valley of Amazon Head of the Trombutas A " Strong Lie " 
 Tiger Shooting Bridling an Alligator Assemblage of 
 Monkeys Monkeys' Theft Shooting a Rattlesnake 
 Beheaded Rattlesnake Turtle Hunt Turtles' Eggs- 
 Turtle Butter Obidos Santarem Para. 
 
 JHESE immense mountains, which rise in 
 a number of ridges, one after another, 
 very rugged and barren, took us at least 
 one hundred miles to cross, and we often wished our- 
 selves back again ; our pack-mule, poor beast, gave 
 out about the middle of them, and we had to leave 
 it. We left behind the heaviest of our articles, and 
 took the rest on our own backs and got on much 
 better than before. Horses' legs are not made for 
 these mountains of rocks ; two legs are far handier 
 and better managed, and we can creep along almost 
 
 anywhere now. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 "We got at length the first glance into the great 
 valley of the Amazon as we came out of a deep 
 chasm we had followed for many miles. * 
 
 " When we struck off into the valley, we had, I 
 
 203 
 
254 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 do think, the most beautiful scene in the world before 
 us the beautiful rolling prairies, covered with 
 grass and wild flowers, and herds of wild cattle and 
 wild horses grazing on them ; and the deer that 
 were springing up from the shade of every little 
 bunch of palm-trees were tilting along for a few 
 rods, and then standing to look at us, in fair range 
 for a dead shot, never having heard the report of a 
 gun. I am sure that in some places I could, with 
 the old Minid, have easily killed some forty or fifty 
 per day, by regular stalking. It seemed a pity to 
 kill them, for one feels in shooting them as if he was 
 
 shooting in some nobleman's park. 
 
 * # * * 
 
 " We crossed here a large stream, and followed it 
 down some miles, the bed of which, it being nearly 
 dry, was filled with countless numbers of round 
 stones, some of them two feet across, which, when 
 he broke them open, were filled with the most 
 beautiful quartz crystals of various colours some 
 were purple, some were yellow, and others as pure 
 as water : these the governor called geodes. There 
 were also waggon-loads of others shaped like rams' 
 horns ; some of these as large as two men could lift, 
 
 and many of them filled with beautiful crystals. 
 
 * * * 
 
 " We struck at last upon the Rio Trombutas, where 
 we found some very hospitable villages of Indians ; 
 and finding a couple of half-breeds and several 
 Indians loading a large canoe with hides and other 
 things for Para, we got a chance to go down with 
 
HEAD OP THE TROMBUTAS. 255 
 
 them. This canoe, some forty or fifty feet long and 
 five feet wide, was made from a solid log, dug out, 
 and had its sides built up a foot and a-half higher, 
 with ribs interwoven with palm-leaves, so as to keep 
 out the waves when heavily loaded, and would carry 
 some four or five tons with ease. 
 
 "On the head of this river we were exactly under 
 the equator ; the sun right over our heads. There 
 is no winter in this country : it is one perpetual 
 summer and spring-time here. Everything out in 
 full blossom all the year round. All the trees are 
 evergreens, and ripe fruit and fresh flowers we see 
 on the same trees at the same time. 
 
 " Frost never was known here, and the governor 
 got himself quite into disrepute in one of the small 
 villages, where he stopped a few days to make his 
 portraits, by endeavouring to explain to these people 
 how different the country was that he came from. 
 He tried to describe hail and snow to them, but 
 there seemed to be no words in their language for 
 them, and they could not understand him at all. 
 And when he told them of ice of our rivers freez- 
 ing over, and becoming so hard that we could walk 
 and run, and even drive our horses and waggons over 
 them, they became entirely incredulous, and laughed 
 at him excessively. And an old man (it seems, one 
 of their doctors), who had been strongly opposed to 
 the taking of the portraits, got up and began spouting 
 in a most violent manner against him, telling his 
 people it was very silly to be listening to such 
 stories, and they were rapidly beginning to haul ofL 
 
256 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 " The governor seiifc for ine I was on the boat 
 at the time and got me to testify to the truth of 
 what he had stated, which I easily did ; but this only 
 made the trouble worse, and the facts no easier to 
 be believed, for the doctor told them, ' it only made 
 the lie stronger.' 
 
 " We had no other means of proof to offer ; and 
 the old doctor wrapped his tiger-skin around his 
 shoulders, and walked off in quite a huffy mood to- 
 wards the village, at a few rods' distance. We were 
 sitting under the shade of some palms on the bank 
 of a river at the time, where the greater part of the 
 village were assembled to witness the operation of 
 painting the portraits. 
 
 "The greater portion of the crowd got up and 
 followed the doctor to the village, and some of the 
 squaws clapped their hands over their mouths, and 
 began to howl and cry, believing that the insult 
 given by the doctor was such as the governor would 
 feel bound to resent, and there would soon be a fight. 
 
 " The chief, however, who was a very pleasant and 
 dignified man, remained seated by the governor's side, 
 and said the old doctor had behaved very foolishly; 
 and so the affair dropped, the governor getting only 
 a hard name the squaws called him ' Hard Water,' 
 by which name he will, no doubt, be spoken of for 
 a long time to come. * * 
 
 " After we had got a little recruited, the canoe 
 loaded, and the governor had laid in a goodly number 
 of sketches, we all set off towards the Amazon, per- 
 haps then some three hundred miles off; and you 
 
TIGER SHOOTING. 257 
 
 can well imagine that the old Mini had plenty 
 to do again. All the animals, and birds, and trees, 
 and plants seemed much the same as on the Esse- 
 quibo ; but tigers and monkeys were at least three to 
 one. 
 
 " The tigers live chiefly along the shores of the 
 river, for their favourite food is the soft-shell turtles 
 that come out of the river to lay their eggs in the 
 sand in the night. The tigers watch them, and 
 rush upon them at that time, and turn great numbers 
 of them on their backs with their paws ; and after 
 eating as much as they want, and digging up their 
 eggs out of the sand as a sort of dessert, they just 
 creep up on to the top of the bank in the shade of 
 the timber, where they lie until they are hungry 
 again, when they have only to slip down and eat ; 
 by this means they keep so fat that their hair 
 glistens as if there was oil upon it. 
 
 "When they hear us talking and rowing, they 
 creep up to the edge of the bank, and are discovered 
 looking at us, showing only their heads above the 
 grass and weeds. We steer our canoe near enough 
 to the shore for a dead shot, which we never miss. 
 The governor counts five skins, one a beautiful black 
 tiger, very scarce here, and I have eight, every one 
 of which shows the bullet-hole as exactly between 
 the eyes as you could put your finger. 
 
 " There is, in fact, no sport in killing these fellows 
 in this way, for it is only like shooting at a target 
 at some thirty or forty paces (this you will say is 
 child's play). We might find sport, however, if we 
 
258 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 should go ashore for these chaps ; but we had no 
 time nor much inclination for that, and took good 
 care not to go ashore where we saw fresh signs of 
 them. We generally know where they are by the 
 carcasses of turtles on the sand-beaches, and in such 
 cases we are all on the look out. 
 
 " We were in the habit of making a halt and 
 lying by a couple of hours every day at noon in the 
 heat of the day. In one of theserests we had lande d 
 by the side of a high bank, where we saw no signs, 
 the Indians were asleep in the canoe, and the 
 governor and the half-breed and myself were a-top 
 of the bank the governor and I had built a large 
 fire, and were roasting a fat pig which I had shot 
 from the boat, and while the governor was sitting 
 down on one side and I squatting down on the other, 
 and he was with a wooden spoon lading some rich 
 gravy over the pig from a short-handled frying-pan 
 which I was holding underneath, I observed his 
 eyes staring at something over my shoulder, in the 
 direction of our half-breed guide, who was lying a 
 couple of rods from us, and fast asleep, under the 
 shade of some small palms. 
 
 " The governor said, * Smyth ! be perfectly calm 
 and cool ; and don't spill the gravy ; and don't move 
 an inch ; there is a splendid tiger just behind you ! ' 
 I held on to the frying-pan, but gradually turned 
 my head around, when I saw the beast lying on all 
 fours alongside of the half-breed, who was lying on 
 his face, and fast asleep ! He was lifting up with 
 his paws one of the half-breed's feet, and playing 
 
TIGEK SHOOTING. 259 
 
 with it apparently as carefully and innocently as 
 a kitten. 
 
 " The governor who had left his hat behind him, 
 was at this time sliding down the grass-covered bank 
 backwards, and feet foremost, to the boat, where our 
 rifles were left. The next moment he had one foot 
 upon its deck and his rifle in his hand. I was in 
 hopes he would have taken up the old Minie' ; but he 
 preferred his own ; and getting it to bear upon the 
 beast (Plate No. VII.), he was obliged to stand a 
 minute or so for it to raise its head high enough not 
 to endanger the man's body, which was in front of 
 the tiger, and over which he must shoot very close. 
 Not succeeding in this, he gave a sudden whistle, 
 which directed the attention of the animal to him, 
 and caused it to raise its head and its eyes towards 
 him, when he let fly. 
 
 "At the crack of the rifle the tiger gave a frightful 
 screech, and leapt about fifteen feet into the air, 
 falling perfectly dead. The Indian leapt nearly as 
 far in the other direction ; and at the same instant 
 arose and darted into the thicket, the male, secreted 
 in a bunch of weeds about fifteen feet behind the 
 governor's back, when he had been sitting at the 
 fire. 
 
 "After our pig was roasted, and this beautiful 
 animal was taken on board, we pushed out a little 
 into the stream and waited a couple of hours, in 
 hopes the male would show himself again ; but we 
 waited in vain, and started on our course, losing our 
 game. 
 
260 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 * * * 
 
 " When we had gone ashore one day, on a broad 
 sand beach lying between the river-shore and the 
 timber, we were startled by a loud hissing, and we 
 discovered a huge alligator coming at full pace 
 towards us, from the edge of the timber towards 
 the water. We were about springing into the boat, 
 but our daring little half-breed, better acquainted 
 with these beasts than we were, ran, without any 
 weapon, towards it, meeting it face to face. When 
 they had got within ten or twelve feet of each other, 
 the brute pulled up, and lay stock still, with its ugly 
 mouth wide open, the upper jaw almost falling over 
 on to its back, and commenced the most frightful 
 hissing ! 
 
 " The little half-breed kept his position, and called 
 out for a block of wood, one of the men, running a 
 little way up the beach, brought a log of drift-wood 
 the size of a man's thigh, and six or eight feet 
 long. The half-breed took this in both hands, and 
 balancing it in a horizontal position, advanced up 
 and threw it, broadside, into and across the creature's 
 mouth ; when, as quick as lightning, and with a 
 terrible crash, down came upon it the upper jaw, 
 with all its range of long and sharp teeth deeply 
 driven into it. 
 
 " The little half-breed then stepped by the side of 
 the animal and got astride of its back, and we all 
 gathered round, turned the stupid creature over and 
 over, and kicked and dragged it, but nothing would 
 make it quit its deadly grasp upon the log of wood 
 
ASSEMBLAGE Of MONKEYS. 261 
 
 and nothing ever could while it lived, for the Indians 
 all told us it would live some eight or ten hours, but 
 
 not longer. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " The noise of a gun I don't believe was ever 
 before heard on this river, for one has no idea of the 
 fuss it makes when the old Minid speaks. I have 
 sometimes fired in the middle of the day, when all 
 was silent, and not a leaf on a tree in motion, and 
 in one minute a thousand voices were going ; and 
 looking up and down the river, at one view you may 
 see in the tops of the overhanging trees five hundred 
 (not monkeys, but) little bunches of boughs and 
 leaves shaking, where they and the parrots are peep- 
 ing out to see what is going on, without your seeing 
 hide or hair of them, 
 
 * * * * 
 
 "In one of our noonday halts, when we were 
 taking our lunch under a grand forest of lofty trees, 
 and not much underwood or vines, we found the 
 monkeys assembling in vast numbers over our heads, 
 and chattering with an unusual excitement, as they 
 were leaping around from tree to tree. The governor 
 and I began to get alarmed for fear they were going 
 to attack us. They kept coming up and increasing 
 every moment, and there was no knowing where the 
 crowd and the bedlam were to end. 
 
 "Our little half-breed smiled at our alarm, and 
 said they must have stolen something from the canoe 
 to have kicked up such a rumpus. I ran down to 
 the canoe, where all hands were asleep at the stern 
 
262 LlflE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 end, and soon discovered that two beautiful feather 
 head-dresses, which the governor had that morning 
 purchased of some Indians we had passed, and the 
 governor's powder-flask, which we had left on the 
 deck, had been carried off; and returning, I soon 
 saw the proof of the theft by the hundreds of 
 feathers that were falling over our heads. 
 
 " These thievish little creatures had taken the 
 two head-dresses into the tops of the trees, and 
 whilst some were engaged in pulling them to pieces, 
 others were leaping around with bunches of the 
 quills in their mouths, and others with them as 
 regularly stuck behind their ears as the pens of 
 counting-house clerks are carried ; and the powder- 
 flask we could hear knocking about amongst the 
 limbs of the trees, though we could not see it. 
 
 " One of the half-breeds from the boat had come 
 up the bank in the meantime, and became so 
 enraged, that he took the old Minie' before. I ob- 
 served him, while it was leaning against a tree, and 
 aiming at a large monkey which he said was the 
 leader of the fracas, he fired and brought him down, 
 with his backbone shot off. 
 
 " The screams of this poor creature's distress being 
 understood by the throng, they were all silent in a 
 moment, and in less than one minute they were all 
 out of sight, but the powder-flask never came down. 
 Though it had been agreed by all parties at our 
 start that no one should kill a monkey, it was im- 
 possible to cure the wound of this poor brute, and 
 it was knocked on the head. 
 
SHOOTING A RATTLESNAKE. 263 
 
 " The snakes on this river are very numerous, and 
 some of them very large. The anacondas and boa 
 constrictors, the Indians told us, had been killed 
 here of immense size, but we were not able to see 
 either of them. Kattlesnakes we killed several 
 times, as we met them swimming the river. 
 
 " While passing along close to a high bank one 
 day, where there seemed to be no timber on the top, 
 the governor got the men to land him a moment, as 
 he was anxious to climb the bank and see what was 
 in the distance. The canoe came to the shore, and 
 I held it fast by grasping to some bushes at the 
 water's edge. The bank was fifteen feet or so in 
 height, and covered with grass and flowers to the 
 top. 
 
 " The governor stepped ashore, and after ascend- 
 ing a step or two, drew himself back a little, and 
 with his eye fixed on something before and above 
 him which I did not see, he said in a quick tone, as 
 he was reaching his hand back, ' Symth ! hand me 
 my rifle!' 'Take old Minte?' said I. 'No! be 
 quick as lightning ! I prefer Sam/ I handed him 
 his gun, which was instantly at his face, and cracked. 
 I saw a huge snake leap from the top of the bank, 
 much higher than his head, right towards him, and 
 fall at his feet; the governor sprung at the same 
 time, at one leap, quite on to the boat, with his rifle 
 in his hand, and as pale as a ghost. This was quick 
 work, I assure you. He said that he had fired at a 
 rattlesnake and had missed it; that he saw the 
 creature coiling up for a jump, and by the rattling 
 
LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 he knew there was not an instant to lose when I 
 handed him the gun. He said that he had missed 
 the snake and it had struck him on the breast, but 
 that luckily he was not bitten ; and how he could 
 have missed the snake he could not tell, unless the 
 ball had been lost out of the cylinder. ' The snake's 
 head was raised high up/ said he, ' and perfectly 
 still, and looking me right in the face, and at sixty 
 yards I could not have missed such a mark/ 
 
 "The governor wore a stout brown linen frock, 
 tied across the throat and breast with strings, and 
 just where he represented he had been struck I saw 
 a spot of blood the size of a half-crown piece, and I 
 said, ' You are bitten !' All hands gathered around 
 him then, Indians and all. We untied and opened 
 the frock ; the blood was still more upon his shirt 
 and also upon his flannel worn under it, which were 
 ripped open, and on the breast a spot as large as 
 the palm of my hand, on the skin, was covered with 
 blood. The blood was washed off, and the faithful 
 little half-breed was down upon his knees, and 
 prepared to suck the poison from the wound, by 
 which means the Indians are in the habit of extract- 
 ing the poison; but looking a moment for the 
 wound, he got up, and with a smile of exultation, 
 le said, ' There's no harm ! you'll find the snake 
 without a head.' 
 
 "One of the Indians then stepped ashore near 
 where the governor had stood, and pushing some 
 weeds aside with his paddle, showed us the monster, 
 regularly coiled up where he had fallen, and with 
 
1T7KTLE HUNT. 265 
 
 his headless trunk erect and ready for another 
 spring! Its head was shot regularly off, as 'Sam' 
 had designed, and the creature, being at the instant 
 so near the spring and so ready, with its aim made, 
 that it leapt and struck the governor probably in 
 the spot where it would have struck him and have 
 made him a corpse in ten minutes, provided he had 
 missed his mark. 
 
 " The bleeding trunk had printed its mark with 
 blood where it struck, and driven the blood through 
 the dress to the skin. A blow with the edge of a 
 paddle finished the battle. The length of this brute 
 was four feet, and its thickness about that of my arm 
 above the elbow. 
 
 " How curious it is that if you cut off the head of 
 a rattlesnake its body will live for hours, and jump 
 at you if you touch it with a stick ; when, if you 
 break the spine near the tail, with even a feeble 
 blow, it is dead in a minute ! This we proved on 
 several occasions. 
 
 " Farther down the river, one day we had a great 
 alarm by the yelling and singing of two hundred or 
 more Indians, men, women, and children, coming 
 down the river in canoes behind us at a rapid rate 
 a party, as they proved to be, from one of the 
 friendly villages we had passed going a little farther 
 down the river to a famous beach, where they often 
 go on a ' turtle hunt! They invited us to join them, 
 and we kept company with them, and encamped all 
 together a little before night. 
 
 " These people told us the scene of their operations 
 
266 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 was a long sand-beach just around the point, belcw 
 where we were landed; and they, knowing the 
 shape of the ground, were aware of the time of 
 night and the mode in which the attack was to be 
 made. These turtles have soft shells, and are 
 excellent eating ; and at certain seasons of the year 
 come out in vast numbers from the river, generally 
 about midnight, and creeping up the sand-banks some 
 five or six rods from the shore, dig holes in the 
 sand a foot or more deep, and lay, each one, 
 some fifty or sixty eggs, about the size of a 
 barn-fowl's egg, perfectly round, and with soft 
 shells; they are all yolk, and quite as good as barn- 
 fowls' eggs to eat. 
 
 " It seems curious that these creatures are never 
 seen in the day time, if you go the whole length of 
 the river ; nor can you see them in the night before 
 midnight the time that they come out to lay their 
 eggs to be hatched by the heat of the sun. 
 
 " The Indians, aware of this, had encamped half -a- 
 mile or so distant from the sand-bar above, and made 
 sorts of tents with mattings made of palm-leaves, 
 which they had rolled up in their canoes. Their 
 fires were built, and a great deal of merriment passed 
 off, but no feasting nor dancing before the hunt, 
 which would take place a little before midnight. 
 The governor said he would not miss these scenes 
 for fifty pounds. He tried to get some of the men 
 to give him a dance, but they said their bellies were 
 too empty, they had eaten nothing for four or five 
 days, neither men nor women, so that the turtle 
 
ttJETLE HUNT. 267 
 
 feast might taste good; after that there would be 
 plenty of dancing. 
 
 "During this time the women were all at work 
 making torches, which they construct from a sort of 
 palm-leaf that burns like pitch pine. There was a 
 doctor, a sort of a conjuror, who was performing 
 some sort of witchcraft to make the turtles come ; 
 he had told them he was afraid they wouldn't come 
 up that night, and many believing him, made the 
 party rather desponding and dull. 
 
 " However, about a quarter-past eleven, the men 
 all started, leaving the women behind to bring up 
 the rear with the torches ; but they were all ordered 
 not to speak a loud word from that moment. 
 
 " One of the men, who seemed to be the leader of 
 the party, was one whose portrait the governor had 
 painted while stopping in his village a few days be- 
 fore. He took the lead of the party through the 
 point of timber we had to pass, perhaps a quarter 
 of a mile, and had a small torch in his hand 
 to see the way ; he held a long cord for the gover- 
 nor and me to hold on to, that we might not lose 
 the way ; the rest of the men all followed in each 
 other's tracks, 'Indian file/ and without a word 
 spoken. 
 
 " Coming up to the edge of the timber opposite to 
 the sand-bar, and finding there was nothing on it 
 yet, our friend and two or three others, with the 
 governor and myself, were seated behind some palm- 
 etto bushes, which had been arranged before night 
 for the purpose, and the rest of the men, perhaps a 
 
268 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 hundred, were all lying flat, in a row parallel to the 
 shore of the river, but a few paces back of us. 
 
 " From behind the screen of palmettoes we had 
 a fair view of the sand-bank, which looked white ; 
 and when the turtles appeared on the sand, the 
 signal was given by the cord which extended from 
 the conductor to the rear rank, who passed on the 
 signal by touching each other. Nothing was seen 
 for half or three-quarters of an hour; at length, 
 when I was just falling asleep, I felt a pinch on my 
 leg, and looking through the screen, the sands for a 
 great distance seemed, near the water, to be black 
 with these creatures coming up out of the water. 
 They seemed to come up like an army of soldiers. 
 They kept moving up farther and farther, and the 
 Indian kept pinching my leg till I was almost ready 
 to holloa out. 
 
 "The signal had been given to the rear-guard, 
 and all knew what was on the beach though they 
 couldn't see, but all lay as still as death. These 
 creatures having got up some five or six rods from 
 the water, went to heaving up the sand with their 
 paws, making the holes and laying their eggs. This 
 was very quick work, and they could not have lost 
 much time ; for in the space of half-an-hour the holes 
 were all smoothed over, and the black mass was seen 
 moving towards the water. The signal was then 
 given, and as quick as the wind, the Indians were 
 upon them and turning them upon their backs. 
 Such a scrambling as this I never saw or thought of 
 before ! Some hundreds of them were upset in this 
 
TURTLE HUNT. 269 
 
 manner, and some thousands plunged into the water, 
 and many of these were dragged out again by the 
 Indians, who plunged in after them. 
 
 " All this onslaught was completed in less than 
 half-a-minute, and no noise but laughing and grunt- 
 ing heard. The chief then sounded a loud whistle, 
 which was for the torch-bearers to come, and in five 
 minutes came down the beach, at full speed, the 
 women and children, each one carrying a blazing 
 torch, when they joined the party with the lights, 
 overlooking the field of battle, and counting the 
 number of their victims lying on their backs. 
 
 " This scene, with the wild figures, the blazing 
 torches, and the magnificent forests lighted up, 
 the governor said was the most lLagnificent thing 
 he had ever beheld. I am sure no picture could 
 ever do it justice. 
 
 "The squaws now selected a dozen or so of the 
 finest of the turtles for their feast, and with their 
 torches lighted, the party went back to the encamp- 
 ment, leaving the prisoners on the field of battle till 
 the next morning. 
 
 " When we got back to the encampment, where 
 all the pots were boiling, it was equally astonishing 
 and amusing so see how handily and how quickly 
 these animals were cut up and cooked, and how 
 quick the soup was made, and then how fast and 
 how long it was devoured. The soup and the meat 
 were delicious, and if we had had the empty bellies 
 that these people had, we should easily, like them, 
 have eaten ourselves into stupidity. 
 
270 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 " The governor and I slept in our canoe that night, 
 and got up at an early hour to see the manoeuvre 
 on the battlefield, but, to our surprise, no one moved 
 towards it before ten or eleven o'clock, for all were 
 asleep as if they had been in a drunken carouse. 
 In fact they had been up all night, and then eaten 
 so much that they could scarcely move. 
 
 "About noon, after they had all feasted again, 
 they started in a mass and went to the sands ; here 
 their victims lay. The women brought large baskets, 
 and the men went around with large knives, and 
 slicing off the under-shell and opening the carcasses 
 of the animals, the women approached, and tearing 
 out the yellow fat from their intestines, threw it into 
 their baskets. After the fat was all obtained, and 
 some more of the best animals selected for food, the 
 women and children went in for the eggs ! 
 
 " This was one of the scenes most curious of all 
 With the paddles brought from their canoes, they 
 went into the hidden treasures like so many Irish- 
 men into a field of potatoes ; and in much less time 
 the surface of the ground was more completely 
 covered than ever was seen by the heaviest crop in 
 an Irish potato field. 
 
 " As this part of the business required no knife, 
 nor any other weapon, it was a woman's task, and 
 beneath the dignity of a warrior : the men sat and 
 smoked their pipes whilst the women accomplished 
 it. 
 
 " It was really incredible the quantity of eggs that 
 were in the sand ; and then how they were deposited 
 
TURTLE BUTTER. 271 
 
 so quick ! These, however, were not only the eggs 
 laid by the animals killed, but by the whole party, 
 and there might have been hundreds that got back 
 to the water to one that was taken. 
 
 " These eggs, the Indians assured us, were all laid 
 while we were secreted and watching. This the 
 governor didn't believe ; it was impossible that they 
 should deposit so many in that time ; and it would 
 be unnatural that they should all be ready to lay on 
 the same night and at the same moment. But 
 the Indian doctor told him it was true, and that 
 he could always tell the very night they would 
 come out. 
 
 " The governor, however, saw that all this thing 
 was under the control of the doctors or mystery 
 men, and he said it was best not to question it. 
 
 " The women and children for the most part of 
 the afternoon were taking up the fat, the carcasses, 
 and the eggs, and packing them in their canoes. 
 The fat is taken to their villages and put into large 
 troughs, where they pound out the yellow oil or 
 grease, which is very rich and like the best of 
 butter, and is taken to Para in earthen jars which 
 they manufacture, and sold at a high price. 
 
 " It was too late for us to start off that day, and 
 we stayed over night again. The governor tried 
 again to set them dancing, but the old doctor told 
 him that now their bellies were too full; and on 
 inquiring how long before they would be ready for 
 a dance, he said it might be several days, for they 
 were going to remain there some days expressly to 
 
272 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 eat, and while they were feasting it was difficult to 
 dance. 
 
 " So at an early hour the next morning, with three 
 or four fine large turtles, and full a bushel of eggs 
 laid in, we started off. 
 
 " Our turtles were a great luxury to us, and for 
 me, the eggs more particularly so ; for I never before 
 enjoyed any food so much ; and in the eating of 
 them, there was a thing that bothered the governor 
 very much there was not a stale egg among them, 
 
 but all fresh, as the Indian doctor had told us. 
 
 # # # # 
 
 " After striking out into the mighty Amazon at 
 Obidos, we had a journey of some six or eight days 
 from that to Santarem, which is at the head of tide- 
 water, and a place of, may be, two hundred houses. 
 From that we got a chance down to Para, several 
 hundred miles nearer the coast. Para is a large and 
 flourishing seaport town, where a great business is 
 done. 
 
 " The governor was here a while, and left some 
 three months since in company with a member of 
 the Brazilian Parliament, on a steamer up the 
 
 Amazon. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " Your ever affectionate brother, 
 
 " J. S." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Caribbee Indians Acary Mountains Amazon Slope of 
 Acary The Equator The Amazons The American 
 Cannibals " Dirt Eaters" and "Stone Eaters "Scenery 
 of the Trombutas Forest above a Forest Music of the 
 Trombutas Treed by Peccaries Fight with the Peccaries. 
 
 | HE above rather lengthy extracts I have 
 ventured to make because they so graphic- 
 ally describe scenes and events which 
 we witnessed together ; and because, at least, such 
 an acknowledgment is due to the talents, as 
 well as fidelity and attachment, with which this 
 young man volunteered to accompany and aid me 
 through a wild and difficult country. 
 
 Smyth narrates well and correctly ; but he travels 
 fast too fast. He has brought us to Para ; Para 
 is a great way. He has left out many things ; he 
 has forgotten my friends the Indians, and also the 
 "story of the pigs." "Pigs?" "Yes." "What! 
 pigs in that wild country?" "Yes, pigs: and I'll 
 tell you more about them by-and-by." 
 
 Before leaving Demerara with my little outfit, I 
 8 273 
 
LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 visited the neighbouring tribes in that vicinity ; the 
 Caribbees and Macouchis, the Accoways and the 
 Warrows, in Dutch Guiana, in the neighbourhood of 
 Paramaribo and New Amsterdam ; and the Arowaks> 
 on the Kio Corontyn ; and on our way, on the head- 
 waters of the Essequibo, the Tarumas and Oyaways, 
 which, with those on the plains of Venezuela, are, 
 in fact, but the names of different bands or sections 
 of the great CarMee family, which occupy one-fifth 
 at least of the Southern hemisphere. 
 
 This numerous tribe also occupied all the Lesser 
 Antilles at the time of the discovery of those islands 
 by Columbus, and have since been destroyed, or fled 
 from the islands, to evade the slavery endeavoured to 
 be fixed upon them by the Spaniards, to the coast of 
 South and Central America, where they are living. 
 
 These people are generally rather small in stature, 
 and inferior to the North American races, but not 
 inferior to some that may be found there; and 
 enough like them in features and colour, as well as 
 in customs, to stamp them, without a doubt, as a 
 part of the great and national American family. 
 
 These tribes in this vicinity, which show a strong 
 resemblance to one another in complexion and cus- 
 toms, also speak a kindred language, showing them 
 to be a family group. Their skin is a shade darker 
 than that of the North American races, and their 
 modes of dress very different ; the latter of which is 
 undoubtedly the result of the difference of climate. 
 The weather in the tropics admits of but little 
 clothing, and these tribes are almost naked, both 
 
ACAKY MOUNTAINS. 275 
 
 women and men ; yet they have and support a strict 
 sense of decency and modesty at the same time, for 
 which these poor creatures deserve great credit. 
 
 Their naked limbs and bodies are rubbed over 
 with some soft and limpid grease every day, and 
 though often reputed filthy, they are nevertheless 
 far more cleanly and free from filth and vermin 
 than any class of people equally poor in any part of 
 the civilized world, where they are, from necessity, 
 loaded with a burthen of rags that don't have a daily 
 (and oftentimes not a weekly, nor a monthly, and 
 sometimes not an annual) ablution. 
 
 We are now in the great and verdant valley of 
 the Amazon ! What shall I say first ? The Acary 
 (or Tumucumache, or Crystal) Mountains which we 
 have passed over, forming the boundary line between 
 British and Dutch Guiana and Brazil, are truly sub- 
 lime; not unlike the Rocky Mountains in North 
 America in some respects, and very much unlike 
 them in some others. 
 
 The descent from these mountains, and their 
 graceful slopes off into the valley of everlasting 
 green, were, as my friend Smyth has said, truly 
 grand and magnificent. 
 
 Let us sit down a few moments ; we are weary 
 our mule died ten days ago, and our packs are now 
 heavy. We have come out from that gorge I that 
 awful ravine! It is frightful to look back or to 
 think back ! Why should we, when here is the blue 
 sky, and the sun, and the ocean again before us ? 
 How warm and how cheering ! 
 
276 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 And what a curious eloud ! what a straight line 
 it makes across the sky ! Yes, it must be. And 
 what a boundless ocean of green and blue we are 
 looking over, and not a vessel to be seen! But stop! 
 that can't be. That can't be the ocean! we are on 
 our course! Give me the pocket compass. There! 
 that's south there's no ocean there. We are steer- 
 ing into the valley of the Amazon ; and here it lies 
 before us we are right! And what's at our feet? 
 Green grass and beautiful flowers? Not at all 
 yellow and blue clay, and nothing else. And what 
 beyond, beneath us? Clay. And what those thou- 
 sand winding, twisting channels, that seem to soften 
 into blue in the distance, down, down, so far below 
 us? Clay, clay, and nothing else. Yes, something 
 else ; they glisten in the sun ; they have specks that 
 sparkle like the Bude light ; they may be diamonds? 
 No, they are crystals of quartz, but they are very 
 beautiful let's fill our pockets. But here are some 
 that are quite yellow, and others that are purple ; 
 oh, how beautiful! let's throw away those we have 
 got. These are topaz and amethyst, and far more 
 beautiful ; and now and then there is one of carmine. 
 And still more lovely ! these are smaller and more 
 scarce they are rubellites. These are washed down 
 from the mountains? Undoubtedly. And it just 
 now occurs to me that some of the Spanish writers 
 call these the "Crystal Mountains." Gold-mines 
 were worked in these mountains two hundred years 
 ago. There is gold, then, under our feet? 
 Not a doubt of it ; but we can't wash ; there is 
 
THE EQUATOR. 277 
 
 no water within some miles, and our tin kettle is 
 of no use. 
 
 But we begin to see more clearly ; we see streaks 
 of light green running down between these crevices 
 and ravines, stretching off into the ocean, as it were, 
 they become a solid mass of green, and then of 
 black, at last. 
 
 The first of these are the rolling prairies, and then 
 the level valley, with its dark and boundless forests 
 of palms. But where's the end of it ? It has no 
 end. It is infinite. Take the glass and look ; it's 
 all the same ; it rises up, up, and up, until it forms 
 that blue line we see in the clouds ! It can't be so ! 
 It must be so ! And that black streak we see on 
 the left beneath us, is the timber skirting the Rio 
 Trombutas, to which we have got to wend our 
 way. Shall we reach the timber to-day ? I don't 
 think so. 
 
 We feel like boys here, don't we? Exactly so. 
 Our shadows are all under our feet ; how awkward 
 to step on one's own head ! We are now exactly 
 under the equator. At noon ; where is the south ? 
 Which is the north? No one but our little compass 
 can tell. How droll I But this clay is not so hot ? 
 No, the rays of the sun are straight down, and there 
 is little refraction. 
 
 Like ants, we wandered and crept along over the 
 winding gullies of clay ; and, at length, met tufts of 
 grass and sage, and afterwards, patches and fields, 
 and, at last, an ocean of grass, speckled, and spotted, 
 and spangled, with all the beautiful colours of the 
 
278 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 floral world. Clumps and bunches of palms, and 
 palmettoes, and geraniums, each little group like a 
 peep into the glass-house at Kew, though more beauti- 
 ful, and filled with gay and chattering birds and 
 insects. 
 
 And on and over these beautiful plains, immense 
 herds of wild cattle and horses of various colours 
 were grazing, and flying before us as we approached. 
 
 A fine fat cow was here felled by the old 
 Minie', and we were again happy. We had plenty 
 of good beef, and raw hide for soling our moccasins, 
 and a clear and running brook for bathing and for 
 washing our shirts; what could we want more? 
 Some three or four days' rest put us on our legs 
 and on our route again. 
 
 The Indian trails, and at last the feeble smoke of 
 their distant wigwams, showed us we were again in 
 the land of the living, though we were worn almost 
 out of it. We were kindly received and treated by 
 all the tribes on the Trombutas, which we were now 
 to descend. These Indians War-kas, Zurumatis, 
 Zumas, Tupis, and several others, are very different 
 from the Caribbee races living on the other side of 
 the mountains. They are a taller and a heavier- 
 built race, and somewhat lighter in colour. They 
 belong to the great family of Guarani, which may 
 be said to occupy the whole of Eastern and Northern 
 Brazil, and often called Tupi, but for what reason I 
 cannot tell. Tupi is the name of a band (or section) 
 only, of the Guarani, speaking the same language, 
 with very little variation, and no doubt from the 
 
THE AMAZONS. 279 
 
 same stock. It is matter of little consequence, how- 
 ever, whether they are all called Guarani, or all 
 called Tupi, for whichever they are, there never has 
 been, and never will be, any boundary fixed between 
 them. 
 
 From the early Spanish history of South America 
 we learn that there were somewhere in the valley of 
 the Amazon, a nation of Amazons ; and the river 
 and the valley seem to have taken their names from 
 this tradition. The Spaniards and Portuguese have 
 pushed their conquests and subjugations of the 
 Indian tribes as far as they have been able to do, 
 and not, as yet, having found the Amazons, their 
 more modern historians have placed them on the 
 banks of the Trombutas, where the Indians have 
 been successful in keeping their invaders at a 
 distance, and where it was natural to infer that 
 the Amazons resided, as they certainly were no- 
 where else. 
 
 At the same time, it was easy to suppose, as they 
 reported, that these people were cannibals, and ate 
 foreigners who ventured amongst them. I had all 
 these frightful reports to contend against, and it 
 will easily be imagined how my nerves were excited. 
 This required a stronger nerving up, if possible, 
 than the approach to the " Thunder's Nest ! " But 
 see how many marvellous things vanish when we 
 come close to them ! 
 
 I soon found that there were no Amazons on 
 this river, nor Dianas, nor Bacchantes, but hosts of 
 Gladiators, of Apollos, and Fauns. Their young 
 
280 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 men and boys are all Fauns. Castor and Pollux, 
 and old Silenus, with his infant Bacchus in his arms, 
 may be often seen amongst them. 
 
 The nearest thing I could discover or hear of to 
 the Amazons, were the women in some of the tribes, 
 who were famous for mounting their horses, and, 
 with the deadly bolas, could bring down the wild 
 ox or the wild horse as easily as their husbands. 
 And on inquiring amongst the various villages for 
 the cannibals, I was laughed at even by the women 
 and children for asking so ridiculous a question ; 
 a thing, apparently, that they never had heard of 
 before. 
 
 One said they had not got to be quite so poor as to 
 have to eat each other yet, but they might perhaps 
 be reduced some time or other to the necessity of 
 doing it. And in the midst of this conversation, a 
 diffident young man stepped forward and said, "Yes, 
 tell the white man, there are some such persons 
 farther down the river. He will find some white men 
 living in two or three wigwams on the left bank of the 
 river, who eat the flesh of their own relations, and, 
 what was worse, they sell their skins !" This created 
 a great laugh amongst the Indians; and, on descend- 
 ing the river, some distance above Obidos, at its 
 mouth, we found these cannibals, several French- 
 men and Americans, killing monkeys, and sending 
 their skins to Paris for the manufacture of ladies' 
 gloves ; and living, as they told us, entirely on the 
 flesh of those poor brutes ! 
 
 This was the nearest approach to cannibalism 
 
THE AMEKICAS CANXrT5AL8. 281 
 
 that I have discovered in my travels amongst North 
 or South American Indians. Books are full of it, 
 but the wilderness is without it ! I have travelled 
 and lived fifteen years amongst Indians, and I have 
 not yet found it ; and I don't believe that any man 
 has seen anything nearer to it in these countries 
 than what I have above described. 
 
 Cannibalism may have been practised, and still 
 may be, under certain circumstances, in some of the 
 South Sea Islands, and in some parts of Africa. 
 We have frequent reports of such practices from 
 travellers, and those very respectable men; but 
 these reports don't prove the fact. None of these 
 travellers tell us they have seen it. No doubt 
 they tell us what they have heard, and what they 
 believe. But how do they get their information ? 
 Not from the savages ; they can't speak with them. 
 Every savage race on earth has its foreign traders 
 amongst them These are generally the interpreters 
 for travellers who come, and jealous of all persons 
 entering these tribes, to overlook their nefarious 
 system of trade and abuse. 
 
 These traders have an object in representing the 
 savagf as ten times more cruel and murderous than 
 he is ; and amongst other things, as a cannibal, who 
 is sure to kill and eat travellers if they penetrate 
 farther into their country. 
 
 It is the custom with most savage tribes (and this 
 in America as well as in Africa) to apply the term 
 cannibal to their enemies around them as a term of 
 reproach ; but when we enter these tribes the 
 
282 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 cannibals are not there, they are in the next tribe, 
 and then in the next, and so they fly, like a phan- 
 tom, before us. 
 
 The leaders of war-parties also apply the epithet 
 of cannibals to their enemies, in order to inflame 
 their warriors going into battle : " You go to fight a 
 set of cannibals ; to conquer or to be eaten !" 
 
 Some of the most recent travellers in Africa (and 
 the most recent ought to be the most reliable) 
 assure us that several of the tribes they were 
 amongst were cannibals, and that they eat the very 
 aged people, " killing them to eat them, and eating 
 those who die of old age." Grandfathers and 
 grandmothers I should scarcely think would be 
 very good eating. If these people eat each other 
 for the pleasure of eating, one would suppose that 
 they would take the middle-aged or the young 
 and tender. 
 
 If these travellers would merely tell us that these 
 people eat each other, we might believe it possible ; 
 but when they qualify their statements by telling us 
 that they only eat the very aged ones, they weaken 
 their own evidence. They leave us as history, 
 assertions without proof, relative to the existence of 
 a custom both against nature and against taste; 
 raising presumptions formidable enough to stand 
 against very strong positive proof 
 
 As a ceremonial, in the celebration of victories, 
 religious rites, etc., human flesh is sometimes eaten ; 
 and the practice, by custom, observed as a necessary 
 form ; but this is not cannibalism. 
 
THE AMERICAN CANNIBALS. 283 
 
 That savage tribes may sometimes eat their 
 enemies whom they have slain in battle, one can 
 easily believe. Savages always go to war on empty 
 stomachs ; and at the end of a battle, aftei 1 many 
 days' fasting and under great exhaustion, and having 
 no commissariat to supply them with food, it would 
 be easy, and almost natural, to use their enemies 
 for food. 
 
 But that any race of human beings, with humanity 
 enough to treat unprotected strangers amongst them 
 with " kindness and hospitality," and to " help and 
 to protect and feed them " in travelling through their 
 country, will kill and eat their own people for the 
 pleasure of eating, I don't believe. 
 
 The poor Indian's remark above quoted ("We 
 have not got to be so poor as to have to eat each 
 other yet ; though we may some time be reduced to 
 that necessity ") is not without its significance. 
 
 White men have in some instances been reduced 
 to the dire necessity of eating each other, and have 
 cast lots to decide which of the party should be first 
 killed for food ; but this is not cannibalism. If this 
 were cannibalism, it might with truth be predicted, 
 that by the system of robbery and abuse practised 
 on the American frontiers, thousands of the poor 
 Indians will soon be compelled to become cannibals. 
 
 Some very respectable and accredited early travel- 
 lers and explorers averred that they saw the Pata- 
 gonians on the Atlantic coast, seven, eight, and even 
 ten feet high ! but modern travellers who go and 
 live amongst them find the tallest of them to be but 
 
284 LIFE AMONG THE ITSTHANS. 
 
 a little over six feet. It is evident that the atmos- 
 phere, under certain circumstances, has a magnifying 
 power, and becomes a very uncertain medium, and 
 particularly so when persons are frightened. The 
 first Indian I ever saw, my little readers will recollect, 
 was a giant ; but a little familiar acquaintance made 
 him much smaller. 
 
 Some writers (who take a peep into an Indian's 
 wigwam without knowing the meaning of things 
 around them, see little balls of clay piled away, which 
 every Indian stores up for cleaning his dresses, and 
 painting his body and limbs, and of which he some- 
 times swallows a small pill to cure the heartburn 
 just as my good old mother used to make me do 
 when I was a boy) have reported some of the tribes 
 as " dirt eaters" asserting that " when they are in a 
 state of starvation, they live for some time upon dirt ; 
 eating a pound of clay per day." What ! a pound 
 of clay per day on a famished stomach ? what an 
 absurdity ! And what a pity the revealers of such 
 astonishing facts should not live a while in some of 
 these poor people's wigwams, and learn what the 
 Indians do with these little balls of clay, before they 
 prepare such astounding information for the world's 
 reading. 
 
 But stop; dirt is much more digestible than 
 stones ! / was a " stone eater " a little way back 
 both are " giants " and one story has just as much 
 truth in it as the other. 
 
 We were near the head of the Trombutas on it* 
 
SCENEKY OF THE TBOMBUTAS. 285 
 
 beautiful and grassy plains ? Yes. Well, let us sit 
 down here too, a while in the shade of these beauti- 
 ful bananas but no ; these are not bananas, the 
 pride and grace of the forest, such as we saw on the 
 banks of the Essequibo and the Orinoco. No, but 
 they are palms, nevertheless ; and oh, how charming 
 and elegant, with their leaning, bending stems and 
 pennated foliage ! The graceful banana of Guiana, 
 I think, has not yet made its way over the Tumu- 
 cumache ; I don't see it anywhere. All the rest 
 seem to be here. 
 
 How beautifully and gracefully these bespangled 
 prairies wind and roll their sloping sides down to 
 the river shore ! What a beautiful lawn for a noble- 
 man's mansion, with this very clump of trees for its 
 centre, with these myriads of wild flowers, and all 
 these gay and cheerful songsters in it ! But look ! 
 What snake is that ? That's not a rattlesnake, with 
 a white ring around its neck ? Oh, no ; it's quite a 
 harmless creature ; it never bites ; it's only a pilot. 
 A pilot ? I don't understand. Why, it's the rattle- 
 snake's pilot, always with him, looking out the way. 
 What a gentleman ! Then the rattlesnake is close 
 by us ? Undoubtedly ; most likely behind us : they 
 always lie in the shade during the heat of the day. 
 Let's move off"; I can't say that I fancy the company 
 of such gentlemen. 
 
 Our little boat rolls and glides along from day to 
 day, and palms, and enamelled rolling prairies, and 
 gay and chirping birds are everywhere. The river 
 enters the deep and shady forests, and we enter with 
 
286 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 it. Who knows what we shall see when we turn 
 that next point ? and the next ? and the next ? Each 
 turn is new, each is beautiful, and more and more 
 grand. 
 
 The dense and lofty forests, into which the sun's 
 rays can never penetrate, are before us. Twining 
 and twisting vines, like huge serpents, are rising to 
 their tops; some clinging to their trunks, others 
 hanging suspended in the air like broken cordage, 
 and on them, in clumps and bouquets, the most 
 beautiful parasitic flowers. Crowded out from these 
 thickets of trunks and branches, leaves and vines, so 
 thickly grouped that neither sun nor wind can pene- 
 trate, we see the strangled palms and other trees 
 pushing their heads out, and bending over the river 
 for a breathing-place. 
 
 And through and above these matted forests, the 
 tall and straight trunks of the lofty palms are seen 
 in the distance, like the columns of vast and bound- 
 less edifices, and spreading over and above all, their 
 pennated heads show us a forest above a forest, the 
 one apparently growing out of the other. How 
 sublime I 
 
 These, with all their grandeur, are reflected in 
 the mirrored water ; and thus we have four forests 
 all before us at one view, the one just as distinct in 
 form and colour as the other. How grand the 
 mirage ! The touch of the oar upon the boat comes 
 back from these solitudes with a redoubled sound ; 
 every cough and every " whoop " is echoed back, 
 and with them " who, who ! " from the wilderness ; 
 
THE FORESTS. 287 
 
 but we don't know from whom. Every crack of 
 the rifle sets a hundred squeaking and chattering 
 voices in motion. A hundred monkeys are shaking 
 the branches in the tree tops ahead of us, and taking 
 a peep at us, and the sleeping alligators tumble 
 from their logs into the water, leaving their circular 
 waves behind and around them. 
 
 But these solitudes are not everywhere. We turn 
 another bend, and before us we have, on one bank, 
 a vast and beautiful meadow, and on it a forest in 
 miniature. The grass, some six or seven feet high, 
 and filled with twisted and knotted vines, and dotted 
 with wild flowers ; and above and through it, like 
 the stately palms in the forest, the tall and straight 
 shafts of the sunflowers, with their graceful yellow 
 and leaning heads, forming a forest of black and 
 gold above the green, and red, and pink, and blue 
 below. 
 
 What myriads of humble-bees, and humming-birds, 
 and butterflies are working here ! But, this path ! 
 this path ? Why, it's the tigers' walk ! Let's go 
 on ; push off. 
 
 We sleep in hammocks here. Not in these prairies ? 
 No, but always in the timber. We sling our ham- 
 mocks between two trees, and build a fire on each 
 side of us. The fire protects us from animals and 
 reptiles ; both are afraid of it. 
 
 We stopped our boat one day for our accustomed 
 mid-day rest, in the cool shade of one of these stately 
 forests, where there was a beautifully variegated 
 group of hills, with tufts of timber and gaudy prairies 
 
288 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 sloping down to the river on the opposite shore. 
 Our men had fallen asleep, as usual, in the boat, 
 and I said to my friend Smyth, who, with myself, 
 was seated on the top of the bank, " How awfully 
 silent and doleful it seems not the sound of a bird 
 or a cricket can be heard ! suppose we have some 
 music." " Agreed," said Smyth, and raising the old 
 Minie', he fired it off over the water. Sam followed 
 with three cracks, as fast as they could be got off ! 
 
 The party in the boat were all, of course, upon 
 their feet in an instant, and we sat smiling at them. 
 Then the concert began a hundred monkeys could 
 be heard chattering and howling, treble, tenor, and 
 bass, with flats and sharps, and semitones, and bari- 
 tones, and falsettos, whilst five hundred at least were 
 scratching, leaping, and vaulting about amongst the 
 branches, and gathering over our heads, in full view, 
 to take a peep at us. We sat in an open place, that 
 they might have a full view of us, and we rose up to 
 show ourselves at full length, that their curiosity 
 might be fully gratified. With my opera-glass, which 
 I took from my pocket, I brought all these little 
 inquisitive, bright-eyed faces near enough to shake 
 hands, and had the most curious view of them. I 
 never before knew the cleanliness, the grace, and 
 beauty of these wonderful creatures until I saw them 
 in that way, in their native element and unrestrained 
 movements. Where on earth those creatures gathered 
 from in so short a time, in such numbers, it was 
 impossible to conceive ; and they were still coming. 
 Like pigeons, they sat in rows upon the limbs, and 
 
MUSIC OF THE TEOMBUTAS. 289 
 
 even were in some places piled on each other's backs, 
 and all gazing at us. 
 
 To give the inquisitive multitude a fair illustration, 
 I fired another shot, and another, and such a scamper- 
 ing I never saw before ! in half-a-minute every animal, 
 and every trace and shadow of them, were out of 
 sight ; nor did they come near us again. The woods 
 were ringing at this time with a hundred voices 
 " Tso-cano ! Tso-cano ! Go on, John ! " .came from the 
 tops of the highest trees ; the hideous roar of a tiger 
 was heard, not far off, and when done, another 
 answered on the other side of the river. The howling 
 monkeys, who only open their throats at night, gave 
 us a strain or two ; the white swans were piping in 
 the distance, and the quacking ducks and geese were 
 passing to and fro in flocks up and down the river 
 The gabbling parrots and parroquets and cockatoos, 
 with their long, and red, and blue tails, were creeping 
 out and hanging on to the outer branches to get a 
 look at what was going on. 
 
 So far we heard but the notes of alarm, of fear, 
 and they were soon done there was little music in 
 these. But then the songsters came the joyous, 
 merry pipers (when fear was over, and curiosity not 
 satisfied) ; they now began to venture out from the 
 thickets and the towering forests, and in hundreds 
 were seen sailing over the river from their shady 
 retreats in the copses and little groves on the hill- 
 sides, and lighting on the trees around us. Curioug 
 and inquisitive little strangers, with your red breasts 
 and throats, your white cockades, your blue jackets, 
 
 T 
 
290 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 and purple tufts, and piercing eyes, and turning 
 beads, I wish I knew your hundred names ! 
 
 All yet were silent. As we sat still, gazing and 
 ogling were the first impulses they with their 
 piercing little sharp eyes, and I with my opera lens ; 
 but a chirp or two opened the concert. One song 
 brought on another, and another, as an announce- 
 ment that danger was passed ; and no aviary that 
 ever was heard could produce such a concert 
 and such a chorus of sweet sounds as was here 
 presented. 
 
 They swelled their little throats to the highest 
 possible key in the din of their concert ; and after it 
 gradually died away, some hangers-on gave duets, 
 and others solos, each little warbler hopping nearer 
 and nearer to us, and dropping his last notes 
 with a bow of the head and a " There, there ! 
 they can't beat that ! mine is certainly the most 
 beautiful!" 
 
 " But hark !" said I, " Smyth ; music is conta- 
 gious." The crickets and grasshoppers were singing 
 in the grass, and at length, "P-r-r-out ! p-r-r-out !" 
 said a huge frog, whose snout and ears were raised 
 a little above the surface of the water, amongst the 
 water-lilies and rushes near the shore ; and then, 
 another, a smaller one, "Peut! peut !" and another, 
 a big fellow, "El-der-gin! el-der-gin !" and then a 
 terrible bull -frog, his mouth the size of the clasp of 
 a lady's reticule, " Kr-r-r-ow ! kr-r-r-ow !" and at 
 least five thousand more, on both sides of the river ; 
 for, by the custom of frogs, when one sings, all must 
 
PECCAKlEa 291 
 
 join in, large and small, no matter what time of day 
 or night, as far as their voices can be heard by each 
 other. 
 
 All animals and birds sing in this country it is 
 the land of song. Music is the language of happi- 
 ness and enjoyment what a happy community 
 this! 
 
 Now for the " pigs." Pigs, in this country, are 
 peccaries, a species of wild hog, resembling, in colour 
 and in proportion, as well as in character, the wild 
 boar of the continent of Europe. They are not more 
 than one-half the size, but have all the ferocity and 
 sagacity of that animal, and are equally pugnacious. 
 An individual one is not able to cope with the 
 strength of a man, but when in groups they are able 
 to tear a man to pieces in a little time. 
 
 Immense numbers of these animals are found 
 throughout the whole valley of the Amazon and the 
 Essequibo, living chiefly on the great quantity of 
 mast that falls from various trees. They often run 
 in groups of several hundreds, and unite in 
 terrible conflicts with man or beasts for their own 
 protection. 
 
 We had taken our dinner one day on the bank in 
 a large and open forest, when Smyth took his rifle 
 in his hand, and said " he was going to take a walk 
 down the river, and see what he could murder." 
 His passion was for shooting ; and it seemed to be 
 little matter with him what it was, if he could hear 
 the "old Minie' speak" (as he called it), and see his 
 game fall 
 
292 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 He strolled off down the river bank, and after he 
 had been gone a quarter of an hour or so, I heard 
 the crack of his rifle ; and in the half of a minute 
 another and in the quarter of a minute another ! 
 and after the lapse of two or three minutes he com- 
 menced firing again ! I began to fear that he had 
 met hostile Indians or some other dangerous enemy, 
 and seizing up my rifle, and taking one of the 
 Indians of the boat, with his quiver of poisoned 
 arrows slung, we started for his assistance ; at this 
 time the firing stopped, and we heard him calling 
 out at the top of his voice for help. We then ran 
 as fast as we could, and getting near the place, we 
 began to advance with caution, and I at length dis- 
 covered him standing on the trunk of a fallen tree, 
 the branches of which had lodged against others, 
 preventing it from coming quite to the ground ; his 
 rifle was in his left hand, and by the other he was 
 holding on to a branch to balance himself, and under- 
 neath and around him a dense mass of some two 
 or three hundred peccaries, with the bristles all 
 standing on their backs, as they were foaming at 
 their mouths and whetting their white tusks, and 
 looking up at him. 
 
 Smyth saw us approaching, and called out to me 
 to take care of my life. These sagacious little crea- 
 tures knew, from the direction that he was giving to 
 his voice, that he had help coming in that quarter ; 
 and a hundred of them at least began to turn 
 their attention to us, and were starting to come 
 towards us without having seen us, and without 
 
FIGHT WITH THE PECCARIES. 293 
 
 our having spoken a word to notify them of our 
 approach. 
 
 The only shelter for us was the trunk of a large 
 mora tree, behind which we took our positions. I 
 stood so as to look around the tree, and getting my 
 rifle to bear, and my position to be right for firing, 
 and the Indian with his bow drawn behind me, we 
 waited till the foremost of this phalanx of little 
 warriors came advancing up slowly, and whetting 
 their tusks, not having yet seen us. When within 
 some seven or eight rods, I began upon the nearest 
 and the next and the next and having shot down 
 four of the leaders, the sagacious little fellows, seeing 
 their foremost and bravest falling so fast and 
 thinking perhaps, like the Indians, that this was to 
 last all day, they gave a grunt and made a wheel, 
 which seemed to be a signal understood by the whole 
 troop, for in one instant they were all off at full 
 speed, and were soon out of sight, leaving the four 
 I had shot, and some eight or ten of the leaders 
 which Smyth had killed, on the field of battle, when 
 his powder had given out and he was obliged to call 
 out for help. 
 
 He told me that he had discovered some parts of 
 the group whilst they were scattered about and hunt- 
 ing nuts ; and having no idea of their numbers, he 
 had shot one, when the others, from all quarters, 
 gathered around him, and that if he had not luckily 
 found the fallen tree close by him, or that if his foot 
 had slipped after he got on to it, he would have been 
 torn to pieces in a very few minutes. 
 
294 
 
 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 I had not a doubt of this fact when I saw the 
 manner in which they had cut and marked with their 
 tusks the log on which he had stood, and also the 
 mangled bodies of those he had shot ; which, by their 
 custom, they had fallen upon and torn to pieces in 
 their fury. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 South American Indians Canoe-Indians Nest Builders of 
 the Amazon The Steamer "Marajo" Shores of the Ama- 
 zon Upper Forest Nature's Temple Opera-Glass on the 
 Amazon Passing Obidos A Scene at Obidos Indians on 
 the Amazon Indian Missions Lingua Geral Tribes of 
 Upper Amazon. 
 
 JET us now for a while leave beasts, and 
 birds, and reptiles, for a subject of far 
 greater interest and importance. The 
 studies of my wanderings have been the looks, con- 
 dition, character, and customs of native man; and 
 these their incidents or accessories merely. These 
 are not without their interest and importance, how- 
 ever, but they can be seen in the wilderness alive, 
 and in our museums, hundreds of years to come, as 
 well as now ; but native man, with his modes, is 
 soon to disappear from the American forests, 
 and not even his skin will be found in our 
 museums. 
 
 The hand of his fellow-man is everywhere raised 
 against him, whilst the grizzly bears, the tigers, and 
 the hyenas are allowed to live and why ? because 
 
 296 
 
296 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 he is unfortunately a landowner, and has the means 
 to pay for rum and whisky. 
 
 Much the same system of traffic and dissipation, 
 which I have before alluded to, is destroying these 
 poor people in this country, but without the devas- 
 tation which it carries with it in some parts of North 
 America ; because there are no immigrating masses 
 here to push forward a frontier so rapidly, dispos- 
 sessing the Indians of their country. 
 
 A sort of civilization has been longer established 
 in this country, and more generally and more gra- 
 dually infused amongst the savage races, without so 
 completely destroying them. By this process, a 
 greater mixture of races and languages has been 
 produced ; and though there is little high civiliza- 
 tion, and seldom extinction, there is yet an immense 
 extension of demi-races, and very seldom full bloods. 
 The true original looks and customs of the Indians 
 in this country are therefore, most generally, very 
 difficult to see. 
 
 From the warmth of the climate, the Indians in 
 these regions, semi-civilized or not, go almost naked. 
 Their character and customs are nevertheless equally 
 full of interest; and in this country, as in North 
 America, I have aimed at gathering everything per- 
 taining to a full and just account of them. In doing 
 this, the reader can imagine that I have had many 
 long and tedious journeys by land and by water ; 
 some of which have been already briefly told, and 
 most of the others (though we may journey together 
 yet a little farther) must be left for a larger book. 
 
CANOE INDIANS. 297 
 
 We were at Para. Para is a large and flourish- 
 ing commercial town, of forty or fifty thousand 
 inhabitants, on the south side of the great estuary 
 of the Amazon, and one hundred miles from the 
 coast of the sea. 
 
 There are the remnants of several Indian tribes 
 living around Para, who bring into its market fish 
 and oysters, and fruits of fifty kinds, from the palms 
 and other trees and shrubs of the forests. In the 
 dense and lofty forests of palms on the islands and 
 shores between Para and the ocean, we see again, as 
 we saw at the mouth of the Orinoco, the Canoe 
 Indians living in "nests" built in the trees. These 
 constructions, though exceedingly rude, are never- 
 theless comfortable and secure for the people who 
 live in them, and whose modes, in many other 
 respects, are equally curious. 
 
 These are very properly called Canoe Indians, for 
 they live exclusively on fish and oysters; and to 
 obtain them and to travel anywhere, and on any 
 errand whatever, they must necessarily be in their 
 canoes. They cannot step out of their houses except 
 into their canoes. In their canoes they dart through 
 the dense forests of lofty palms with a swiftness 
 -rhich is almost incredible. They never travel in any 
 other way, and very many of them seldom set their 
 feet upon the dry land. 
 
 These stupendous forests of palms (called miriti) 
 constitute one of the curiosities of the Amazon, and 
 perhaps of the world. Hundreds, and thousands, 
 and tens of thousands of acres around the mouths of 
 
298 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 the Amazon and the Orinoco are completely covered 
 and shaded by these noble trees ; their trunks, almost 
 perfectly straight and smooth, without knot or limb, 
 rise like the columns of some lofty temple to the 
 height of one hundred or more feet, and then throw 
 out their graceful branches, somewhat in the form 
 of an umbrella, which are interlaced together so thick 
 that the sun seldom shines through them. 
 
 At low tide these trees may be said to be rising 
 out of the mud, and at high tide they are rising out 
 of the water. They are so far from the sea that no 
 waves of the ocean, or even of the river, reach them ; 
 and the water of the rising tide creeps in and around 
 them as quietly and unruffled as if it came out of the 
 ground, and actually has that appearance. 
 
 At low tide the Indian's canoe lies in the mud, 
 and he is as sure to be lying, and eating, and drinking, 
 or sleeping in his wigwam of sticks and leaves. 
 But when the tide rises, it lifts his canoe to the steps 
 of his wigwam, when, with his gay red feathers in 
 his head and his vari-coloured paddle in his hand, 
 his nets, his spears, and his black-headed little 
 papooses in his canoe, he steps into it and darts off 
 amidst the myriad columns of this mighty temple, 
 echoing and re-echoing, as he glides, the happy notes 
 of his song, and those of the thousand songsters 
 above his head and around him. 
 
 How curious it is that a part of mankind should 
 build their houses in the trees ! these are, strictly 
 speaking, odd people. You will recollect I told you 
 of the SJcin builders, the Dirt-builders, the Bark- 
 
THE STEAMEE " MARAJO." 299 
 
 builders, the Grass -builders, and the Timber- 
 builders, and here we have the Nest-builders! and 
 what sort of builders shall we have next? We 
 shall see. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Para, on the Rios Tocan- 
 tins and Zingu, I visited a dozen or more tribes, 
 and then, on a steamer, started to see others. Lay 
 your map of South America on the table, and see 
 what I had before me ! Look at the rivers, and 
 realise their lengths. I took the largest first, the 
 Amazon rode to Tabatinga, eighteen hundred 
 miles, the western boundary of Brazil; and from 
 that, between Peru and Equador, to Nanta, three 
 hundred and fifty miles, at the mouth of the Yuca- 
 yali, and yet four hundred miles farther, and leaving 
 the steamer, crossed the Andes to Lima, the most 
 beautiful city in the world! 
 
 But this is travelling too fast again. I passed 
 several things on the way, and we will go back and 
 take a look at them. 
 
 From Para, I started on the steamer Marajo, the 
 second or third voyage she had made, and the first 
 steamer that ever ascended that river. There were 
 on board several Portuguese gentlemen from Rio de 
 Janeiro, and several others from Para, with their 
 families, forming together a very pleasing and 
 agreeable travelling party no doubt, if one could 
 have spoken their language. 
 
 The first day at noon brought us into the bay of 
 the Amazon, with its hundred islands ; and the 
 second, to Santarem, at the head of tide-water. 
 
300 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 Above this we began to stem the current, and, for 
 the first time, had evidence that we were ascending 
 a river ; and for the first time, also, we were fully 
 sensible of the majesty and grandeur of its movement. 
 
 I had a few months before crept and drifted along 
 its shores and sluices in a humble craft, from the 
 mouth of the Trombutas, without being able to see 
 or to understand it. But we were now lifted upon 
 the deck of a steamer, and stemming the current and 
 viewing it on both sides at once, which gave me 
 some basis for its measurement. 
 
 From the middle of the river the distance was so 
 great that the forests on either shore settled into 
 monotony and tameness ; but with my knowledge of 
 their actual grandeur, this only served to inspire me 
 with the real magnitude and magnificence of the 
 sweeping current intervening. But when the vessel 
 was running near the shore, which was generally the 
 case, to evade the strength of the current, no pen or 
 pencil can describe the gorgeousness and richness of 
 the overhanging and reflected forests that changed 
 every moment as we passed. 
 
 Every length of the boat was in itself a picture to 
 stop and look at ; but why stop ? for the coming one 
 was just as beautiful. Conversation was at an end, 
 for exclamations and interjections took its place. A 
 never-ending mass of green, of yellow, white, and 
 pink, and red ; and that without monotony, unless, 
 from the never-ending changes, change itself became 
 monotony ! 
 
 Uere the rounded tops of the lofty trees, some 
 
tTPPER FORES*. 301 
 
 white, some pink with blossoms, were crowding out 
 their flowery heads amongst the mass of green, and 
 extending their long branches down quite into the 
 river, and a hundred twisting vines hung in knots 
 and clumps, and festoons of parasitic flowers were 
 jetting down from the tops of the highest trees the 
 overhanging, gorgeous, rolling, and impenetrable 
 mass, sweeping the sides of the boat as we passed, 
 seemed to be tumbling down upon us, while they hid 
 from our view the lofty bank on which their stately 
 trunks were standing. 
 
 And there, an opening! We see the high and 
 sloping bank, spangled to the water's edge, and into 
 it, with pink and purple flowers and the graceful 
 palmettoes, like a thousand open fans, leaning and 
 bowing around ; and above the bank, the straight 
 and lofty trunks of palms and other stately forest 
 trees, like the pillars of some mighty portico, sup- 
 porting their dome of branches interlocked ; and 
 farther on, but a part of this, an " upper forest /" 
 The wind has done this. Huge trees have been up- 
 rooted, and, tumbling half-way down, have lodged 
 their branches in the crotchets of others ; falling 
 vegetation has lodged on these until a super-soil has 
 been formed ; descending vines have taken root in 
 them and clambered again to their tops, and inter- 
 woven and lashed the mass to the encircled trunks 
 and branches ; nuts and fruits have fallen on these 
 and taken root, and trees and flowers are growing in 
 a second forest some fifty or sixty feet above the 
 ground ! 
 
302 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 And do these look like loathsome ruins like a 
 wreck like a misfortune ? No, they are rounded ; 
 they are hidden ; they are looped, and festooned, and 
 embraced with clinging and hanging vines, support- 
 ing bouquets of beautiful flowers and fig-trees bend- 
 ing with their blossoms and ripened fruit at the 
 same time. 
 
 But how gloomy and desolate ? Not so. This is 
 Nature's temple ; its roof is not tiles nor slates, but 
 a bed of flowers ! and man is its tenant. Blue curls 
 of smoke are seen floating around amongst the trees, 
 and from underneath, a hundred pair of black and 
 sparkling eyes from behind the logs and trees, and a 
 dozen or two of the bravest and boldest of both 
 sexes come leaping to the brink of the bank, to salute 
 us as we pass. 
 
 Man's abode! how splendid, how grand, how 
 cheap, and how comfortable ! Man wants but a roof 
 in this country ; the open air must be around him. 
 How splendid a roof lie has here, bespangled with 
 flowers and dropping ambrosia! and how delicious 
 the air that he breathes, rustling through the blos- 
 soms and spices with which he is encompassed. 
 
 We see hundreds of canoes as we pass on, gliding 
 along the shores in different directions, filled with 
 red heads and red shoulders, but when we get near 
 them, they dart into the mass of overhanging 
 branches and leaves, and disappear in an instant. 
 Sometimes their villages stand upon the bank, and 
 in hundreds they are yelling and saluting us as we 
 are puffing along by them. 
 
OPERA -GLASS ON THE AMAZON. 303 
 
 They have no fears ; they are at a safe distance ; 
 but my little opera-glass brings them near enough 
 to shake hands. What a beautiful sight ! Men and 
 women, wild and simple as Nature made them. It's 
 a long time since ; why have they remained so ? 
 What gleaming, laughing, happy faces ! Oh, that 
 human nature refined were half as happy. 
 
 Thanks ! thanks to you, my little opera-glass ! the 
 best of all travelling companions ; that reveals so 
 much, and asks no questions. What do you show 
 and interpret to me on such a voyage ? All nature 
 in this country will let me come within rifle-shot, 
 but you move me near enough to shake hands ! 
 One day's seat with you upon the deck of this boat, 
 is worth a week of nights in Her Majesty's Opera 
 House. 
 
 The little reader who runs his eye through the 
 pages of this book, and should at any period of his 
 life make a tour to the Trombutas or the Amazon 
 (and I believe there will be such), should by no 
 means forget to take such .a companion with him. 
 It is no incumbrance in the pocket, and with it he 
 can converse with animals at a distance ; with the 
 birds, and the fruits, and the bouquets of beautiful 
 flowers in the tree-tops. He can scan the ugly 
 looks of the staring tiger, or the silvery texture of 
 the basking alligators, or the gazing multitudes of 
 painted, streaked, and feathered Indians. He can 
 see the bright eyes of the cunning little monkeys 
 peeping down from the branches of the trees; he 
 can scan the beautiful colours of the tocanos, bowing 
 
304 LIFE AMOKG THE LND1AJN8. 
 
 their heads from the tops of the lofty inora. He can 
 see what he never can see in museums amongst glass 
 eyes and wiry attitudes the little humming-birds, 
 as they are balanced on their buzzing wings, and 
 glistening in the sun as they are drawing honey 
 from the flowers; and all the feathered tribe of 
 songsters, straining their little throats, giving aid 
 and expression to their music. 
 
 With it he can explore the highest and un- 
 approachable cliffs and rocks in the Andes, and by 
 lying on his back, may almost imagine himself 
 lifted in the claws of the soaring condor. 
 
 Obidos, at the mouth of the Trombutas, is where 
 my friend Smyth and myself first launched out into 
 the broad Amazon ; a little Spanish town of one 
 thousand five hundred or two thousand inhabitants. 
 Our steamer was alongside and moored. Some 
 passengers got out, and others came on board. The 
 inhabitants were all upon the bank, and amongst 
 them several groups of Indians, and all gazing in 
 wonder at us. Here was work for my pencil, and 
 groups of them were booked as I sat upon the deck. 
 And just before the vessel was to start, as I was 
 walking on the deck, a sudden outcry was raised 
 amongst the squaws and then amongst the men, 
 and all eyes were upon m^, and many hands ex- 
 tended towards me. 
 
 It seems that amongst the crowd were a number 
 of the Indians, men and women, whom Smyth and I 
 had joined in the turtle-hunt six months before, who 
 now were down in their canoes on a visit to Obidos, 
 
A SCETO AT OBIDOS. 305 
 
 and who, having recognised me, were calling to me 
 to come ashore and shake hands with them. This 
 compliment I could not resist, nor could I deny my- 
 self the pleasure of shaking hands with these good 
 creatures these "Amazons/' these "Cannibals," 
 of the Trombutas. 
 
 I leaped ashore, to the great surprise of all the 
 passengers, and of the captain also, and the boat 
 delaying a little, gave me time for the interview. 
 No one can imagine the pleasure which these poor 
 people felt in discovering me, and then seeing me 
 come ashore to shake hands with them. I told 
 them I was glad to see them, and not now being 
 quite so poor as I was when I was among them, if 
 the captain would wait for me a few minutes I 
 would make them some little presents. 
 
 I explained my views to the captain, and he 
 granted me the time. I opened a box in my luggage, 
 and supplying my pockets with a quantity of knives, 
 fish-hooks, beads, etc., which I had kid in for such 
 occasions, I went ashore and distributed them, when 
 several of the men embraced me in their arms, and 
 all, both men and women, shook me by the hand, 
 wishing me farewell. 
 
 This scene excited the sympathies of the ladies 
 and other passengers on board, who threw them 
 many presents, in money and other things. 
 
 The boat was ordered to go ahead, and just as 
 the wheels began to revolve, a little lad ran 
 to the water's edge, and handed to the captain, 
 who was standing on the wheel-house, a beautifu) 
 
 U 
 
306 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 "blow-gun" and made signs for him to hand 
 it to me. 
 
 Oh, how pleasing such meetings are to me ! how 
 I love to feel the gladdened souls of native men, 
 moved by natural, human impulse, uninfluenced by 
 fashion or a mercenary motive ! Mine, I know, 
 has something native remaining in it yet. 
 
 Ten days from Para brought us to Nanta, having 
 passed some fifteen or twenty small Spanish towns 
 and missions, and at least one hundred encampments 
 and groups of Indians on the islands and shores, 
 who seemed to have got notice in some way of our 
 approach, and had assembled to take a look at the 
 boat, and salute it. They stared at us with uplifted 
 hands, and raised their voices to the highest pitch, 
 but fired no guns, for as yet they neither have them 
 nor know the use of them. 
 
 From the immense numbers of Indians we saw 
 gathered on the banks, it would seem as if the 
 country was swarming with human inhabitants, 
 while in the whole distance these interminable 
 forests and shores showed us not a monkey, nor a 
 parrot, nor a tiger! The former were led to the 
 river-shore, no doubt, in the extraordinary numbers 
 which we saw, by feelings of curiosity ; whilst the 
 latter, from fear at the puffing and blowing of the 
 steamer, hid themselves in the forests in silence as 
 we passed ; but no doubt a grand chorus was con- 
 stantly raised behind us after we had got by. 
 
 It is estimated that there are over one hundred 
 tribes, speaking different languages, on the shores of 
 
INDIAN MISSIONS. 307 
 
 the Amazon, from its rise at the base of the Andes, 
 to its mouth ; and at this point we have probably 
 passed something like three-fourths of them. I 
 could give the names of near one hundred tribes 
 that I have already learned of in the valley of the 
 Amazon, but the list would be of little interest here. 
 
 If it be true that there are one hundred tribes on 
 the banks of the Amazon, which I doubt, we may 
 easily get five hundred different names for them, 
 and be ignorant of their own, their real names, at last. 
 
 Bands of the same great family or tribe are often 
 improperly called tribes, and have languages very 
 dissimilar, and therefore the endless confusion in 
 classification. 
 
 There is a general system of teaching by the 
 Catholic Missions throughout all parts of South 
 America, to which all the tribes have had more or 
 less access, and from which they have received more 
 or less instruction in Christianity, in agriculture, 
 and in the Spanish and Portuguese languages. 
 
 The soothing and parental manner of the venerable 
 padres who conduct these missions is calculated to 
 curb the natural cruelties of the savage, and have 
 had the effect in all parts of that country to cut 
 down the angles that belong to all natural society 
 unaided by the advances of civilization. 
 
 These missions are everywhere ; and around them, 
 in their vicinity, always more or less extensive 
 settlements of Spanish and Portuguese, called in 
 the Spanish language Gauchos (Gautchos), who live 
 by a mixed industry of agriculture and the chase. 
 
SOS LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 This population mixes easily with the native races, 
 and with this amalgamation ensues a blending of 
 languages, which is one of the most extraordinary 
 features to be met with in the country; and particu- 
 larly so on the lower half of the Amazon and its 
 tributaries, and also throughout the whole northern 
 and eastern portions of Brazil, where the three 
 languages the Spanish, the Portuguese, and Indian 
 languages are a]l about equally mixed, and in such 
 a way as sometimes to appear the most laughably 
 droll and ridiculous, and at others, the most absurd 
 and inexplicable of all jargons on earth. 
 
 This language, which they call " Lingua Geral," 
 is spoken by all, by Spaniards, by Portuguese, and 
 by the Indians, much alike; and though it no doubt 
 is a handy language for the country, it is exceed- 
 ingly perplexing and embarrassing for the traveller, 
 who may think that his Spanish and his French, 
 which he has learnt for the occasion, are going to 
 answer him through the country. He must employ 
 an interpreter, or learn to speak the Lingua Geral, or 
 be as mum as if he were in the deserts of Siberia. 
 
 At Tabatinga, eighteen hundred miles above Para, 
 two steamers were building by Americans, who had 
 brought the whole machinery from the United States 
 complete and ready to be put in. These vessels 
 were being built to run on the Amazon, and a few 
 years will no doubt show us a fleet of these and 
 other vessels at that place, which will be the great 
 commercial dep6t of Western Brazil and Eastern 
 Peru and Equador. 
 
t ftlBEii OF THE UPPER AMAZON. 309 
 
 In the vicinity of Nanta are a great many Indian 
 tribes, amongst which are the Zeberos, the Urari- 
 nas, the Tambos, the Peebas, the Turantinis, the 
 Connibos, the Sipibos, the Chetibos, the Sensis, the 
 Remos, the Amahovacs, the Antis, the Siriniris, 
 the Tuirenis, the Huachipasis, the Pacapacuris, and 
 at least a dozen others ; their languages all dialectic, 
 and their physiological traits and colour altogether 
 prove them to be only bands or sections of one great 
 family, and that family only the fusion, perhaps, of 
 Ando-Peruvian and Guarani. 
 
 It would be next to impossible for any stranger 
 to trace the Amazon from its mouth to its true 
 source in the space of his lifetime, and it would be 
 ten times more difficult to trace the savage races in 
 South America, through all their displacements and 
 migrations, to their true fountain. 
 
 Of the South American tribes there are none 
 nearer approaching to their primitive state than 
 many of the tribes about the heads of the Amazon ; 
 and amongst these I spent some time. They have 
 forests full of game, and rivers full of fish, and all 
 the varieties of palms with their various kinds of 
 fruit ; and also the immense plains or pampas, 
 stocked with wild horses and wild cattle for food, 
 and for their skins and hair, which are articles of 
 commerce with them. From these combined advan- 
 tages they insure an easy and independent living, 
 and have therefore the fewest inducements to adopt 
 civilised modes of life. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Connibos {Shed-Builders Chetibos Pottery of the Connibos 
 Blow -gun Poisoned Arrows Experiments with Poisoned 
 Arrows Fatality of Poisoned Arrows Waw-ra-li (Poison 
 for Arrows) Trouble with a Medicine Man A Monkey 
 Skinner Unpainting Indian Portraits. 
 
 RIDE across the Pampa $el Sacramento, 
 and a passage of the Yucayali in a canoe, 
 afforded me some of the loveliest views of 
 country I ever beheld, and some of the most interest- 
 ing visits I have ever made to Indian tribes ; the 
 shores of the Yucayali are not unlike those of the 
 Trombutas the animals, the birds, the trees, the 
 flowers, everything the same. 
 
 The Connibos, of some two or three thousand ; the 
 Sipibos, of three thousand ; the Chet'ibos, of an equal 
 number, and the Sensis, inhabit its shores. These 
 tribes are all much alike, and their languages strongly 
 resemble each other, yet they are constantly at war, 
 though only the river separates them. 
 
 The Connibos live upon the borders of the pampa, 
 but build their villages in the edge of the forest. 
 A village generally consists of but one house, but a 
 310 
 
CHETIBOS. 311 
 
 curious house it is; it is a shed, and sometimes 
 thirty or forty rods in length, constructed of posts 
 set in the ground, to the tops of which are fastened 
 horizontal timbers supporting a roof most curiously 
 and even beautifully thatched with palm leaves. 
 Houses in this country, I have said, have no sides, 
 no walls, except those of the Gauchos, and the sides 
 and partitions in those can be perforated with the 
 finger, as they are but a web of palm-leaves. 
 
 The Connibo wigwam, or shed, contains some- 
 times several hundreds of persons, and the families 
 are separated only by a hanging screen or partition, 
 made of palm-leaves, suspended across the shed. 
 Like all the tribes in the valley of the Amazon, they 
 sleep in hammocks slung between the posts of their 
 sheds, when at home ; and when travelling, between 
 trees, or stakes driven into the ground. 
 
 How curious are houses without doors, where, 
 instead of walking in, we walk under ! I have given 
 an account of the Skin-builders, the Dirt-builders, 
 the Bark-builders, the Grass-builders, the Timber- 
 builders, the Nest-builders, and we now come to the 
 Shed-builders ! And if I have room enough, I intend 
 to give you a brief account of the No-builders, the 
 pigmies of the Shoshonee race whom I found on the 
 heads of the Colorado in North America, who build 
 no houses, but creep in and sleep amongst the 
 crevices of the rocks. 
 
 The Sipibos and Chetibos, though only separated 
 from the Connibos by the river, have no communi- 
 cation with them except in warfare, and that is very 
 
312 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 seldom ; each confining themselves in their canoes 
 to their own shore ; and their boundary line being 
 so definitely established, it is less often passed over 
 than those of tribes who have only an ideal line of 
 division, which is most generally the case. 
 
 The Chetibos and Sipibos may properly be said to 
 be Canoe Indians, their country being a dense and 
 impenetrable forest, throwing them, from necessity, 
 upon the river for subsistence and the means of 
 travelling ; and in their narrow and light little dug- 
 out canoes, they are indeed one of the prodigies of the 
 world. When they all strike with their paddles at 
 once, they may almost be said to bound over the 
 waves. They ascend and descend the foaming rapids 
 which in some places are frightful even to look at, 
 and where they are at times entirely lost to the view 
 from the foaming spray that is rising around them. 
 They descend the Yucayali to Nanta, the Amazon to 
 Tabatinga, to the Barra, and even to Para and back 
 again, against a strong current for the distance of 
 two thousand miles, in less time and with more ease 
 than they could do it on horseback, provided there 
 were roads. 
 
 The Chetibos are much like the Winnebago and 
 Menomonie Indians on the shores of the great lakes 
 in North America, and if placed by the side of them 
 would scarcely be distinguished from them. Like 
 all the Indians in this country they wear very little 
 dress. The men always wear a flap or breech-cloth, 
 and the women wear a cotton wrapper that fastens 
 about the waist and extends nearly down to the 
 
POTTERY OF THE CONNIBOS. 313 
 
 knees. The necks and wrists of the women are 
 generally hung with a profusion of blue and white 
 beads, which have a pleasing effect, and also, in 
 many instances, brass and silver bands around the 
 ankles and around the head, fastening back the hair. 
 
 Both men and women daub and streak their bodies 
 and limbs with red and white and black paint, much 
 in the same way as the North American tribes. In 
 this custom I see but little difference. The Connibos, 
 the Remos, the Amahovacs, and all other tribes on 
 the Yucayali and the Upper and Lower Amazon, have 
 the same fondness for "dress," which is paint, 
 according to his or her freak or fancy. 
 
 The Pacapacuris, the Memos, the Antis, and a 
 dozen other small tribes, and the Connibos, who 
 dwell around the skirts of the Pampa del Sacra- 
 mento, lead a different life from the Canoe Indians 
 I have just mentioned, and in appearance are more 
 like the Sioux and Assinneboins on the buffalo 
 plains in North America. 
 
 The Connibos interested me very much. They 
 are one of the most curious, and ingenious, and 
 intelligent tribes I met with. They seemed proud 
 of showing me their mode of manufacturing pottery, 
 which was in itself a curiosity, and in some respects 
 would do credit to any civilized race. They have a 
 place somewhat like a brick-yard on the edge of the 
 prairie near their village, where the women mix and 
 beat the clay with a sort of mallet or paddle, and 
 afterwards mould (or rather model) it into jars for 
 their turtle butter, and also into a hundred different 
 
LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS, 
 
 and most ingenious forms into pitchers, cups, pots, 
 and plates ; and what is actually astonishing to the 
 beholder, these are all made in the most perfect 
 roundness and proportion without the aid of a 
 wheel, by the rotary motion of the hand and adjust- 
 ment of the fingers and mussel-shells which they use 
 in giving form. 
 
 After these are dried in the sun sufficiently, the 
 painting operation begins, which is a curious scene, 
 and performed by another set of artists, and some of 
 them, evidently, with a talent worthy of a better 
 place. With red and yellow, blue and black colours 
 which they extract from vegetables, and brushes they 
 make from a fibrous plant they get amongst the 
 rushes at the river shore, these colours are laid on, 
 and often blended and grouped in forms and figures 
 that exhibit extraordinary taste. 
 
 Painted, they are then passed into the hands of 
 old women, whose days for moulding and painting 
 have gone by, but who are still able to gather wood 
 and build fires on the sands at the river side where 
 they are carried and baked ; whilst the old women 
 are tending to them, with hands clenched, they 
 dance in a circle around them, singing and evoking 
 the Evil Spirit not to put his fatal hand upon and 
 break them in the fire. Those that come out with- 
 out the touch of his fingers (uncracked) are then 
 removed to the village and glazed with a vegetable 
 varnish or resin which they gather from some tree 
 in the forest. 
 
 This pottery, thoucrh it answers their purpose, is 
 
BLOW-UUN. 315 
 
 fragile and short-lived, being proof for a short time 
 only against cold liquids, and not proof against those 
 that are hot. 
 
 The sole weapons of these people, and in fact of 
 most of the neighbouring tribes, are bow and arrows, 
 and lances, and blow-guns, all of which are con- 
 structed with great ingenuity, and used with the 
 most deadly effect. My revolver rifle, therefore, was 
 a great curiosity amongst them, as with the other 
 numerous tribes I had passed. I fired a cylinder of 
 charges at a target to show them the effect, and had 
 the whole tribe as spectators. 
 
 After finishing my illustration, a very handsome 
 and diffident young man stepped up to me with a 
 slender rod in his hand of some nine r ten feet in 
 length, and smilingly said that he still believed his 
 gun was equal to mine ; it was a beautiful " blow- 
 gun," and slung, not on his back, but under his arm, 
 with a short quiver containing about a hundred 
 poisoned arrows. (The reader will recollect that 
 just such a weapon was presented to me on the 
 steamer when we were about leaving Obidos.) 
 
 The young man got the interpreter to interpret 
 for him, as he explained the powers of his weapon, 
 and which, until this moment, I had thought that I 
 perfectly understood. He showed me that he had a 
 hundred arrows in his quiver, and of course so many 
 shots ready to make; and showed me by his motions 
 that with it he could throw twenty of them in a 
 minute, and that without the least noise, and with- 
 out even being discovered by his enemy, whose 
 
$16 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 ranks he would be thinning, or without frightening 
 the animals or birds who were falling by them; 
 and then there was the accuracy of his aim, and the 
 certainty of death to whatever living being they 
 touched I 
 
 This tube was about the size of an ordinary man's 
 thumb, and the orifice large enough to admit the 
 end of the little finger. It was made of two small 
 palms, one within the other, in order to protect it 
 from warping. This species of palm is only pro- 
 cured in certain parts of that country, of the proper 
 dimensions and straightness to form those wonderful 
 weapons. They are manufactured most generally, 
 and the most extensively, by the Haycas and Zeberos 
 tribes on the Amazon, more than two hundred miles 
 from the Connibos, and two hundred miles above 
 Nanta ; and they are sold to the Connibos, as well 
 as the Sipibos and all the other tribes in those 
 regions, and also to all the tribes of the Lower 
 Amazon, and even taken in large quantities to Para 
 and sold in the market-place. The prices that these 
 blow-pipes command in the country where they are 
 manufactured are from two to three dollars ; and on 
 the lower Amazon, at the Barra, at Santarem and 
 Para, from three to five dollars each. 
 
 Opening his quiver, the young man showed and 
 explained to me his deadly arrows, some eight or 
 nine inches in length. Some of them were made 
 of very hard wood, according to the original mode 
 of construction ; but the greater and most valuable 
 portion of them were made of knitting-needles, with 
 
POISONED ARROWS. 317 
 
 which they are now supplied by the civilized traders. 
 These are sharpened at the end, and feathered with 
 cotton, which just fills the orifice of the tube, and 
 steadies the arrow's flight. The arrows are pushed 
 in at the end held to the mouth, and blown through 
 with such force and such precision that they will 
 strike a man's body at sixty yards, or the body of a 
 squirrel or a small bird on the top of the highest 
 tree. 
 
 The ends of these arrows, for an inch or more, 
 are dipped into a liquid poison, which seems to be 
 known to most of the tribes in those regions, and 
 which appears to be fatal to all that it touches. 
 This liquid poison dries in a few moments on the 
 point of the arrow, and there is carried for years 
 without the least deterioration. He explained to 
 me that a duck, or parrot, or turkey, penetrated 
 with one of these points, would live but about two 
 minutes ; a monkey or peccary would live about ten 
 minutes ; and a tiger, a cow, or a man, not over 
 fifteen minutes. Incredible almost as these state- 
 ments were, I nevertheless am induced to believe, 
 from what I afterwards learned from other abundant 
 information, that they were very near the truth. 
 One thing is certain, that death ensues almost 
 instantaneously when the circulation of the blood 
 conveys the poison to the heart, and it therefore 
 results that the time, instead of being reducible to 
 any exact measure, depends upon the blood-vessels 
 into which the poison is injected. If the arrow 
 enters the jugular vein, for instance, the animal, no 
 
318 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 matter what size, would have but a moment to 
 live. 
 
 The interpreter assured me that neither the bodies 
 of birds or animals killed by these poisoned arrows 
 were injured for eating, and that the greater part of 
 the food of the Indians was procured by them ; the 
 poison being a vegetable extract, and the quantity 
 at the same time so exceedingly small, that it 
 becomes neutralised, so as not to interfere with 
 digestive action. 
 
 I was anxious to witness some experiments made 
 with it, and observing that these people had a 
 number of young peccaries which they were raising 
 for food, I bought one of them by giving the owner 
 a couple of papers of Chinese vermilion, and allow- 
 ing him the carcass of the pig to eat. He was 
 much pleased with the arrangement, and brought 
 the pig out. I got the young man to aim an arrow 
 at the neck, explaining to him that I wished him to 
 strike the jugular vein ; but, missing that, it passed 
 some five or six inches into the neck. The animal 
 made no signs of pain, but stood still, and in two 
 minutes began to reel and stagger, and soon fell to 
 the ground upon its side, and in six minutes from 
 the time the arrow struck it, it was dead. 
 
 I was then informed that there was another 
 animal which I might like to kill. An immense 
 rattlesnake had been discovered a few days before 
 near their village, and as their superstitious fears 
 prevent them from killing a rattlesnake, they had 
 made a pen around it by driving a row of stakes, 
 
FATALITY OF POISONED ARROWS. 319 
 
 preventing its escape, until they could get an 
 opportunity of sending it on some canoe going 
 down the river, to be thrown overboard, that it 
 might land on the banks of some of their enemies. 
 
 We proceeded to the pen, and having excited the 
 reptile to the greatest rage, when it coiled itself up 
 and was ready for a spring, I blew the arrow myself, 
 and striking it about the centre of its body, it 
 writhed for a moment, twisting its body into a knot, 
 and in three minutes, straightening itself out upon 
 the ground, and on its back, was quite dead. 
 
 This might be considered a very fair test of the 
 horrible fatality of this artificial poison ; for I have 
 often held the enraged rattlesnake down with a 
 crotched stick until it has turned and bitten itself ; 
 and even then, excited to the most venomous pitch, 
 and giving itself several blows, it will live some ten 
 or fifteen minutes. 
 
 I bought the young man's blow-gun and his 
 quiver of arrows, and I have also procured several 
 others from other tribes, and several sacks of the 
 poison, for experiments on my return, which may 
 lead to curious and possibly important results. 
 How awful and terrific would be the effects of an 
 army of men with such weapons, knowing their 
 powers, and skilled in the manner of using them ! 
 
 This poison is undoubtedly a recent discovery. 
 From the facts that I gathered in this and many 
 other tribes, I learned that anciently the Indians 
 went to war much oftener than they now do ; that 
 they then fought with lances, and shields, and large 
 
320 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 bows, but since the discovery of this poison for their 
 arrows, they dare not come so near as to use those 
 weapons; and that it had almost put a stop to 
 warfare. 
 
 The young Connibo assured me that his tribe had 
 resolved not to use these arrows upon any of their 
 enemies, unless they began to throw poisoned arrows, 
 and, in that case, to be ready to kill every one of 
 them. And to convince me of the cruelty and 
 horror of warfare waged with these weapons, he 
 related to me, as matter of history, much as it seems 
 to partake of the marvellous, that "some time 
 after the poison was discovered, and these blow- 
 guns were made, the war-parties of two neighbour- 
 ing tribes met in a plain, all armed with these 
 weapons, and their bodies were afterwards discovered 
 where every man was killed on both sides. Getting 
 so near to each other, every man was hit ; for each 
 one, after he was hit, had time to strike his enemy, 
 or half-a-dozen of them before he was dead." 
 
 Poisoning arrows has been a veiy ancient custom 
 amongst savage tribes, and no doubt has been 
 practised for many centuries amongst the South 
 American as well as amongst the North American 
 races, and is too generally known and used to be 
 any longer a secret ; but the acme of poison, which 
 seems to be that now used on the points of these 
 little darts, I believe to be very different from that 
 used by the same people on the blades of their 
 lances and arrows, and to be a modern discovery. 
 
 This poison is no doubt a vegetable extract, or a 
 
WAW-RA-LI (POISON FOR ARROWS). 321 
 
 compound of vegetable extracts ; and though so 
 extensively known and used by the Indian tribes, 
 seefhs to be by them treasured as a secret so 
 important and so profound as to have, so far, baffled 
 all attempts to obtain it from them. It admits of 
 no chemical analysis which leads to anything, except 
 that it is a vegetable extract. That vegetable, and 
 the mode of the extract, the analysis does not show. 
 
 Amongst the Macouchi and other tribes on the 
 Essequibo, in Guiana, I obtained similar blow-guns, 
 and, I believe, the same poison (though the colour 
 is different). The Indians there call it waw-ra-li. 
 Many travellers, French, English, and German, have 
 made great efforts to obtain the secret, and though 
 some have thought themselves in possession of it, I 
 still very much doubt the fact. 
 
 I, like many others, followed the phantom a long 
 time, but in vain ; and if I had found it, what good 
 would it do ? I don't wish to poison anybody ; and 
 game enough " Sam " and I can always kill without 
 it powder and ball from Sam are rank poison. 
 
 Amongst the Chetibos, the Sensis, and other 
 tribes, I had painted a considerable number of 
 portraits, which surprised them very much, and 
 gained me many compliments and many attentions 
 as a great medicine man ; and of the Connibos I 
 had also painted several portraits, and passed 
 amongst them for a wonderful man ; but in the 
 midst of all my success, my medicine met with a 
 sudden reverse. 
 
 The Great Medicine, whom I had heard much of, 
 
 x 
 
322 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 and who at that time was absent, returned from a 
 tour on the pampas with a party of young men who 
 had been out with him to visit a neighbouring tribe. 
 He was an ill-looking, surly, wrinkled-up old gentle- 
 man. Of myself and my works he soon had a view, 
 and from his people, no doubt, a marvellous account. 
 He soon had his face painted black, and was 
 parading about with his rattle in his hand, and 
 singing a doleful ditty his death-song, I was told ; 
 telling his people rt this wouldn't do that it was 
 very fortunate for them that he had arrived just as 
 be had that here was something, to be sure, very 
 wonderful, but that it would do them no good." 
 
 " These things," said he, " are great mystery ; but 
 there you are, my friends, with your eyes open all 
 night they never shut ; this is all wrong, and you 
 are very foolish to allow it. You never will be 
 happy afterwards if you allow these things to be 
 always awake in the night. My friends, this is only 
 a cunning way this man has to get your skins ; and 
 the next thing, they will have glass eyes, and be 
 placed amongst the skins of the wild beasts, and 
 birds, and snakes 1 Don't hurt this man that is my 
 advice ; but he is a ' bug-catcher and a monkey- 
 skinner!'"* 
 
 One can easily see the trouble that was here 
 brewing for me, and easily imagine, also, how 
 quickly I lost caste from the preaching of this 
 
 * A term of reproach which they apply to naturalists and 
 other scientific men, whom they often see making collections of 
 natural history. 
 
A MONKEY-SKINNER. 323 
 
 Infallible oracle of the tribe, and how unavoidable 
 and irrevocable was the command when I was in- 
 formed that my operations must cease, and the 
 portraits which I had made must be destroyed. 
 
 Those whose portraits I had made all came to me, 
 and told me they would rather have them destroyed, 
 for if I took them away they might have some 
 trouble. I told them we would let them remain 
 over another night, which would give them time to 
 think more about it (give my pictures more time to 
 dry), and if on the next day they still continued in 
 their resolve, I would destroy them as they desired. 
 
 I had yet another motive for this delay the hope 
 of being able, by a little compliment and flattery, to 
 get the old doctor to change his views, and to take 
 up the right side ; but in this I entirely failed, almost 
 for the first time in my life. He had been to Para, 
 or other places, where he had seen the stuffed skins in 
 a museum, with glass eyes, and the poor old fellow 
 had got the idea fixed in his mind that I was 
 gathering skins, and that by this process the skins of 
 his people would find their way there, and soon have 
 glass eyes ! 
 
 I luckily found in the bank of a little stream some 
 white clay ; and the next morning, when the Indians 
 came in with the doctor, I had a good quantity of 
 clay on my palette, mixed with water and some 
 water-colours. I then said, "There are your 
 portraits ; I am very sorry that you don't let me 
 have them to show to my friends amongst the white 
 people; but you have resolved to have them destroyed. 
 
324 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 There are three ways you may burn them ! or you 
 may drown them ! or you may shoot them ! You 
 can destroy them in your own way. Your medicine 
 man, who has frightened you about them, can tell 
 you, most likely, which way will be the least 
 dangerous I " 
 
 The old doctor lit his pipe, and they all sat down 
 and smoked and talked a while, when he informed 
 me that they were a little afraid to do either. 
 
 I then said there was another way I had, that of 
 wipainting them, from which there could be no 
 possible harm, but it required each one to sit a few 
 minutes for the operation. This seemed to afford 
 them a great relief, and in a few moments they were 
 all unpainted, covered in with a thick coat of clay, 
 which would perfectly preserve them until I wanted 
 to see them again. All were satisfied. I took to 
 my canoe and came off, all good friends. 
 
 From this I went west. I saw many Indians, 
 many rivers, many rocks. I saw (and felt) the 
 Andes, and entered Lima, on the Pacific, which I 
 have before said is the most beautiful city in the 
 world. 
 
 My tour was there half-finished ; there will be a 
 time and a book for the rest. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Indiana in London Indians before the Queen War-Chiefs 
 Speech to the Queen loway Indians An Indian Doctor's 
 Speech in London Baling Park War-Chief's Speech to 
 Duke of Cambridge Savage Devotion Episcopal Clergy- 
 men talk with the Indians War-Chief's Keply to Clergymen 
 The Indians' Belief Charity of Indians The Doctor's 
 Speech on Charity Indians' Charity on a Steamer. 
 
 [E reader bears in mind that the main object 
 of this little work has been to convey, in a 
 concise way, a general and truthful know- 
 ledge of the character, condition, and customs of the 
 American Indian races. In order to prevent it from 
 being tedious, I have thus far endeavoured to weave 
 into it such scenes and incidents which I have wit- 
 nessed as were calculated to interest the reader, and 
 at the same time help to illustrate the true character 
 of these interesting people. 
 
 Leaving scenes and scenery now for a while, we 
 will take a look at the Indians and learn more of 
 them in a different phase. Everything, to be well 
 understood, should be seen in different lights. We 
 have seen how these people look and act in their 
 
 825 
 
326 LIFE AMONG HE INDIANS. 
 
 own countries ; we will now take a peep at them, 
 mixing and mingling with the polished and enlight- 
 ened of the world. We have seen them in the 
 darkness of the wilderness ; we will now see how 
 they bear the light. 
 
 Whilst I was residing in London a few years 
 since, with my whole Indian collection, and all the 
 information which I had gathered in eight years' 
 residence amongst them, there came to London two 
 successive groups of Indians from North America, 
 from two different tribes, and under the charge of 
 two persons, their conductors, from the Indian 
 frontiers, for the avowed object of acting out their 
 modes before the English people. 
 
 In both instances I was applied to by the persons 
 bringing them out to take the management of their 
 exhibitions, which I did ; which, no doubt, added 
 much to their interest, as I was able to appreciate 
 and explain all their modes. Their exhibitions were 
 made both in England and France, and their mingling 
 and mixing with all ranks and grades of society, to 
 which I was a constant witness and interpreter, 
 brought out points and shades in their character 
 which I never should have learned in their own 
 country ; and I confess that until then, with all my 
 study, I had but a partial knowledge of the character 
 of these curious people, and that the rest of it, and 
 even some of its most admirable parts, I learned 
 when they were four thousand miles from their 
 homes, and in the midst of the most enlightened 
 society. 
 
INDIANS BEFORE THE QUEEN. 327 
 
 To give a brief account, then, of the rest of their 
 character, as I learned it myself, I will here add a 
 few extracts from my notes made at the time, some 
 of which will be amusing, others will be met with 
 surprise, and many will furnish convincing corrobo- 
 rations of the statements I made in the beginning of 
 this book, that these people, in their native state, 
 are endowed with a high degree of intelligence, of 
 morality, of honesty, of honour, of charity, and 
 religious sentiment. They exhibited at all times a 
 strict adherence to decency, decorum, and social 
 propriety of conduct, that not only excited the 
 surprise, but gained for them the admiration and 
 respect, of all who saw them. 
 
 No mode ever suggested itself to me while I was 
 travelling amongst these people (nor could anything 
 else have ever happened), so completely enabling me 
 to learn the whole of their character ; and there is 
 nothing else on earth that I can communicate to the 
 reader with so much pleasure, and with so much 
 justice to the savage, in the remaining pages of this 
 little book, as the following brief account of incidents 
 which many of the civilized world witnessed, and 
 which all the civilized world ought to know. 
 
 The first of these parties consisted of nine Ojibbe- 
 ways from Canada, whom I had the honour of pre- 
 senting to Her Majesty the Queen and His Koyal 
 Highness the Prince Consort, in the palace at Windsor. 
 They gave several of their dances before the royal 
 party in the Waterloo Gallery, and afterwards sat 
 down to a splendid ddjedner in an adjoining hall 
 
328 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 See the remarkable speech which the old chief made, 
 as he stood before Her Majesty and all the household, 
 which was interpreted to Her Majesty by their own 
 interpreter, and which I wrote down word for word: 
 
 " Great Mother, The Great Spirit has been kind 
 to us, your children, in protecting us on our long 
 journey here, and we are now happy that we are 
 allowed to see your face. 
 
 " Mother We have often been told that there was 
 a great fire in this country, that its light shone across 
 the great water, and we think we see now where 
 that great light arises ; we believe that it shines 
 from this great wigwam to all the world. 
 
 "Mother, We have seen many strange things 
 since we came here ; we see that your wigwams are 
 large, and the light that is in them is bright. Our 
 wigwams are small, and our light is not strong. We 
 are not rich, but we have plenty of food. 
 
 " Mother, My friends here and myself are your 
 children ; we have used our weapons against your 
 enemies; our hearts are glad at what we have this 
 day seen ; and when we get home our words will be 
 listened to in the councils of our nation. This is all 
 I have to say/' 
 
 The grace, and dignity, and perfect composure with 
 which this old man delivered the above address before 
 Her Majesty, amid the glare and splendour that was 
 around him, seemed to excite the surprise and 
 admiration of all 
 
 His Koyal Highness Prince Albert replied to him 
 in a kind and feeling response, and handsome and 
 
IOW AY INDIANS. 329 
 
 genuine presents were made to them by Her Majesty. 
 They gave their dances and other amusements in 
 various parts of the kingdom. 
 
 After their return, another party of fourteen 
 loways, from the Upper Missouri, arrived, in charge 
 of a Mr. Melody, and under the sanction of the 
 United States Government. This party, from a 
 tribe living much farther west, and more completely 
 in their native state and native habits, were a much 
 better illustration than the first, and probably the 
 best that ever has crossed, or ever will cross, the 
 ocean for such a purpose. 
 
 The names of this party were as follow : 
 
 Jeffrey Doroway, Interpreter. 
 
 1. Mew-hu-she-kaw (the white cloud), chief, civil. 
 
 2. Neu-mon-ya (the walking rain), war-chief. 
 
 3. See-non-ti-yah (the blister feet), doctor. 
 
 4. Wash-ka-mon-ye (the fast dancer), warrior. 
 
 5. Shon-ta-y-ee-ga (the little wolf), warrior. 
 G. No-ho-mun-ye (the Roman nose), warrior. 
 
 7. Wa-ton-ye (the foremost man), warrior. 
 
 8. Wa-ta-wee-buck-a-nah (commanding general), 
 
 boy. 
 
 Women. 
 
 9. Ruton-ye-wee-me (the strutting pigeon), wife 
 
 of chief. 
 
 10. Ruton-wee-me (flying pigeon). 
 
 11. 0-kee-wee-me (female bear). 
 
330 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 12. Koon-za-ya-me (female eagle). 
 
 13. Ta-pa-ta-mee (wisdom). 
 14. (papoose). 
 
 This party, when they arrived in London, took 
 great pleasure in visiting my exhibition rooms and 
 in seeing me, as I had visited that tribe some five 
 or six years before, and had, in their own village, 
 painted the portraits of the two chiefs of this party, 
 and which were then hanging in my collection. I 
 erected a strong platform in my exhibition room, on 
 which these people gave their dances and other 
 amusements before immense crowds of visitors 
 assembled to see them. 
 
 On the first evening of their amusements they 
 gave the war-dance, all dressed and painted like 
 warriors going to war, and I stood by and explained 
 all its features to the audience. In the war-dance, 
 when the dance stops at intervals, it is customary for 
 each warrior, in turn, to step forward, and, in a 
 boasting manner, relate the exploits of his life how 
 he has killed and scalped his enemies in battle, etc. 
 And in this dance, the old medicine man made a 
 tremendous boast, brandishing his war club over the 
 heads of his audience in a manner that caused great 
 excitement in the crowd, and was followed by an 
 enthusiastic applause. The old doctor was a bache- 
 lor, and had the most exalted admiration and respect 
 for the ladies. And this compliment brought him 
 again on to his feet at the edge of the platform, 
 with his buffalo robe wrapped around him, and his 
 
AN INDIAN DOCTOR'S SPEECH IN LONDON. 331 
 
 right hand waving over the heads of the audience, 
 when he began : 
 
 "My friends, It makes me very happy to see so 
 many smiling faces about me ; for when people 
 smile and laugh I know they are not angry." 
 (Immense applause and laughter, which lasted for 
 some time.) 
 
 "My friends, 1 see the ladies are pleased, and 
 this pleases me, because I know that if the ladies are 
 pleased they will please the men." (Great laughter 
 and applause.) 
 
 "My friends, I believe that our dance was 
 agreeable to you, and has given you no offence." 
 (Applause.) 
 
 " My friends, We have come a great way, over 
 the great Salt Lake, to see you and offer you our 
 hands. The Great Spirit has been kind to us. We 
 know that our lives are always in his hands, and 
 we must thank him first for keeping us safe." 
 (Applause.) 
 
 " My friends, We have met our old friend, Chip- 
 pehola* here, and we see the medicine things which 
 he has done, hanging all around us, and this makes 
 us very happy. We have found our chiefs' faces on 
 the walls, which the Great Spirit has allowed him to 
 bring over safe, and we are thankful for this." 
 (Applause and u how, how, how," from the Indians ; 
 meaning " yes," or " hear, hear.") 
 
 "My friends, This is a large village; it has 
 many fine wigwams ; we rode in a large carriage 
 
 * (Red paint) the Author. 
 
332 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 (an omnibus) the other day, and saw it all" (A 
 laugh, and hear.) 
 
 " My friends, We came all the way from the ship 
 on your great medicine road ; it pleased us very 
 much ; and we were drawn by the iron horse. My 
 friends, we think that before the trees were cut 
 down this country was very beautiful. We think 
 there were Indians and buffaloes in this country 
 then." (Applause.) 
 
 "My friends, We came very fast along the 
 medicine road (from Liverpool), and we think 
 we saw some quash-ee-quano* but we were not 
 certain; we should like to know. This is all 
 I have to say." (How, how, how, and great ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 An omnibus with four horses was engaged to give 
 the party a drive of a couple of hours each day, by 
 which means they were enabled to see every part of 
 London and its suburbs, and also its institutions, 
 into most of which Mr. Melody and myself accom- 
 panied them, that they might see and appreciate the 
 benefits of civilization. 
 
 These poor people were much disappointed in not 
 being able to see the Queen, as the party of Ojibbe- 
 ways, their enemies, had; but they received many 
 friendly invitations, where they were treated with 
 great kindness. They were invited to a dejedner at 
 the mansion of Mr. Disraeli, near Hyde Park, where 
 they all sat at a table splendidly set out, and at 
 
 * A medicinal herb, the roots of which the Indiana use as a 
 
 cathartic medicine. 
 
BALING PARK. 333 
 
 which the private friends of Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli 
 were assembled. 
 
 The most perfect decorum and apparent sang- 
 froid attended all their motions and actions, and at 
 parting, the war-chief said : 
 
 " My friends, The Great Spirit has caused your 
 hearts to be thus kind to us, and we hope the Great 
 Spirit will not allow us to forget it. We are thank- 
 ful to all your friends whom we see around you also, 
 and we hope the Great Spirit will be kind to you all. 
 
 " My friends, We wish to shake hands with you 
 all, and then we will bid you farewell" 
 
 Invited by Mrs. Lawrence, of Baling Park, they 
 partook of a splendid dejedner on the beautiful lawn 
 back of her mansion, at which H.R.H. the late Duke 
 of Cambridge, the Duchess of Cambridge and 'the 
 Princess Mary, the Duchess of Gloucester, and many 
 other distinguished personages were present. The 
 Duke of Cambridge carved the roast beef, and the 
 lovely little Princess Mary and the Duchess of Cam- 
 bridge, and Mrs. Lawrence carried round to them 
 their plates of plum-pudding. After the f&e, they 
 gave several of their favourite dances, and taking 
 their ball-sticks in hand, illustrated their beautiful 
 game of ball on the lawn. 
 
 When the entertainments were over, and the 
 Indians were about to depart, the war-chief stepped 
 forward and addressed the Duke of Cambridge in the 
 following words : 
 
 " Mij great Father, Your face to-day has made 
 
334 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 us all very happy. The Great Spirit has done all 
 this for us, and we are thankful to him, first, for it. 
 The Great Spirit inclined your heart to let us see 
 your face and to shake your hand, and we are very 
 happy that it has been so." (How, how, how.) 
 
 " My Father, We have been told that you are the 
 uncle of the Queen, and that your brother was the 
 king of this rich country. We fear that we shall go 
 home without seeing the face of your Queen, except 
 as we saw it in her carriage ; but if so, we shall be 
 happy to say that we have seen the great chief who 
 is next to the Queen." (How, how, how.) 
 
 <c My Father, We are poor and ignorant people 
 from the wilderness, whose eyes are not yet open; 
 and we did not think we should be treated so kindly 
 as we have been this day. Our skins are red, and 
 our ways are not so pleasing as those of the white 
 people ; and we therefore feel the more proud that 
 so great a chief should come so far to see us. This, 
 my father, we never shall forget." (How, how, 
 how.) 
 
 "My Father, We feel thankful to the lady who has 
 this fine house, and these fine fields, and who has in- 
 vited us here to-day, and to all the ladies and gentle- 
 men who are here to see us. We shall pray for 
 you all in our prayers to the Great Spirit; and now 
 we shall be obliged to shake hands with you all and 
 go home." (How, how, how.) 
 
 H.RH. the Duke of Cambridge then took the 
 war-chief by the hand, and replied to him " That 
 he and all his friends had been highly pleased with 
 
SAVAGE DEVOTION. 335 
 
 their appearance and amusements, and most of all, 
 with the reverential manner in which he had just 
 spoken of the Great Spirit, before whom, whether 
 red or white, we must all soon appear. He thanked 
 the chiefs for the efforts they had made to entertain 
 them, and trusted that the Great Spirit would be 
 kind to them in restoring them safe to their friends 
 again." 
 
 Very beautiful and liberal presents were then be- 
 stowed on them by the hands of the ladies, and the 
 party took leave in their omnibus for London. 
 
 Let us turn back for a moment to this wonderful 
 speech of the war-chief, and read it over again to 
 this concise, this appropriate, this reverential, this 
 humble and eloquent address, from the lips of a wild 
 man from the heart of the American wilderness 
 that no language, that no diction, and no study could 
 improve translated by one of the best interpreters, 
 sentence by sentence, and written by myself, word 
 for word, in my note-book as it was spoken. 
 
 What a beautiful illustration have we here, and 
 how convincing, of the truth which should be learned 
 as the basis of all human education, that nature has 
 endowed man, even in his most ignorant wilderness 
 state, with a knowledge of his Creator of an Al- 
 mighty Being on whom his existence depends, and 
 to whom his daily thanks and prayers are to 
 ascend! 
 
 And these are not the empty pretensions drawn 
 out of them by the society they are in, but the senti- 
 ments that are daily uttered in the forests, and over 
 
336 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 the mountains, the lakes, and the rivers of their own 
 countries, during all the days of their lives. I have 
 seen them there, as the reader has learned, under all 
 circumstances. Their speeches have been made to 
 me, and I have heard them made a hundred times to 
 others, and they always begin by thanking the Great 
 Spirit first. 
 
 In councils, no man speaks without inviting the 
 Great Spirit to witness what he is going to say, 
 and to aid him in speaking the truth. Before eat- 
 ing, they invariably and audibly thank the Great 
 Spirit for the food they are going to partake of. 
 
 These people have no churches or places of wor- 
 ship where they congregate together as white people 
 do; but each individual has some solitary and 
 sacred haunt where he occasionally goes for several 
 days and nights together, without food, lying with 
 his face in the dirt, as he is crying to the Great 
 Spirit, even at the risk of his life from wild beasts 
 and his enemies. 
 
 While these people were creating a great excite- 
 ment in London, two Episcopal clergymen called on 
 me one day and desired to know if they could have 
 an opportunity of conversing with them on the 
 subject of religion ; to which I replied that I would 
 do all in my power to bring it about. I mentioned 
 the subject to Mr. Melody and his party, and they 
 all agreed, and the day and hour were appointed. 
 Apprehending the interesting and important nature 
 of these conversations, I resolved to attend them, 
 and with Jeffrey, the interpreter, to preserve the 
 
WAB-CHIEF'S REPLY TO CLERGYMEN. 337 
 
 most perfect report of all that was to be said on 
 both sides; which I did; and in each case (for 
 there were ultimately several interviews) submitted 
 my reports to the reverend gentlemen for their 
 approval as to their correctness. 
 
 In the interview already appointed to take place, 
 one of the reverend gentlemen, in the kindest and 
 most friendly manner, explained to them the objects 
 of their visit, and with their permission, gave them 
 an account of the life and death of our Saviour, and 
 explained, as well as he could to their simple minds, 
 the mode of redemption. He urged upon them the 
 necessity of taking up this belief, and though it 
 might be difficult for them to understand at first, 
 yet he told them he was sure that it was the only 
 certain way to salvation. 
 
 The war-chief, who was spokesman on most 
 occasions, was all this time sitting and smoking his 
 pipe, with his head cast down as he was listening ; 
 and having heard what the clergyman was anxious 
 to explain, he handed his pipe to White Cloud, the 
 chief, and with his arms resting on his knees, 
 replied : 
 
 " My friends, The Great Spirit has sent you to 
 us with kind words, and he has opened our ears to 
 hear them ; which we have done. We are glad to 
 see you and to hear you speak. As to the white 
 man's religion, which you have explained, we have 
 heard it told to us in the same way in our own 
 country, and there are white men and women there 
 now trying to teach it to our people. We do not 
 
 Y 
 
338 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 think your religion good, unless it be so for white 
 people, and this we don't doubt. 
 
 " My friends, The Great Spirit has made our 
 skins red, and the forests for us to live in. He has 
 also given us our religion, which has taken our 
 fathers to the * beautiful hunting-grounds/ where 
 we wish to meet them. We don't believe that the 
 Great Spirit made us to live together with 
 the pale faces in this world, and we think that He 
 has intended we shall live separate in the world 
 to come. 
 
 "My friends, We know that when white men 
 come into our country we are unhappy. The 
 Indians all die or are driven away before the white 
 men. Our hope is to enjoy our hunting-grounds in 
 the world to come, which white men cannot take 
 from us. 
 
 "My friends, You have told us that the Son of 
 the Great Spirit was living on the earth, and that 
 He was killed by white men, and that the Great 
 Spirit sent Him here to get killed. Now, we don't 
 understand this ; this may have been necessary for 
 white people, but the red men, we think, have not 
 yet got to be so wicked as to require that. If it 
 was necessary that the Son of the Great Spirit 
 should be killed for white people, it may be neces- 
 sary for them to believe all this, but for us, we 
 cannot understand it. 
 
 "My friends, You speak to us of the Good 
 Book which is in your hands. We have some of 
 these in our village. We are told that all your 
 
WAR-CHIEF'S EKPLY TO CLERGYMEN. 339 
 
 words about the Great Spirit are printed in that 
 Book, and if we learn to read it, it will make good 
 people of us. I would now ask why it don't make 
 good people of the whites living around us ? They 
 can all read the Good Book, and understand all that 
 the Black-coats* say, and still we find that they are 
 not so honest and so good a people as our own ; 
 this we are sure of. Such is the case in the country 
 around us, but here, we have no doubt but the 
 white people, who have so many to preach to them, 
 and so many of the Good Books to read, are all 
 honest and good. 
 
 " My friends, In our country the white people 
 have two faces, and their tongues branch in different 
 ways. We know that this displeases the Great 
 Spirit, and we do not wish to teach it to our 
 children." 
 
 One of the reverend gentlemen here asked the 
 chief if he thought the Indians did all to serve the 
 Great Spirit that they ought to do, all that the 
 Great Spirit required of them ; to which the war 
 chief replied : 
 
 " My friends, I don't know that we do all the 
 Great Spirit wishes us to do ; there are some Indians 
 I know who do not. There are some bad Indians 
 as well as bad white people. I think it is diffi- 
 cult to tell how much the Great Spirit wishes 
 us to do." 
 
 The reverend gentleman said ''That is what 
 we wish to teach you; and if you can learn to 
 
 * Missionaries 
 
340 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 read this Good Book it will explain all that/' The 
 chief continued 
 
 " My friends, We believe that the Great Spirit 
 requires that we should pray to him, which we do, 
 and to thank him for everything we have which is 
 good. We know that he requires us to speak the 
 truth, to feed the poor, and to love our friends. 
 We don't know of anything more that he demands. 
 He may demand more of white people, but we don't 
 know that."* 
 
 The reverend gentleman, and several ladies attend- 
 ing them, here bestowed upon the Indians several 
 beautiful Bibles, and other appropriate presents, and 
 took leave. 
 
 Of revealed religion the Indians in their wild 
 state have no knowledge before it is explained to 
 them. But of the existence of a God a Supreme 
 Being whom they denominate the " Great Spirit," 
 and of a " world to come," or a spiritual existence 
 beyond the grave, they require no teachers ; for the 
 most ignorant of them all pray to the Great Spirit 
 when they are in danger ; and, when dying, paint 
 their faces with their finest colours, and reach for 
 their bows and arrows as companions to supply them 
 with food on the " long journey that is to take them 
 to their beautiful hunting-grounds." 
 
 We have had many reports from the American 
 
 * [The reader may compare these words of the Indians in 
 London, as recorded by Mr. Catlin, with their superstitions and 
 practices, as seen by him, and narrated in pp. 83-98, 143, 144, 
 157, 168-173.] 
 
CHARITY OF INDIANS. 341 
 
 frontiers of tribes of "heathens" " heathen dogs," 
 so low in the scale of human nature as to have been 
 "found without the belief in a God or a future 
 state." Don't believe one word of these, for, from 
 ignorance or a motive, I need not say which, every 
 one of these are false. 
 
 Every American Indian, if he be not an idiot, has 
 an intuitive knowledge of a Creator and belief in a 
 future pleasurable existence ; and, happy people ! 
 they have no metaphysics or sophistry of their own 
 to induce them to believe to the contrary. 
 
 In speaking of the leading characteristics of the 
 American Indians in the beginning of this work, I 
 stated amongst their other virtues, that they were 
 kind and charitable to the poor, in support of which 
 many anecdotes of this travelling party might be 
 presented ; but I will confine myself to an individual 
 instance or two, of which I made notes. 
 
 One day whilst they were in Birmingham, a miser- 
 able-looking woman, with her little child, both in 
 rags, and begging for the means of existence, pre- 
 sented herself in front of the door, where the old 
 doctor, of whom I have before spoken, was stand- 
 ing, whose pity was touched by the poor woman's 
 appearance, and who beckoned her to come in by 
 holding out and showing her some money, but which 
 she was afraid to take. 
 
 The doctor went for one of the men in attendance, 
 who assured the woman there was no danger, by 
 which she was induced to enter the Indians' apart- 
 ment, where the Indians were all seated on the floor, 
 
342 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 and all sympathising with her miserable appear- 
 ance. The war chief, getting Jeffrey to interpret for 
 him, told her not to be frightened, for they were her 
 friends ; when the doctor walked up to her and put 
 five shillings into her hand. 
 
 The war-chief then asked her some questions as to 
 the causes of her becoming so distressed, which she 
 explained. The Indians filled her apron with cold 
 meat and bread, sufficient to last her and her child 
 for several days. The kind-hearted old doctor then 
 politely escorted her to the bottom of the stairs, and 
 informed her by signs that, if she would come every 
 morning at a certain hour, she would be sure to have 
 food enough for herself and her little child as long 
 as the party should remain in Birmingham ; which 
 was strictly performed by the doctor, and no doubt 
 with an inexpressible satisfaction, as he found his 
 patient every morning at the door and waiting 
 for him. 
 
 It was thought by some friends, that if the Indians 
 would give their exhibition for a couple of nights in 
 the Town Hall, dividing the receipts with the two 
 hospitals, their exhibition would be very popular, 
 and it was agreed to. The profits of the two nights 
 amounted to 145, 12s. And the next day I was 
 present when the chief handed to Mr. Joseph Cad- 
 bury, president of one of the hospitals, 72, 16s. 
 one-half of the receipts ; on which occasion Mr. 
 Cadbury made some very feeling and friendly 
 remarks, thanking them for the very handsome 
 donation, and reminding them of the importance of 
 
THE DOCTOR'S SPEECH ON CHARITY. 343 
 
 sobriety and charity recommending to them never 
 to lose sight of them which were two of the greatest 
 virtues they could practise, and the most sure to gain 
 them friends and happiness. 
 
 Though the war- chief, as I have said, was gene- 
 rally the spokesman on these occasions, it was left 
 for the doctor to reply in this instance, and address- 
 ing himself to Mr. Cadbury, he spoke as follows : 
 
 " My friend, I rise to thank you for the words 
 you have spoken to us. They have been kind, and 
 we are thankful for them. 
 
 " My friend, When I am at home in the wilder- 
 ness, as well as when I am amongst the white people, 
 I always pray to the Great Spirit ; and I believe that 
 the chiefs and the warriors of my tribe, and even the 
 women also, pray every day to the Great Spirit, and 
 he has therefore been kind to us. 
 
 " My friend, We have this day been taken by the 
 hand in friendship, and this gives us great consola- 
 tion. Your friendly words have opened our ears, 
 and your words of advice will not be forgotten. 
 
 " My friend, You have advised us to be charit- 
 able to the poor, and we have this day handed you 
 three hundred and sixty dollars to help the poor in 
 your hospitals. We have not time now to see these 
 poor people, but we know that you will make good 
 use of the money for them ; and we shall be happy 
 if, by coining this way, we shall have made the poor 
 comfortable. 
 
 " My friend, We red men are poor, and we 
 cannot do much charity. The Great Spirit has been 
 
344 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 kind to us though, since we came to this country, 
 and we have given more than two hundred dollars 
 to the poor people in the streets of London before 
 we came here ; and this is not the first day that we 
 have given to the poor in this city. 
 
 " My friend, We admit that before we left home 
 we were all fond of fire-ivater, but in this country 
 we have not drunk it, nor shall we we know that 
 it is a sin to drink fire-water, and your words to us 
 on that subject are good. And if you can tell them 
 to the white people who make the fire-water and 
 bring it into our country to sell, then we think your 
 words may do a great deal of good, and we believe 
 the Great Spirit will reward you for it. 
 
 "My friend, It makes us unhappy, in a country 
 where there is so much wealth, to see so many poor 
 and hungry, and so many as we see drunk. We 
 know you are good people, and kind to the poor ; 
 and we give you our hands at parting, praying that 
 the Great Spirit will assist you in taking care of the 
 poor, and making people sober. 
 
 " I have no more to say." 
 
 Another incident relating to this subject is worthy 
 of being recorded, and it is due to these poor people 
 that such acts as the above, and the one to be 
 related, should be made public. 
 
 At a subsequent time, while passing from Edin- 
 burgh to Dundee on a steamer, and when the 
 captain was collecting his passage-money, there was 
 a little girl in the fore-cabin, where the Indians 
 were travelling, who could not pay her fare ? as she 
 
INDIANS' CHARITY ON A STEAMER. 345 
 
 had no money. She was in great alarm, and told 
 the captain that she expected to meet her father at 
 Dundee, and that he would certainly pay it as soon 
 as she could find him. I was not on board at the 
 time, but my men informed me that the captain 
 was in a great rage, and abused the child for coming 
 on board without the money to pay her fare, and 
 said that he should not let her go ashore at Dundee, 
 but that he should hold her a prisoner on board, 
 and take her back to Edinburgh and put her in 
 gaol 
 
 The poor little girl was frightened, and cried 
 herself almost into fits. The passengers, of whom 
 there were a considerable number, all seemed much 
 affected by her distress, and commenced raising the 
 money amongst them for defraying her passage, 
 giving a penny or two each, which, when done, 
 amounted to only a quarter of the sum required, 
 when the poor child's distress still continued. bancroit Lil 
 
 The kind-hearted old doctor, silently observing 
 all this, went down below and related it to the party 
 of Indians, and in a few minutes came up with 
 eight shillings in his hand, much more than was 
 necessary, and offered it to the little girl, who was 
 frightened and ran away. The interpreter, however, 
 prevailed upon her to take the money, assuring her 
 there was no danger, when the doctor advanced and 
 placed the money in her hand, saying to her, through 
 the interpreter, and in presence of all the passengers 
 who were gathering around, " Now go to the cruel 
 captain, and pay him the money, and never be afraid 
 
346 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 of a man again because his skin is red ; but be 
 always sure that the heart of a red man is as good 
 as that of a white man, And when you are in 
 Dundee, where we are all going together, if you do 
 not find your father, as you wish, and are amongst 
 strangers, come to us, wherever we shall be, and you 
 shall not suffer; and if money is necessary you 
 shall have more." 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 War-Chief's Speech to the King and Queen Louis Philippe 
 in an Indian Village. 
 
 JFTER the loways had finished their provin- 
 cial tour in England, I accompanied them 
 to Paris, and had the honour of present- 
 ing them to His Majesty Louis Philippe and the 
 Queen, in the Palace of the Tuileries, when most of 
 the other members of the royal family were present. 
 
 His Majesty, in the most free and familiar 
 manner (which showed them he had been accustomed 
 to the modes and feelings of Indians), conversed 
 with the chiefs, and said to Jeffrey, the interpreter, 
 " Tell these good people that the Queen and I are 
 glad to see them ; that I have been in many of 
 the wigwams of the Indians in America when I 
 was a young man, and they treated me everywhere 
 with kindness, and that I love them for it. 
 
 "Tell them I was amongst the Senecas, near 
 Buffalo, and the Oneidas; that I slept in the 
 wigwams of the chiefs ; that I was amongst the 
 Sbawanos and the Delawares on the Ohio ; and also 
 
 347 
 
348 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 amongst the Cherokees and Creeks in Georgia and 
 Tennessee ; and saw many other tribes as I descended 
 the Ohio and Mississippi Elvers in a canoe to New 
 Orleans, more than fifty years ago. 
 
 " Tell them also, Jeffrey, that I am glad to see 
 their wives and little children they have with them 
 here ; and glad also to show them my families, who 
 are now nearly all around us. Tell them, Jeffrey, 
 that this is the Queen ; this lady is the Princess 
 Adelaide, my sister; these young men are two of 
 my sons, with their wives ; and these little lads 
 (the Due de Brabant and the Count de Paris) are 
 my grandsons ; this one, if he lives, will be King of 
 the Belgians, and this one, King of the French." 
 
 The king afterwards took from his pocket two 
 heavy gold medals, and hung them on the necks of 
 the two chiefs, saying that silver medals of the same 
 form and size would be sent to the others, which 
 were received the next day, with a liberal sum in 
 money, to be divided amongst them. 
 
 They gave the war dance at the request of the 
 king, for the amusement of the royal family ; and 
 before taking leave, the war-chief advanced towards 
 the king and queen, and spoke as follows : 
 
 " Great Father and Great Mother, The Great 
 Spirit, to whom we have prayed for a long time for 
 an interview with you, kindly listens to our words 
 this day, and hears all that we say. 
 
 "Great Father, You have made to us rich 
 presents, and I rise to return you thanks for the 
 ohief, and his warriors and braves who are present. 
 
WAE-CHIEF'S SPEECH TO KING AND QUEEN. 349 
 
 But, before all, it is necessary that we should thank 
 the Great Spirit who has inspired your heart thus 
 to honour us this day. 
 
 " Great Father, T Ve shall carry these presents to 
 our country, and instruct our children to pronounce 
 the name of him who gave them. 
 
 " Great Father, You know that when the Indians 
 have anything to say to a great chief, they are in 
 the habit of making some present before they begin. 
 My chief has ordered me to place in your hands 
 this pipe; and these strings of wampum " (placing 
 them in His Majesty's hands), " as a testimony of 
 the pleasure we have felt in being admitted this 
 day into the presence of your Majesty. 
 
 " My Great Father and Great Mother, You see 
 us this day as we are seen in our own country 
 with our red skins and our coarse clothes. This 
 day, for you, is like other days ; for us, it is a great 
 day ; so great a day that our eyes are blinded with 
 the lustre of it. 
 
 " Great Father, Vie are happy to tell you that 
 when we arrived in England, we had much joy in 
 meeting our old friend, Chippehola, who has lived 
 amongst us, and whom we are happy to have by 
 our sides this day, to tell you who we are. 
 
 " Great Father and Great Mother, We will pray 
 to the Great Spirit to preserve your precious lives ; 
 we will pray, also, that we may return safely to our 
 own village, that we may tell to our children, and 
 to our young men, what we have this day seen. 
 My parents, I have no more to say." 
 
350 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 The king thanked the chief for his eloquent 
 remarks, and said, " Jeffrey, tell the chiefs that I 
 am happy to have this opportunity of saying to 
 them, that in all my travels amongst the Indian 
 tribes they always treated we with honesty and 
 kindness, and that I love them for it." 
 
 What I a king, in his palace, loves the poor, 
 naked savage of the wilderness ! Yes ; and, there- 
 fore, what a noble man is a king I And wherefore 
 "love " them ? Let us see. 
 
 "Fifty-two years ago," said the King, "while 
 stopping in Buffalo, on Lake Erie, I went some 
 three or four miles out, to visit the Seneca Indians; 
 and being conducted to their village, and to the 
 chief's wigwam, I shook hands with the chief, who 
 came and stood by my horse's head. And while 
 some hundreds of men, women, and children were 
 gathering around, I told the chief I had come to 
 make him a visit of a day or two ; to which he 
 replied, that he was very glad to see me, and that 
 I should be made quite welcome to the best they 
 had. 
 
 "He said there would be one condition, however, 
 which was, that he should require me to give him 
 everything I had; he should demand my horse, 
 from which I would dismount; and having dis- 
 mounted and given him the bridle, he said, ' I now 
 want your gun, your watch, and all your money; 
 these are indispensable/ 
 
 " I then, for the first time in my life, began to 
 think that I was completely robbed and plundered. 
 
LOUIS PHILIPPE IN AN INDIAN VILLAGE. 351 
 
 But at the moment when he Lad got all, and before 
 T had time for more than an instant thought of my 
 awkward condition, he released me from all further 
 apprehensions by continuing, ' If you have anything 
 else which you wish to be sure to get again, I wish 
 you to let me have it ; for whatever you deliver 
 into my hands now, you will be sure to find safe 
 when you are about to leave ; otherwise I would 
 not be willing to vouch for their safety, for there 
 are some of my people whom I cannot trust to/ 
 
 " From this moment I felt quite easy, and spent 
 several days in the village very pleasantly, and with 
 much amusement. 
 
 "When I was about to leave, my horse was 
 brought to the chief's door and saddled, and all the 
 property I had left in his hands safely restored. I 
 then mounted my horse, and having taken leave, 
 and proceeded a short distance on my route, I 
 discovered that I had left my favourite dog, which 
 I had been too much excited and amused to think 
 of, and did not recollect to have seen after I entered 
 the village. 
 
 " I turned my horse and rode back to the door of 
 the chief's wigwam, and made inquiries for it. 
 The chief said, ' But you did not intrust your dog 
 to my care, did you ?' ' No, I did not think of the 
 poor dog at the time/ ' Well then/ said he, ' I can't 
 answer for it. If you had done as I told you, your 
 dog would have been safe. However, I will inquire 
 for it/ 
 
 "At this moment one of his little sons was 
 
352 LIFE AMONG THE INDIANS. 
 
 ordered to run and open a rude pen or cage, by the 
 corner of the wigwam, and out leaped my dog, and 
 sprang upon my leg as I was sitting on rny horse. 
 
 " I offered the chief a reward for his honesty, but 
 he refused to accept it, but added, that whenever I 
 should again visit red people, he advised me to 
 'reposo confidence in their word, and feel assured 
 that all the property I intrusted to an Indian's care 
 I should be sure to find safe whenever I wanted it 
 again.' " 
 
 THE END,