BANCROFT 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 < 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
Buffalo Chase. 
 Front. 
 
 Pa.ge 106. 
 
LIFE 
 
 AMONGST 
 
 THE INDIANS. 
 
 a iSoofe for gjoutf). 
 
 BY GEORGE CATLIN, /^ - I "7 + 
 
 AUTHOR OF "NOTES OF TRAVELS AMONGST TraE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS," ETC. 
 
 LONDON : SAMPSON LOW, SON & CO., 47 LUDGATE HILL. 
 
 1861. 
 \Tlie right of translation is reserved.'] 
 
LONDON : PRINTED 1JY W, CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFOIID STREKT. 
 
fc fe, q 
 Bancroft litany 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ON my recent return from a long and toilsome campaign 
 amongst the Indian tribes of South and Central America, 
 as well as those on the Pacific side of the Kocky Moun 
 tains in North America, the kind and excellent gentle 
 man to whom the youthful readers of this little book 
 will be indebted for its appearance said to me, " Mr. 
 Catlin, as you have devoted so many years of your life 
 to the study of the character and condition of the 
 American Indians, why can you not prepare one of 
 the most exciting, amusing, and instructive books for 
 youthful readers, of facts, instead of fiction, which I 
 believe has been too much blended into juvenile books 
 on that interesting subject during the last few years ?" 
 
 " I would publish such a work with great care and 
 much pleasure, in the confident belief that it would 
 
iv Preface. 
 
 meet the approbation of all parents, as forming a just 
 and advantageous index for the rising generation to 
 the more voluminous work which you are preparing on 
 the history and customs of these interesting people." 
 
 As I had been for several years past strongly im 
 pressed with the impropriety of the system of fic- 
 tionizing facts on these people, expressly " for boys' 
 reading/' leading the youth of this country into many 
 errors regarding Indian character, 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 
 published 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 
 
Preface. v 
 
 the civilized races had driven out of it, and celebrated 
 in lore by the popular poem by Campbell, the " Ger 
 trude of Wyoming." 
 
 In my early youth I was influenced by two predomi 
 nant and inveterate propensities those for hunting and 
 fishing. My father and mother had great difficulty in 
 turning my attention from these to books ; but when at 
 the proper age, I commenced reading the law for a pro 
 fession. I attended the law school of the celebrated 
 Judges Eeeve and Gould, in Connecticut, for two years, 
 and after reading for a couple of years longer, passed 
 my examination, was admitted to the bar, and com 
 menced 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 de 
 liberately resolved to convert my law library into paint- 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 pots and brushes, and to pursue painting as my future, 
 and, apparently, more agreeable 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 from oblivion the looks and cus 
 toms of the vanishing races of native man in America, 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 magnified the apprehended dangers before me. 
 With these, and many other obstacles to encounter, I 
 started in 1 832 with canvas and colours, and penetrated 
 the vast solitudes from whence I have brought the in 
 formation to be given in the following pages. 
 
 I devoted eight years of my life in visiting about fifty 
 tribes in North America, and brought home a collection 
 of more than six hundred oil paintings (in all cases made 
 
Preface. vii 
 
 from nature) of portraits, landscapes, and Indian cus 
 toms, and every article of their manufacture, of 
 weapons, costumes, wig- warns, &c., altogether forming 
 an extensive museum, which was exhibited for several 
 years in the Egyptian Hall, in London, and after 
 wards in the Salle du Seance, 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 Vene 
 zuela, in South America, and subsequently traversed 
 British and Dutch Guiana, the valley of the Amazon, 
 and other parts of Brazil, the Andes, Perou, Equador, 
 Bolivia, California, to Kamskatka, the Aleoutian Islands, 
 the Pacific Coast to the mouth of the Columbia, across 
 the Rocky Mountains to Santa Fe, by the Rio Colorado 
 to Matamoras in Mexico, to Guatemala, to Yucatan, to 
 Cuba, and back to the starting 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, 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 which was sufficient to overcome all obstacles; and 
 from incidents, and people, and customs, and countries, 
 that I have met with in these and my former cam 
 paigns, 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. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Buffalo Chase . , Frontispiece. 
 
 Medicine Man . . . . Title-page. 
 
 Johnny O'Neil's " Gipsies " . . .27 
 
 Tomahawk . . , '. . . . .35 
 
 A Sioux Village ... . . . .- .44 
 
 Prairie Grass "Wig- warns . , * . 53 
 
 Dirt-buildings . 54 
 
 Three distinguished Indian "Warriors .; . 57 
 
 Calumet (Pipe of Peace) . . . 71 
 
 Indian Infant lashed in a Crib . V . 90 
 
 Grizzly Bears overhauling us . . . .121 
 
 Shooting Buffaloes . -. . . . .143 
 
 "Wig-warns in the Trees . * .... 236 
 
 Tiger Shooting . . . . . .261 
 
Life and Adventures among the 
 American Indians. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE native races of man, occupying every part of 
 North and South America at the time of the first dis 
 covery 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 
 supposed 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 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. 
 
 B 
 
2 General Character. 
 
 These numerous races, at that time consisting of 
 many millions of human "beings, divided into some hun 
 dreds 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 dissipations 
 and pestilences introduced amongst them by civilized 
 people; and the remainder of them with no better 
 prospect than certain extinction in a short time, from 
 similar causes, present to the scientific and the sym 
 pathising 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 inculcation of just notions of these 
 simple and abused people, into the minds of their chil 
 dren, as forming 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 im 
 pression 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 book, that they are 
 children like yourselves, in many senses of the word. 
 
General Character. 3 
 
 They are without the knowledge and arts of civilized 
 man; they are feeble; they are in the ignorance and 
 innocence of nature, with no real parent but the Great 
 Spirit, whom they all acknowledge. In their relation 
 ship with civilized people they are like orphans. Go 
 vernments 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 every 
 thing 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. 
 
4 General Remarks. 
 
 I have said that these people are like children ; 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 in your early days, instead of 
 the frightful impressions too often made upon the 
 youthful mind, is the time when the foundation of a 
 lasting knowledge and just appreciation of the true cha 
 racter 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 cus 
 toms of these children of the forest in a tine light before 
 you. 
 
 Distributed over every part, and to every nook and 
 corner of North and South, and Central America, we 
 find these people living in their rude huts, or " wig 
 wams," at present numbering something like four mil 
 lions, though, in all 1 probability, their numbers 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 historical proof to show from 
 whence they came. 
 
Indian Civilization. 5 
 
 It seems to be the popular belief that the two Ame 
 ricas have been peopled from the Eastern Continent by 
 the way of Behring's Strait of this there is & possibility, 
 but no proof ; and I think there is 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 exciting a nature, that I have recently 
 made the tedious and expensive tour to Eastern Siberia, 
 to the Koriaks and the Kamschatkas the Aleoutians, 
 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 resemblances 
 in language and in physiological traits ; but no proof of 
 the peopling of a continent either way. (/ hope to treat this 
 subject more fully in some future work.') 
 
 In the progressive character with which the Creator 
 has endowed mankind, as distinguished above the brute 
 creations, the American savages have, in several in 
 stances, made the intended uses of their reason, in 
 advancing to a high state of civilization by themselves, 
 but from which 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. 
 
 For the first of these I would advise the young reader 
 
6 Character. 
 
 to look into " Prescott's Histories of Mexico and Pern," 
 and for an account of the latter, to " Stephens and 
 Catherwood's Kuins of Palenque and Uxmal." The 
 reader of these interesting and important works becomes 
 convinced at once of the great designs of nature in the 
 creation of these races, and the wickedness of civilized, 
 mercenary men, who drew the sword upon them and 
 checked them in their civilizing career; and he who 
 reads my future work will learn more fully than can be 
 explained in these limited pages, the existing causes 
 which discourage the poor Indians from further at 
 tempts to civilization, and which are hastening them 
 on to that inevitable extinction to which I have said 
 they are [fast approaching. Many of these causes, 
 however, will be incidentally alluded to in future pages 
 of this work, as well as many kind and honourable traits 
 of Indian character illustrated, well entitling these poor 
 people to a high position amongst the various races of 
 the human family. 
 
 All history on the subject goes to prove (and without 
 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 way to corroborate the fact, that, 
 
General Remarks. 7 
 
 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 com 
 merce and are totally ignorant of the meaning and 
 value of money, they live and act without those dan 
 gerous inducements to crime ; and stimulated to honesty 
 by rules of honour belonging to their society, thus 
 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 convicted 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, my young 
 readers, you 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 sometimes correctly 
 
8 General Remarks. 
 
 applied ; but only so to those classes of Indian society 
 who, to the shame and disgrace of civilized people, 
 have been reduced to these conditions by the iniquitous 
 teachings of white men, who, with the aid of rum and 
 whisky, have introduced dissipations 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, properly 
 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 those white people with the advantages on iheir 
 side, of rum and whisky, and fire-arms, and using 
 these things 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. 
 
 And it should also be known, that on all Indian 
 frontiers, from the above causes, 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 
 
National Character. 9 
 
 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 further, he too often 
 contents himself by what he can there see, the semi- 
 civilized and degraded condition of the savage, and too 
 often endorses what he sees, as the true definition 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, my greatest safety, when I have been in the 
 midst of Indian society, in the other, their primitive 
 state. 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 pourtray the true cha 
 racter of Indian life. 
 
 The American Indians, as a race a great and national 
 family, have a national character and appearance 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 
 
10 General Remarks. 
 
 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 avenger 
 of his own 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 to be subjected to a disgrace which he cannot 
 outlive ; so that cruelty is at the same time a right and 
 duty the law of their land. 
 
 The Indian's " cruelty and treachery in warfare," we 
 hear much of, but cruelty and treachery in Indian and 
 civilized warfare are much alike. 
 
 The Creator has also endowed the North American 
 Indians everywhere, with a high moral and religious 
 principle with reason, with humanity, with courage, 
 with ingenuity, and the other intellectual qualities 
 bestowed on the rest of mankind. 
 
 They all worship the Great Spirit, and have an 
 intuitive 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. 
 
General Remarks. 11 
 
 After these brief suggestions on their general cha 
 racter and condition, which it has taken you but a few 
 minutes to read, you are now prepared to follow 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 estimating their charac 
 ter 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 doing the best they 
 can under their peculiar circumstances. 
 
CHAPTEK II. 
 
 THE 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 Wyoming, which is on the Susquehana 
 Elver, in the state of Pennsylvania. Not a long time 
 after the close of the Eevolutionary 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 in 
 habitants. 
 
 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. 
 
" Wyoming Massacre" 13 
 
 The Indians, watching the movements of the white 
 men from the mountain-tops, descended into the valley, 
 and at a favourable spot, where the soldiers were to 
 pass, laid 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 
 a " treachery." It was a strategy not a treachery and 
 strategy is one of the merits 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 husbands 
 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 
 for several weeks, when a reinforcement of troops 
 arriving over the Pokono mountains for their relief, the 
 Indian warriors left the fort, with the women and 
 
14 Valley of the Oc-qua-go. 
 
 children in it, having hunted for them and supplied 
 them with food, and painted their faces red, calling 
 them " sisters and children," and treating them with 
 the greatest kindness : and, to the honour of the Indian's 
 character, be it for ever known (as attested to by every 
 prisoner, both men and women), in every sense, with 
 propriety and friendship. 
 
 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 childhood, 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 impres 
 sions, 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 Susquehana 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 pre 
 cipitous mountains and deep ravines, being nearer to 
 the straggling remnants of the defeated Mohawk and 
 
Valley of the Oc-qua-go. 15 
 
 Oneida Indians who had retreated before the deadly 
 rifles of the avengers of Wyoming's misfortunes ; who 
 had barricaded and bravely defended in their retreat, 
 one by one, every defile and mountain pass, and whose 
 paths and other markings were more recent, I was in a 
 position to increase, rather than to diminish the excite 
 ments already raised in my mind, relative to the 
 Indians. 
 
 The ploughs in my father's fields were at this time 
 daily turning up Indian skulls or Indian beads, and 
 Indian flint arrowheads, which the labouring men of his 
 farm, as well as those of the neighbourhood, 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, probably of only nine or ten years, 
 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 
 
16 " The Old Saw-mill" 
 
 brothers were the weapons requisite, and which (they 
 "being absent, and pursuing their 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-propen 
 sity, that of trout-fishing, often called me I had 
 observed that the " Saw-mill Lick " was much frequented 
 by deer, and that I soon laid 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 then consisting only of masses of thrown-down tim 
 bers, and planks driv^j^ 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 wilder 
 ness, with an old and vacated road leading to it, follow 
 ing 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 lofty 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 frequency with which the deer were paying their 
 visits to it. 
 
" The Old Saw-mill Lick" 17 
 
 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 her- 
 biverous animals seem to visit these places as if from 
 necessity, and appear oftentimes under a sort of infatua 
 tion 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 above named, and my recol 
 lections yet fresh, of the recitals of several of the neigh 
 bouring hunters of their great success in the " Old Saw-mill 
 Lick," I resolved to try my first luck there. 
 
 The requisite conditions for inis were several, and 
 some of them not easy at first to get along with. A 
 rifle for this enterprise was absolutely necessary a 
 weapon which I never had fired, and as yet was not 
 strong enough to raise, unless it was rested upon some 
 thing for its support. 
 
 For this I foresaw a remedy, and I had every confi 
 dence in accuracy of aim. But the greater difiiculty 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, however, by a manoeuvre, at a late hour 
 of the night, by extracting one of them from the cover, 
 and putting my little fowling-piece in its place, and 
 
18 A Chill, a Shiver, and False Alarm. 
 
 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, T 
 proceeded, with a light and palpitating heart, through 
 the winding and lonely vacated road, to the " Old Saw 
 mill Lick ;" creeping along through narrow defiles, be 
 tween logs and rocks, until by a fair glance of 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 myself 
 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 occa 
 sional tremor from the noise of a bird or a squirrel in 
 the leaves, which I mistook for the footsteps of an ap 
 proaching deer ! The falling of a dry limb, however, 
 which came tumbling down upon the hill-side above 
 and behind me, in the midst of this silent and listless 
 
" John Darrow" 19 
 
 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 occur 
 red to me until that moment took place, not long before, 
 at the " Old Saw-mill Lick !" 
 
 John Darrow, a poor man living in the neighbourhood 
 of my father, often worked for him in his fields, 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 propensities, 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 amongst 
 the modes, he was in the habit of placing 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) beyond the lick, 
 at the height of the centre of a deer's body, 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, and his 
 rifle resting in a couple of crotches, aiming directly at 
 
20 Story of the Panther. 
 
 his phosphor light, at any time of the night when u 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 was now revolving 
 through my mind, and which 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,' 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 one jump further only, himself, when he 
 stopped, as I knew by the noise. 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 it, 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 the one, knowing that the cowardly 
 
Deer in the Lick. 21 
 
 animal will never spring while you look him in the 
 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 plagued long 
 time, I assure you), when I could just begin to discover 
 his outline, and then the plain wrinkles betwixt his eyes ! 
 Time moved slowly then, I 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 or less 
 to startle me. My resolve, of course, was not to trust my 
 self 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 wending my way home. 
 
 Just then I heard the evident distant sounds of foot 
 steps in the leaves, and shortly after discovered in the 
 
22 Deer in the Lick, and Shivers. 
 
 distance a deer (a huge buck!), timidly and cautiously 
 descending the hill and approaching 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 discover me. 
 
 Here my young blood was too boilable, and my 
 nerves decidedly too excitable for my business. Succes 
 sive chills seemed to rise, I don't recollect where from, 
 but they shook me, each one of them, until they seemed, 
 after actually shaking it, to go out at the top of my 
 head. 
 
 The deer kept advancing, and my shakes increasing, 
 it at length 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 myself, perfectly ready ; 
 and 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 
 enveloped in a sort of a mist. 
 
 Just at this moment also popped into my head another 
 idea that gave me another or two renewed shivers. I 
 
Deer in the Lick, and Shivers. 23 
 
 had fired my little fowling-piece hundreds 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." And after 
 checking my latter apprehensions for a few moments, 
 and feeling again more calmed, I was getting my aim 
 with tolerable accuracy, 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 misfortune ! 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 nearer 
 than before. One little chill began ; but by gritting my 
 teeth tight together, I succeeded in getting 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, bound 
 ing 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 
 
24 Fright at the Deer. 
 
 lowered a little more behind my stone breastwork, and 
 then, oh, horrid! what I never had seen before, nor 
 ever dreamed of seeing in that place the tall and grace 
 ful form, but half bent forward, as he pushed his red and 
 naked shoulders and drew himself slowly over the logs 
 and through the bushes, of a huge Indian ! trailing his 
 rifle in his left hand, and drawing a large knife, with the 
 other, from its sheath in the hollow of his back, as he 
 advanced 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, whilejie 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 recollec 
 tion the impression which this singular and unexpected 
 scene made upon my infant mind, or the ease, and com 
 posure, and grace, with which this phantom seated him 
 self 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 was sending up 
 thanks to the Great Spirit, in the blue clouds of smoke 
 that were curling around him. 
 
Oneida at the LicTc. 25 
 
 Who will ever imagine the thoughts that were passing 
 through my youthful brain in these exciting moments I 
 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 became of me !" 
 
 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 halfway to him, were too 
 tightly strained to tremble, and I could then have 
 aimed at the devil himself without a tremor. An in 
 stant 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 his 
 nostrils, for I saw then (though a child), in the mo 
 mentary 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 
 
26 A Hun from the Lick. 
 
 legs tied together, and slung upon his back, and taking 
 his rifle in his hand, he silently and quietty 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 jny way ; and having, seemingly, at last view, to 
 have taken the direction of the " old road," by which I 
 had expected to return, my attention was now turned to 
 a different, but more difficult route, by clambering the 
 huge precipice still above me, which I commenced as 
 soon as perfect safety seemed to authorize 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 knowledge 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 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 based upon a reality ; exclaiming as I 
 approached the vicinity of my father's house, and as pale 
 as a ghost " I've seen an Indian ! I've seen an Indian !" 
 
Johnny 0' Neil's Gipsies" 27 
 
 No one believed me, as no Indian had been seen in 
 the neighbourhood for many years : and I related the 
 whole of my adventure ; and then they thought, r ' 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 what en* eld, 
 where ye sae thit lattle smohk areesin, has ^kimmed 
 thae gapsies ; sae ye may be lookin' oot for yer toorkies, 
 an' yer suckin'-pigs, an' yer chahkins, for I tal ye therl 
 be na gude o' 'ein." 
 
 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 further corner of the " big 
 wheat-field," where we found my Indian warrior (Paddy's 
 gipsy) (Plate No. I.) seated on a bear-skin spread upon 
 the ground ; his legs were crossed his elbows resting 
 on his knees, and his pipe at his lips ; with his wife, and 
 
28 G-eorge's 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, suspended 
 by the corners from four crotches 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 some 
 thing of the alarm I had felt the day before, 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 dissipated 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 
 
The Saddle of Venism. 29 
 
 cleaned out his pipe, and charging it afresh with to 
 bacco, 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 hunter." He 
 laid his pipe down, and veiy deliberately' climbing over 
 the fence, stepped into the shade of the forest, where he 
 had suspended it, and brought a small saddle of venison, 
 and laying it by my side, exclaiming, 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 " luck 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 
 
30 On-o-gong-way } s Story. 
 
 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 of miles 
 aver 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 afterwards, amongst them, 
 was driven by the white soldiers, with many battles and 
 great slaughter, up the shores of the Susquehana to the 
 country where the remnant of his tribe now lived, be 
 tween the Oneida and Cayuga Lakes. 
 
 During this disastrous retreat he was a boy, about 
 my size, and 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, and 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 
 
TJie Kettle of Gold! 31 
 
 (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 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, some 
 where near that bridge, my father, where the road 
 crosses, on the further 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 
 
32 The Kettle of Gold! 
 
 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, iny 
 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 
 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 extended 
 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 life 
 time, than I ran and scaled the fences on this errand. 
 
 While this conversation was passing about the " kettle 
 
The Kettle of Gold ! 33 
 
 of gold," it had occurred to my father's recollection 
 that Buel Kowley, 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 
 fore-finger 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 value. After a 
 pause of a few minutes, and without the change of a 
 muscle, but drawing a deep sigh, as if he recognized 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," 
 
 D 
 
34 The Kettle of Gold! 
 
 not having as yet learned enough from the white people 
 to know the difference between 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 rendered tenfold more dangerous from 
 the vague reports which had accidentally and unfor 
 tunately got into circulation amongst the hunters and 
 brigands 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 admi 
 ration. My rusty tomahawk head I brought to him, 
 for which he made me a handle, and curiously carved it 
 with his knife. The handle was perforated for smoking 
 through, a mystery which no one of the neighbours 
 solve, as " there was no gimlet long enough to 
 
The Kettle of Gold ! 35 
 
 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 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 toma 
 hawk, was still to come yet to be ' learned. My 
 young readers must here discover 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 destructive to have 
 been made by the poor Indian; combining the two 
 essential requisites, of being capable of being used in 
 
36 The Kettle of Gold ! 
 
 war as the most efficient and deadly weapon, by throw 
 ing, or striking with ; and, when war is at an end, of 
 being turned into a luxury, for which it is equally valued, 
 charged with tobacco, and the smoke passing through it. 
 
 The first of these characters of the tomahawk having 
 been illustrated as above stated, to my inexpressible 
 delight, and the tobacco all burned out, my good and 
 confiding friend now arose with the tomahawk in his 
 right hand, and raised my astonishment and admi 
 ration still higher, by throwing it at the trunk of a 
 tree some rods distant, and burying 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 electricity, 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 
 
The Kettle of Gold! 37 
 
 looked upon with, an evident gloom. He made me 
 shafts (and feathered them) 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 com 
 pletely 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 neighbourhood, 
 and yet there were, no doubt, murderous enemies in 
 disguise plodding 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 " 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 beau 
 tiful 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 
 
38 The Kettle of Gold! 
 
 the chances for his life, on his long journey home ; and 
 as an unmistakeable evidence of his friendship and 
 gratitude, he had taken the pleasure to himself of this 
 silent parting gift ; and left 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 neighbourhood, in 
 the morning; and poor Johnny O'Keil, when he looked 
 upon the saddle of venison containing the eagle's quill, 
 exclaimed, " Upon my word, squire, thase is nae japsies 
 an' I'll 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 too closely standing, 
 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. 
 
 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 
 
The Kettle of Gold ! 39 
 
 On-o-gong-way was found, pierced by two rifle bullets, in 
 Eandolph 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 detec 
 tion of so foul a murder, notwithstanding his exertions 
 from year to year, never furnished any clue to the 
 villany. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 IN 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, con 
 taining 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 Sioux the Elackfoot the 
 Crows the Mandans the Pawnees Ojibbeways Ca- 
 manchees Osages and Choctaws ; and in my subsequent 
 
Indian Tribes. 41 
 
 travels, west of the Kocky Mountains, a few of the 
 numerous tribes that I there visited : the Flatheads the 
 Apachees the Shoshonees the Arapahos, and others ; and 
 in South and Central America, the Caribbees the Arowdks 
 the Chaymas the Gooagwes the Macouchis the 
 Guarani the Tupi the Botocudos the Connibos- the 
 Chiquitosihe Moxos, and fifty others. 
 
 A connected narrative of my wanderings amongst alt 
 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 cor 
 rectly understand 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 independence, 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 con- 
 
42 Portraits and Costumes. 
 
 tains, of a family group, comprising the head war-chief 
 of the great Sioux nation, with his little daughter fan 
 unmarried girl) and his wife, with her infant (papoose) 
 slung in its pretty crib, or cradle, ornamented with por 
 cupine 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 rnocasins, 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 (and like a 
 Jewish custom), 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 mocasins 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 
 
Sioux Wig -warns. 43 
 
 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. 
 
 We discover in this family group also a good illustra 
 tion of the domestic relations 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 ; and by my observations 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 as 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 (wig- warns), 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, 
 * Pronounced See-oo. 
 
44 Sioux Village. 
 
 they deal tlieir 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 wig-warns with them, in form of tents, 
 which are more comfortable than rude huts constructed 
 of timber are more easily built and have the con 
 venient 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 consumption, and 
 dressing robes for their own clothing, and also for barter 
 to the fur traders. 
 
 Frgrn this view (Plate II.) 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, and covered 
 with one entire piece of fifteen or twenty buffalo -skins 
 sewed together, and most curiously painted and em 
 broidered, 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 
 
Interior of Wig-warns. 45 
 
 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 
 wig- warns, 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 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 that we sit down in, and rise from, a 
 chair. Both men and women lower themselves 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, 
 
46 Interior of Wig-warns. 
 
 ancl 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. 
 
 The furniture in these wig- warns is not much, but it 
 is very curious in effect, and picturesque, when we look 
 at it. The first startling thing you will meet on enter 
 ing will be the barking, and bristling, and showing 
 their teeth, of half a dozen saucy dogs, and oftentimes 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 pic 
 turesque 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 wig- warns the women are seen busily 
 
Drying Meat. 47 
 
 at work, dressing robes and drying meat. The skin- 
 dressing of the Indians is generally very beautiful and 
 soft, both of the buffalo and deer-skins. 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 ap 
 parently beautifully finished, they pass it through 
 another process, that of " smoking." For this a hole 
 of some two or three feet in depth is dug in the ground, 
 and a smothered fire kindled in the hole with rottei 
 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 prevent the smoke from 
 escaping, in which the grained skins hang for three or 
 four days. After this process, 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 the civilized 
 countries. 
 
 " Drying meat " is done by cutting it into thin slices 
 and exposing it in the sun, hung upon poles, as seen, 
 where it dries, and is successfully cured, without salt 
 and without smoke. 
 
48 Indian Slavery. 
 
 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 wig 
 wam, and is seen transporting heavy loads, &c. 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, to provide food 
 for his wife and his little children, and scours the 
 country both night and day, at the constant 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 slaw to an idle husband, who is spending his 
 
Indian Slavery. 49 
 
 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 her 
 self and her husband ; and for the means of subsistence 
 and protection, for which she depends upon his labours, 
 she voluntarily assumes the hard work about the en 
 campment, considering their labours about equally 
 divided. 
 
 "Slaves to their husbands" is an epithet so often 
 and so inappropriately applied to the poor Indian women 
 by the civilized world, and so frequently reiterated and 
 kept alive by tourists who have 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 national traits of the 
 American Indian that stamps his character as so mentally 
 superior to that of the African and some other races, is 
 that of his inalienable and uncompromising tenacity of 
 
50 Indian Slavery. 
 
 unbounded freedom. All efforts (and there have been 
 many) made to enslave these people have resulted 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 remuneration that can be offered, 
 lest the disgraceful epithet should be applied to them 
 by their tribe. 
 
 * In the relationship of man and wife, where, as amongst 
 white people, " both are one," they can and do labour for 
 a mutual interest and a mutual existence, without in 
 curring 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 may be 
 retaliated with death. 
 
 If this system should, by possibility, have its disad 
 vantages, 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 ? 
 
"Scalp Day! 1 51 
 
 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 enjoyment 
 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, have 
 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 wig 
 wam, 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. 
 
 Amongst the Indian tribes, every man is a military 
 man, a warrior, a brave, or a chief. All are armed and 
 ready to go to war if necessary. A warrior is one of 
 those who has taken one or more scalps ; a brave is one 
 
52 Skin-builders. 
 
 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 wig-wains, and live much in the manner of the 
 Sioux. All of these I would denominate " skin-builders." 
 There are yet 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 building 
 with stone. This is probably not the result of ignorance 
 or want of invention, but from their universal policy of 
 leaving no monuments. All the American tribes are 
 more or less migratory ; and when they move, they 
 destroy all their marks by burning their wig- warns if 
 
Grass-builders. 
 
 53 
 
 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 Eed 
 Eiver, in western Texas, build their wig-warns of long 
 prairie grass, by a sort of thatching over a frame of 
 poles fastened in the ground and bent in at their tops ; 
 the structure, when completed, 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 conve 
 nient ; they are comfortable dwellings, easily con 
 structed, and easily demolished when they are left, by 
 putting the firebrand to them. 
 
54 Dirt-builders. 
 
 The tribe of Mandans, on the Upper Missouri, tho 
 Pawnees of the Platte, the Minatarees, and the Riccarrees, 
 are the only dirt-builders, and they all seem to construct 
 their wig- warns 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 
 wig-warns 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 stock 
 ade on the other. These wig- warns are always made by 
 excavating some three or four feet into the ground, in a 
 circular form, from which foundation a superstructure 
 of round timbers lying against each other, the butt ends 
 placed in the bottom of the excavation, and the smaller 
 
Bark-builders and Timber-builders. 55 
 
 ends concentrating near the top, and supported within 
 by beams resting on upright posts; and the whole 
 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, admitting the whole family, dogs and all, to 
 recline and gambol on the tops of them 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, and 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 
 actionjf and usages, from which I intend you shall draw 
 more amusement, and far more important information 
 in support of the character of these abused people, 
 which, I have fearlessly said, surely claims for them a 
 high position amongst the human families of the world. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 Now, my little readers, we are soon coming to scenes 
 and events that will be more exciting: 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 impatient for the description of Scalps and 
 Scalping for the Buffalo-hunts the Dog-feasts the Stone- 
 man Medicine the Thunder's Nest, &c. 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 sheeted 
 from amongst my numerous portraits painted from the 
 life, and from them you will be able to get faithful and 
 lasting ideas of the appearance of that class of citizens 
 belonging to all the tribes of the American Indians. 
 
r 
 
Warriors. 57 
 
 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 facilities 
 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 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 possibly 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 causes which don't exist to the 
 same extent amongst civilized nations. They have no 
 settled (but always disputed and imperfectly defined) 
 boundaries, over which their fierce hunting excursions 
 often lead them, exposing them to the attacks of their 
 
58 Warriors. 
 
 enemies: and the other, and more frequent cause of 
 warfare, the popular ambition to signalize themselves, 
 which is felt amongst all Indian warriors, who have 
 but the one mode to rise to enviable distinction 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 compulsory power 
 leads his warriors, who all are 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 the foregoing plate 
 
 No. 1. 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. Seehk-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 costume with 
 
War Dress and War Paint. 59 
 
 bow and arrows, and shield and quiver, and his war 
 club in his right hand ; his body is curiously ornamented 
 with his war paint ; his ankle ornaments are strings of 
 antelope's 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 (accord 
 ing to the uniform custom of the tribe) and ornamented 
 with a beautiful red crest made of the hair of the deer's- 
 tail dyed red, and horse-hair ; in shape much resembling 
 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 consisting in a mode of dressing 
 the figure 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 and 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, often 
 times, before his own familiar friends. 
 
 Each warrior has some peculiar and known way of 
 painting, by which he is recognized by his fellow 
 
60 War Weapons. 
 
 warriors, at a distance at which they would not dis 
 tinguish him from his comrades from the natural dif 
 ferences, so great is their resemblance when naked and 
 in action in the open air. 
 
 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 por 
 trait 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 the greatest 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 American 
 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 
 
" Smoking the Shield:' 61 
 
 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, they are reversed, leaving the 
 points standing out, being thus more ready to be with 
 drawn suddenly and without obstruction. 
 
 Besides the bow and arrow, the tomahawk, already 
 shown and explained, and war clubs of various shapes 
 and materials, and lances, are used in warfare, and 
 shields carried on the left arm for protection. These 
 shields are carried by every horseman, completing his 
 dress and equipments, completely in the classic style of 
 the ancient Eoman 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 remain 
 ing 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 
 
62 " Smoking the Shield" 
 
 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 l)uy 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 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 warriors are the property of their nation. Can 
 any Indian lad secretly enlist, and make himself a 
 warrior ? 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 Camanche village, in 1836, I was invited 
 to go and see the " Smoking 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 
 
Warfare. 63 
 
 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 
 hardness 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 assembled 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 as each one passed it, 
 brandishing their war clubs, their tomahawks, and 
 shields over it, vaunting forth the wonderful efficiency 
 of their own, and invoking the " fire-spirit " to give 
 strength and hardness enough to that of the young 
 warrior, to guard and s 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 
 warfare, and a book might yet be written on their modes 
 
64 Warfare. 
 
 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 these people is generally conducted 
 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 ad 
 vantages than white men do; and in these they are, 
 beyond all conception, ingenious and inventive. 
 
 In the warfare waged between these people and civi 
 lized 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 cir 
 cumstances, should be called prudence, rather than 
 cowardice. 
 
War Signals. 65 
 
 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 recon- 
 noitering an enemy, and evading their pursuit, if ne 
 cessary, 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 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, 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 Jiuman voice, 
 in themselves far more terrifying than the war-whoop ; 
 but none other, perhaps, that could be heard so far, and 
 so distinct, in the din and confusion of battle. It is the 
 associations of those who know its meaning and its cha 
 racter, that give it its terror ; it 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 
 
 F 
 
66 War-ivhoop, War-flags, War-whistles. 
 
 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 sometimes 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; and 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; and blowing in one end is the signal for 
 " advance on on ;" and 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 
 
Scalps and Scalping* 67 
 
 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 
 American Indian ever been known to violate the sacred- 
 ness 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 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 dis 
 gusting 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 
 
68 Scalps and Scalping. 
 
 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 some 
 times happens, but very rarely. The scalp being only 
 the skin with the hair, without injuring the bone, 
 of course would not destroy life, therefore a man 
 might be scalped alive ; and in the hurry and confusion 
 of battle, the wounded and fallen, and supposed to be 
 dead, have sometimes been scalped, as the Indians were 
 rushing over them, and afterwards have 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 facts, 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, mustbe/rom an enemy's 
 head ; and that enemy dead, and killed by the hand of him 
 who carries and counts the scalp. 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 
 
Prisoners of War. 69 
 
 can't inherit them ; if they want scalps, ihey 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 prac 
 tice 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. 
 
 The torturing of prisoners is therefore nowhere a gene 
 ral custom, nor a frequent mode, as the world have 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 
 
70 Calumet (Pipe of Peace). 
 
 chiefs one or two of tbe prisoners taken, to reek 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 
 equally cruel and fiendish as the accounts we have heard 
 of them. 
 
 Wars are ended, and treaties of peace held amongst 
 the Indian tribes, much in the same manner as amongst 
 the 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 semi 
 circles 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. 
 
 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 
 
Calumet (Pipe of Peace). 
 
 71 
 
 ready to be smoked when the treaty stipulations are 
 agreed upon : when each chief, and after them, each 
 
 warrior of the two tribes, in turn, draw one whiff of 
 smoke through the sacred stem, as the solemn engage 
 ment 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 the usual mode. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 INDIAN 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 super 
 stitious, 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 practice as the last resort with their patients, 
 when all the other intended remedies have failed. 
 
 These Indian doctors were called by the Frenchmen, 
 who were the first traders on the frontiers, " Medecins" 
 the French word for physicians ; and by a subsequent 
 frontier population, " Medicine Men ;" and all mysteries, 
 " Medicine" as synon3 r mous with mystery. We shall 
 have, therefore, Medicine Men, Medicine Drums, Medicine 
 
Medicine (Mystery). 73 
 
 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 illustration 
 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 gentleman 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, is gained 
 without risk of life; but 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, and which, like 
 all miracles, are difficult to prove or to disprove. 
 
 Whilst residing in the American Fur Company's 
 Factory at the mouth of the Yellow Stone River, on 
 the Upper Missouri, I had the opportunity of witnessing 
 a Blackfoot doctor's display, in this identical costume, 
 over a dying patient who breathed his last under his 
 strange and even frightful gesticulations and growls and 
 groans under this skin of a yellow bear hopping over 
 and over his patient whom he had placed on the ground, 
 and was pawing about with his hands and his feet, in 
 the manner that a bear might have done. 
 
 The day after this pitiable farce, upon which some 
 
74 Medicine Men. 
 
 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 Col 
 lection, 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 ugliness of looks, 
 and frightfulness of sounds by their grating and rattling 
 noises as he dances underneath them, with his face 
 hidden, adding to them the frightful flats and sharps of 
 his growling and squeaking voice, and the stamping of 
 
Medicine Men* 75 
 
 his feet, as lie dances and jumps, over and around his 
 dying patient. 
 
 The doctor never puts on this 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. And 
 from what I have seen and learned (as they are said in 
 some instances to cure), that 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 the doctor alone has pre 
 viously 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 life 
 time, 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 
 
76 Medicine Men. 
 
 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, 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; and a 
 little stipend, 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 interview, 
 will be sure to be a kind and friendly welcome every 
 where ; and most likely, as the author has several times 
 experienced, a regular and formal installation, in a con 
 vocation of medicine men, as Doctor (or Fellow) of 
 mysteries, by the presentation of a shi-shi-quoin ! a mys 
 tery 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 
 
" Looking at the Sun" 77 
 
 the public conviction 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 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 attracted 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, and 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 medi 
 cine lag in one hand and his bow and arrows in the 
 other, and in this position was endeavouring 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. 
 
78 " Looking at the Sun" 
 
 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 under all these diffi 
 culties, in looking at the sun all day, without fainting 
 and falling, " the Great Spirit holds him up," and there 
 fore 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 dis 
 grace not only attaches to him for the moment, for 
 having dared to set himself up as medicine, but the 
 scars left on his breasts are pointed to as a standing 
 disgrace 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 Puncahs, 
 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 
 
Medicine Wedding. 79 
 
 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 wig- warn 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 the 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 
 had contrived, and which they as yet but partly antici 
 pated. 
 
 It seems he had gone to one of the subordinate chiefs 
 who had a very pretty little daughter of thirteen or 
 fourteen years of age, and made arrangements 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 
 
80 Medicine Wedding. 
 
 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 ceremony, 
 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 top of the little hill, back of the village, 
 where all the villagers assembled. It 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 
 
Medicine Wedding. 81 
 
 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 fol 
 lowed 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 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 triumphantly, 
 leading off to the village his four beautiful little wives, 
 in their pretty dresses, two in each hand, the crowd all 
 
 G 
 
82 " Rain-makers." 
 
 following ; and he was soon in his own wig-warn with 
 them, where no foot followed to interfere with his 
 domestic arrangements. 
 
 I have before said that the medicine men will under 
 take 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 pre 
 liminary forms, leaving younger aspirants to run the 
 chances of failure or success. 
 
 In the Mandan tribe I found they had " Rain-makers " 
 and also " Rain-stoppers" who were reputed medicine men, 
 from the astonishing facts 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, 
 the medicine men assemble in the Medicine Lodge (a 
 large public wig- warn built expressly for medicine opera 
 tions, councils, &c.), and sitting around a fire in the 
 centre, from day to day smoking and praying to the 
 Great Spirit for rain, while a requisite number of young 
 men volunteer to try to make it rain. Each one of 
 these, by ballot, takes his turn to mount on to the top 
 
" Rain-stoppers" 83 
 
 of the wig-warn at sunrise in the morning, 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 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 around 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 a 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 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 
 wig- wains, but this successful debutant in mysteries 
 still stands, sawing the air and commanding it to continue 
 
84 " Medicine Lodge" 
 
 raining, until lie is completely drenched, that the Mandans 
 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. 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 coiners of the mouth and the eyes to move," and 
 considering, therefore, that there must be life, to a 
 certain degree, in them, 
 
The Author installed " Medicine: 9 85 
 
 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 wig- warn 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 Wash-ee .'" (the Great White Me 
 dicine). 
 
 The wives of several of the chiefs brought their 
 beautiful and modest little daughters to the door of 
 my wig-warn in splendid, pretty costumes, and the in 
 terpreter 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 dis 
 appointment, 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, 
 
86 Medicine-Bag. 
 
 until the box was unfortunately exhausted. His me 
 dicine was much improved for the while by 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 sun-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 pertains 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 wig- warn 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 
 
Medicine-Bag. 87 
 
 considers the Great Spirit has designated, and intro 
 duced to him in his dream, to be his mysterious pro 
 tection through life, his medicine. 
 
 He returns home, relates his dream to his parents, 
 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 pro 
 tect 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 institutes, second 
 medicine if he loses his first, no matter by what means. 
 
 No money therefore could purchase an Indian's medi 
 cine-bag, though such things have in several instances 
 
88 Medicine-Bag. 
 
 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 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-yeJi (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. 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 IN 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 Eocky Moun 
 tains, or into the evergreen 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 Knistineuoc, 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. 
 
 Their colour, which has often been described as red, 
 
90 
 
 Indians' Colour and Form. 
 
 as yellow, and more often, as copper colour, is not 
 exactly either ; but more correctly described as cin 
 namon colour, the exact colour of cinnamon bark ; some 
 times 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 weakening effects of 
 heavy costumes, and also to 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 3 T ear, 
 giving straightness to the spine and the limbs, which 
 lasts them through life. 
 
Indians' Painting. 91 
 
 All 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 exception, uniform and 
 regular in their arrangement, and white and sound, 
 even to old age.* 
 
 These people have probably got the appellation of 
 " Eed 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 look 
 ing-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. 
 
 * The causes of the valuable advantages which these ignorant 
 people have over the civilized world in this and some other respects, 
 will be found fully explained in a little book entitled " The Breath 
 of Life," about to be published by the author. 
 
92 Wild Horses and Buffaloes. 
 
 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 per 
 sonal 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. 
 
 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 intro 
 duced 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 con 
 ducive 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 them 
 selves and constructing their dwellings with their skins, 
 
Buffaloes. 93 
 
 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 ; and the rest of 
 the flesh throughout the animal 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 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 independent 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 
 
94 The Prairies. ' 
 
 his wild horse his wants all supplied, and his mind as 
 free as the air that he breathes, that man, in the un 
 shackled freedom of his nature, extends, and has ex 
 tended 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. 
 
 The dwellings of man have been explained, and lest 
 the habitations of these noble animals, so closely asso 
 ciated with his existence and his enjoyments, should be 
 misunderstood in the relation of the following incidents, 
 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 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 
 
The Prairies. 95 
 
 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 at 
 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 the west; here a covey of 
 grouse fluttering from under our horses' feet ; next, the 
 swift antelope is seen bounding over the surface ; the 
 frightened deer rises and springs from its lair; and 
 further on, the huge white wolf, with a dogged sauci- 
 ness and reluctance, licks 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 ; and when the noble elks have " taken the 
 wind," and are sweeping away to the right or the left ; 
 the stately moose, under his 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 underground villages ; and the huge and fright 
 ful rattlesnakes coiled and ready for a leap we are 
 still wiser. And yet further on, a band of wild horses, 
 
96 The Prairies. 
 
 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, further 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 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 distance, much like a newly 
 ploughed field; the herd has here passed; and in 
 distance we discover here and there black specks, lying 
 upon the surface, and horsemen galloping to them and 
 dismounting. We will rein 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. 
 
The Prairies. 97 
 
 Smiling and exulting, as they shake their heads to 
 part their falling locks from before their eyes, come 
 dashing up Trom 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 extended ; 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 conversation takes place ; and in the midst of 
 this, what do we see ? In the distance, a moving, un 
 intelligible 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 transport 
 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. 
 
 Their village, as I have described, is built of skin- 
 covered wig- warns. We are taken to the chiefs tent 
 we smoke the pipe with him, seated on beautifully- 
 
 H 
 
98 The Prairies. 
 
 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 chiefs 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. 
 
 WILD horses, I have said, are the shyest animals of the 
 prairies, and oftentimes rim 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 mile, 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 aw 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 horse gradually, and draw 
 ing on the lengthened cord, at last brings the animal to 
 the ground, which falls for want of breath. 
 
100 Wild Horses. 
 
 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 gasping for breath. 
 
 At this moment the lasso is loosened, allowing the 
 animal to breathe ; by which in a few moments it is 
 getting strength to rise, when 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 
 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, standing 
 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 do this, 
 the horse remaining yet in its sitting posture, and 
 the Indian approaching nearer and nearer (inch by 
 inch) to its nose, on the straightened halter, and yelling 
 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 nostrils, their noses 
 being together. 
 
Catching Wild Horses. 101 
 
 After a few breaths exchanged in this manner, the 
 relaxation of the horse's muscles and its other motions, 
 show that its fears are at an end that it recognizes a 
 friend instead of a foe, in its captor; and this com 
 promise being effected, the Indian is seen stroking 
 down its mane, and otherwise caressing it; and in 
 fifteen or twenty minutes he is seen riding it quietly 
 off! 
 
 From the moment of this unaccountable compromise, 
 the animal seems to make no further effort to escape, 
 but becomes attached to its master, whom it recognizes 
 by the breath ; and which it always seems fond of ex 
 changing from that moment. 
 
 I have witnessed these exciting scenes on a number 
 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, followed by the 
 excess of 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. Earey's wonderful mode of 
 breaking and taming vicious horses, which I believe, in 
 some respects, is very similar ; but Mr. Earey has not 
 the wild horse to catch. It is very likely that an 
 Indian could not break a vicious horse as well as Mr. 
 
102 Catching Wild Horses. 
 
 Rarey; and at the same time it might be equally, if 
 not more difficult, for Mr. Earey 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. 
 
 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 proportion 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 
 speed. 
 
 Throwing himself between the troupe and the animal 
 he is after, and forcing it to run in a different direction, 
 
Catching Wild Horses. 103 
 
 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 to 
 wards 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 pursuer, who is coming at his regular 
 pace, close on to 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 near the same 
 instant, the horse having run a mile, and his pursuer 
 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 at night 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 
 
104 Turning to the Left. 
 
 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 " gene 
 rally turn to the left" How curious this fact, 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 wil 
 derness 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 
 
Walking the Circle. 105 
 
 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 accompany 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 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 dis 
 tance 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 bivouacked 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 
 
106 Buffalo Chase. 
 
 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 purpose, 
 we see him (see Frontispiece) in the chase, by which 
 means he supplies his family with food, and in which 
 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 
 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) their arrows are 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 gene 
 rally 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. 
 
Buffalo Chase. 107 
 
 Besides the bow, a long lance is often used, as seen 
 in the plate, 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 stepping 
 into holes, he may grasp hold of it and recover his horse, 
 and be again upon its back. This is called by the 
 French, Varret (the stop), and by some travellers and 
 writers, larriette. 
 
 Now, speaking of buffaloes, I must be allowed to say 
 a few words of myself, and some of my 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 scarcely believing that my hunting 
 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 
 
108 Buffalo Chase. 
 
 temptations, and with my old Ninirod 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 eventually 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 " tracking snow !" 
 
 But to fight off from these scenes in my native valley 
 and my bo}^hood, and to come back to where I left you, 
 my young readers, in the buffalo range, and ready for 
 my first buffalo hunt, on the prairies of the Missouri. 
 At the mouth of the Yellow Stone Kiver, 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. McKenzie, 
 the chief factor, when it was announced one morning by 
 one of his men, that a large herd of buffaloes had arrived 
 during the night, and were then grazing on a beautiful 
 
Buffalo Chase. 109 
 
 plain across the river, and but two or three miles 
 distant. 
 
 McKenzie 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 horse 
 back, 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 decided, 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 ! 
 
 McKenzie, Major Sanford, and Chardon were the 
 most experienced, and consequently the most successful 
 in the melee. 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 selecting the 
 
110 The G-iant Bull 
 
 fattest and the sleekest of the young cows for that 
 purpose ; but I had quite a different ambition ; 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 " Chouteau" 
 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 desperate 
 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, and 
 stood balancing his huge carcass on three legs, one of 
 his shoulders being broken. His frightful mane was 
 
TJie Giant Bull 111 
 
 raised, and his eyes bloodshot with madness and rage, 
 as he was making lunges at me, and tumbling partly 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 impossible to de 
 scribe 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, McKenzie 
 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 ob 
 served, 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 McKenzie 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 
 
112 Buffalo Hunt. 
 
 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 VIII. 
 
 SEATED in a light and frail canoe in front of the Ameri 
 can Fur Company's Fort, at the mouth of the Yellow 
 Stone River, Ba'tiste, Bogard, and I took leave of 
 McKenzie 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, 
 excepting 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 now returning 
 to St. Louis ; and of myself, more will be learned here 
 after. 
 
 We three, then the two first of whom with good 
 rifles, and knowing well how to use them ; and myself 
 
114 Stores laid in. 
 
 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 boiling 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, a 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 pro 
 spect for the indulgence of my sporting passion, as well 
 as 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 
 beautiful shores of the Missouri, to have taken a nearer 
 cut, and footed it over land. 
 
 There are now ten thousand things of curious interest 
 
The Tame Eagle. 115 
 
 before us, and I must needs again be brief ; 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. McKenzie 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 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 
 distance like black snakes drawing their long carcasses 
 over and around the hill sides. 
 
 The sand-bars in the distance sometimes seemetl as if 
 
116 Bivouacking. 
 
 they were covered with snow, from the quantities 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 of our rifles, 
 and sometimes the terrible grizzly bears, 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 quietly spreading our beds 
 upon the grass, scarcely knowing what was around us, 
 lest prowling war parties might 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 
 
Melting the Coffee-pot. Ill 
 
 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 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 up 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. 
 
118 Freaks of the Eagle. 
 
 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 proved 
 a decided failure ; and Bogard, who had a 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 
 our 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 com 
 mander 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 
 
Stoop of the Eagle. 119 
 
 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 
 others 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 he preferred, 
 for there he was sure of his daily food. 
 
 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, 
 Borne 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 ex 
 claimed, " He's 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. " Diable ! sonnette! sonnette!" exclaimed 
 
120 Grizzly Bears inspecting us. 
 
 poor Ba'tiste, as the snake was to hang right over his 
 head when the eagle was on his perch ! 
 
 It happened, luckily perhaps, not to be a rattlesnake, 
 but a harmless reptile, probably better known to eagles 
 than to us, which the eagle's eyes had discovered bask 
 ing 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 ad 
 venturers 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 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 " Sacre Diable ! voila, Mr. Catlin 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 
 
Grizzly Bears overhauling us. 121 
 
 us; and at a little distance further, the female with her 
 two cubs ; about enough altogether for us three to have 
 furnished a comfortable breakfast, for which they were no 
 doubt, with some impatience, waiting. (Plate No. TV.) 
 
 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 neces 
 sary ; 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 our poor eagle 
 gone, and swallowed, no doubt; and knowing the 
 danger of attacking them, we agreed that our canoe 
 was the first thing ; the scattered remnants of our pro 
 perty (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 
 
122 drizzly Bears Smelling our Toes. 
 
 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 every 
 thing, 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 (and 
 smelled) into 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 devoured. 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 disposed of in lots at an auction 
 sale. What an unprincipled overhauling this ! 
 
 In taking up our sleeping robes, the enormous foot 
 prints sinking two or three inches into the hard sand, 
 showed us that these stupid and terrible beasts had 
 
Qrizzly Bears Smelling our Toes. 123 
 
 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 her breast, and, galloping off, 
 followed her companion, which had got our two rifle 
 balls, and entered a thicket of high grass and weeds. 
 
124 Adieu to the Grizzlies. 
 
 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. 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 WE are now at the village of the " kind and hospitable 
 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 Yellow Stone, from 
 which we started : a tribe of two thousand, living in a 
 village of clay-covered wig-warns, on the west bank of 
 the Missouri. My canoe and all my things carried up 
 by the women to the chiefs wig-warn, 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-stopping 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 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 pro- 
 
126 Mandane Singularities. 
 
 tected 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 considerable 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 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, 
 silver}' grey, from childhood to old age ! 
 
 This singular appearance I can account for only by 
 the supposition that there must have been some civi 
 lized 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 tub, 
 and precisely like the Welsh coracle, and their mode of 
 constructing their wig- warns like that in use, at the 
 
Mandane War Chief. 127 
 
 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 the most gallant and in 
 vincible 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 the 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 vie- 
 
128 Lance of Riccarree Chief. 
 
 torious, 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 belonged to the war 
 chief of the Eiccarrees (a tribe about equal in numbers to 
 the Mandans, and living two hundred miles below them 
 on the same bank of the river). The Eiccarrees have 
 always been making war upon us, and in one of their 
 cowardly midnight 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, 
 
Lance of the Riccarree Chief. 129 
 
 was missing, and three days after the battle, in which 
 we had driven our enemies away, I found the body of 
 my brother amongst the willows, with the blade of this 
 spear remaining in his body. I recognized the spear 
 as belonging to the treacherous war chief of the 
 Eiccarrees, 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 recognized the spear. I preserved 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 opportunity 
 occurring, and unwilling to spill the blood of the inno 
 cent 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, with this spear in my hand, I started 
 off, unknown to my people, for the Eiccarree village, 
 travelling over the prairies by night, and lying secreted 
 during the day. 
 
 " In this manner I came near to the Eiccarree 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 detected. Knowing 
 
130 Lance of the Riccarree Chief. 
 
 the wig-warn 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 went to 
 bed also : the time for me had then arrived ; the fire 
 was almost out, and the wig- warn 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 hang 
 ing over the fire with some meat in it, which I com 
 menced 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 wig-warn? 
 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 wig- warn 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. 
 
 " 1 travelled fast all that night, and laid 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 
 
War Knife of the Crow Chief. 131 
 
 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-to- 
 toh-pa ; but I went to slay a dog who died as he de 
 served. 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 describe one 
 more, arid 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 inter 
 preter described in this way : 
 
 " The Crows have long been our enemies ; their 
 war parties have often attacked our village and our 
 
132 War Knife of the Crow Chief. 
 
 hunting parties when they have been upon the plains. 
 A few years since many hundred Crow warriors ap 
 peared 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 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 his 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 with 
 out effect ; but Mah-to-toh-pa's powder-horn was shot 
 
War Knife of the Crow Chief. 133 
 
 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. 
 
 " The Crow chief was a gallant and brave warrior, 
 and was worthy of Mah-to-toh-pa : he sprang upon 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 
 
 
134 Indian Belles. 
 
 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 often 
 times very beautifully clad with skins, extending from 
 the throat quite to the feet. They were generally 
 modest and timid, and observed exceeding 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 Sha-ko-ka 
 (mint), daughters of two of the subordinate chiefs ; 
 amongst the Eiccarrees, Pshan-shaw (the sweet-scented 
 grass) ; and amongst the Minatarrees, 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 portraits 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, 
 which they wear in braids amongst the strings of beads 
 on their necks. 
 
Singular Names. 135 
 
 And also amongst the Assinneboins, Chin-cha-pee (the 
 fire-bug that creeps), (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 fountain), 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 innnitel} 7 various, 
 and sometimes how droll ! They have no family names, 
 as we have in the civilized world, nor Christian 
 names, like John and George, &c. ; 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 
 
 Th'i Roaring ThunderThe Whirling ThunderThe Red 
 Thunder 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 2 he Round Island The 
 Hard Hichoi^y The Earth Standing Both Sides of the 
 
136 " What's in a Name ?" 
 
 River To fix with the FootThe Man of SmseTlie Busy 
 Man The Mouse-coloured Feather The long Finger-nails 
 The very Sweet Man He who sits everywhere He who travels 
 everywhere The Horse Dung The Smoke There he goes 
 No Fool He who carries a Wolf New Fire Tobacco Stone 
 with Horns lie who fights with a Feather The Wolf tied 
 with Hair Hair of the Bull's Neck The Bow and Quiver 
 The Handsome Bird The Flying Gull The Bears Fat 
 The Bears Shoulder The Buffalo's Bach-fat The Bird of 
 Thunder The Grizzly Bear The Bear's TrachThe Yellow 
 Bear The White Bear He who drinks the juice of the 
 Stone The Grass, Bush and Blossom. 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 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 
 enrolled 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 dis 
 tinct 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. 
 
Tradition of the Flood. 137 
 
 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 wig-warn 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 
 Avhere he professes to dwell, telling the people they may 
 be sure he will re-appear 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 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 suspend- 
 
138 Destruction of the Mandans. 
 
 ing 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 alto 
 gether the most extraordinary and curious of all the 
 customs I have met in the savage countries, and I 
 have fully explained the whole minutiae and system 
 of it, with illustrations, in " Catlings Notes of Travels 
 amongst the North American Indians" published some years 
 since. 
 
 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 cruel 
 ties; but it was a part of their religion, and, like all 
 religious customs, would have required time and patience 
 to have corrected. But, poor unfortunate 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 Eiver to trade with the various tribes, and to 
 supply their trading establishments with rum and 
 whiskey, and other articles of commerce, imprudently 
 stopped in front of the Mandari 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 
 
Destruction of the Mandans. 139 
 
 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 mer 
 cenary 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 whiskey 
 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 honourable 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 could do nothing against the 
 weight of a solid cargo of rum and whiskey, and so the 
 poor Mandans suffered; and the disease went to the 
 
140 Leaving the Mandans. 
 
 Blackfeet, of whom twenty-five thousand perished, and 
 how much further 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 warriors and braves 
 shook hands with me, and the women and children 
 saluted me with shouts of farewell ; 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 recognized 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 
 
"Atttlmt Gift." 141 
 
 many thongs, and, to my great surprise, found the most 
 beautiful pair of leggings which I ever had seen, fringed 
 with a profusion of scalp-locks, and handsomely gar 
 nished with porcupine-quills. 
 
 These I instantly recognized 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 moral from this having parted 
 with me without the least prospect of ever seeing me 
 again, enveloped in an intricacy of thongs which he had 
 intended I should not be able to untie until the current 
 had wafted me beyond the possibility of my making 
 him any compensation for them, 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 how much like 
 the gift of the saddle of venison left in my father's 
 wood-house, containing the eagle plume, by the unfor 
 tunate On-o-gong-way, and which so opened the eyes 
 and tho heart of poor Johnny O'Neil ! 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ON on still glides our little boat, as Ba'tiste and 
 Bogard paddle and I steer the unceasing banks of 
 green-sward, 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 of 
 an old and beautifully-cultivated country, the ploughed 
 fields grown to green-sward, and 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, 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 
 

Shooting in a Ravine. 
 
 wolves are hourly serenading us as we are getting our 
 night's rest. 
 
 The great tribe of Sioux are below us, and there are 
 some days probably 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 (Plate No. V.), we got our three 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 
 constantl}" 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 ashore, but 
 
144 An Excitement. 
 
 I did not exactly like the mode of invitation, nor the 
 position of things ; for this solitary man could scarcely 
 be supposed to be there alone ; and he had placed 
 himself on the shore just above a sudden bend in 
 the river, where the current ran in very swift, and 
 would bring us in quite near to a rocky shore, in 
 case we drifted with it; and in this place his com 
 panions, if he had any, would naturally conceal them 
 selves in case they had any unfriendly design upon us, 
 as they might easily have ; there being then existing so 
 many unsettled feuds between some of that tribe and 
 some of the fur- traders, and 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 prevent floating with the current into the bend. 
 Bogard, who was a drunken fellow, and I believe 
 thought it might be an opportunity for getting some 
 thing to drink, Raid 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 
 looking over their shoulders for their rifles, which 
 were lying under a buffalo robe between them and 
 me. 
 
An Excitement. 145 
 
 I instantly seized my double-barrelled gun, and cock 
 ing 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 consequence 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," seeing that we were not coming in, some twenty 
 or thirty naked warriors 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. 
 
 "Sacre! Diable ! il 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 
 
 L 
 
146 An Excitement. 
 
 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 dis 
 tance 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, 
 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 ap 
 proached 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 unnecessary 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 unprofitable, 
 
Fort Pierre. 147 
 
 they turned back, and we paddled on till after dark, 
 and bivouacked on the opposite side of the river without 
 further molestation. 
 
 Who these people were, whether Sioux or Eiccarrees, 
 or what was their design, I never was able to learn ; 
 but it has been a source of continual gratification 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 wig-warns of Sioux 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 a 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 wig- warn, and my advent but little cared about 
 or known, until this private operation, known only to 
 the chief and his doctor, was finished, and his portrait, 
 
148 The Sioux Doctor. 
 
 held by the corners of the frame, was elevated above the 
 heads of the crowd by the great medicine, crying to the 
 gathering multitude 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 ! 
 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 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 !" 
 
 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, 
 Bpears, 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 
 
Sioux Portraits. 149 
 
 could see to move, and the eyes of which actually turned 
 and followed all, as they changed their positions. 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 wig- warn several 
 of the most distinguished chiefs and warriors to be 
 painted, and I had full employment. The chiefs and 
 warriors were seated around the sides of the wig- warn 
 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 continual 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 
 
150 Sioux Portraits. 
 
 on its good looks and in anecdotes of his life, which 
 " it reminded them of." 
 
 In the mean time, the door of my wig- warn 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 upon 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 wig- warn 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 had come a vast distance 
 to see who they were, and to obtain their portraits to 
 hang on the walls alongside 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-look 
 ing men I ever saw ; and finding new subjects waiting 
 in my wig- warn every day in full dress, and ready to take 
 
Jealous Sioux Chiefs. 151 
 
 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 difficulty 
 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 beau 
 tiful, and what I wanted. He was looking off, towards 
 the sides of the wig-warn, 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 
 
152 Story of the Dog. 
 
 of Shon-ka (the dog), and whose portrait I had painted 
 some days before, rather a surly-looking fellow, and 
 somewhat sarcastic, crept around 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 distant 
 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, who sprang upon 
 his feet, and wrapping his robe violently around him, 
 suddenly darted out of my wig- warn, evidently in a 
 rage. 
 
 The chiefs seemed, from the change in their manner, 
 
Death of Mah-to-chee-ga. 153 
 
 to be apprehensive of the result, while my subject 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 wig-warn, 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 wig-warn, 
 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 mischief, his wife extracted the ball 
 from his gun without his knowing it, and set it down ; 
 and at the next moment, the voice of the Dog (who had 
 gone to his own wig-warn, and returned with his gun in 
 his hand) was heard in front of his door "If Mah-to- 
 chee-ga is man enough for Shon-ka, let him come out 
 and prove it." Like a flash of lightning, Mah-to-chee-ga 
 was upon his feet, his gun in his hand, and the instant 
 
154 Pursuit of the Dog. 
 
 he rushed out, the two guns, lapping over each other, 
 were fired ! Mah-to-chee-ga fell, weltering 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 occu 
 pied 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 wig-warn, 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 run 
 ning 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 approaching, and the 
 dogs were howling. 
 
 I was slipping my pistols into my belt, and examining 
 the caps of my double-barrel, when Laidlaw dashed into 
 my tent. " Now we shall have it ! " said he ; " 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 ! The devil take 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 
 
Pursuit of the Dog. 155 
 
 are the cause of the Little Bear's death. The warriors 
 of the Little Bear's band 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 on 7 before morning." I followed with him, 
 leaving all behind me excepting my arms and ammu 
 nition. 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 unarmed 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 awaiting results during 
 the greater part of the night in almost breathless 
 anxiety. We kept our quarters darkened, and while we 
 could hear the constant trampling and running in diffe 
 rent 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 and protected by his warriors, whilst the 
 
156 Pursuit of the Dog. 
 
 warriors of the Little Bear's band were pursuing him 
 into the country. 
 
 On the following morning all was quiet, but the vil 
 lage and fort had assumed quite a different appearance. 
 All was silent, and seemed sullen. Several fine young 
 men on. both sides were reported killed, and the Dog, 
 though wounded, was still retreating, and pursued. My 
 wig- warn 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, notwith 
 standing 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 there 
 fore the Little Bear would still have been alive." 
 There was no metaphysics amongst these people to 
 rebut such conclusive reasoning as this ; and though we 
 had mended the breach as well as we could, I thought 
 
Death of the Dog. 157 
 
 the safest way was to be on the water again as quick as 
 possible ; and which it is easy to imagine I lost no time 
 in effecting.* 
 
 Thus ended one of the most exciting and lamentable 
 affairs growing out of my interviews with these curious 
 people ; strongly illustrating, from its beginning to its 
 end, the high and chivalrous jealousy existing in their 
 society, and a striking instance of the extent and cer 
 tainty 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 super 
 stitions will sometimes carry them, and may be worth 
 relating. 
 
 While ascending the Missouri River on a subsequent 
 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 recognized and 
 approved by all; but I had observed him for several 
 days afterwards, coming in and sitting down, and look 
 ing at his portrait a while, and going off, apparently in a 
 
 * I learned from Mr. McKenzie 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. 
 
158 The Author Challenged. 
 
 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, be 
 cause 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 straightforward. 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 straightforward. 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 inter 
 preter came into my wig-warn, and said I had got to 
 fight ; that the young man was ur front of my wig-warn, 
 and ready, and he believed there was no alternative. 
 
 I went out, with my palette on 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 meeting ; and the 
 next day, with some water colours mixed on my palette 
 
A Compromise. 159 
 
 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. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BUT, 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 unfor 
 tunate 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 equally unin 
 telligible and a laughing-stock at the same time, for the 
 space of two or three weeks, until the sunburnt redness 
 of the upper half could be made to harmonize with the 
 death-like paleness of the nether portion of my face. 
 
 From the Sioux, on the Missouri, it is but a step of 
 
Pawnee War Party. 161 
 
 two or three hundred miles to the Platte Elver, 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 distance, with the blades of their long 
 lances glistening 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 quan 
 tities of wild horses, their country abounding in count 
 less 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 
 wig- warn that the Hon. Charles Aug. Murray was en 
 tertained, protected, and made welcome in his visit to 
 the Pawnees in 1833. Mr. Murray, for several subse 
 quent 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 Eocky Mountains, 
 but the smoke is getting too bad here too. All is 
 gloom ; the fires are all around us ; the prairie hens are 
 
 M 
 
162 Descent of Mississippi. 
 
 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 1680, 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 destructiveness of 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, wend 
 ing 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 
 
Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. 163 
 
 river were the Sioux, the Win-ne-la-gos, the Menomonies, 
 the SauMes, the Foxes, and Joways. My paintings were 
 made, and we were treated by 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 pro 
 ceed on our way. 
 
 .When we arrived at the wharf at St. Louis, our lug 
 gage 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 gen 
 tleman, 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 Mississippi, 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 
 
164 Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. 
 
 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 side 
 upwards, raising it upon one end, and getting the middle 
 beam on my shoulders, I very easily carried it the dis 
 tance, and laying it on the clear waters of the Wiscon 
 sin, there but a few yards wide, we took our seats, and, 
 paddles in hand, commenced our descent of some hun 
 dreds 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 450 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 be 
 tween 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 anticipate in 
 riding down. 
 
 From the Falls of St. Anthony we ascended the 
 
St. Peter's and Pipe-stone Quarry. 165 
 
 St. Peter's River 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' traditions 
 about it, but from the peculiar features of the country 
 and the singular character of the pipe stone, 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 precisely their 
 own colour "that it is a part of their flesh 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 pur 
 pose 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 
 
166 Pipe-stone Quarry. 
 
 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 permitted 
 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 us 
 we were within twenty miles of the " thunders 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 
 coteau, 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 
 
" Stone man Medicine" 167 
 
 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 medicine" " 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 
 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 tolerably good proportions, 
 of a man lying on his back, his arms and his legs dis 
 tended, 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. 
 
 W 7 hatever led to the beginning of this strange monu- 
 
168 The Thunder's Nest. 
 
 ment 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 waj^, 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 quantity may well be said to be countless ; ex 
 hibiting, 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 " thunder's nest" 
 
 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" ex 
 tensively known to the officers of the United States 
 army in the vicinity of the Falls of St. Anthony ; and 
 when we were rising 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 the 
 
The Thunders Nest. 169 
 
 plumes all 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 wrapped 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 hearing 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 " Thun 
 der Spirit" in dread of whom they always live. 
 
 Superstition is ignorance, and if it is not a " bliss," 
 it is innocence, at all events. These are but two of the 
 
170 Descent of St. Peters. 
 
 numerous shrines to which the poor Indians travel out 
 of their way, and at which they throw their hard earn 
 ings as propitiatory offerings. What do we more? 
 where do we as much ? 
 
 At the " Traverse de Sioux," at the base of the coteau, 
 Mr. Wood and myself left our horses and seated our 
 selves again in our little canoe, and down stream (not 
 down Ml, 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 alternately 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," &c. 
 
 Thus we descended the St. Peter's Eiver, to its junc 
 tion with the Mississippi at the Falls of St. Anthony, 
 and then the mighty Mississippi again, as Corporal 
 Allen and myself had descended it the summer before ; 
 spreading our robes upon the grass, and supplying our 
 larder in the same manner; often bivouacking 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 
 
Packs Stolen. 171 
 
 fatigued with paddling nine hundred miles, and having 
 a strong wind against us, we hailed a steamer descend 
 ing 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 with it, on this occasion, 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, &c. 
 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 me in the face again, and said, 
 " "\Yhy, don't you know, sir, that if you leave a box or a 
 parcel in any steamboat on the Missouri or the Mis 
 sissippi, 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 ?'* 
 
 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 
 
172 Pacific Coast. 
 
 . * 
 
 Indian countries, to St. Louis, containing one-third at 
 
 least of all the Indian manufactures I ever procured, 
 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 dis 
 tances 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. Everything 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 Eocky 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 Banaks, the Kayuses, the Kayuls, 
 the Paunches, and the Snakes, on the Snake Elver ; and 
 below them, on the Columbia, the Flat Heads, who 
 squeeze the heads of their very young infants between 
 
Pacific Coast. 173 
 
 boards until an unnatural and distorted shape is given, 
 and their eyes stand out like those of a rat caught in a 
 dead-fall. 
 
 I can show these, and the Naj^as, 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 "hoes" 
 living west of the Eocky 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. 
 
 BUT stop ! we are travelling very fast. There are yet 
 the bold and daring Camanchees, 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 wig- warns of grass, in the 
 shape of straw bee-hives) ; the Kiowas ; the Wicos, and a 
 dozen other " os " and " was " in Western Texas. 
 
 And then the Senecas, the Oneidas, the Onondagos, the 
 Mohawks, the Mohigans, the Dolawares, the Potowato?nies, 
 the Kickapoos, the Kaskaskias, the Weedhs, the Peorias, the 
 Shawanos, the Muskogees, the Choctaws, the Cherokees, the 
 Seminolees, and yet others, all of whom I have lived 
 amongst, 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 Elver, seven 
 hundred miles west of the Mississippi, on a visit to 
 
Ride to the Camanchees. 175 
 
 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 faithful 
 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, Jo Chadwick and myself 
 were on the spot, at Fort Gibson, and ready. We had 
 proposed to travel and subsist ourselves quite inde 
 pendent of the regiment ; only asking for their protec 
 tion. We had, therefore, supplied ourselves with a mule 
 to carry our packs and our culinary and other requi 
 sites, and our own weapons and horses. 
 
 For this expedition, I had purchased the finest horse 
 then known in that section of the country, 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 
 
176 Charley bought. 
 
 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 sweep 
 ing the ground, and his black mane nearly so. He had 
 been taken and broken by the Carnanchee Indians, who 
 take great care never to break the spirit of those noble 
 animals. 
 
 I rode and galloped Charley about, gradually beguil 
 ing him into the new relationship, for some weeks before 
 the regiment were ready to commence the march ; and 
 my friend Jo, 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 Delaware 
 Indians, semi-civilized, with several of other tribes, as 
 hunters and guides for the regiment ; and while rest 
 ing in the encampment for the regiment to start, they 
 amused Jo 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 par 
 ticular attention, a sort of whistle, made of the bark of a 
 young sapling, of two or three inches in 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 whenever they discovered a deer on. 
 
Deer Stalking. 177 
 
 the prairies at too great a distance to shoot, by sounding 
 this and lying secreted in the grass, they would in 
 variably 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 of 
 their infants' calls produced by that curious instrument. 
 
 Jo 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 amuse 
 ment at deer-stalking on the " Maple Eidge," 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, and 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 Jo, I came to the edge of a small prairie, and stepping 
 a little into it, I heard the sudden bleating of a fawn, 
 
 
178 The Author Decoyed. 
 
 which was several times repeated ("ma ma ma!"), 
 and from its direction I was sure the little creature was 
 in the shade of a small copse of bushes further in the 
 prairie, and at too long a distance for a dead shot, so I 
 dropped myself upon my knee in the grass, resolving 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 care 
 fully, on my 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 in 
 expressible 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 Dela 
 ware 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 I then entered the 
 

 "Booh! to you, too!" 179 
 
 timber again. I often sounded rny whistle for Jo, but 
 heard nothing of him. 
 
 I travelled on and on, and saw no game ; but, descend 
 ing a gently-sloping hill, through an open but dark and 
 gloomy forest of large timber, I espied Jo sitting on a 
 large log, with his back towards me and his rifle stand 
 ing 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 Jo 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 further without 
 his hearing me which accomplished (as he was chew 
 ing away), I let my right hand fall upon his shoulder 
 with a " look /" at which instant came a heavy red paw 
 on my own shoulder, with a " booh ! to you, too /" Poor 
 Jo ! he made Ms leap near twenty feet, and I made mine 
 nearly as far in a different direction. And in the very 
 tracks that I had left, stood smiling at me, a huge Osage 
 Indian, with his rifle in his left hand, and his right still 
 
180 Story of the Panther. 
 
 remaining in the air where my shoulder had left it. 
 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 tracks in the whole of that dis 
 tance 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 Jo 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 sometimes 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 
 
Walking the Circle. 181 
 
 I separated after we got a little way into the woods, and 
 took different directions. The day was very gloomy 
 and dark, and after I had travelled a long distance with 
 out 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 Jo? 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 further, and following 
 the track, I at length found another man's track coming 
 into it. ' That's Jo ! Very likely ; he is lost per 
 haps, 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 Jo, for he has got a dog also. Never 
 mind, I'll push on and overtake 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 
 
182 Death of the Panther. 
 
 that is my own track ! I am lost ! I am walking in a 
 circle ! But that dog ? He steps in my track rhe is 
 stalking 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 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 Jo 
 near the boat, coming in with a saddle of venison on 
 
Death of the Panther. 183 
 
 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 the end of its 
 tail, was measured, and found to be nearly nine feet. 
 Both Jo and I were complimented 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. Jo 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, string 
 ing off over the prairies and through the timber two by 
 two, their usual mode of marching ; and Jo 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 " Cana 
 dian," and were now creeping along on the dividing 
 ridge between the Canadian and the Red Eiver, and 
 near to their sources. Bands of wild horses were run 
 ning from us, and herds of buffaloes, from the rifles of 
 our Delaware hunters, were supplying us with a daily 
 abundance of fresh meat. 
 
184 Creasing a Wild Horse. 
 
 While moving on and on in this manner, from day to 
 day, Jo 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 recognizance. On nearing them, we 
 discovered a ravine, near the banks of which they were 
 grazing, and throwing ourselves into this, we rode till 
 we supposed we were near their vicinity, and dis 
 mounting, 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, notwithstanding 
 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 hun 
 dred 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 
 
Creasing a Wild Horse. 185 
 
 were under their feet, and dragged on the grass as they 
 were feeding. 
 
 Poor Jo and I saw no way of encompassing or ap 
 propriating this noble and beautiful stud ; nor had we 
 approached them with the least mercenary view ; but 
 an instant thought suggested. 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) part of the neck, on the top of the 
 shoulders, by which the animal is stunned for the mo 
 ment, 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 1" whispered Jo. " Well," said I; 
 but here was -a difficulty again : to travel light and 
 handy, both Jo 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 
 troupe, a beautiful silver grey, turning himself round to 
 
186 "Indians about!" 
 
 a fair broadside, I fired, and he tumbled down, as the 
 herd were off, as if by a blast of wind. " Beautiful ! 
 beautiful ! " said Jo, 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 Jo ! 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, nor to 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. 
 
 Jo and I were soon remounted, and alongside of the 
 dragoons again ; and though, in our long, long travels 
 over the prairies and through the oak openings, we had 
 many a fine chance for a rifle-shot, our light little fowl 
 ing-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, Jo," or " Crease him, Cat." But when necessity 
 required it, our " creasing" business was generally 
 very far from the success which had attended the first 
 " creasing" shot. 
 
 About this time began to be heard through the regi 
 ment, " 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 
 
" Indians about /" 187 
 
 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 underwent at an 
 " Old Saw-mill Lick." 
 
 The Camanchees one of the most powerful and war 
 like tribes in America, and undoubtedly the most bold 
 and efficient warriors on horseback, and heretofore con 
 sidered 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 horse 
 men were gathering around us; and during the day 
 time, 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 disappearing over the hills as we 
 approached them. With my glass, which brought them 
 nearer to me than they thought for, they were beautiful 
 to behold : the fierce and manly expression of their 
 faces, and 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. 
 
188 Stampado. 
 
 We kept moving on, and bivouacking 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 }^ou ever hear of a stampado, my 
 little readers ? No ; well, then, we'll have it. Stam 
 pado is a Spanish word, meaning " a trampling," or 
 (what is much the same, and perhaps more intelligible) 
 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 dark 
 ness of midnight, when wearied soldiers and their horses 
 are fast asleep, dash at full speed, like the flash of 
 lightning with the thunder following, into and through 
 an encampment, mingling the frightful war-whoop with 
 the unearthly sound of their parchment robes shaken in 
 the hands to frighten the horses, not unlike, in their 
 rattling sounds, to theatre thunder. The instant flash 
 
Stampado. 189 
 
 of a few guns begins the frightful melee, and in the 
 confused escampette, the aifrighted 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 
 scientific 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 or felt 
 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 breakfast. 
 
 A stampado had been apprehended and feared for 
 several nights past, from the surrounding appearances 
 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 precaution in the regi 
 ment was made for the event. Every man slept with 
 his rifle in his arms, and his horse picketed within his 
 reach; and poor Jo and I, notwithstanding we were 
 invited to sleep in the officers' quarters, in the centre, 
 
190 A False Alarm. 
 
 preferred spreading our robes, and laying our own 
 saddles a little outside of all, and on the uphill side, for 
 reasons which the world will never guess. 
 
 These were trying times for Jo 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 dan 
 gerous 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 clairvoyance 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 
 Jo and I, had begun to think they had left the vicinity, 
 and therefore to relax a little in their nocturnal disci 
 pline ; and when Jo happened to be ogling with the spy 
 glass, and I was fast asleep flash and bang ! went a 
 gun, close by a little bunch of hazel bushes, within a 
 few rods of where we were lying, and where a sentinel 
 had been walking his rounds, instantly followed by a 
 
A False Alarm. 191 
 
 struggling and rustling in the bushes, and from which 
 came a deep and frightful groan ! And in the camp, 
 oh, awful ! the snapping of cords, the trampling of hoofs, 
 of grunting, of groaning ! Now and then the flash of a 
 gun, but no war-whoops nor rattling of parchment 
 skins, but a vanishing of steeds that carried terror and 
 confusion, but no intelligence, with them 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 a genou, or " lying close," 
 cocked and ready, or groaning with their wounds. 
 When I awoke, my friend Jo had Charley's halter in one 
 hand, and ihat of his little charger in the other. Charley 
 stood, with his mane and his tail spread, when I arose 
 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 Jo, " 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, Jo walked into the camp amidst 
 the pointing and aimed rifles and fixed bayonets, ex 
 claiming, " Don't shoot ! don't shoot me ! there are no 
 Indians!" Poor Jo, at some risk of his life notwith 
 standing, succeeded in arriving at the officers' quarters, 
 
192 A False Stampado. 
 
 where a sort of council of war was held, and Jo made 
 his report, to wit that " a sorrel horse, belonging to the 
 commissariat, had got loose, and after he had observed 
 the poor creature feeding about for some time, it pre 
 sented 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 T 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 melee, and also Corporal Nugent, who 
 fired at Lieut. Hunter and missed him, as he was hold 
 ing on to his horse, because he wore a fur cap, and was 
 mistaken for a Camanchee Indian. 
 
 Jo 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 direction 
 of their back track in their flight. Some were retaken 
 within twenty miles, some within fifty miles, some were 
 
A False Stampado. 193 
 
 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 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 XIII. 
 
 THE 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 warriojrs^all 
 mounted on fine horses, and fully equipped and painted 
 for war. As they came galloping and dashing 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. 
 
 After a general shake of the hand with the officers, 
 they invited us to the great Camanchee village, some 
 three or four days' march, to which they conducted us, 
 and showed us daily, as we passed along, their astonish 
 ing feats in slaying the buffaloes, by which they furnished 
 the regiment with daily food ; and, in the mean time, 
 
G-rand Review. 195 
 
 they gave also, to the officers and men, what they never 
 before had seen an exhibition of their powers of taking 
 and breaking the wild horse. 
 
 Arrived on the summit of a hill, overlooking an ex 
 tensive and beautiful valley, they requested the regi 
 ment to halt, and pointing, showed us the great Caman- 
 chee 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 military 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 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 
 
196 Pawnee-Picts. 
 
 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 en 
 campment, and we were soon settled for a residence of 
 two weeks, which afforded the writer of this and his 
 faithful friend, Jo Chadwick, 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, &c., 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 further on, where I have said their wig-warns were 
 made in the form of straw beehives, and thatched with 
 long grass. Peace was made with them also, and the 
 officers were embraced in the arms of the venerable chief, 
 Wee-iar-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 
 
Fort Gibson. 197 
 
 last for ever." And 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 whiskey and a thousand 
 abuses, the consequences of which were, that in one year 
 after, the whole ground that we travelled over in peace 
 arid 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 interesting 
 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 
 attachments, 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 com 
 panion, Jo, was constantly by me, and afterwards left 
 for the Mississippi, where his business called him. 
 Charley I could not see during this siege of two months ; 
 
198 Charley Saddled for St. Louis. 
 
 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 I would start for 
 St. Louis by a shorter route, by crossing the intervening 
 country of prairies, 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 com 
 pass in my pocket, and a clear sky, and a 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 Yalley of Wy 
 oming, 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 grazing, and on 
 entering the field I called " Charley !" at which the 
 noble animal, evidently recognizing my voice after two 
 
CheroJcees and Creeks. 199 
 
 months' separation, raised his head, and also his beau 
 tiful black tail and inane, 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 !" &c., and 
 with the grass still hanging out of his mouth, commenced 
 smelling my breath, which had always seemed a plea 
 sure 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 a 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 Cherokees, 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 
 were owning, many of them, large plantations, and were 
 
200 Seminolee Treaty. 
 
 raising extensive fields of cotton and corn, lived in com 
 fortable houses, built school-houses and churches, 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 simple fact and easily explained, but 
 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 neigh 
 bours." 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 
 
Death of Seminolee Chief. 201 
 
 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 Spirit, and that they would therefore 
 never remove from it. 
 
 The treaty was several times urged upon them with 
 out success ; but it being announced to the eleven sub 
 ordinate 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 pro 
 bably heard ; he was not a chief, but a desperate war 
 rior, and of great influence in the tribe. The treaty 
 was spread upon the table, and Charley Omatla, accord 
 ing to his promise, 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 Washington, 
 " signed" (!) to be ratified by the Senate (then in ses 
 sion) before the news of the manner of signing should 
 
202 "Dade's Massacre" 
 
 reach there, a distance of 1,800 miles, and no railroad 
 or telegraph in those parts at that time. The treaty 
 was ratified ; and though it was subsequently proved on 
 the floor of the Senate that the chief Charley Omatla had 
 been bribed with 7,000 dollars, still the tribe was re 
 moved, by force, under the treaty, as we shall see. 
 
 Osceola fled into the wilderness, the chiefs following 
 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 Seminolees, 
 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 excep 
 tion of one man, had been destroyed by the Indians, 
 who had laid in ambush, and gained an advantage by 
 springing upon them before they could use their rifles ; 
 much in the manner of the " Wyoming massacre," men 
 tioned 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 
 
(Japture of Osceola. 203 
 
 of the fight ; and whenever, by an equal or more cun 
 ning 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 disciplined 
 troops, kept them at bay for six years, bravely disputing 
 every foot of ground. He was at last captured, how 
 ever (or rather kidnapped), with four of his principal 
 chiefs and 200 of his warriors, by a stratagem too dis 
 graceful to have ever been practised by an Indian tribe, 
 and therefore unsuspected of an enemy in whose known 
 superiority in numbers and weapons, as well as in 
 civilization, had led them to confide. They were called 
 up with 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 disgraceful 
 act was condemned by every officer in the United States 
 army, excepting the one who was guilty of it, and it is 
 probable that his shame and his repentance have suf 
 ficiently punished him for it. The Administration dis 
 countenanced the act, but the chiefs were too valuable 
 a prize to be released, notwithstanding ; and all were 
 
204 A Sad Story. 
 
 sent, as " PRISONERS OF 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 2,000 
 innocent and defenceless men, women, and children, 
 living exposed on the borders of their country, whose 
 lives are always known to be imperilled when an Indian 
 war is waging in their vicinity. 
 
 From the city of New York to Charleston, a distance 
 of 1,500 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 Phillip, 
 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, 
 
A Sad Story. 205 
 
 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 cognizance of it, 
 hearing the proofs advanced by the accusing party, 
 which he made out to be very conclusive, while the 
 young man accused had no evidence to give, only ask 
 ing 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, by the custom of their 
 country (they being partly civilized), was that he should 
 be publicly whipped the next morning at nine o'clock. 
 At seven o'clock, however, the next morning his 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 
 
206 Death of Osceola. 
 
 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 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 of the garrison and 
 men 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 hun 
 dred and forty miles ahead of us (about twice the breadth 
 
Charley's Freaks. 207 
 
 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 pleasure 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 enter 
 ing upon, to fully develop the actual strength of sym 
 pathies 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. 
 
 There was another advantage we had that took much 
 of the apparent hardships of our coming campaign 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 ad 
 vantage 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 
 
208 Charleys Freaks. 
 
 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 mentioned, after 
 a separation of two months, when I said, " Charley, is 
 that you?" he instantly replied, " eegh-ee-e-eeh " 
 (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 neverthe 
 less sure to be right, provided I put him the right sort 
 of questions : and certainly he had one agreeable pecu 
 liarity 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 beautiful 
 green fields, passing through forests of timber, leaping 
 and wading brooks, and bivouacking in the grass, when 
 night overtook us. By the sun, while it phone, 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 sickness, 
 but meeting a cool and bracing autumnal wind, I was 
 every hour gaining strength, though I had every alter 
 nate day an ague chill and fever, and for these, as I felt 
 
A Shake, and a Roll in the Grass. 209 
 
 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 
 mean time, which seemed to be a great luxury to him; 
 and these rolls he took a peculiar pleasure in perform 
 ing as near to me as he could without rolling on to me. 
 The shake and the fever, the bait and the roll all over, 
 and Charley saddled up again, we would start on our 
 course. 
 
 Carrying one of my barrels always charged with shot, 
 ready for a 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 break 
 fast 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 of her rump-steaks would be 
 suspended from Charley'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 abundance of 
 
 p 
 
210 Bivouac with Charley. 
 
 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 pre 
 pare my venison steak, and erecting them on little 
 sharpened stakes before my fire, 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, of sugar, and a slice or two of cold ham. 
 
 I was in the habit (and this was a habit of long stand 
 ing 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. 
 
 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 
 
Bivouac with Charley. 211 
 
 of a turkey-cock, while lie 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, 1 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 daylight, when 
 Charley became restive ; and 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 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, 
 
212 TJmnder Storm on the Prairies. 
 
 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 the 
 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 
 ine 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 upon ; 
 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 some 
 times 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 penny for your thoughts." " Eegh-ee- 
 
Shooting the Buck. 213 
 
 e-eh!" Charley would reply; both bracing up our 
 nerves, and evidently moved along with a new life, and 
 consequently 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, 
 arid 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 " showing 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 profusion 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 bad 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 
 
214 Charley Tracking the BucJc. 
 
 observing the extraordinary excitement that Charley 
 was under, which I could 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, snuff 
 ing 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. 
 
Crossing the Great Osage. 215 
 
 The almost incredible attachment of this noble animal, 
 and the rest of the curious incidents of this journey 
 from Fort Gibson to St. Louis, enough for a 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 apprehended 
 on our route was the Osage River, which it was abso 
 lutely 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 cannot go 
 round it, we can't and cross it, we must. 
 
 I got Charley's packs off and put him out with his 
 picket the first thing ; 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; accumulating and floating these as I 
 advanced along, and getting them all together, I formed 
 them into an awkward raft. I then took up Charley's 
 picket, and leading him to the water's edge and taking 
 
216 Crossing the Great Osage. 
 
 off his lasso, I said, " Do yon 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 to. 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 be 
 hind 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 alarming apprehensions : 
 the dried logs and sticks with which my raft was con 
 structed 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 my things, if possible, ashore." Some 
 of the long timbers of my raft, as I had no axe to make 
 
Crossing the Great Osage. 217 
 
 them of equal lengths, caught into the limbs of a tree 
 lying in the water, whirling it round, and commenced 
 pulling it to pieces, and throwing me out again quite 
 into the stream. A second effort, however, brought me 
 to a little better 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 one mile 
 below where I had lost sight of Charley standing 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 1 repay Charley for such affection? I 
 gave him a double ration. "Bation! of what?" Of 
 salt, of course.* 
 
 * For a full and particular description of this interesting tour 
 from Fort Gibson to St. Louis, and the history and fate of poor 
 '* Charley," see " Catlin's Notes of Travels amongst the North 
 American Indians," published some years since. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Now 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 Carraccas 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 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 some sixty years 
 
Carraccas. 219 
 
 since, destroying ten thcmsand 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, no 
 body 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 only be heard 600 miles, 
 at the utmost! and a block of granite of 327 cubic feet 
 it was only able to project a distance of nine miles ! 
 
 The Orinoko 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, only 
 contain 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 Phi 
 ladelphia, could only go as high as Tabatinga in low 
 water ; that is, only 1800 miles from its mouth ! and ordi 
 nary passenger steamers could only go 1000 miles higher, 
 without being liable to get aground, if the water was 
 
220 The Scylla. 
 
 low ! These distances are not very great. The valley of 
 the Amazon is rather large ; but it could not possibly 
 hold with comfort more than the populations of Eng 
 land, France, Belgium, and the United States put to 
 gether: 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 
 Carraccas 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 rise 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 seashore 
 pebble ! worn round by the waves on the seashore, 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! 
 
 These pebbles are flint they contain silicified 
 zoophytes ! Everything has a life and a death ; these 
 
Plains of Venezuela. 221 
 
 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 intri 
 cate 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 
 top of the " Scylla," the grand plateau that sweeps off 
 to the Orinoko. 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 ! His sea voyage don't 
 cost him fifty pounds his knees don't ache like ours. 
 Pie sits at home and smokes his nice little cigar perhaps, 
 and sips his glass of wine, 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 pro- 
 
222 Plains of Venezuela. 
 
 duces, perhaps, in one minute, more pleasure than he 
 enjoys in a month. This may be so who can con 
 tradict 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 Gautchos, 
 with their mules, will help us. Angosturo is on the 
 Orinoko ; 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 
 
Indians of Venezuela. 223 
 
 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 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 palm-flowers are opening, 
 and these swarm in myriads about them. 
 
 The sun looks as it does at home, though perhaps 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 whiskey have destroyed the 
 most of them. Here are the Chaymas and the Goowa-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 packing them 
 in his large books, which a Chayma is employed to 
 help carry to Angosturo ; and who the next happiest ? 
 Why I, of course, who am putting these beautiful 
 scenes into .my portfolio and yesterday, that beautiful 
 
224 The Handsome Dance. 
 
 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 
 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 chief's 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 com 
 pliment 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 on their backs and their pretty breasts ; 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 profusion around 
 their necks, and polished brass bands were worn, with 
 strings of blue and white beads on their slender wrists 
 
The Bolas. 225 
 
 and ankles ; their cheeks were painted red, and their 
 bodies and limbs, from their throats downwards, were 
 coloured white with white clay. 
 
 Had these girls no other dress on ? Not a particle. 
 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 toes ? Not an 
 inch. Did they dance to music ? In perfect time to the 
 beat of the drum, and a chaunt of the chiefs. Were they 
 graceful? Yes, and as thoughtless and innocent, and as 
 white, and as beautiful, and as modest as the marble of 
 Venus on its pedestal. 
 
 Nothing can be more beautiful of their kind than the 
 rolling plains between Carraccas and the Orinoko. They 
 are abundantly stocked with wild horses and wild (not 
 buffaloes, but) cattle, which answer all the same pur 
 poses 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 swinging around and over his 
 head until he is in the right position, when he lets go 
 
 Q 
 
226 Lasso and Baton. 
 
 his ball, giving them 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 dismount 
 ing, does the rest. 
 
 This mode is used only for " killing." The wild 
 horses are killed in this manner for their skins. and 
 their hair, and 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 de 
 scribed ; with the only 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 
 
Canoeing on the Orinoko. 227 
 
 eyes and gets upon its back. The horse recovering 
 from the blow and rising, soon yields to the wishes 
 of his 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 Orinoko, 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 Angosturo, to the banks of the 
 Orinoko ; 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 should 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 Orinoko. Is there anything like them on 
 earth ? I don't believe 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 
 
228 Canoeing on the OrinoJco. 
 
 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, cun 
 ningly 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 flapping 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, 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 
 
Opening of a Spathe. 229 
 
 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 gossippers, 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 piercing eye down from the tops of the 
 mora, as he echoes " Go on John ! go on John ! 
 go on! go on!" 
 
 " Here's a swarm of bees ahead of us," said Dr. 
 Hentz ; " we shall be stung to death !" " No, Doctor, it's 
 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 some shape or other. The fruit of all 
 
230 Opening of a Spathe. 
 
 palms grows just where the leaves and branches start 
 out from the trunk ; and before the fruit, 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 froiii 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 important 
 approaching events, and gather in myriads around them, 
 ready for the onslaught, when a bright and clear morn 
 ing shows them their feast opened and spread before 
 them. That is the scene now before us. You see in 
 the midst of that whirling cloud of insects the spadix 
 of a palm in full bloom, and here is now just going on 
 the "set-to" and pele mele for honey. There's no 
 danger of being stung now, I admit. These busy 
 little creatures, though most of them with their 
 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 
 
Pirates at the SpatJie. 231 
 
 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 en 
 grossed by the swift-darting and glistening little hum 
 ming birds, of all sizes and all hues, whose long and 
 slender bills entered every approachable cell, as they 
 balanced on their trembling wings, and ready to dart 
 away when danger comes. These seemed masters of 
 the feast. But there were others apparently even more 
 successful; 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 out with 
 their rich loads, arid 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 
 
232 Pirates at the SpatJie. 
 
 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 dif 
 ferent; 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, as seen to be. 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 Orinoko, were 
 we not ? Look, next time you go to the Museum, for 
 
Campanero (the Bell Bird). 233 
 
 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 like 
 the tinkling or tolling of a bell, exactly. They give 
 the forest the most singular character. They are a 
 solitary bird 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' 1 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 
 
234 The Wakened Sloth. 
 
 different! The songs of the day are all joyous and 
 cheering, if we could understand them 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 howlings of the red monkeys the 
 hooting of owls and evert/ 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 we'll jog on we are stopping 
 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 it's like sleeping in a 
 hammock. W 7 hat 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 gen- 
 
Mouth of the OrinoJco. 235 
 
 tlemen. 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! but he swims! and 
 now upon the hank ! and at one leap upon the side 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 consider 
 ably larger. This steamer goes to Demerara just 
 where our little canoe can't go, and where we must go. 
 " A good chance to overhaul and air your plants, 
 Doctor Hentz." 
 
 " First-rate, Mynheer." 
 
 This is a strange-looking place, captain. What a 
 vast number of islands there are ahead of us ! W# are 
 at the mouth of the Orinoko ? 
 
 11 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, 
 
236 Wig-warns in the Trees. 
 
 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. 
 
 " 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 expect some fresh 
 supplies from them by-and-by. 
 
 " These birds, sir, are called 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." 
 (Plate No. VI.) 
 
Wig-warns in the Trees. 237 
 
 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 ! 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 GEORGETOWN, Demerara, in British Guiana, is a large 
 and very flourishing town, where coffee and cotton and 
 sugar are' raised to 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 by the 
 name of Smyth, who (like my faithful friend, Jo Chad- 
 wick, in North America) accompanied me across the 
 Acarai (or Tumucumaque) mountains to the valley of 
 the Amazon. These letters were 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 
 
Demerara. 239 
 
 we passed, that I consider them well deserving of this 
 notoriety. 
 
 - " Para, Brazil, 1854. 
 " DEAR BROTHEK, 
 
 " You will have thought, perhaps, 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 cracked up to h. 
 I lounged about there for six months without making 
 the first 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 finding 
 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 further end of the chamber I recog 
 nized the old veteran, with his palette and brushes in 
 his hands, and painting the portrait 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 
 chiefly away, and {he chamber was pretty much empty, 
 
240 Parimaribo. J| 
 
 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 Angosturo, on the Orinoko 
 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 country. 
 
 " I soon learned they were going to start in a few 
 days for a journey across the Tumucumaque mountains 
 into the valley of the Amazon, in Brazil, just the place 
 precisely where I wanted to go of all others. I pro 
 posed to the gentleman that if he would pay my ex 
 penses 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 ex 
 pense 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 paint 
 ing some tribes in this neighbourhood and in Dutch 
 
Rio Essequibo. 241 
 
 Guiana, at Parimaribo, and then wo were prepared to 
 cross the mountains, and at last 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 consisted 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 hundred 
 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. 
 
242 Howling Monkeys. 
 
 " The whole shore on both sides was lined with one 
 immense forest of palms and other trees overhanging 
 the river, and many of these, from the 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 Mini6 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 
 
Taruma Village. 243 
 
 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 town, however, was 
 upon an open plain, very beautiful, with small palms in 
 groups standing out upon it. 
 
 " The huts of these people were all thatched over 
 with palm-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 com 
 menced 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, without 
 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 suddenly, and after 
 watching them closely for a minute or so, he laid 
 down his pipe, and striking both his hands quickly 
 
244 Treachery of Interpreter. 
 
 together, lie began making signs in reply. The gover 
 nor 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, calling him his ' brother !' 
 
 " A further conversation then took place between the 
 two for some time, while the old chief's limbs trembled 
 with pleasure and excitement. The governor 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 interpreter, 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 de 
 ceive 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 
 
Indian Hospitality. * 245 
 
 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 Minie about that instant near his short ribs, 
 and a click ! (a sort of a hiccough 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, 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. 
 
246 Indians looking at Pictures. 
 
 " 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, &c., 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 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, 1 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 
 
Showing Revolver to the Indians. 247 
 
 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 con 
 cealed, 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 was 
 spent in looking at the pictures, and also in examining 
 our guns. You know the ' old Minie,' and the gover 
 nor 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. 
 
248 The Old Minie. 
 
 " 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 under 
 standing, 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 
 alwaj^s 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 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 Minie.' 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 
 
The Young Revolver. 249 
 
 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 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 
 
250 "Medicine, 
 
 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 veiy soon have made all 
 the fortune I ever wanted, by exhibiting 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, 
 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. 
 
 " 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. 
 
" Hill of the Shining Stones" 251 
 
 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, per 
 fectly transparent as water; but one could cut them 
 with a knife, they were so soft. 
 
 " At another village much further 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 
 
252 The " Stone Eater: 1 
 
 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 under 
 standing 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, of putting it in his pocket, ran 
 back and told their parents that here was the strangest 
 man in the world ; declaring that ' they had seen him 
 every morning making his breakfast on stones, and 
 putting others into his pocket for his dinner !' The 
 Indians gave him the name of the ' Stone Eater? I 
 forget the Indian for it. 
 
Picking up a Rattlesnake. 253 
 
 " Xot 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 handsome 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 ap 
 pearance a streak of bright red for 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 without doubt what it 
 was, but they had no word for it which we could under- 
 
254 A Bed of Poppies. 
 
 stand, and we 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 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 swim 
 ming 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. 
 
 " THESE immense "mountains, which rise in a number of 
 ridges, one after another, and very rugged and barren, 
 took us at least one hundred miles to cross, and we often 
 wished ourselves 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. * 
 
 " WTien we struck off into the valley, we had, I 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 
 
256 Valley of Amazon. 
 
 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 Minie, 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 through, which, when we 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 geeodes. 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 Eio Trornbute, 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 them. This 
 canoe, some forty or fifty feet long and five feet wide, 
 
Head of the Trombutas. 257 
 
 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 de 
 scribe 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 freezing 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, 
 
 s 
 
258 A " /Strong Lie" 
 
 telling his people it was very silly to be listening 
 to such stories, and they were rapidly beginning to 
 haul off. 
 
 " The governor sent for me 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 ihem ' 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 towards the vil 
 lage, at a few rods' distance. We were sitting under 
 the shade of some palms on the bank of the 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 fol 
 lowed 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 
 
Rio Trombutas. 259 
 
 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, perhaps then 
 some three hundred miles ; and you can well imagine 
 that the ' old Minie ' had a plenty to do again. All 
 the animals and birds and trees and plants seemed 
 much the same as on the Essequibo ; but tigers and 
 monkeys were at least three to one. 
 
 " The tigers live chiefly along the shores of the river, 
 for their favourite food are 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 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 ; and 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 
 
260 Tiger Shooting. 
 
 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 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; and in one of these rests, when we had 
 landed by the side of a high bank, where we saw no 
 signs, and while the Indians were asleep in the canoe, 
 and the governor and the half-breed and myself were on 
 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 squat 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 hold 
 ing underneath, I observed his eyes staring at some 
 thing over my shoulder, in the direction of our half- 
 
Tiger Shooting. 261 
 
 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 with it apparently as carefully and inno 
 cently 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 pre 
 ferred 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 
 
262 Bridling an Alligator. 
 
 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, 
 Vhere 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. 
 
 ****** 
 
 " When we had gone ashore one day, on a broad sand 
 beach lying between the river-shore and the timber, 
 and part of us having got out upon the beach, we were 
 startled by a loud hissing, and we discovered a huge 
 alligator coming at a 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 
 
Bridling an Alligator. 263 
 
 for a block of wood, and one of tlie men, by running a 
 little way up the beach, brought a log of drift-wood tho 
 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, 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 Minie 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 clown 
 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 
 
264 Assemblage of Monkeys. 
 
 the parrots are peeping 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 chatter 
 ing 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 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 
 
Monkeys' Theft. 
 
 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 mean time, and became so enraged, that he 
 took the old Minie before I observed 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 impossible to cure the 
 wound of this poor brute, and it was knocked on the 
 head. 
 
 '* The snakes on this river are very numerous, and 
 some of them very large. The anacondas and boa con 
 strictors, the Indians told us, had been killed here of 
 immense size, but we were not able to see either of 
 them. Rattlesnakes 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 
 
266 Shooting a Rattlesnake. 
 
 governor got the men to land him a moment, as he was 
 anxious to rise the bank and see what was in distance. 
 The canoe came to the shore, and I held it fast by grasp 
 ing 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 rising 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, 'Smyth! hand me my rifle!' 'Take old 
 Minie ?' 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 to 
 wards 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, 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 
 
Shooting a Rattlesnake. 267 
 
 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 he 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 his headless trunk 
 erect and ready for another spring. Its head was shot 
 regularly off, as ' Sam ' had designed, and the creature, 
 so near the spring and so ready, at the instant, with its 
 aim made, that it leapt and struck the governor probably 
 
268 Beheaded Rattlesnake. 
 
 in tlie spot where it would have struck him and have 
 made him a corpse in ten minutes, provided the governor 
 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 size 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. 
 
 " Further 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 further down the river to a 
 famous beach, where they often go on a ' turtle hunt. 1 
 They invited us to join them, and we kept company with 
 them, and encamped altogether a little before night. 
 
 '* These people told us the scene of their operations 
 was a long sand-beach just around the point, below 
 where we were landed ; and they, knowing the shape 
 of the ground, were all aware of the time of night and 
 the mode in which the attack was to be made. These 
 
Turtle Hunt. 269 
 
 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 daytime, 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 a 
 sort 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 or 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 feast might taste good ; after that there would 
 be dancing a plenty. 
 
 "During this time the women were all at work 
 
270 Turtle Hunt. 
 
 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 before. 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 governor 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 palmetto bushes which 
 had been arranged before night for the purpose, and the 
 rest of the men, perhaps a hundred, were all lying flat, 
 
Turtle Hunt. 271 
 
 in a row parallel to the shore of the river, but a few 
 paces back of MS. 
 
 " From behind the screen of palmettoes we had a fair 
 view of the sand-bank, which looked quite 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, and who passed on the signal by touch 
 ing 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 further and further, 
 and the Indian kept pinching my leg till I was almost 
 ready to halloa 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 a 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 
 
272 Turtle Hunt. 
 
 their backs. Such a scrambling as this I never saw or 
 thought of before ! Some hundreds of them were upset 
 in this 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 grunting 
 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 magnificent 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 to see how handily and how quickly these 
 
Turtles? Eggs. 273 
 
 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 themselves, have eaten ourselves 
 into stupidity. 
 
 " The governor and I slept in our canoe that night, 
 and got up at an early hour to see the manoeuvre on 
 the battle-field, 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 Irishmen into a 
 field of potatoes ; and in much less time the surface of 
 
 T 
 
274 Turtle Butter. 
 
 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 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 where there was one 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 were, for the most part 
 of the afternoon, 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, 
 
OttdosSantaremPara. 275 
 
 where they pound out the yellow oil or grease, which 
 is very rich, and, like the best of butter, 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 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 
 
276 Para. 
 
 hundred miles nearer the coast. Para is a large and 
 flourishing seaport town, where a great business is 
 done. I like it too well to leave it, and I will in my 
 next give you some description of it. I have seen a 
 way to set into a good business here ; and as I have 
 now seen just about as much of wild life as I care about 
 seeing, I shall hold on here and see what I can do. 
 
 " 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." 
 
CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 THE above rather lengthy extracts I have ventured to 
 make because they so graphically describe scenes and 
 events which we witnessed together ; and because such 
 an acknowledgment, at least, 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 for 
 gotten 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 
 visited the neighbouring tribes in that vicinity ; the 
 Carribbees and Macouchis, the Accoways and the Warrows, 
 in Dutch Guiana, in the neighbourhood of Parimaribo 
 
278 Carribbee Indians. 
 
 and New Amsterdam ; and the Arowaks, on the Rio 
 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 
 Carribbee 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 since have 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 customs, 
 also speak a language much resembling, 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 un 
 doubtedly the result of the difference of climate. The 
 weather in the tropics admits of but little clothing, and 
 
Sierra Acarai. 279 
 
 these tribes are chiefly naked, both women and men, 
 seldom wearing anything more than sandals tinder their 
 feet, and mere " fig-leaves," or bandages, about their 
 loins; 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 Acarai (or 
 Tumucumache, or Crystal) Mountains, which we have 
 passed over, forming the boundary line between British 
 and Dutch Guiana and Brazil, are truly sublime ; not 
 unlike the Eocky 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 
 rnule died ten days ago, and our packs are now heavy. 
 
280 Amazon Slope of AcaraL 
 
 We have come out from that gorge ! that awful ravine ! 
 It's 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 ! 
 
 And what a curious cloud! 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 steering 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 thousand 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. 
 
Topaz and Rubettites. 281 
 
 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 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 
 
282 Head of Rio Trombutas. 
 
 north ? No one but our little compass can tell. How 
 droll ! 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 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 beautiful, 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 a plenty of good 
 beef, and raw hide for soleing our mocasins, 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 wig-warns 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, 
 
The, Amazons. 283 
 
 Tupis, and several others are very different from the 
 Carribbee races living on the other side of the moun 
 tains. 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 same root. It is matter of little 
 consequence, however, 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 was 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 tra 
 dition. 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 his 
 torians have attributed them to the banks of the Trom- 
 butas, 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 nowhere else. 
 
284 The Cannibals. 
 
 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 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, to bring down the wild ox or the wild 
 horse as easily as their husbands could. And on in 
 quiring 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 
 sometime or other to the necessity of doing it. And in 
 
The American Cannibals. 285 
 
 the midst of this conversation, a diffident young man 
 stepped forward and said, "Yes, tell the white man 
 there are some such persons further down on the river. 
 He will find some white men, living in two or three 
 wig- warns 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 descending the river, some distance 
 above Obidos, at its mouth, we found these cannibals 
 several Frenchmen 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 that I 
 have discovered in my travels amongst North or South 
 American Indians. Books are full of it, but the wil 
 derness 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 
 
286 The American Cannibals. 
 
 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 
 savage 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 
 further into their country. 
 
 It is the custom with most savage tribes (and this in 
 America as well as in Africa) to apply the term can 
 nibal to their enemies around them as a term of re 
 proach ; but when we enter these tribes the cannibals 
 are not there, they are in the next tribe, and then in the 
 next, and so they fly, like a phantom, 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 
 
The American Cannibals. 287 
 
 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 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 asser 
 tions, without proof, relative to the existence of a custom 
 both against nature and against taste ; raising presump 
 tions formidable enough to stand against very strong 
 positive proof. 
 
 As a ceremonial in the celebration of victories, re 
 ligious rites, &c. human flesh is sometimes eaten ; and 
 the practice, by custom, observed as a necessary form ; 
 but this is not cannibalism. 
 
 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, after 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 
 
288 The American Cannibals. 
 
 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 it. 
 
 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 sometime 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 travellers 
 and explorers averred that they saw the Patagonians 
 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 a little over six 
 feet. It is evident that the atmosphere, 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. 
 
" Dirt Eaters " and " Stme Eaters." 289 
 
 Some writers (who take a peep into an Indian's wig 
 wam 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 sometimes swal 
 lows 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 wig-warns, 
 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 ? 1 
 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 its 
 beautiful and grassy plains ? Yes. Well, let us sit down 
 here too, a while, in the shade of these beautiful bananas 
 but no ; these are not bananas the pride and grace of 
 the forest such as we saw on the banks of the Esse- 
 quibo and the Orinoko. No, but they are palms, never- 
 
 u 
 
290 Scenery of the Trombutas. 
 
 theless ; and oh, how charming and elegant, with their 
 leaning, bending stems and pinnated foliage! The 
 graceful banana of Guiana, I think, has not yet made 
 its way over the Tumucumache; I don't see it any 
 where. 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 nobleman'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 crea 
 ture; it never bites; it's only a pilot. A pilot! I 
 don't understand. Why, it's the rattlesnake's pilot- 
 always with him, looking out the way. What a gentle 
 man ! Then the rattlesnake is close by us ? Undoubt 
 edly 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 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. 
 
Forest above a Forest. 291 
 
 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 penetrate, 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 dis 
 tance, like the columns of vast and boundless edifices, 
 and spreading over and above all, their pinnated heads 
 show us a forest above a forest the one apparently 
 growing out of the other. How sublime ! 
 
 These, with all their grandeur, are reflected in the 
 mirrored water ; and thus we have four forests all be 
 fore 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 ; but we don't know from 
 whom. Every crack of the rifle sets a hundred squeak 
 ing and chattering voices in motion. A hundred mon- 
 
292 The Tigers' Walk. 
 
 keys 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 cir 
 cular 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 minia 
 ture. 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 hammocks 
 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 sloping 
 
Music of the Trombutas. 293 
 
 down to the river on the opposite shore. Our men had 
 fal]en asleep, as usual, in the boat, and I said to my 
 friend Smyth, who, with myself, was seated on top of 
 the bank, " How awfully silent and doleful it seems ! 
 not the sound of a bird or a cricket can be heard ! sup 
 pose 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 I 
 
 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, with semitones and baritones, 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 un 
 restrained movements. Where on earth those creatures 
 
294 Music of the Trombutas. 
 
 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 
 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 scam 
 pering 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 
 " Tsocano ! Tsocano ! 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 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 
 
Music of the Trombutas. 295 
 
 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. Curious and inquisitive little 
 strangers, with your red breasts and throats, your white 
 cockades, your blue jackets and purple tufts, and 
 piercing eyes, and turning heads, 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 an 
 other, and another, as an announcement that danger was 
 passed ; and no aviary that ever was heard could pro 
 duce such a concert and such a chorus of sweet sounds 
 as was here presented. 
 
 They swelled their little throats to the highest pos 
 sible key in the din of their concert ; and after it gra 
 dually 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 contagious." 
 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 
 
296 Treed ly Peccaries. 
 
 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 
 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 happiness and 
 enjoyment ? what a happy community this ! 
 
 Now for the " pigs." Pigs, in this country, are pec 
 caries, 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 indivi 
 dual 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 through 
 out 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. 
 
Treed by Peccaries. 297 
 
 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. 
 
 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 commenced 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 underneath and around 
 him a dense mass of some two or three hundred 
 peccaries, with the bristles all standing on their backs, 
 
298 Fight with the Peccaries. 
 
 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 creatures 
 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 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, th ey 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 
 
Fight with the Peccaries. 299 
 
 Smytli 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 hunting 
 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 LET us now for a while leave beasts, and birds, and 
 reptiles, for a subject of far greater interest and import 
 ance. The studies of my wanderings have been the 
 looks, condition, character, and customs of native man; and 
 these their incidents or accessories merely. These are not 
 without their interest and importance, however, 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 he is 
 unfortunate^ a land -owner, and has the means to pay 
 for rum and whiskey. 
 
 Much the same system of traffic and dissipation, which 
 I have before alluded to, is destroying these poor people 
 
South American Indians. 301 
 
 in this country, but without the devastation 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, dispossessing the Indians of their 
 country. 
 
 A sort of civilization has been longer established in 
 this country, and more generally and more gradually 
 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 civilization, and seldom extinction, 
 there is yet an immense existence 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, are almost too naked to 
 paint. Their character and customs are nevertheless 
 equally full of interest; and in this country, as in 
 North America, I have aimed at gathering everything 
 pertaining 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 
 further) must be left for a larger book. 
 
 We were at Para ? Para is a large and flourishing 
 
302 Canoe Indians. 
 
 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 Orinoko, the Canoe Indians living in 
 " nests " built in the trees. These constructions, 
 though exceedingly rude, are nevertheless 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 what 
 ever, 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 which 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 the 
 
Nest Builders, Amazon. 303 
 
 Amazon and the Orinoko are completely covered and 
 shaded by these noble trees ; their trunks, almost per 
 fectly 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 um 
 brella, 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 wig-warn of sticks and leaves. But 
 when the tide rises, it lifts his canoe to the steps of his 
 wig-warn, 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 littjle^ pappooses in his 
 canoe, he steps into it and darts off amidst the myriad 
 columns of this mighty temple, echoing and re-echoing 
 the happy notes of his song as he glides, and those of 
 the thousand songsters above his head and around 
 him. 
 
304 Ascent of Amazon. 
 
 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 Skin- 
 builders t the Dirt-builders, the Bark-builders, the Grass- 
 builders, and the Timber-builders, and here we have the 
 Nest-builders I and what sort of builders shall we have 
 next ? We shall see. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Para, on the Eios Trocantins 
 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 realize their lengths. I 
 took the largest first, the Amazon rode to Tabatinga, 
 eighteen hundred miles, the western boundary of 
 Brazil ; and from that, between Perou and Equador, to 
 Nanta, three hundred and fifty miles, at the mouth of 
 the Yucayali, and yet four hundred miles further, 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, 
 
Shores of the Amazon. 305 
 
 and several others from Para, with their families ; 
 forming together a very pleasing and agreeable travel 
 ling 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. 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, that 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 under 
 stand 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 
 
306 Upper Forest. 
 
 reflected forests that changed every moment as we 
 
 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 ! 
 
 Here the rounded tops of the lofty trees, some white, 
 some pink with blossoms, were crowding out their 
 flowery heads amongst the mass of green, and extend 
 ing 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 palmettos, 
 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, supporting their dome of branches 
 
Temple of Flowers. 307 
 
 interlocked and further on, but a part of this, an 
 " upper forest /" The wind has done this. Huge trees 
 have been uprooted, and, tumbling half-way down, have 
 lodged their branches in the crotches 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 interwoven 
 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 ! 
 
 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, supporting bouquets 
 of beautiful flowers and fig-trees bending with their 
 blossoms and ripened fruit at the same time. 
 
 But how gloomy and desolate? Not so. This is 
 Nature's temple ; its t 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, as naked 
 and as thoughtless as Adam and Eve (and from appear 
 ance as happy), come leaping to the brink of the bank, 
 to salute us as we pass. 
 
308 Opera Glass m the Amazon. 
 
 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 he has here, bespangled with flowers 
 and dropping ambrosia ! and how delicious the air that 
 lie breathes, rustling through the blossoms 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. 
 
 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, and sinned as little ! 
 
 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 
 

 Opera Glass on the Amazon. 309 
 
 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 multi 
 tudes 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 their 
 heads from the tops of the lofty mora. 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 so 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 unapproach 
 able cliffs and rocks in the Andes, and by lying on his 
 
310 Passing Obidos. 
 
 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 outer}* 
 was raised amongst the squaws and then amongst the 
 men, and all eyes were upon me, and many hands 
 extended 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, and 
 who, having recognized me, were calling to me to 
 come ashore and shake hands with them. This com 
 pliment I could not resist, nor could I deny myself 
 the pleasure of shaking hands with these good creatures 
 these " Amazons" these "Cannibals" of the Trom 
 butas. 
 
 I leaped ashore, to the great surprise of all the pas- 
 
A Scene at Obidos. 311 
 
 feengers, 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 sup 
 plying my pockets with a quantity of knives, fishhooks, 
 beads, &c., which I had laid 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 beautiful " 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 
 bj natural, human impulse, uninfluenced by fashion or a 
 
312 Indians on the Amazon. 
 
 motive I 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 or 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 constantly 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 the 
 Amazon, from its rise, at the base of the Andes, to its 
 
Indian Missions. 313 
 
 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 classi 
 fication. 
 
 There is a general system of civilization 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 settle- 
 
314 Lingua G-eral. 
 
 ments of Spanish and Portuguese, called in the Spanish 
 language Gauchos (Gautchos), who live by a mixed 
 industry of agriculture and the chase. 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 particularly 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 Portu 
 guese, and Indian languages are all 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 exceedingly per 
 plexing and embarrassing for the traveller, who may 
 think that his Spanish and his French which he has 
 learned 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 
 
Tribes of Upper Amazon. 315 
 
 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 depot of Western 
 Brazil and Eastern Perou and Equador. 
 
 In the vicinity of Nanta are a great many Indian 
 tribes, amongst which are the Zeberos the Urarinas 
 the Tambos the Peebas the Turantinis the Connibos 
 
 *> 
 
 the Sipibos the Chetibos the Sensis the Remos the 
 Amahovacs the Antis the Siriniris the Tuirenes the 
 Huachipasis the Pacapacuris, and at least a dozen others ; 
 their languages all dialectic, and their physiological traits 
 and colour altogether proving 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 a'll the varieties of 
 
31 6 Tribes of Upper Amazon. 
 
 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; and from 
 these combined advantages they insure an easy and 
 independent living, and have therefore the fewest induce 
 ments to adopt civilized modes. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A HIDE across the Pampa del 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 interesting visits I have ever made to Indian 
 tribes ; the shores of the Yucayali are not unlike those 
 of the Troinbutas 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 Chetibos, 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 the 
 river only 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 
 curious house it is ; it is a shed, and sometimes thirty or 
 forty rods in length, constructed of posts set in .the 
 
318 Connilos.Shed Builders. 
 
 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 Gautchos, and the sides and partitions in 
 those can be perforated with the finger, as they are but 
 a web of palm-leaves. 
 
 The Connibo wig- warn, or shed, contains sometimes 
 several hundreds of persons, and the families are sepa 
 rated 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 ham 
 mocks 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 I have given an ac 
 count 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 I And if 
 I have room enough, I intend to give you a brief 
 account of the No builders, the pigmies of the Slioshonee 
 race which 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 communication with 
 
Chetttos. 319 
 
 them except in warfare, and that is very 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 impe 
 netrable 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 Meno- 
 monie 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 In- 
 
320 Pottery of the Connibos. 
 
 dians 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 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 
 JRemos, 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 Remos, the Antis, and a dozen 
 other small tribes, and the Connibos, who dwell around 
 the skirts of the Pampa del Sacramento, lead a different 
 life from the Canoe Indians I have just mentioned, and 
 in appearance are more like the Sioux and Assinneboines 
 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 
 
Pottery of the Connibos. 321 
 
 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 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, but by the rotary motion of the hand and 
 adjustment of the fingers and muscle-shells which they 
 use in giving form. 
 
 After these are dried in the sun sufficiently, the paint 
 ing 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 
 
322 Weapons of the Connibos. 
 
 them, with, hands clenched, they dance in a circle around 
 them, singing and invoking the Evil Spirit not to put 
 his fatal hand upon and break them in the fire. Those 
 that come out without the touch of his fingers (un- 
 cracked) 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, though it answers their purpose, is 
 fragile and short-lived, being but a temporary proof 
 against cold liquids, and no proof against those that 
 are hot. 
 
 The sole weapons of these people, and in fact of most 
 of the neighbouring tribes, are bows and arrows, and 
 lances, and blow-guns, all of which are constructed 
 with great ingenuity and used with the most deadly 
 efiect. My revolver rifle, therefore, was a great curiosity 
 amongst these, 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 or 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, a short quiver contain 
 ing about a hundred poisoned arrows. (The reader 
 
Blow-dun. 323 
 
 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 per 
 fectly understood. He showed me that he had a hun 
 dred arrows in his quiver, and of course so many shots 
 ready to make ; and showed me by his motions with it 
 that he could throw twenty of them in a minute, and 
 that without the least noise, and without even being 
 discovered by his enemy whose ranks he would be 
 thinning, or without frightening the animals or birds 
 who were falling by them, and the accuracy of his aim, 
 and the certainty of death to whatever living being 
 they touched ! 
 
 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 procured in certain parts of 
 that country, of the proper dimensions and straightness 
 to form those wonderful weapons. They are manu 
 factured most generally, and the most extensively, by 
 the Maycas 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 
 
324 Poisoned Arrows. 
 
 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 ex 
 plained 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 construc 
 tion ; but the greater and most valuable portion of 
 them were made of knitting-needles, with 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. 
 
Experiments with Poisoned Arrows. 325 
 
 tie 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 infor 
 mation, 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 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 neutralized, 
 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 
 
326 Poisoning a Rattlesnake. 
 
 of Chinese vermilion, and allowing him the carcase of 
 the pig to eat. He was much pleased with the arrange 
 ment, 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, preventing its escape, until 
 they could get an opportunity of sending it on some 
 canoe going down the river, to be thrown over 
 board, 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 straightened itself out upon the ground, 
 and on its back, was quite dead ! 
 
Natality of Poisoned Arrows. 327 
 
 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 expe 
 riments 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 bows, but since the dis 
 covery 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. 
 
328 Fatality of Poisoned Arrows. 
 
 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 marvel 
 lous, that " Some time after the poison was discovered, 
 and these blow-guns were made, the war parties of two 
 neighbouring 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 very 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 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, 1 believe to be very dif 
 ferent from that used by the same people on the blades 
 of their lances and arrows, and a modern discovery. 
 
 This poison is, no doubt, a vegetable extract, or a 
 compound of vegetable extracts ; and though so exten 
 sively known and used by the Indian tribes, seems 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. 
 
Waw-ra-li (Poison for Arrows). 329 
 
 That vegetable, and the mode of the extract, the analysis 
 does not show. 
 
 Amongst the Macouchi and other tribes on the Esse- 
 quibo, 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 com 
 pliments 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, 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- 
 
330 Trouble with a Medicine Man. 
 
 looking, surly, wrinkled-up old gentleman. Of myself 
 and my works lie 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 " this wouldn't do that 
 it was very fortunate for them that he had arrived just 
 as he 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 after 
 wards 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 ! 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 infallible oracle of the tribe, 
 and how unavoidable and irrevocable was the command 
 
 * A term of reproach which they apply to naturalists and other 
 scientific men, who they often see making collections of natural 
 history. 
 
" A Monkey-Skinner" 331 
 
 when I was informed 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 
 
332 Unpainting Indian Portraits. 
 
 resolved to have them destroyed. 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 /" 
 
 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 
 unpainting 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 minutes 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. 
 
CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 THE reader bears in mind that the main object of this 
 little work has been to convey, in a concise way, a 
 general and truthful knowledge of the character, con 
 dition, and customs of the American Indian races ; and 
 in order to prevent it from being tedious, I have thus 
 far endeavoured to weave into it such scenes and in 
 cidents which I have witnessed as were calculated to 
 interest the reader, and at the same time helping 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 own countries ; we 
 will now take a peep at them, mixing and mingling 
 with the polished and enlightened of the world. We 
 have seen them in the darkness of the wilderness ; we 
 will now see how they bear the light. 
 
334 Indians in London. 
 
 Whilst I was residing in London a few years since, 
 with my whole Indian collection, and all the informa 
 tion which I had gathered in eight years* residence 
 amongst them, there came to London two successive 
 groups of Indians from North America, from two dif 
 ferent 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; and which fact, no doubt, 
 added much to their interest, as I was able to appre 
 ciate 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 inter 
 preter, 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 thou 
 sand miles from their homes, and in the midst of the 
 most enlightened society. 
 
 To give a brief, then, of the rest of their character, 
 as I learned it myself, I will here add a few extracts 
 
Indians before the Queen. 335 
 
 from my notes made at the time, some of which will be 
 amusing, others will be met with surprise, and many 
 will furnish convincing corroborations 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 ; and 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 with so much pleasure 
 communicate to the reader, and with so much justice to 
 the savage, in the remaining pages of this little book, 
 as the following brief 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 Ojibbeways 
 from Canada, whom I had the honour of presenting 
 to Her Majesty the Queen, and his Eoyal 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 
 
336 War Chiefs Speech to the Queen. 
 
 dejetiner in an adjoining hall. 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 countiy, 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 
 wig- warn to all the world. 
 
 " Mother we have seen many strange things since 
 we came here ; we see that your wig-warns are large, 
 and the light that is in them is bright. Our wig-warns 
 are small, and our light is not strong. We are not rich, 
 but we have a plenty of food. 
 
 " Mother my friends here and myself are your chil 
 dren ; 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, and the glare and splendour that was 
 
loway Indians. 337 
 
 around him, seemed to excite the surprise and admiration 
 of all. 
 
 His Royal Highness Prince Albert replied to him in 
 a kind and feeling response, and handsome and genuine 
 presents were made to them by Her Majesty. They 
 gave their dances and other amusements in various 
 parts of the kingdom, and after their return, another 
 party of fourteen loway s, 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. 
 
 No. 1 . Me w-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. 
 
 6. 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. 
 
 z 
 
338 loway Indians. 
 
 Women. 
 
 No. 9. Kuton-ye-wee-me (the strutting pigeon) wife 
 of chief. 
 
 10. Euton-wee-me (flying pigeon). 
 
 11. 0-kee-wee-me (female bear). 
 
 12. Koon-za-ya-me (female eagle). 
 
 13. Ta-pa-ta-mee (wisdom). . 
 14. (pappoose). 
 
 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 plat 
 form in my exhibition room, on which these people 
 gave their dances and other amusements before im 
 mense 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, &c. And in this dance, the old 
 medicine man made a tremendous boast, brandishing 
 
An Indian Doctor's Speech in London. 339 
 
 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 bachelor, 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 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 I 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 ap 
 plause.) 
 
 " 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,] Chippeliola* 
 here, and we see the medicine things which he has done, 
 * (Bed paint) the Author. 
 
340 An Indian Doctor's Speech in London. 
 
 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 " how, 
 how, how " from the Indians ; meaning " yes," or 
 "hear, hear.") 
 
 " My friends this is a large village ; it has many fine 
 wig- warns ; we rode in a large carriage (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 applause.) 
 
 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 accompanied them, that 
 
 * A medicinal herb, the roots of which the Indians use as a 
 cathartic medicine. 
 
Baling Park. 341 
 
 they might see and appreciate the benefits of civiliza 
 tion. 
 
 These poor people were much disappointed in not 
 being able to see the Queen, as the party of Ojibbeways, 
 their enemies, had; but they received many friendly 
 invitations, where they were treated with great kindness. 
 They were invited to a dejeuner at the mansion of Mr. 
 Disraeli, on Hyde Park, where they all sat at a table 
 splendidly set out, and at 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 thankful 
 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 Ealing Park, they par 
 took of a splendid dejeuner on the beautiful lawn back of 
 her mansion, at which H.K.H. the late Duke of Cam 
 bridge, the Duchess of Cambridge and the Princess 
 Maiy, the Duchess of Gloucester, and many other dis 
 tinguished personages were present. The Duke of 
 
342 War Chiefs Speech to DuJce of Cambridge. 
 
 Cambridge carved the roast beef, and the lovely little 
 Princess Mary and the Duchess of Cambridge and Mrs. 
 Lawrence carried round to them their plates of plum- 
 pudding. After the fete, 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 : 
 
 " My great Father your face to-day has made 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.) 
 
 " 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 
 
The Duke's Reply. 343 
 
 so pleasing as those of the white people ; and we there 
 fore 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.E.H. 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 their appear 
 ance and amusements, and most of all, with the reve 
 rential 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." 
 
 ' Yery beautiful and liberal presents were then bestowed 
 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, 
 
344 Savage Devotion. 
 
 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 Almighty 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 sentiments 
 that are daily uttered in the forests, and over the moun 
 tains, 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 eating, they invariably 
 and audibly thank the Great Spirit fur the food they 
 are going to partake of. 
 
Episcopal Clergymen talk with the Indians. 345 
 
 These people have no churches or places of worship 
 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 excitement 
 in London, two Episcopal clergymen called on me one 
 day and desired to know if they could have an oppor 
 tunity 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 im 
 portant nature of these conversations, I resolved to attend 
 them, and with Jeffrey, their interpreter, to preserve 
 the 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 
 
846 War Chiefs Reply to Clergymen. 
 
 well as lie 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 
 hea'd 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 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 pale faces in this world, and we 
 
War Chiefs Reply to Clergymen. 347 
 
 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 necessary 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 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 
 * Missionaries. 
 
348 War Chiefs Reply to Clergymen. 
 
 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- <-! don't know that we do all that 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 difficult 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 read this good 
 Book, it will explain all that." The chief continued : 
 
 " My friends we believe 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." 
 
War Chiefs Reply to Clergymen. 349 
 
 The reverend gentleman inquired " Do you not 
 think that the Great Spirit sometimes punishes people 
 in this world for their sins ?" 
 
 The war chief. " Yes, we do believe so, my friend." 
 
 The reverend gentleman. "Did it ever occur to 
 you that the small-pox, which swept off more than half 
 of your tribe, and other tribes around you a few years 
 since, might have been sent into your country by the 
 Great Spirit to punish the Indians for their wickedness 
 and their resistance to His word ?" 
 
 The war chief. " My friend, we don't know that we 
 ever resisted the word of the Great Spirit. If the Great 
 Spirit sent the small-pox into our country to destroy us, 
 we believe it was to punish us for listening to the false 
 promises of the white men. It is white men's disease, 
 and it may have been sent amongst the white people to 
 punish them for their sins. It never came amongst the 
 Indians until we began to listen to the promises of 
 white men, and to follow their ways. It then came 
 amongst us, and we are not sure but the Great Spirit 
 then sent it to punish us for our foolishness. My 
 friends, I hope my talk does not offend you. We are 
 children, and you will forgive us for our ignorance. 
 This is all I wish to say.* 1 
 
 The reverend gentlemen, and several ladies attending 
 them, here bestowed upon the Indians several beautiful 
 Bibles, and other appropriate presents, and took leave ; 
 
350 Catholic and Methodist Clergymen. 
 
 the Bev. Mr. telling me that he had learned a 
 
 lesson from these poor people which he never should 
 forget in his life, and also, that he would not on any 
 account venture to trouble them with another question 
 on the subject of religion. 
 
 But a few days after this interview, a second appli 
 cation was made by a Catholic priest ; and after some 
 delay, an audience was agreed to. The Indians being 
 told that this was a different sort of religion, they were 
 much surprised. They at first refused to meet him, 
 alleging that they had already said everything they 
 could say ; but learning that he was a Catholic, they 
 had a little curiosity to hear him, and appointed the 
 . interview for the following week. 
 
 In the intervening time two Methodist preachers 
 called, and also wanted an opportunity of talking with 
 the Indians about religion : " What ! a third religion I" 
 This was more surprising to them still ; and one of my 
 men explained to them that there were three or four 
 more religions besides these ; when the poor people 
 began to inquire whether it wouldn't be best to see 
 them all at once. 
 
 They, however, replied to the application of the two 
 Methodists, that they were to have a talk about religion 
 on Monday next with a clergyman, and they had better 
 come at that time. 
 
 This meeting took place as appointed, and after 
 
War Chiefs Reply to Clergymen. 351 
 
 listening a long time, and with patience, to the ex 
 planations and kind advice of the several clergymen, the 
 war chief replied as follows : 
 
 " My friends I speak for the chief who is here, but 
 not very well. My words are the words of the chief, 
 and of all the party. We have heard what you had to 
 say, for we had promised to do so. 
 
 " My friends we have had several long talks before 
 on this subject, and our talk now would be much the 
 same. What we had to say is all written down in a 
 book, and perhaps you had better have that read to you ; 
 so that at this time our words will be few. 
 
 " My friends we know that you are good people, 
 and that your advice is good. We believe that the 
 Great Spirit has made our religion good, and sufficient 
 for us, if we do not in any way offend Him. 
 
 " My friends we see the religion of the white people 
 dividing into many paths, and we cannot believe that it 
 is pleasing to the Great Spirit. The Indians have but 
 one road in their religion, and they all travel in that ; 
 and the Great Spirit has never told them that it was 
 not right. 
 
 " My friends our ears have been open since we 
 came here, and the words we have heard have been 
 friendly and good ; but we see so many kinds of religion 
 and so many people drunk and begging, when we ride 
 through the streets, that we are a little more afraid of 
 
352 War Chiefs Reply to Clergymen. 
 
 white man's religion now than we were before we 
 came here. 
 
 " My friends the Indians occupied all the fine 
 hunting-grounds long before the white men came to 
 them; but the white men own them nearly all now, 
 and the Indians' hunting-grounds are nearly all gone. 
 The Indians never urge white men to take up their 
 religion; they are satisfied to have them take a dif 
 ferent road ; for the Indians wish to enjoy their 
 hunting-grounds to themselves in the world to come. 
 
 " My friends we thank you, and we shall wish that 
 the Great Spirit may be kind to you. I have no more 
 to say." 
 
 The clergymen decided that it would be cruel to put 
 any further questions to them, and took leave, making 
 them presents of Bibles and other appropriate things. 
 
 " We wish that the Great Spirit may be kind to you " 
 and, " the Indians wish to enjoy their hunting- 
 grounds to themselves in the world to come!" How 
 extraordinary is this ! the poor heathen, from the centre 
 of the American wilderness, here, in the metropolis of 
 the world, wishing that the Great Spirit may be kind to 
 clergymen, and that the Indians may be allowed to live 
 by themselves in the world to come ! " The world to 
 come !" what a text have we here ! Who taught these 
 people of the world to come ? Clergymen ? No but 
 a Divine voice, that never errs, nor comes too late 
 
The Indians' Belief. 353 
 
 that's sent with, the soul of man, to light and cheer him 
 through his existence. 
 
 Of the 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 
 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. 
 
 After the Indians had finished their exhibitions in 
 London, they made a provincial tour ; and Birmingham 
 
 2 A 
 
354 Miss Catherine Hutton. 
 
 being their first place, they were invited soon after 
 their arrival there to pay a visit to Miss Catherine 
 Hutton, a maiden lady of ninety-one years of age, living 
 a little out of town, where they were driven in an 
 omnibus. This kind lady, who had taken a deep 
 interest in them, gave them a dinner in her house, and 
 afterwards made them presents in money to a consider 
 able amount. Hear the war chief's speech on taking 
 leave of her : 
 
 " My kind Mother you are very old. The Great 
 Spirit has opened your heart to be very kind to us, and 
 we are thankful to Him for it. Your life has been 
 good, and the Great Spirit has allowed you to live to 
 see us, and He will soon call you to Him. 
 
 " We live a great way from here, and we shall not 
 look upon your face again in this world, though we all 
 believe, that if we behave well enough, we shall see 
 your face again in the world to come." 
 
 Good, kind woman ; she was so affected by this 
 address, that she burst into tears which prevented 
 utterance ; and as the Indians were all seated in the 
 carriage, she was just able to articulate, " Dear crea 
 tures ; may God bless their dear souls !" 
 
 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 
 
Uharity of Indians. 355 
 
 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 mise 
 rable-looking woman, with her little child, both in rags, 
 and begging for the means of existence, presented 
 herself in front of the door, where the old doctor, of 
 whom. I have before spoken, was standing, 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' apartment, where 
 the Indians were all seated on the floor, and all sym 
 pathizing with her miserable appearance. 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 
 
356 TJie Doctor's Speech on Charity. 
 
 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 Cadbury, president of one 
 of the hospitals, 721. 16s. one-half of the receipts; on 
 which occasion Mr. Cadbury made some very feeling 
 and friendly remarks, thanking them for the very hand 
 some donation, and reminding them of the importance 
 of 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 generally 
 the spokesman on these occasions, it was left for the 
 doctor to reply in this instance, and addressing himself 
 to Mr. Cadbury, he spoke as follows : 
 
 " My friend I rise to thank you for the words yon 
 have spoken to us. They have been kind, and we are 
 thankful for them. 
 
The Doctors Speech on Charity. 357 
 
 " My friend when I am at home in the wilderness, 
 as well as when I am amongst the white people, 1 
 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 consolation. 
 Your friendly words have opened our ears, and your 
 words of advice will not be forgotten. 
 
 " My friend you have advised us to be charitable to the 
 poor, and we have this day handed you three hundred 
 and sixty dollars to help the poor in your hospitals. 
 AVe 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 coming 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 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-water, but in this country we 
 have not drunk it, nor shall we we know that it is a 
 
358 Indians' Charity on a Steamer. 
 
 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 Edinburgh' 
 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 had no money. She 
 was in great alarm, and told the captain that she ex 
 pected 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 
 
Indians' Charity on a Steamer. 359 
 
 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. 
 
 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 shil 
 lings 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 of a man again because 
 his skin is red ; but be always sure that the heart of 
 
360 Indians* Charity on a Steamer. 
 
 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. 
 
 AFTER the loways had finished their provincial tour in 
 England, I accompanied them to Paris, and had the 
 honour of presenting 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 tfte wig-warns 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 Seriecas, near Buffalo, 
 and the Oneidas. That I slept in the wig- warns of the 
 chiefs. That I was amongst the Shawanos and the 
 
862 War Chiefs Speech to the King and Queen. 
 
 Delaware on the Ohio ; and also amongst the Chero- 
 kees and Creeks in Georgia and Tennessee ; and saw 
 many other tribes as I descended the Ohio and Mis 
 sissippi Rivers 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 
 
War Chief's Speech to the King and Queen. 363 
 
 % 
 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 chief, and his 
 warriors and braves who are present. 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 we shall carry these presents to our 
 country, and instruct our children to pronounce the 
 name of him who gave them. 
 
 " Great Fatherly ou. 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 wam-pum " (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 we 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, 
 
364 Louis Philippe in an Indian Village. 
 
 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." 
 
 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 
 me with honesty and kindness, and that I love them 
 for it." 
 
 What ! a king, in his palace, loves the poor, naked 
 savage of the wilderness! Yes; and, therefore, what a 
 noble man is a king! 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 con 
 ducted to their village, and to the chief's wig- warn, 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, 
 
Louis Philippe in an Indian Village. 365 
 
 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 every 
 thing I had ; he should demand my horse, from which 
 I would dismount; and having dismounted 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. But at 
 the moment when he had got all, and before I had time 
 for more than an instant thought of my awkward con 
 dition, 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 chiefs 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 
 
366 Louis Philippe in an Indian Village. 
 
 short distance on my route, I discovered that I had 
 left nay 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 
 chiefs wig-warn, and made inquiries for it. The chief 
 said, * But you did not entrust 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 ordered 
 to run and open a rude pen or cage, by the corner of 
 the wig-warn, and out leaped my dog, and sprang upon 
 my leg as I was sitting on my 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 ' repose con 
 fidence in their word, and feel assured that all the 
 property I entrusted to an Indian's care I should be 
 sure to find safe whenever I wanted it again.' " 
 
 THE END. 
 
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List of Publications. 13 
 
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List of Publications. 15 
 
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