In the heart of the savage, there are some noble and redeeming
qualities; he can be faithful, even unto death, to the friend or the
stranger who has dwelt beneath his roof, or sat under the shadow of the
same tree. He can be generous also; can endure all tortures, rather
than show weakness or fear.
“An instance of this occurred,” says Bossu, “when the French were in
possession of New Orleans: a Chactaw, speaking very ill of them, said
the Collapissas were their slaves; one of the latter, vexed at such
words, killed him with his gun. The nation of Chactaws, the greatest
and most numerous on the continent, armed immediately, and sent
deputies to New Orleans to ask for the head of the murderer, who had
put himself under the protection of the French. They offered presents
to make up the quarrel, but the cruel people would not accept any! they
even threatened to destroy the village of the Collapissas. To prevent
the effusion of blood, the unhappy Indian was delivered up to them: the
Sieur Ferrand was charged with the commission. The Indian was called
Tichou; he stood upright in the midst of his own people and of his
enemies, and said, “I am a true man, that is, I do not fear death; but
I pity the fate of a wife and four children, whom I leave behind me
very young; and of my father and mother, who are old, and for whom I
got subsistence by hunting.” (He was the best hunter in the nation.)
He had hardly spoken the last word of this short speech, when his
father, penetrated with his son’s love, rose amidst the people, and
spoke as follows:—
“It is through courage that my son dies; but, being young and full of
vigour, he is more fit than myself to provide for his mother, wife, and
four little children: it is therefore necessary he should stay on earth
to take care of them. As to myself, I am near the end of my career; I
am no longer fit for anything: I cannot go like the roebuck, whose
course is like the winds, unseen; I cannot sleep like the hare, with
my ears never shut; but I have lived as a man, and will die as such,
therefore I go to take his place.”
At these words, his wife, his son, his daughter-in-law, and their
little children, shed tears round the brave old man: he embraced them
for the last time. The relations of the dead Chactaw accepted the
offer; after that, he laid himself on the trunk of a tree, and his head
was cut off with one stroke of a hatchet. Every thing was made up by
this death; but the young man was obliged to give them his father’s
head: in taking it up, he said to it, “Pardon me thy death, and
remember me in the country of spirits.”
All the French who assisted at this event were moved even to tears, and
admired this noble old man. A people among whom such things could be
done, hardly deserved the sweeping censures of Mather and other good
men, who painted them rather as fiends in human shape. Courage is, of
course, the virtue held in most honour: those who run away or desert
in an action are not punished, they are considered as the disgrace of
human nature: the ugliest girls will not accept of them for husbands:
they are obliged to let their hair grow, and to wear an alcoman, or
apron, like the women. “I saw one of them,” says Bossu, who dwelt a
long time among the Indians, “who, being ashamed of his figure, went
by himself to fight the Chicachas, for his misery was more than he
could bear: for three or four days he went on creeping like a snake,
and hiding himself in the great grass, without eating or drinking; so
he came to their country, and watched a long time to do some exploit;
often lying down in the rushes, when his enemies came near, and putting
out his head above the water from time to time, to take breath. At
last he drew near a village in the night, cried the cry of death,
killed one of the people, and then fled with the speed of an arrow. He
was out three months upon this expedition: when he drew nigh to his
own village, weary, and bearing the head of his enemy, they came down
the hill to meet him. The women were loud in his praises—the warriors
gathered round him; and then they gave him a wife.”