OCR Text |
Show ' . • ( 22 ) moment in all my life; but my wonted courage soon retm·ned to me and 1 struggled in my mind for some calmness, to address the as~ 2cmbly, wher~ Di,ora, who had ·h~ard every thing, broke through the door uf the pnest s lod~r~, her prison, followed by two watchers, who could not r<.:t~in her· any longer. They both retreated when they saw me .. ~ rth one leap I was by her side, rnised my tomahaw l\ , and C. cl:lliDJilg,' Who dares to strike my Diora? vVho wiH ficrht with vVaagataa? Let hiul come out? \Vho dan~s to raise his tOI~lahaw k a~ain t a Sioux chief', the grand-son of the great Waana taa ?' ~one st•rr:ed, and all, even the oldesl chiefs and warriors, remained sd~nt, \'vh~le I looked a.round with a calm fury that showed my rcsuhrlton to {wht and to dte f~r mr beloved wife; but she put her soft !~and on ~ny mouth, and s:11d wtth the meekness of a daughter of the Great Spll'lt: 'No bloodshed, vVaanataa! let me die for you! Diora does. n.ot fea.r death !' . And. castihg a steadfast look upon the cruel , homtcrde prtest, she said, wtth a firm and loud voice, 'Prepare your stake! I am the grand-daughter of Letalesha and the daw)·htcr of :etal.esharoo, the'' l3ra~est ?f tl~e llr~ves :" I. will show yo~ that I . .le~,eJ veto l~e \yaanataa ~ wtfe,. m dymg for htm without fear. All sat m sdence, as 1f. they \Ve.re thunder-struck; but before any of them could answer, I ratsed her m my arms and carried her out o( ~he assembly to our lodge, whe.re my. good runner stood ready for any ~ase of emergency, and. mounttng wtth Diora, I left my country and my people, w~1o, labounng under a tyrannical priestcraft, would have probably s~crifice~l me and rny ·beloved wi~e to a wicked impostor, if \~e !~ad any longe1 exposed ourselves to thea· superstition and his mahgnrty. . "Three day~ and ni~hts I rode on with my poor Diora in our fl,ght, only rcs~11:g as often and long as it was necessary for us and our h?rse~, avot.dtng to approach .the country of the P.€\wnees, while we Withdrew from that of the Swux. We were now both without a home." . "On the ~11ornino- of the fourth day, we found, at length, a place {,t ~or a lo~ger. ~tay. . It wa~ a natural cave in a rock, and we were ~I1tghted m dt:;covertn~ a little spring, not far below its entrance. 1en we had com p1eted the arrangement of our little household I prepared and lcfl for hnnting. ' . "I. was foi:tunatc enough, as a skilful and experienced hunter to ptovtde us.wrth :1bundance before the snow fell, in which ~,-ve w~n· almos.t buried for~ some ~ontbs. In the following summer, Diora in~ creased my happiness With her by the birth of a fine and hard so up~n whom we. besto.wed our united affection. vVe called him biar~' l 3 But our solitude fJ!l.ed me at last with apprehension. What should Jecome of m~ poor vnf<f and child, if I were to die? Without me tthh~y m,usth perr.sh; f~r our provisions could not hold out lo.nger than . !rdo. u.g 1 t eM w mter? tf they w ere no t occasJ·O na 11 y supplied with some :l~e:t~on. ! antipathy to a~y connexion with other people was ; k~ ore ovcJ come by c?nnub~al and fatherly love: 1 resolved upon -~0 tng out for some dtstant neiJ!;hbour, with whom I mio·ht er" ups, deal to mutual ac.l vantage. Diora had no objection l~ ~l:Ut I ' ( 23 ) proposed, and promising to return before the n xt fall of the snow, 1 .:Laded for the South, in order nol to meet with any Sioux, whom 1 avoided more than the Pawnees. ''After travellin(r alon~ with my faithful horse for a time, dt1ring which the moon changed and rt!covcred its furm-you call it a ' month '-I reached a large village of the Sac and Fox Indians, whoru I supposed to be friendly to a sin~le and peace ftd Sioux, coming amon r them; but, unfortunately, I was 14reatly mistaken in this, a:> they had, or· at least presumed to have, stron~ r ·ason · to consider, .. at d to treat ·very Sio11 x as an enemy. In the last war, which the r w a ~ed under 'Bln ck-Ha\'vk,' and their second chief~' Neopopc,' again~t the whites, the latter was made a pri~oncr by a band of one hundred Sioux, who killed one hundred and l\"'cnty Sues and Foxes in one li~ ht. While the Winm:bagoes betray-ed, c:lptured, and delivered Black-Hawk to the whites, the.'e Sioux did so "vith N eopop ·.;,; The Sacs and Foxes lost al so their prophet, \\'hite-Cioud-fVabolcicshiek -and eleven other chiefs, either betrayed or captured, and JrJust submil to a' treaty,' wit.h • annuities '-you und erstand-.of twenty thousand dollars each for thirty years, with' promi ocs '-you know{ Jr ·cveral additional provision-;, accordinlj to which 'treaty' the Sacs and Foxes lost six millions of acres of ,their best land, abounding in lead-ore and others, which were thu ' acquired by the whites. "In consequence of these bloody and wicked acts, performed by ~ number of Sioux, the hatred of tl1e S:..cs and Fo xes fell upon all the Sioux, and a<~ I !tad the misfortune of being; o11e of the latter, alth ough I was a mere boy of nine years when tl1e fo rmer took pl ace . after my p;ranclfat.her'~ and my father's deaths, 1 was doomed to abide for the wi ckedness of my people, who had compelled me to leave my home f(lr the wildcrne:;s. ''I had scarcely come within arrow-shut of the Sac and F ox villa)!; e, when the war-whoop sounded, and, after a few mumcnts, a eruwd of warriors formed a large circle around me. An olu Fox chief made a n1otion of silence to his companions, who immediately obeyed hirn, and he said with dignity: "'Sioux, how can you dare approaeh our villn~c ? Your brother~ have killed more than a hundred of our brother~; your brothers have taken our chief, Neopope, and delivered him to the pale-faces; the. · have done like ·~1e :reacherous vVinueb, t;oes, who took and delivered uur great chief, Black-Ilawk, to our encmi<i, their friends. Althou~h we have since burieJ the bloncly tomahawT{, and smokeu the calumet or peace with our pale-face l e~crnies, we have not. clone ~u with our red ones, the Sioux, who are all traitors like the fal e Winneb[lgocs: therefore, Sioux, yon shall die, in sacrifice tu the Great Spirit, who bctHis yuu a•noiJ~ us. 1 have spoken.' "'That is right, wise an,l br:we warrior,' answered I, with a cairn resignation; knowin<r that <Jnother reply to contradict hin1 would have instantly caused~:> my de:Jth. 'If you say so, I must die; but I know that the Sacs and Foxes ure e,reat warnors, and no cowards; l lu10w that they are right in kil1in~ their enemies; I luww that * This t~ok plaee, according to history, in August, 1832. |