Edwin James

“ I only dread the consequence of improper conduct, to the women and children; take pity on your women and children, warriors. When he tells you that he is a chief, he speaks truly; when he says that his soldiers appear like the grass in the spring, in place of those who die, he speaks truly; you, my nation, are like the fly in strength, just so easily can his mighty nation crush you between their fingers. ”

“ They then sat down to rest; but they could not rest long, for the Saukees of the Mississippi, you whom the Big Knives, like fools, have suffered to live, came and disturbed them in their sleep. When disturbed, not like women did they mourn their misfortunes; but like men, they rose in arms and came to me. I did not consult my feelings; I consulted the feelings of my nation, and I was for peace. I told them to sit down, and they did so. Keep your ears open that you may hear me, and raise your eyes that you may see me, for I have saved your blood. ”

“ The wide and densely-wooded valley of the Arkansa lay on our route. The course of the river was marked by a long and undulating line of mist, brightening in the beams of the rising sun; beyond rose the blue summits of the Point Sucre and Cavaniol mountains, "in the clear light above the dews of morn." Though the region about us had all the characters of a mountain district, we could discover little uniformity in the direction of the ranges. ”

“ Arrived at the village, some of the squaws, wives to the warriors of the party, assume the dress of their husbands, and, with the rods bearing the scalps in their hands, dance around a large post, reddened with vermillion, and, in concert with the young warriors, sing the war and scalp songs; the young warriors occasionally step into the ring of the dancers, and all keep time, with dance and song, to the loud beat of the gong. ”

“ I never act an humble part. I am one of those white men who never fear a red skin—when I move amongst them, it is not like a dog with his tail between his legs, but as becomes a man; and when I speak, I feel the strength of my nation.
"On the Missouri I have guns, powder and balls, blankets, breech-clouts, and leggings, and I am now getting more. I know where you have your village, and I know the face of the country over which you stretch your limbs. I know how and where you are scattered on hunting excursions. ”

“ Extensive prairies exist on the lower part of the Kiamesha, some of which command delightful views of the surrounding country. Before you lies the great valley of Red river, exhibiting a pleasing variety of forests and lawns; beyond rises the gentle slope of the Ozark mountains, imprinting the broad outline of their azure summits upon the margin of the sky. At the mouth of the Kiamesha, Red river is about two hundred yards wide. ”

“ This morning we turned our backs upon the mountains, and began to move down the Arkansa. It was not without a feeling of something like regret, that we found our long contemplated visit to these grand and interesting objects, was now at an end. One thousand miles of dreary and monotonous plain lay between us, and the enjoyments and indulgences of civilized countries. This we were to traverse in the heat of summer, but the scarcity of game about the mountains rendered our immediate departure necessary. ”

“ Standing in view of the junction of these magnificent rivers, meeting almost from opposite extremities of the continent, and each impressed with the peculiar character of the regions from which it descends, we seem to imagine ourselves capable of comprehending at one view all that vast region between the summits of the Alleghanies and of the Rocky Mountains, and feel a degree of impatience at finding all our prospects limited by an inconsiderable extent of low muddy bottom lands, and the unrelieved, unvaried, gloom of the forest. ”

“ Between three and four hundred mounted Indians, dressed in their richest habiliments of war, were rushing around us in every direction, with streaming feathers, war weapons, and with loud shouts and yells. The few whom we had observed in advance of the main body, and whom, as they came near, we recognized to be the chief men, presented a perfect contrast to the others in their slow movements, and simplicity of dress. ”

“ The thinly-wooded banks of the creek [270] resounded to the loud notes of the robin, and the more varied and melodious song of the mocking-bird; the stern features of nature, which we had long contemplated with a feeling almost of terror, seemed to relax into a momentary smile to cheer us on our toilsome journey.
On the morning of the 29th, our course (S. 35° E.) brought us at the distance of three miles from our camp, to the foot of the cliff which separates the valley from the high plain. ”

“ Though the soil is in some places fertile, the want of timber, of navigable streams, and of water for the necessities of life, render it an unfit residence for any but a nomad population. The traveller who shall at any time have traversed its desolate sands, will, we think, join us in the wish that this region may for ever remain the unmolested haunt of the native hunter, the bison, and the jackall. ”

“ The condition of the savages is a state of constant alarm and apprehension. Their security from their enemies, and their means of subsistence, are precarious and uncertain, the former requiring the utmost vigilance to prevent its infraction, and the latter being attended with no regular supplies of the necessaries of life. In times of the most profound peace, whether at their villages or on a hunting expedition, they are continually on the alert lest they should be surprised by their enemies. ”

“ The Arkansa valley, between our encampment of the 16th and the mountains, a distance of about thirty miles, has a meagre and gravelly soil, sustaining a growth of small cotton-wood trees, rushes, and coarse grass: above the rocky bluffs, on each side, spreads a dreary expanse of almost naked sand, intermixed with clay enough to prevent its drifting with the wind, but not enough to give it fertility. ”

“ For my part, my father, I am proud to boast, that my hands are clean. Never has one of my nation stained his hands with the blood of a white man. I do not understand, my father, your mode of treating those well who treat you ill. It is true, I know, that you have more sense than I have, but I cannot understand it. I have heard that the Pawnees have been to see you; a nation that has killed, robbed, and insulted your people. I was also informed that you feasted them, and at their departure you put weapons in their hands. ”

“ It is, in their estimation, no proof either of valour or good sense, for a warrior to advance into the plain, stand still, and suffer his enemy to take deliberate aim, in order to shoot him down, when such a course of conduct can be avoided; but they say that when a warrior goes to battle, it is a duty, which is due to himself, to his nation, and to his friends, to avail himself of every possible advantage over his enemy, and even to kill him, if he can, without any risk of his own person. But a warrior must never yield in battle ”

“ Turkies were very numerous. The paroquet, chuck-wills-widow, wood-robin, mocking bird, and many other small birds, filled the woods with life and music. [23] The bald eagle, the turkey buzzard, and black vulture, raven and crow, were seen swarming like the blowing flies about any spot where a bison, an elk, or a deer had fallen a prey to the hunter. About the river were large flocks of pelicans, with numbers of snowy herons, and the beautiful ardea egretta. ”

“ From Olean downward, the Alleghany and Ohio bear along with their currents fleets of rude arks laden with cattle, horses, household furniture, agricultural implements, and numerous families having all their possessions embarked on the same bottom, and floating onward toward that imaginary region of happiness and contentment, which, like the "town of the brave and generous spirits," the expected heaven of the aboriginal American, lies always "beyond the place where the sun goes down." ”

“ In the crevices of the rocks where a scanty soil has accumulated, is here and there planted a hardy evergreen, whose short and gnarled trunk, recurved and inflexible branches, proclaim the storms it has withstood, and the centuries during which it has vegetated. ”

“ This scenery is not to be compared in point of grandeur with the naked and towering majesty of the great chain of the Andes, which we had lately left, but in its kind it is of uncommon beauty. The hills, though often abrupt and high, are sometimes smooth and grassy to their summits, having a surface, unbroken by a single rock or tree, large enough to be seen at the distance of a mile. ”

“ The unaccustomed eye, in roving over those extensive undulating prairies, is beguiled by the alternation of forests and meadows, arranged with an appearance of order, as if by the labour of men, and seeks in vain to repose upon some cottage or mansion embosomed in the little copses of trees, or in the edge of the forest, which margins the small streams and ravines in the distance. ”

“ You are all great men. I am a poor obscure individual. It has, however, become my duty to inform you, that the chiefs and warriors of my nation, sometime ago, held a council for the purpose of concerting measures, to terminate amicably, the cruel and unwelcome war, that has so long existed between us, and chose me, all insignificant as I am, to {36} bring to you this pipe which I hold in my hand. I have visited your village, that we might all smoke from the same pipe, and eat from the same bowl, with the same spoon, in token of our future union in friendship. ”

“ From the concurrent testimony of those who have seen the animal in its native country, and who have had an opportunity of observing its manners, it is, without doubt, the most daring and truly formidable animal that exists in the United States. He frequently pursues and attacks hunters; and no animal, whose swiftness or art is not superior to his own, can evade him. He kills the bison, and drags the ponderous carcass to a distance to devour at his leisure, as the calls of hunger may influence him.
The grizzly bear is not exclusively carnivorous, as has by some persons been imagined ”

“ No, Saukees, these red skins, whom you persecute, have opened their ears to my words, and are constantly looking towards me. They do not wish a dishonourable peace. I would sooner see you drink their blood, than suffer them to make a dishonourable peace. You have a few of their children as prisoners among you; if you consult the interest of your nation, you will send them to their mothers: if you do not deliver them up, the red-skins of Missouri will go after them; and in hunting them they may find some of yours. ”

“ On the summits of some of the dry sandy ridges, we saw a few of the plants called Adam's needles, (yucca angustifolia) thriving with an appearance of luxuriance and verdure, in a soil which bids defiance to almost every other species of vegetation. Nature has, however, fitted the yucca for the ungenial soil it is destined to occupy. The plant consists of a large tuft of rigid spear-pointed leaves, placed immediately upon the root, and sending up in the flowering season, a stalk bearing a cluster of lilliaceous flowers as large as those of the common tulip of the gardens. ”

“ Throughout the night the roaring of immense herds of bisons, and the solemn notes of the hooting owl were heard, intermixed with the desolate cries of the jackal and the screech-owl. The mulberry, and the guilandina, growing near our camp, with many of the plants and birds we had been accustomed to see in the frontier settlements of the United States, reminded us of the comforts of home and the [140] cheering scenes of civilized society, giving us at the same time the assurance that we were about to arrive at the point where we should take leave of the desert. ”

“ Such is sometimes the violence of the displeasure of his squaw, that he is obliged, through prudential motives, to take refuge in a neighbouring lodge, where he solaces himself with the pipe, until he supposes there is no longer danger of being provoked beyond endurance, so as to be tempted to chastise her; a discipline which she seems rather to solicit than avoid, that she may have a sufficient excuse for wreaking her vengeance on her rival, and for giving free vent to her sentiments and opinions upon her husband, in language of the most superlatively indecent and opprobrious nature. ”

“ The white wolves and jackals, more intelligent than their associates, judging by the eye of the proximity of danger, as well as by their exquisite sense of smelling, either dashed over the river, or unhesitatingly crossed our scent in the rear, and at an easy pace, or dog-trot, chose the shortest route to the bluffs. ”

“ Along the fertile bottoms of the Alleghany river, we begin to discover traces of those ancient works so common in the lower parts of the Mississippi valley, the only remaining vestiges of a people once numerous and powerful, of whom time has destroyed every other record. These colossal monuments, whatever may have been the design of their erection, have long since outlived the memory of those who raised them, and will remain for ages affecting witnesses of the instability of national, as well as individual greatness ”

“ Those Indians who have been useful to the nation, such as brave warriors or good hunters, pass over with ease, and arrive safely at the A-pah-he, or ancient village. But the worthless Indians slip off from the bridge or footway, into the stream that foams beneath in the swiftness of its course, which hurries them into oblivion, or Lethe. ”

“ The wide valley of the river here presented a pleasing alternation of heavy forests, with small but luxuriant meadows, affording a profuse supply of grass for our horses. The broad hills, swelling gently one above another as they recede from the river, are diversified with nearly the same intermixture of field and forest as in the most highly cultivated portions of the eastern states. Herds of bisons, wild horses, elk and deer, are seen quietly grazing in these extensive and fertile pastures; the habitations and the works of man alone seem wanting to complete the picture of rural abundance. ”