The wilderness and the war path / by James Hall.

  • James Hall
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The wilderness and the war path / by James Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/198 page 6
    which all parties to this proceeding prepared for the approaching separation. It was probable that many of those who thus parted would meet no more. The noble sport of hunting the bulFalo is not a thins to be done in a corner. The herd must be sought in the broad pastures, where the game is won by the fleet-footed horse, and the swift arrow. All concealment was to be thrown aside ; the secret paths of the mountain, its nooks and hiding places, were to be abandoned, and the hunters were to ride forth in the light of day, upon a plain broad and level as the ocean. Like a little fleet of defenceless merchantmen, venturing upon a sea swarming with hostile cruisers, their best chance of escape lay in the possi- bility of passing unnoticed. Should they meet any of the numer- ous bands of the Blackfeet, who roved over the same plains, they must fly with scarcely a hope that all would escape, or fight with the certainty of being overmatched by superior numbers. Nor was there more safety for those who remained in the mountains. Although so poor as to possess nothing to tempt the spoiler, their enemies pursued them with an eagerness for which it would be difficult to assign an adequate motive, to those who are unacquainted with the savage character, and who could scarcely understand how the mere lust of carnage, whetted by continual indulgence, becomes a master passion of the soul, irre- spective of any desire for plunder or conquest, or of any present or prospective advantage. Neither infancy, nor imbecility, nor sex, affords any protection ; as man bruises the head of the ser- pent, so does the Indian crush the offspring of his enemy ; and the absence of the warrior only entices the brutal destroyer to seek his prey with redoubled diligence. Yet with such perils lowering on every side, the Flatheads were apparently free from care. If they thought of the casual- ties which might sever the dearest ties, the reflection had lost the freshness, which gives poignancy to sorrow, and had become fa- miliar by frequent contemplation. The men were pointing their arrows, or decorating their persons with paints and feathers; and the women were attending to their domestic employments, with as much tranquillity as if they, with their sons and husbands, had already passed through the dark valley of the shadow of death,
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