INCIDENTS AND PECULIARITIES OF THE INDIANS.
During our residence in Canada, we were often visited by the Indians,
which gave us an opportunity to learn their character, habits and
disposition; and some incidents illustrative of the peculiarities of that
abused people, I will here mention.
I recollect one bitter cold night, about eleven o'clock, I happened to
awake, and looking out toward the fire, I was surprised to see standing
there, erect and quiet, a tall, brawny Indian, wrapped in his blanket;
his long hunting knife and tomahawk dangling from his belt; and his rifle
in his hand. Had he been in his own wigwam, he could not have looked
about him with more satisfaction and independence. I instantly sprang to
my feet, and demanded his errand.
"Me lost in the woods, and me come to stay all night," was his grave
reply.
"Then," said I, "give me your weapons, and I will make no objection."
He disarmed himself, and gave his weapons to me, with an air of haughty
disdain for my fears. I put them in a place of safety and then prepared
his bed, which was nothing more than the floor, where they choose to
sleep, with their head to the fire. My offer of anything different from
this he proudly resented as an insult to his powers of endurance, and
would say, "beds for pale faces and women; hard board for Indians." He
threw himself down, drew his blanket about him, and was soon sleeping
soundly. As soon as the day began to dawn, he was up, called for his arms,
and after thanking me in the brief Indian style of politeness, departed
for the forest. He had found our doors all fastened, save a low back door,
through which he entered, passing through a back room so full of
miscellaneous articles, that it was difficult to go through it in the day
time without upsetting something; but the Indian understood all this, he
made no noise, nor would he have spoken at all, had I not awakened; and
yet, he would have scorned to injure any one beneath the roof that gave
him shelter, unless he had been intoxicated.
One sabbath afternoon, one of my children was sitting in the door, when a
tall, emaciated Indian came up and said, "Will my little lady please to
give me a drink of water?" While she went for it, I invited him to a seat
within. There was something dignified and commanding in his appearance,
and something in his voice and countenance, that won my confidence and
respect at once. He remained in the place some time, and I learned his
history.
In his younger days he had been a great warrior; and even now, when
recounting, as he often did, the scenes of the battle field, his eye would
burn with savage fire, lighting up his whole countenance with the fiercest
kind of bravery, and often with a hideous yell that would startle our very
souls, he would burst from the room and bound over the fields and forest,
with the fleetness of a deer--making the woods ring with his frightful
war-cry, until the blood seemed ready to curdle in our veins. He had also
been one of the famous Tecumseh's braves; and had stood by him when he
fell on the fifth of October, 1813. This old brave, whenever he called the
name of Tecumseh, bowed his head reverently; and would often try to tell
us how very deeply they mourned when it could no longer be doubted that
the brave heart of Tecumseh, brother of the celebrated Wabash prophet,
had ceased to beat.
"Had an arrow pierced the sun and brought it to my feet," said the old
warrior, "I could not have been more astounded than at the fall of
Tecumseh." Then he told us that once, after a great and victorious battle,
Tecumseh, in his war paint and feathers, stood in the midst of his braves,
when a little pale faced girl made her way weeping to him and said, "My
mother is very ill, and your men are abusing her, and refuse to go away."
"Never," said the Indian, "did I see a frown so terrible on the face of
Tecumseh, as at that moment; when he with one hand clutched his tomahawk,
and with the other led the little girl to the scene of riot. He approached
the unruly savages with uplifted tomahawk, its edge glittering like
silver, and with one shout of 'begone!' they scattered as though a
thunderbolt had fallen in their midst."
But the old warrior at Wilberforce fought no more battles, except in
imagination those of the past. After peace was declared he bought a
valuable piece of land, with the intention of spending the remainder of
his life more quietly; but unfortunately there lived not far from him a
man who had once been the possessor of that farm, and had lost it in some
way, and was now in reduced circumstances.
He was both envious and vicious; and because he could not himself buy the
land, he was determined that the old Indian should not have it. After
having tried many ways to get it from him, he finally complained of him,
for fighting for the British and against the country where he now resided.
This was successful; he was arrested and thrown into prison, and without
a trial, removed from one prison to another, until he, with several
others, was sent South to be tried as traitors. While on the way, the
keeper of this Indian wished to call on his mother, who lived in a
little cottage by the roadside, to bid her farewell. She was an aged
woman, and when her son left her to join his companions, she followed him
to the door weeping, wringing her hands in great distress, and imploring
the widow's God to protect her only son. She had had four; all of whom
went forth, with an American mother's blessing, to fight in defence of
their country; and this one alone, returned alive from the field of
battle. Now as he took his final departure for the South, she clasped her
hands, raised her tearful eyes to heaven, and while large drops rolled
over her wrinkled cheeks, she cried, "Oh, God, protect my only one, and
return him to me in safety, ere I die." This scene, the imprisoned, and as
some supposed, heartless Indian, watched with interest; no part of it
escaped his attention; but they passed on, and safely reached Detroit.
The prisoners were conducted to a hotel and secured for the night; our
Indian hero being consigned to an attic, which they supposed a safe place
for him. There happened to be on that night, a company of showmen
stopping at that hotel, and exhibiting wax-work; among the rest, was a
figure of General Brock, who fell at Queenston Heights, and a costly cloak
of fur, worn by the General previous to his death. Nothing of this escaped
the eagle-eye and quick ear of the Indian. When all was quiet in the
hotel, he commenced operations, for he had made up his mind to leave,
which with the red man is paramount to an accomplishment of his design. He
found no great difficulty in removing the window of his lofty apartment,
out of which he clambered, and with the agility of a squirrel and the
caution of a cat, he sprang for the conductor and on it he slid to the
ground. He was now free to go where he pleased; but he had heard
something about the cloak of Gen. Brock; he knew too, that the friends of
the General had offered fifty guineas for it, and now he would just convey
it to them.
With the sagacity of his race, he surveyed the hotel, and determined the
exact location of the show-room. Stealthily and noiselessly, he entered
it; found the cloak--took it and departed, chuckling at his good fortune.
As he was creeping out of the apartment with his booty, a thought struck
him, which not only arrested his footsteps, but nearly paralized his whole
being. Would not his keeper be made to answer, and perhaps to suffer for
his escape and theft? Of course he would. "Then in the darkness I saw
again," said the old brave, "that old pale-faced mother, weeping for the
loss of her only son," when he immediately returned the cloak to its
place, and with far more difficulty than in his descent, he succeeded in
reaching his attic prison, where he laid himself down, muttering to
himself, "not yet,--poor old pale-face got but one."
They took him to Virginia, where, instead of a trial, they gave him about
the same liberty they do their slaves. He staid one winter; but when the
spring opened, the fire of the red man took possession of him, and when
sent to the forest to chop wood, he took a bee-line for his former
residence. But what was he to do for food? With a rifle, he could live
happily in the woods, but he had none; so after considering the matter, he
said to himself, "Me _must_ get a rifle," and instantly started for the
highway. The first cabin he saw, he entered in great apparent excitement,
and told the woman of the house, that he had seen a "big deer in the
woods, and wanted a rifle to shoot it. When you hear my gun," he said,
"then you come and get big deer." She gave him her husband's excellent
rifle and a few bullets; he looked at them, and said he must have more,
for "it was a big deer;" so she gave him the bullet-mould and a piece of
lead, with which he departed, after repeating his former injunction, to
come when she heard the rifle; but, said he, "she no hear it yet."
He at length arrived at his own farm, from which he had been so cruelly
driven, and concealed himself behind a log in sight of his own house, to
watch the inmates. He soon learned that it was occupied by the man who had
persecuted him in order to obtain it, his wife and one child. All day
until midnight, he watched them from his hiding place, then assuming all
the savage ferocity of his nature, and giving himself the most frightful
appearance possible, he entered the house, and noiselessly passed to their
sleeping room, where he placed himself before them with a long knife in
his hand. Having assumed this frightful attitude, he commanded them in a
voice of thunder, to get up and give him some supper. They were awake now.
Oh, horror! what a sight for a guilty man, and a timid woman! "Me come to
kill you!" said the Indian, as he watched their blanched cheeks and
quivering lips. They tottered about on their trembling limbs to get
everything he asked for, imploring him for God's sake to take all, but
spare their lives. "Me will have scalps," he answered fiercely; but when
he had eaten all he desired, he adjusted his blanket, and putting on a
savage look, he remarked as if to himself, "Me go now get my men and kill
him, kill he wife, and kill he baby!" and left the house for his post of
observation.
The frightened inmates lost no time, but hastily collecting some
provisions, fled to the frontier, and were never heard of afterwards.
The Indian immediately took possession of his own and quite an addition
left by the former tenants.
While the kind-hearted old Indian repeated to me the story of his wrongs,
it reminded me of the injustice practised on myself, and the colored race
generally. Does a colored man by hard labor and patient industry, acquire
a good location, a fine farm, and comfortable dwelling, he is almost sure
to be looked upon by the white man, as an usurper of _his_ rights and
territory; a robber of what he himself should possess, and too often does
wrong the colored man out of,--yet, I am happy to acknowledge many
honorable exceptions.
I have often wondered, when looking at the remnant of that once powerful
race, whether the black man would become extinct and his race die out, as
have the red men of the forest; whether they would wither in the presence
of the enterprising Anglo-Saxon as have the natives of this country. But
now I have no such wondering inquiries to make; being persuaded that the
colored man has yet a prominent part to act in this highly-favored
Republic,--of what description the future must determine.