University of Virginia Library

5. CHAPTER V.

On the following morning, (Oct. 11,) we were
on the march by half-past seven o'clock, and
rode through deep rich bottoms of alluvial soil,
overgrown with redundant vegetation, and trees
of an enormous size. Our route lay parallel to
the west bank of the Arkansas, on the borders
of which river, near the confluence of the
Red Fork, we expected to overtake the main
body of rangers. For some miles the country
was sprinkled with Creek villages and farm
houses; the inhabitants of which appeared to
have adopted, with considerable facility, the
rudiments of civilization, and to have thriven in
consequence. Their farms were well stocked,
and their houses had a look of comfort and
abundance.

We met with numbers of them returning from
one of their grand games of ball, for which their
nation is celebrated. Some were on foot, some
on horseback; the latter, occasionally, with gaily
dressed females behind them. They are a well
made race, muscular and closely knit, with well

turned thighs and legs. They have a gipsey fondness
for brilliant colours, and gay decorations,
and are bright and fanciful objects when seen at
a distance on the prairies. One had a scarlet
handkerchief bound round his head, surmounted
with a tuft of black feathers like a cock's tail.
Another had a white handkerchief, with red
feathers; while a third, for want of a plume, had
stuck in his turban a brilliant bunch of Sumach.

On the verge of the wilderness we paused to
inquire our way at a log house, owned by a
white settler or squatter, a tall raw boned old
fellow, with red hair, a lank lantern visage,
and an inveterate habit of winking with one
eye, as if every thing he said was of knowing
import. He was in a towering passion. One
of his horses was missing; he was sure it had
been stolen in the night by a straggling party of
Osages encamped in a neighbouring swamp;
but he would have satisfaction! He would make
an example of the villains. He had accordingly
caught down his rifle from the wall, that invariable
enforcer of right or wrong upon the frontiers,
and, having saddled his steed, was about to sally
forth on a foray into the swamp; while a brother
squatter, with rifle in hand, stood ready to accompany
him.

We endeavoured to calm the old campaigner
of the prairies, by suggesting that his horse

might have strayed into the neighbouring woods;
but he had the frontier propensity to charge
every thing to the Indians, and nothing could
dissuade him from carrying fire and sword into
the swamp.

After riding a few miles further we lost the
trail of the main body of rangers, and became
perplexed by a variety of tracks made by the
Indians and settlers. At length coming to a log
house, inhabited by a white man, the very last
on the frontier, we found that we had wandered
from our true course. Taking us back for some
distance, he again brought us to the right trail;
putting ourselves upon which, we took our final
departure, and launched into the broad wilderness.

The trail kept on like a straggling foot path,
over hill and dale, through brush and brake, and
tangled thicket, and open prairie. In traversing
the wilds it is customary for a party either of
horse or foot to follow each other in single file
like the Indians: so that the leaders break the
way for those who follow, and lessen their labour
and fatigue. In this way, also, the number of a
party is concealed, the whole leaving but one
narrow well trampled track to mark their course.

We had not long regained the trail, when, on
emerging from a forest, we beheld our raw
boned, hard winking, hard riding knight errant

of the frontier, descending the slope of a hill,
followed by his companion in arms. As he
drew near to us, the gauntness of his figure and
ruefulness of his aspect, reminded me of the
description of the hero of La Mancha, and he
was equally bent on affairs of doughty enterprise,
being about to penetrate the thickets of
the perilous swamp, within which the enemy lay
ensconced.

While we were holding a parley with him on
the slope of the hill, we descried an Osage on
horseback issuing out of a skirt of wood about
half a mile off, and leading a horse by a halter.
The latter was immediately recognised by our
hard winking friend as the steed of which he
was in quest. As the Osage drew near, I was
struck with his appearance. He was about
nineteen or twenty years of age, but well grown,
with the fine Roman countenance common to
his tribe, and as he rode with his blanket wrapped
round his loins, his naked bust would have
furnished a model for a statuary. He was
mounted on a beautiful pie-bald horse, a mottled
white and brown, of the wild breed of the prairies,
decorated with a broad collar, from which
hung in front a tuft of horse hair dyed of a bright
scarlet.

The youth rode slowly up to us with a frank
open air, and signified by means of our interpreter

Beatte, that the horse he was leading had
wandered to their camp, and he was now on his
way to conduct him back to his owner.

I had expected to witness an expression of
gratitude on the part of our hard favoured cavalier,
but to my surprise the old fellow broke out
into a furious passion. He declared that the
Indians had carried off his horse in the night,
with the intention of bringing him home in the
morning, and claiming a reward for finding him;
a common practice, as he affirmed, among the
Indians. He was, therefore, for tying the young
Indian to a tree and giving him a sound lashing;
and was quite surprised at the burst of indignation
which this novel mode of requiting a service
drew from us. Such, however, is too often the
administration of law on the frontier, “Lynch's
law,” as it is technically termed, in which the
plantiff is apt to be witness, jury, judge, and executioner,
and the defendant to be convicted and
punished on mere presumption: and in this way
I am convinced, are occasioned many of those
heart burnings and resentments among the Indians,
which lead to retaliation, and eventuate
in Indian wars. When I compared the open,
noble countenance and frank demeanour of the
young Osage, with the sinister visage and high
handed conduct of the frontiers-man, I felt little

doubt on whose back a lash would be most
meritoriously bestowed.

Being thus obliged to content himself with the
recovery of his horse, without the pleasure of
flogging the finder into the bargain, the old Lycurgus,
or rather Draco, of the frontier, set off
growling on his return homeward, followed by
his brother squatter.

As for the youthful Osage, we were all prepossessed
in his favour; the young Count especially,
with the sympathies proper to his age
and incident to his character, had taken quite a
fancy to him. Nothing would suit but he must
have the young Osage as a companion and
squire in his expedition into the wilderness.
The youth was easily tempted, and, with the
prospect of a safe range over the buffalo prairies
and the promise of a new blanket, he turned his
bridle, left the swamp and the encampment of
his friends behind him, and set off to follow the
Count in his wanderings in quest of the Osage
hunters.

Such is the glorious independence of man
in a savage state. This youth, with his rifle,
his blanket, and his horse, was ready at a moment's
warning to rove the world; he carried
all his worldly effects with him, and in the absence
of artificial wants, possessed the great

secret of personal freedom. We of society are
slaves, not so much to others, as to ourselves;
our superfluities are the chains that bind us,
impeding every movement of our bodies and
thwarting every impulse of our souls. Such, at
least, were my speculations at the time, though I
am not sure but that they took their tone from
the enthusiasm of the young Count, who seemed
more enchanted than ever with the wild chivalry
of the prairies, and talked of putting on the Indian
dress and adopting the Indian habits during
the time he hoped to pass with the Osages.