CHAPTER XIII.
THE DELAWARE INDIAN.
One day after dinner, when we had drunk coffee, my sentry shouted that a party of Indians were coming up the river, and I perceived through my telescope that they must belong to one of the civilized tribes, as they were not armed with lances, and bows and arrows, but with firearms, and wore clothes, if we may call them such, consisting of leathern breeches and jackets, and a coloured handkerchief wound round the head like a turban. There were ten Indians, who halted at the great gate of the palisade which enclosed my fort, in a large semicircle, with both its ends joining the river. They shouted "Captain," and then gave me to understand that they wished to speak with me. I went out, accompanied by Trusty, with my large gun loaded with slugs on my arm, and found that the men belonged to a tribe of friendly Delaware Indians, whose chief I knew, and who had several times camped in the very neighbourhood and paid me a visit.
They told me they had encamped several miles down the river, where they had arrived on the last evening; their chief had sent them to tell me that the prairie fire on the previous morning had been caused by the negligence of his men, but that it had spread against their will, and had not been purposely caused. Then they asked whether the chief would be allowed to visit me, and rode back to camp after I had appointed his visit for the morrow.
The next morning at about seven o'clock the chief of the Delawares duly rode up with three of his men. They bound their horses by lassos to pickets which they drove into the ground, carried their baggage into the fort, and accepted my invitation to enter the house, where our parlour and kitchen were. Delawares have always been on the most friendly terms with the United States Government, fought on their side against England in the War of Liberation, and have assumed a number of customs from the whites. They have, as their property, a district of land on the Kansas, where their villages are situated, and their squaws, children, and old people carry on agriculture and cattle breeding, while the men, with some of the squaws, hunt in the desert for nine months of the year.
The Delawares are generally good-looking; the men tall and well-built, with expressive, marked features, aquiline noses, large dark eyes, long black hair, and not a very reddish-brown complexion. The women are small, but neat and pretty, and in spite of their darker hue, produce a pleasing impression through their regular sharply-cut features, dark curly hair, and brilliant coal-black eyes. They dress themselves with some degree of taste. Their clothes consist of gaily-painted deer-hide, ornamented with beads, and the gayest calicoes, which they obtain from the Government trading posts by bartering peltry for them.
After our guests had taken their places, I lit a pipe, and handed it to the chief, who, after taking some twenty pulls at it, passed it to his next man, and so it went from hand to hand, or rather, from mouth to mouth, till it returned to me. During this ceremony of the pipe of peace not a word was spoken, but the chief now broke the silence. After puffing out a portion of the swallowed smoke in a dense cloud from his lips and nostrils, he told me they were the best friends of the white men, and would remain so, and intended to stay for some weeks in the neighbourhood for the purpose of hunting. I assured them that we entertained the same feelings toward them, and that I intended to pay them a return visit at their camp.
After this dinner was served up, which they greatly enjoyed. They behaved with great propriety at it, were acquainted with the use of knives and forks, and it could be seen by their conduct that they frequently came into contact with white men. After dinner the chief imparted to me, that his people wished to have a deal with me, and swap tanned deer and antelope skins for powder, lead, and flints. I told him I should be delighted, and should expect them in the afternoon. One of them, who called himself "Black Tiger," pleased me remarkably. He was a young, good-looking man, of about eighteen, tall, thin, with an open, kindly face, and displayed great animation and conversational powers for an Indian. He spoke English very well, and seemed much attached to me, which he repeatedly told me, and at last displayed more fully by expressing a wish to remain with me. I took it for a joke, laughed, and told him that in that case I would build him a house for himself and give him everything he wished to have.
They then rode away, after indicating the position of the sun when they intended to return in the afternoon for the purpose of making the barter. At about 4 P.M., some twenty Delawares dismounted in front of the fort, and displayed their wares on the prairie. No tribe prepares hides so finely as this one, and I was very glad to obtain a number of them for use by myself and my men, as we made our clothes out of them, and were unable to prepare them so handsomely ourselves. The exchange was soon arranged to mutual satisfaction, although I had given but little powder, lead, flints, and pressed tobacco in proportion. The chief was presented with a small portion of the above articles, as is the custom on such occasions, and then the whole party followed me into the fort, where I regaled them with coffee and bread.
When they prepared to depart, the chief told me that one of his men, Black Tiger, would stop with me, as I had offered to build him a house and give him everything he required. He would in return be a very good friend to me, and he (the chief) would hear on his return in the following year whether he remained a Delaware. I saw now that it was no jest, and replied that I would be a good friend to him as to all the Delawares. On parting I gave him the assurance that I would visit them next morning at their camp. Black Tiger remained behind in great delight, carried his saddle and pack into the fort, placed his long rifle and hunting pouch in the parlour, and then came to me begging I would build him the promised house. I intimated to him that this would take some time, but in the meanwhile I would give him a handsome tent. I fetched a very large white and red striped marquee and asked him where I should put it up for him. He pointed out a spot at the eastern end of the fence under an elm-tree on the slope over the river, and when I told him that I locked the fort gate at night, he laughed, and replied that in that case he would shut up his house too.
He was quite beside himself with joy when the handsome tent was up, and the long red, white, and blue American pennant floated over it. He now refused to have another house, as this one was much finer than mine. A trench was dug round the tent to carry off the rain water, and the ground inside was covered with some buffalo hides, after which Tiger carried in his baggage and weapons, quite delighted with his house. In order to delight him even more, I hung upon the tent-post a looking-glass, put in a chair, and gave my young friend a gay coloured silk handkerchief, with which he bound his fine black hair on the right side of his head, and let the end hang over his shoulder. After supper my new guest went to his tent, and when we closed the fort, a merry fire was still blazing before it, behind which he sat on his stool and smoked a short pipe which I had also given him.
The next morning, almost before sunrise, I went to Tiger and saw him turning some spits at the fire, on which he had placed the breast of a turkey, while by his side lay another young cock which, as he said, he had fetched for me. He had been hunting on the other side of the river, to which he had crossed in my canoe. An hour after he came to breakfast with me, and enjoyed it heartily, especially the milk and bread. Then he went to his tent, and slept till I called him to ride with me to the camp of his tribe.
I had mounted Czar, and one of my men the cream-colour, when my young Tiger rode up to us in full costume. The lower part of his face, from the corners of his mouth to the ear-tips, was painted pure red with vermilion; from this a black stripe ran to the eyes, while the edges of the eyelids were again thickly daubed with vermilion. His hair, fastened with the silk handkerchief, hung over his shoulders, and in front of his chest he had hung from a leathern thong the looking-glass from his tent, which completely covered it. He glowed with pride and joy, and was of opinion that his brothers in camp would stare when they saw him with these splendid things.
Tiger was mounted on a magnificent piebald, with an enormous black mane and tail. The saddle was of wood, and home manufacture, and from it hung two large wooden stirrups by leathern straps. Over the saddle lay a shaggy buffalo hide, under which the tomahawk, fastened to the saddle bow, and a rolled-up lasso peeped out. The bridle was composed of leathern straps fastened under the horse's jaw with a slipknot, and vermilion dyed strips of deerhide were plaited in the mane. The long single rifle hung downwards over Tiger's left shoulder, while he laid his powerful forearm on the stock. A small medicine bag of beaver skin hung on his right side, and on the strap passing over his right shoulder a number of strips of shaggy buffalo hide were fastened as a rest for the rifle. The young rider's dress consisted of leathern breeches adorned on the sides with a delicate fringe of the same material, and fastened at top by a strap to the short leathern petticoat that was gathered round his hips, and decorated with very long fringe. On his feet he had deerhide mocassins, round his neck was a collar of very large white beads, very finely cut out of shells, and round his arms was a number of polished brass rings. He sat his horse nobly, and turned his flashing black eyes in all directions.
We soon reached the Delaware camp, hobbled our horses in the grass close by, and went up to the chief, who was lying at his fire, in front of his great buffalo hide tent, and being served with food by his two young squaws. Without rising, he invited us to sit down by his side and smoke the pipe of peace with him, while he silently gazed in admiration at Black Tiger. The camp consisted of some forty tents, of white buffalo hides, erected under clumps of trees on the river bank, and before which an equal number of fires was burning. From the trees around hung a number of skins of every description, stretched out to dry in the sun, while men, women, and children lay round the fire and were eating their dinner. A heap of dogs were running about the camp, while some hundred horses and mules were grazing around. We sat down on a buffalo hide by the chief's fire, and he at once told us about his journey which he had made in spring in the Rocky Mountains; he wished to remain during the winter in the south, and next spring pay a visit to his home on the Kansas. He described in a very animated way the hunts he had made there, and the bloody fights with hostile tribes; gave me a very attractive description of the mountains, rivers, and valleys of those parts, and remarked, with a slightly jealous look, that I occupied the best land. I answered him that this land was free as before to friendly Indians like the Delawares: the latter could sleep the more tranquilly, because I only pursued the foes of my Indian friends, and had cast my bullets solely for them. This speech produced a very good effect upon my red friend, and with a cordial laugh, he took my hand in his two and shook it with an expression of the most hearty and sincere friendliness. Soon after he said a few words to one of his squaws, and one of his little ones, about four years of age, came out of the tent soon after, dragging an enormous tanned, exquisitely painted buffalo hide, which he presented to me, while his father nodded kindly.
While we were sitting thus cosily together, several of the Indians in the other tents prepared to go hunting, mounted their horses, called their dogs, and rode off; while others got their fishing tackle ready, or sported with the girls at the fire. Two young squaws went out in front of the camp followed by several youths, and stood side by side to try their speed in running. They were sixteen or seventeen years of age, gracefully built and really pretty; they only wore their leathern fringed petticoat, a couple of long red strips of leather round their hanging black hair, with beads on their neck and brass rings round their pretty arms. With their brilliant fiery eyes they waited, dancing on their little feet, laughing and teasing each other, for the signal to start, and the two goddesses of the desert glided like lightning through the short grass, scarce touching the ground with the tip of their feet, while their long hair, with the red streamers, flew out behind them. Far away on the prairie stood the tree, which they touched almost simultaneously, and they darted back with a laugh that displayed their pearly teeth. I involuntarily rose at the sight of these pretty creatures, and was surprised at myself, for years had elapsed since a female glance had melted the ice of my heart. I looked for a long time at these graceful little savages, as they teased each other and bounded about with the most pleasing movements; then I once more assured the chief of my friendship, and rode back to the fort.
The young Indian was already quite at home and always in good spirits. I was thoroughly acquainted with the character of these men, who had grown up in a state of independence, and knew that my only way of keeping him was by gradually accustoming him to the minor pleasures of civilized life, while at the same time avoiding everything that might lessen his liberty, such as he enjoyed in the nomadic life of his tribe. Eating played a great part in this—coffee, milk, bread, eggs, cheese, and butter were delicacies which he heartily enjoyed, and he soon grew accustomed to them. Whenever his hunting permitted it, he was rarely absent from meals. At times he disappeared, struck his tent, and we saw nothing of him for several days; at others, he stopped at home, and hardly crossed the river to shoot a turkey or deer. It was an incalculable advantage to have a trustworthy Indian with me, as any hostilities against me affected him and consequently his tribe, and would be avenged by the latter. The Delawares are the most respected among the savage western hordes, as they have better weapons and more weight with the United States Government than all the rest. Hence, I regarded this chance enlistment as very fortunate, and was resolved to make every effort to retain my guest as long as I could. Among other amusements, which I strove to procure him, was chessplaying, which he soon learnt and passionately loved. He became so excited that he would spring up and dance about as if mad, and would frequently play far into the night.
If by chance any of my horses or mules got loose and bolted, Tiger was soon galloping after them, and drove them home; it was the same with my milch kine when they did not come to be milked at the regular hour. In smoking meat, plaiting lassos, tanning hides, &c., he was very useful to me, and he very often accompanied me on my hunting excursions, when he proved a pleasant companion and famous adjunct. Shooting with shot guns was something new to Tiger, and afforded him great amusement; and as the clouds of passenger pigeons had arrived to devour our abundant mast crop, we frequently went across to the forest in the evening when the birds were settling, sent our shot among them, and brought down hundreds.
It is incredible in what countless numbers these pigeons fly, I remember on several occasions watching from the fort their flight over the forest, when they flew in a line from one end of the horizon to the other, almost uninterruptedly for two hours. In the woods where they settle to devour the mast, in a few weeks not an acorn is literally to be found, and at the spots where they rest at night many trees do not retain a single leaf on their branches, because the latter are broken by the birds settling on them in masses. In those parts of America where pig breeding is carried on extensively, these birds are regarded as a plague, as they entirely eat up the mast in a very short time. The pigeons are very good eating, but we who had such an abundance of large game only followed these smaller varieties for fun, and it is a rarity to find a shot gun on the border.
Our horses had enjoyed a rather long rest, when I one morning rode across the river with Tiger to the northern prairies for the purpose of procuring fresh meat. We had been an hour under way when we reached a stream, which winds through the prairie to the Leone and is densely overgrown on both banks with birch bushes. The stream through its windings forms here almost an island, as it flows past again only a few yards from its own bed. I saw from a distance a remarkably fat buffalo in the young fresh grass of this island, and on the other side in the prairie a herd of about four hundred of these animals. I dismounted behind the birches, and left Tiger with the horses; then I sprang through the stream, and crawled on my stomach through the grass toward the buffalo, Trusty following me exactly in the same way. The buffalo continued to graze, and did not seem to notice me at all. The sun burnt fiercely, although the breeze was very fresh, and I became frightfully hot on this march. The buffalo was one of the largest bulls in the herd, and seemed to have selected this luxuriant spot for itself; it frequently looked across to its friends, and drove away with its huge fat tail and horns the flies which on this day were most troublesome. Not far from it grew an old mosquito-tree, the only one on this round, rather large meadow, and a very long, strong, but withered branch grew horizontally out of its trunk about four feet from the ground.
I was near enough to shoot with certainty, but the buffalo was turned from me, and I was obliged to wait till it moved before I could kill it. I lay for a long time motionless with Trusty behind me, whose head I pressed down to the ground. At last the bull started round, as the flies had probably given it too fierce a sting, and exposed its whole enormous side to me. I aimed just behind the shoulder-blade, and as soon as I had fired laid myself flat on the ground. The buffalo darted round several times looking for its enemy, but then tottered against the tree, where it leant against the withered branch to keep itself from falling, while it burst into a fearful roar and rolled its enormous head. I gave Trusty a nod, and with a few leaps he was in front of the buffalo and pinned it by the nose. I had just reloaded when the bushes parted on the other side of the meadow at a hundred points, the whole herd of buffaloes dashed through and galloped towards me. They had heard the complaints of their lord and Trusty's furious barking, and hurried up to help their comrade. I stood quite exposed, and expected that on seeing me they would take to flight, but they dashed on straight towards me. The foremost of the herd were only thirty paces from me when I took out my white pocket-handkerchief and waved it in the air. The ranks now broke, and the terrified animals dashed past me on the right and left; upon which I sent two bullets after them, which certainly went home, but were carried away by the wounded. Tiger at this moment came through the bushes with the horses, and said to me, laughingly, that if I had not had the handkerchief the herd would certainly have run over me. We went up to the shot buffalo, while our horses grazed near us, paunched it, and then put up a number of white rags we had brought for the purpose, and fastened to sticks, and laid a white cloth over it to keep off the carrion crows. Then we mounted our horses for the purpose of riding home and fetching the meat in the mule cart.
We were in our saddles when a herd of about 400 buffaloes appeared on a rise in the prairie, halted in a long point, and stared at us in amazement. The distance was scarce 300 yards. Tiger looked at me with a smile, and cried "Alligator Creek," while pointing to the herd. I made him a sign to ride on, and we were soon galloping behind the flying buffaloes, which pressed close together and thundered on ahead of us in a cloud of dust. Tiger's clear hunting yell urged the terrified monsters to a more rapid flight, and in ten minutes we approached a swampy stream which crossed the prairie obliquely, and which we had christened "Alligator Creek," from the number of those animals in it. The banks were very steep and above twelve feet high, the water almost dried up, and the deep bed only contained black thick mud.
The dense mass hastened before us towards the banks of the river bed, and rushed down into the swampy bottom with deafening
roars and grunts. Buffalo after buffalo fell into the ravine till we pulled up on the bank above them and laughed at their confusion and the efforts with which they ascended the other bank all coated with mud. I fancied that at least one half must break their necks, but not one of them remained in the mud. They forced their way to the other bank atop of each other, and sprang, apparently at least, quite unhurt up it. I had dismounted and shot a fat cow, which had borne a calf this year and hence was very plump. The cows only drop one calf every two years, and for this reason it is the more inexplicable that the number of these animals is not more rapidly reduced by the great destruction that takes place among them. The cow followed the herd but a short distance, and then fell dead on the prairie. We were obliged to go a long way up the bank before we could find a low path by which to cross, but soon reached the cow, put up rags round it, but left the paunching to my people, as we did not care to dirty ourselves with the mud that covered it.
We now rode the shortest way to the forest on the Leone, and again crossed the stream on which I had shot the bull about three miles below the spot where it lay. We passed through the thick bushes out into the prairie, but Trusty did not follow us. He trotted down the stream, stopped every now and then, looked up to me and gave his deep bark. I looked at him curiously, for I knew that he was on some track, when all at once he disappeared in the bushes and stopped. I gave Czar, whom the well-known voice had rendered impatient, his head, and soon reached the bushes among which Trusty was baying, with a revolver in my hand. I turned Czar into a gap between the bushes, when suddenly the shaggy head of a furious buffalo rose above the bank within a yard of me. My startled horse swerved, and cleared the bushes by a tremendous leap, while the monster dashed past me with a roar and galloped across the prairie. I soon got out of the bush, however, and went after it, while Tiger came to meet me. I was close behind the bull, when Tiger flew past it and gave it a bullet from his long rifle near the neck. The buffalo followed the piebald with terrible fury, dyeing the prairie with its blood, when I darted past it and gave it a bullet from my revolver behind the shoulder-blade, which lamed its left fore leg. Trusty now attacked it in the flank, and it stood at bay, holding its head close to the ground, with its nose between its fore feet, and holding one of its short sharp horns against the dog. The buffalo stood motionless with its tail erect, while Trusty sprang barking before it, waiting for the moment when it should raise its head. But its hour had arrived. I rode within twenty yards, and shot it through the heart: it fell lifeless.
It was one of the bulls I had wounded in the morning, when they hurried to the assistance of their comrade: feeling bad it had gone to the water to cool itself, and Trusty had followed its trail to the spot. We put up rags round this one too, and rode sharply to the fort, whence I sent off two of my men with the cart and two mules, accompanied by Tiger. They returned late at night, and brought a heavy load of meat home, which we cut up and salted the next morning. Of the three hides, they only brought the one shot first, which was employed in making a very long lasso.
Hunting occupied us pleasantly through the autumn, and Tiger grew more and more used to our mode of life: it became rare for him to remain away several days without our knowing what had become of him; he also took greater pleasure in domestic jobs, and applied himself to them more frequently than at the first period of his stay with us. He learned to milk the cows, and readily helped in it as he was so fond of milk, as well as in making vinegar, which he also liked much, and which is made of the large wild grapes with which the prairie thickets are covered. For this purpose I had two large empty whisky casks fetched from the settlement, and this year our vinegar turned out first-rate. Previously we had made it in smaller quantities of mulberries, plums, or honey, which was not half so agreeable as that made of grapes.
Tiger was able to make butter and cheese, and at a pinch cook. Our table was now always well covered, as we had a superabundance of the finest vegetables. The potato crop had turned out very well, and we had more especially an extraordinary quantity of sweet potatoes, as they are called. This is a tuber like the potato; the plant itself consists of tendrils, which spread flat and thick over the soil, and can be easily multiplied in spring. The shoot bears in autumn an extraordinary number of tubers, which are employed precisely like potatoes, except that they have a much more agreeable flavour, resembling the chestnut. A small, most prolific bean, which we plant between the maize, and which spreads over the whole field, had produced us a large stock, while the less hardy vegetables, such as lettuce, spinach, and cabbage, covered the garden all the winter through.
The winter in this region is very mild, and may fairly be termed the pleasantest season of the year. We have no lasting rainy season, although rain falls more frequently then than in the summer months, but it rarely lasts longer than a day, and then the cloudless blue sky gleams pleasantly over us again. Frost is rare and trifling; but sometimes it sets in towards morning, and will last a whole day if accompanied by a wind blowing down from the northern Rocky Mountains. These Northers are usually called something terrible in the whole of the United States, but in reality they do not at all merit this reputation. Certainly the cold is felt much more among us than elsewhere; because, as men accustomed to warm weather, we rarely lay in a stock of winter clothes. The houses, too, are not calculated for cold, as they are built very airily and lightly, and have no stoves—only fireplaces. When the Northers blow the people fly to these fires, while the cattle seek bottoms and dense thickets, where they conceal themselves.
I remember on a splendidly warm forenoon the sky becoming overcast from the north, and it began to blow and rain, which caused the whole country to be covered with ice in a short time. If such a storm assails a traveller in his light summer dress, he is certainly in an unpleasant position, and if he is a stranger it easily happens that he tells a terrible story about it when he gets home. These disagreeable storms from the north, however, are infrequent; we have perhaps six or eight in a winter, and they rarely last longer than four-and-twenty hours, and are then driven away by very bright warm days. The winter proper—which may bring cold weather—does not begin till January, frequently later; hence we have a very long delicious autumn. The days are no longer oppressively hot, and the nights become so cool that we are glad to snuggle under a buffalo robe or a woollen blanket. This is the season when we recover from the exhausting continuous summer heat, and the body regains its energy.
