Of the whole tone of
character, judgment may be formed by what is said of the death of Red
Shoes.
"This chief, by his several transcendent qualities had arrived at the
highest pitch of the red glory....
He was murdered, for the sake of a French reward by one of his own
countrymen. He had the misfortune to be taken very sick on the road, and
to lodge apart from the camp, according to their custom. A Judas,
tempted by the high reward of the French for killing him, officiously
pretended to take great care of him. While Red Shoes kept his face
toward him, the barbarian had such feelings of awe and pity that he had
not power to perpetrate his wicked design; but when he turned his back,
then gave the fatal shot. In this manner fell this valuable brave man,
by hands that would have trembled to attack him on an equality."
Adair, with all his sympathy for the Indian, mixes quite unconsciously
some white man's views of the most decided sort. For instance, he
recommends that the tribes be stimulated as much as possible to war
with each other, that they may the more easily and completely be kept
under the dominion of the whites, and he gives the following record of
brutality as quite a jocose and adroit procedure.
"I told him; on his importuning me further, that I had a full bottle of
the water of _ane hoome_, "bitter ears," meaning long pepper, of which
he was ignorant. We were of opinion that his eager thirst for liquor, as
well as his ignorance of the burning quality of the pepper, would induce
the bacchanal to try it.
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