Another version of the big-buffalo tradition is found in Rembrandt
Peale's pamphlet on the mammoth, published in Philadelphia in 1803.
Notwithstanding the highly colored style of the translation the ideas
expressed seem to be those of the Indian. It reads as follows: "Ten
thousand moons ago, when naught but gloomy forests covered this land
of the sleeping sun, and long before the pale men, with thunder and
fire at their command, rushed on the wings of the wind to ruin this
garden of nature, when naught but the untamed wanderers of the woods,
and men as unrestrained as they, were lords of the soil, a race of
animals existed, huge as the frowning precipice, cruel as the bloody
panther, swift as the descending eagle, and terrible as the angel of
night. The pines crashed beneath their feet, and the lake shrunk when
they slaked their thirst; the forceful javelin in vain was hurled,
and the barbed arrow fell harmless by their side. Forests were laid
waste at a meal, the groans of expiring animals were everywhere heard,
and whole villages, inhabited by men, were destroyed in a moment. The
cry of universal distress extended even to the region of peace in the
west, and the Good Spirit interposed to save the unhappy. The forked
lightning gleamed aloud, and loudest thunder rocked the globe. The
bolts of heaven were hurled upon the cruel destroyers alone, and the
mountains echoed with the bellowings of death. All were killed except
one male, the fiercest of the race, and him even the artillery of the
skies assailed in vain. He ascended the bluest summit which shades the
source of the Monongahela, and roaring, aloud, bid defiance to every
vengeance. The red lightning scorched the lofty firs, and rived the
knotty oaks, but only glanced upon the enraged monster. At length,
maddened with fury, he leaped over the waves of the west at a bound,
and at this moment reigns the uncontrolled monarch of the wilderness,
even in despite of omnipotence itself."