A lady, who was saved by a
friendly chief holding her under the waters of the lake, while the balls
were whizzing around, received also, in the heat of the conflict, a
reviving draught from a squaw, who saw she was exhausted; and, as she
lay down, a mat was hung up between her and the scene of butchery, so
that she was protected from the sight, though she could not be from
sounds, full of horror.
I have not wished to write sentimentally about the Indians, however
moved by the thought of their wrongs and speedy extinction. I know that
the Europeans who took possession of this country, felt themselves
justified by their superior civilization and religious ideas. Had they
been truly civilized or Christianized, the conflicts which sprang from
the collision of the two races, might have been avoided; but this cannot
be expected in movements made by masses of men. The mass has never yet
been humanized, though the age may develop a human thought.
Since those conflicts and differences did arise, the hatred which
sprang, from terror and suffering, on the European side, has naturally
warped the whites still farther from justice.
The Indian, brandishing the scalps of his friends and wife, drinking
their blood and eating their hearts, is by him viewed as a fiend,
though, at a distant day, he will no doubt be considered as having acted
the Roman or Carthaginian part of heroic and patriotic self-defence,
according to the standard of right and motives prescribed by his
religious faith and education.
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