Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2): Or, An Historical Account of Those Individuals Who Have Been Distinguished among the North American Natives as Orators, Warriors, Statesmen, and Other Remarkable CharactersThatcher, B. B. (Benjamin Bussey)
History
Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2): Or, An Historical Account of Those Individuals Who Have Been Distinguished among the North American Natives as Orators, Warriors, Statesmen, and Other Remarkable Characters
Thatcher, B. B. (Benjamin Bussey)
Indians of North America -- Biography; Indians of North America -- History
We have drawn the portrait of this eminent chieftain hitherto, only so far
as to sketch some of those strongly-marked lineaments by which he was best
known to his contemporaries, and by which he will be longest remembered.
But there was something more in his character than strong savage talent
and savage feeling. Injured and irritated as he often was, and constantly
as he kept himself excited by an interest in the fate of his countrymen,
and by the agitation of his own schemes, there is no evidence either of
coarseness in his manners, or of cruelty in his conduct. For reasons
easily to be imagined, he regarded Governor Harrison with less partiality,
than most other individual Americans; and hence, the British General is
said to have stipulated early in the war, that the Governor, if taken
prisoner, should be _his_ captive. But he is understood to have always
treated that gentleman with such courtesy, that we apprehend, had this
_casus-faedris_ unfortunately occurred, he would have gloried only in
conveying him off the battle-field in the manner of the Black-Prince, and
in setting before him, with the royal munificence of Massasoit, all the
dry pease in his wigwam.
When the Governor proposed to him, on his first visit to Vincennes in
1810, that, in the event of a war, he would as far as possible put a stop
to the cruelties which the Indians were accustomed to inflict upon women
and children, and others no longer in a situation to resist,--he readily
gave his assent to the proposition, and voluntarily pledged himself to
adhere to it. There is reason to believe, that he remembered this promise;
and that amidst temptations and provocations,--and, many would be inclined
to add, examples, from an authority he might have been supposed to
respect,--of a most extraordinary nature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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