There are many other methods which the Indians make use of to put their prisoners to death, but these are only occasional; that of burning is most generally used.
Whilst I was at the chief town of the Ottagaumies, an Illinois Indian was brought in, who had been made prisoner by one of their war parties. I had then an opportunity of seeing the customary cruelties inflicted by these people on their captives, through the minutest part of their process. After the previous steps necessary to his condemnation, he was carried, early in the morning, to a little distance from the town, where he was bound to a tree.
This being done, all the boys, who amounted to a great number, as the place was populous, were permitted to amuse themselves with shooting their arrows at the unhappy victim. As they were none of them more than twelve years old, and were placed at a considerable distance, they had not strength to penetrate to the vital parts, so that the poor wretch stood pierced with arrows, and suffering the consequent agonies, for more than two days.
During this time he sung his warlike exploits. He recapitulated every stratagem he had made use of to surprize his enemies: he boasted of the quantity of scalps he possessed, and enumerated the prisoners he had taken. He then described the different barbarous methods by which he had put the latter to death, and seemed even then to receive inconceivable pleasure from the recital of the horrid tale.
But he dwelt more particularly on the cruelties he had practised on such of the kindred of his present tormentors as had fallen into his hands; endeavouring by these aggravated insults to induce them to increase his tortures, that he might be able to give greater proofs of fortitude. Even in the last struggles of life, when he was no longer able to vent in words the indignant provocation his tongue would have uttered, a smile of mingled scorn and triumph sat on his countenance.
This method of tormenting their enemies is considered by the Indians as productive of more than one beneficial consequence. It satiates, in a greater degree, that diabolical lust of revenge, which is the predominant passion in the breast of every individual of every tribe, and it gives the growing warriors an early propensity to that cruelty and thirst for blood, which is so necessary a qualification for such as would be thoroughly skilled in their savage art of war.
I have been informed, that an Indian who was under the hands of his tormentors, had the audacity to tell them, that they were ignorant old women, and did not know how to put brave prisoners to death. He acquainted them that he had heretofore taken some of their warriors, and instead of the trivial punishments they inflicted on him, he had devised for them the most excruciating torments: that having bound them to a stake, he had stuck their bodies full of sharp splinters of turpentine wood, to which he then set fire, and dancing around them enjoyed the agonizing pangs of the flaming victims.
This bravado, which carried with it a degree of insult that even the accustomed ear of an Indian could not listen to unmoved, threw his tormentors off their guard, and shortened the duration of his torments; for one of the chiefs ran to him, and ripping out his heart, stopped with it the mouth from which had issued such provoking language.
Innumerable are the ironies that may be told of the courage and resolution of the Indians, who happen to be made prisoners by their adversaries. Many that I have heard are so astonishing, that they seem to exceed the utmost limits of credibility; it is, however, certain that these savages are possessed with many heroic qualities, and bear every species of misfortune with a degree of fortitude which has not been outdone by any of the ancient heroes of either Greece or Rome.
Notwithstanding these acts of severity exercised by the Indians towards those of their own species who fall into their hands, some tribes of them have been remarked for their moderation to such female prisoners belonging to the English colonies as have happened to be taken by them. Women of great beauty have frequently been carried off by them, and during a march of three or four hundred miles through their retired forests, have lain by their sides without receiving any insult, and their chastity has remained inviolate. Instances have happened where female captives, who have been pregnant at the time of their being taken, have found the pangs of child-birth come upon them in the midst of solitary woods, and savages their only companions; yet from these, savages as they were, have they received every assistance their situation would admit of, and been treated with a degree of delicacy and humanity they little expected.