here no one knows how long, are almost as few in number as the deer which we hunt. To be sure, you palefaces know how to make use of a piece not much bigger than my hand. On a patch only fifteen or twenty times as great as this room, a white man will raise enough food to keep him for a full year. He takes another bit of land grown with grass and herbs and raises his cattle upon it, which supply him with milk and meat. We red men, on the contrary, need immense territories, for the deer which we kill and which scarce provides us with food for two days, needs a great region in which to attain its proper growth. And when we have killed two or three hundred deer, it is the same as though we had destroyed all the grass and woods on which they subsisted. The white men spread out like oil on a blanket, while we melt away like snow in the spring sunshine, and if we do not soon adopt new ways, it will be impossible for the race of red men long to survive. But the Indians showed themselves incapable of learning “new ways.” [Illustration: _WASHINGTON AMONG THE INDIANS_] George, who had seen no Indians heretofore, met a band of about thirty warriors one day. One of them carried the scalp of an enemy, as a pennant, in front of the procession. It would have gone hard with the little company if the Indians had attacked them, which would no doubt have happened if they had shown any signs of fear. A small present of liquor procured them the spectacle of a war dance. The Indians kindled a fire in the midst of an open space and seated themselves in a circle around it. Then the chief began to extol their deeds of valor, his voice and gestures becoming more and more animated. The warriors sat with bowed heads, as in a dream. Suddenly, as though awakened by the glowing description of their heroic deeds, a warrior sprang up and began a curious, wild dance. One after another followed his example, until most of them were leaping about the blazing fire, emitting frightful cries and seeming more like demons than human beings. Music was not lacking for this spectacle. One savage drummed on a deerskin, which was stretched over a kettle half filled with water, and another played upon an instrument made of a hollow gourd, which contained a number of pieces of shot and was decorated with a horse’s tail.