Venezuela--Don Ramon Paez--An extraordinary commission--Looking for Indians--Finding them--Native fishermen on the Orinoco--The _payara_ and the _caribe_--A vicious fish--In search of the three thousand wild horses--Business-like lassoing--The aide-de-camp's first attempt--The struggle with a wild horse--The race--Rescued by a Carib--Deer-hunting with masks 340 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A Startling Experience Frontispiece PAGE A Gallant Rescue 20 A Narrow Escape 40 A Plucky Rescue 52 A Bully Well Served 64 A Game at Ball 76 The Snow-shoe Dance of the Red Indians 92 A Fierce Retort 126 Almost a Tragedy 186 Red Indian Attack on a Store 198 A Bison Surround 220 Stocking the Larder 234 A Primitive System of Telegraphy 286 A Novel Bridal Ceremony 298 An Arduous Task 312 Crane Stalking-Masks 346 ADVENTURES AMONG RED INDIANS CHAPTER I CHEROKEE WARFARE It has been said by certain historians that, after the American War of Independence, British agents were employed not only to poison the minds of those Siouan and Iroquoian tribes that dwelt on the United States side of the Boundary, but even to keep them supplied with rifles and ammunition. Be that as it may, it is certainly a fact that, in 1793, the Cherokee and Seneca tribes of the Iroquois were not only at war with the Crows, Iowas, etc., of the rival Sioux faction, but were turning their mysteriously obtained rifles on the white people of the States; and the celebrated General Wayne was sent into Ohio with a strong force of cavalry and infantry to restore order. He pitched his camp near Fort Jefferson, on Lake Erie, and having driven away the insurgents, sent a hundred foot-soldiers, under Lieutenants Lowry and Boyd, across the lake to a fort near Detroit, to bring back by road three hundred horses and extra provisions, and, incidentally, to disarm any quarrelsome redskins they might meet with.