No Sooner Had They Departed, Than The Indians Returned To The
Scene Of Action, Bore Off Their Two Comrades Who Had Been Shot,
One Of Whom Was Still Living, And Returned To Their Village.
Here they killed two horses; and drank the hot blood to give
fierceness to their courage.
They painted and arrayed themselves
hideously for battle; performed the dead dance round the slain,
and raised the war song of vengeance. Then mounting their horses
to the number of four hundred and fifty men, and brandishing
their weapons, they set off along the northern bank of the river,
to get ahead of the canoes, lie in wait for them, and take a
terrible revenge on the white men.
They succeeded in getting some distance above the canoes without
being discovered, and were crossing the river to post themselves
on the side along which the white men were coasting, when they
were fortunately descried. Mr. Stuart and his companions were
immediately on the alert. As they drew near to the place where
the savages had crossed, they observed them posted among steep
and overhanging rocks, close along which, the canoes would have
to pass. Finding that the enemy had the advantage of the ground,
the whites stopped short when within five hundred yards of them,
and discharged and reloaded their pieces. They then made a fire,
and dressed the wounds of Mr. Reed, who had received five severe
gashes in the head. This being done, they lashed the canoes
together, fastened them to a rock at a small distance from the
shore, and there awaited the menaced attack.
They had not been long posted in this manner, when they saw a
canoe approaching. It contained the war-chief of the tribe, and
three of his principal warriors. He drew near, and made a long
harangue, in which he informed them that they had killed one and
wounded another of his nation; that the relations of the slain
cried out for vengeance, and he had been compelled to lead them
to fight. Still he wished to spare unnecessary bloodshed; he
proposed, therefore, that Mr. Reed, who, he observed, was little
better than a dead man, might be given up to be sacrificed to the
manes of the deceased warrior. This would appease the fury of his
friends; the hatchet would then be buried, and all thenceforward
would be friends. The answer was a stern refusal and a defiance,
and the war-chief saw that the canoes were well prepared for a
vigorous defense. He withdrew, therefore, and returning to his
warriors among the rocks held long deliberations. Blood for blood
is a principle in Indian equity and Indian honor; but though the
inhabitants of Wish-ram were men of war, they were likewise men
of traffic, and it was suggested that honor for once might give
way to profit. A negotiation was accordingly opened with the
white men, and after some diplomacy, the matter was compromised
for a blanket to cover the dead, and some tobacco to be smoked by
the living.
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