| OCR Text |
Show • 198 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF :not, at which she looked aghast. But when the question was put to me by the chief shortly after, I answered "Eleven." On this she administered eleven taps on my back with her finger, and again whispered, '' Ah! I thought your tongue was crooked when you told me you had no coos." All the coos are registered in the great medicine lodge in favor of the brave who wins them. I trust that the reader does not suppose that I waded through these scenes of carnage and desolation without some serious reflections on the matter. Disgusted at the repeated acts of cruelty I witnessed, I often resolved to leave these wild children of the forest and return to civilized life; but before I could act upon my decision, another scene of strife would occur, and the Enemy of Horses was always the first sought for by the tribe. I had been uniformly successful so far; and how I had escaped, while scores of warriors had been stricken down at my side, was more than I could understand. I was well aware that many of my friends knew of the life I was leading, and I almost feared to think of the opinions they must form of my·character. But, in justification, it may be urged that the Crows had never shed the blood of the white man ~uring my stay in their camp, and I did not intend they ever should, if I could raise a voice to prevent it. They were constantly at war with tribes who coveted the scalps of the white man, but the Crows were uniformly faithful in their obligations to my race, and would rather serve than injure their white brethren without any consideration of profit. In addition to this, Self-interest would whisper her counsel. I knew I could acquire the riches of Crresus if I could but dispose of the valuable stock of peltry I • JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 199 l1 ad the means of accumulating. I required but an object in view to turn the attention of the Indians to the thousands of traps that were laid by to rust. I would occasionally use arguments to turn them from their unprofitable life, and engage them in peaceful industry. But I found the Indian would be Indian still, in spite of my efforts to improve him. They would answer, "Our enemies steal our horses; we must fight and get them back again, or steal in turn. Without horses we can make no surro~nds, nor could we, to protect our lives, fight our foes when they attack our villages." Of course these arguments were unanswerable. So long as they were surrounded with enemies, they must be prepared to defend themselves. The large majority of Indian troubles arise from their unrestrained appropriation of each other's horses. It is their only branch of wealth; like the miser with his gold, their greed for horses can not be satisfied. All their other wants are merely attended to from day to day; their need supplied, they look no farther; but their appetite for horses is insatiable: they are ever demanding more. Mildrum and myself had a long conversation on the subject while he was smarting with the injury he received in leaping from the fort. He would say, "Beckwourth, I am pretty well used to this Indian life ; there is a great deal in it that charms me. But when I think of my old Kentucky home-of father, mother, and other friends whom I tenderly love, and with whom I could be so happy, I wonder at the vagabond spirit that holds me here among these savages, fighting their battles, and risking my life and scalp, which I fairly suppose exceeds in value ten thousand of these bloodthirsty heathen. How, in the name of all that is sa- • |
