"'You all know well my father was killed by the enemy, when you all deserted him like cowards; and, while the Great Master of Life spares me, no hostile foot shall again be set on our lands. I know you all; and I know that those who are afraid of their bodies in battle are thieves when they are out of it: but the warrior of the strong arm and the great heart will never rob a friend.' After a short pause, he resumed: 'My friends, the white men are brave and belong to a great nation. They are many moons crossing the great lake in coming from their own country to serve us. If you were foolish enough to attack them, they would kill a great many of you; but suppose you should succeed in destroying all that are now present, what would be the consequence? A greater number would come next year to revenge the death of their relations, and they would annihilate our tribe; or should not that happen, their friends at home, on hearing of their deaths, would say we were a bad and wicked people, and white men would never more come among us. We should then be reduced to our former state of misery and persecution; our ammunition would be quickly expended; our guns would become useless, and we should again be driven from our lands, and the lands of our fathers, to wander like deer and wolves in the midst of the woods and plains. I therefore say the white men must not be injured! They have offered you compensation for the loss of your friends: take it; but, if you should refuse, I tell you to your faces that I will join them with my own band of warriors; and should one white man fall by the arrow of an Indian, that Indian, if he were my brother, with all his family, shall become victims to my vengeance.' Then, raising his voice, he called out, 'Let the Wallah Wallahs, and all who love me, and are fond of the white men, come forth and smoke the pipe of peace!' Upwards of one hundred of our late adversaries obeyed the call, and separated themselves from their allies. The harangue of the youthful chieftain silenced all opposition. The above is but a faint outline of the arguments he made use of, for he spoke upwards of two hours; and Michel confessed himself unable to translate a great portion of his language, particularly when he soared into the wild flights of metaphor, so common among Indians. His delivery was generally bold, graceful, and energetic. Our admiration at the time knew no bounds; and the orators of Greece or Rome when compared with him, dwindled in our estimation into insignificance.
"Through this chief's mediation, the various claimants were in a short time fully satisfied, without the flaming scalp of our Highland hero; after which a circle was formed by our people and the Indians indiscriminately: the white and red chiefs occupied the center, and our return to friendship was ratified by each individual in rotation taking an amicable whiff from the peace-cementing calumet.
"The chieftain whose timely arrival had rescued us from impending destruction was called 'Morning Star.' His age did not exceed twenty-five years. His father had been a chief of great bravery and influence, and had been killed in battle by the Shoshones a few years before. He was succeeded by Morning Star, who, notwithstanding his youth, had performed prodigies of valor. Nineteen scalps decorated the neck of his war horse, the owners of which had been all killed in battle by himself to appease the spirit of his deceased father. He wished to increase the number of his victims to twenty; but the terror inspired by his name, joined to the superiority which his tribe derived by the use of firearms, prevented him from making up the desired complement by banishing the enemy from the banks of the Columbia.[1]
| [1] | The Indians consider the attainment of twenty scalps as the summit of a warrior's glory. |
"His handsome features, eagle glance, noble bearing, and majestic person, stamped him one of Nature's own aristocracy; while his bravery in the field, joined to his wisdom in their councils, commanded alike the involuntary homage of the young, and the respect of the old.
"We gave the man who had been wounded in the shoulder a chief's coat; and to the relations of the men who were killed we gave two coats, two blankets, two fathoms of cloth, two spears, forty bullets and powder, with a quantity of trinkets, and two small kettles for their widows. We also distributed nearly half a bale of tobacco among all present, and our youthful deliverer was presented by Mr. Keith with a handsome fowling-piece, and some other valuable articles.
"Four men were then ordered to each canoe, and they proceeded on with the poles; while the remainder, with the passengers, followed by land. We were mixed pell-mell with the natives for several miles: the ground was covered with large stones, small willows, and prickly-pears; and had they been inclined to break the solemn compact into which they had entered, they could have destroyed us with the utmost facility.
"At dusk we bade farewell to the friendly chieftain and his companions, and crossed to the south side, where we encamped, a few miles above Lewis River, and spent the night in tranquillity.
"It may be imagined by some that the part we acted in the foregoing transaction betrayed too great an anxiety for self-preservation; but when it is recollected that we were several hundred miles from any assistance, with a deep and rapid river to ascend by the tedious and laborious process of poling, and that the desultory Cossack mode of fighting in use among the Indians, particularly the horsemen, would have cut us off in piecemeal ere we had advanced three days, it will be seen that, under the circumstances, we could not have acted otherwise."
And now we most turn to another phase of Indian life and character which is most worthy of record, and one in which more than anywhere else they show some of those "touches of nature which make the whole world kin." This is that phase exhibited in myths and superstitions. Here we shall find, as almost nowhere else, that Indians are, after all, very much like other people. In this portion of this chapter the author is incorporating portions of articles written by himself for the American Antiquarian.