“The custom of torturing prisoners is of ancient date, and was first introduced as a trial of courage. I have been told, however, that among some tribes it has never been in use; but it must be added that those tribes give no quarter. The Delawares accuse the Iroquois of having been the inventors of this piece of cruelty, and charge them further with eating the flesh of their prisoners after the torture was over. Be this as it may, there are now but few instances of prisoners being put to death in this manner. “Rare as these barbarous executions now are, I have reason to believe that they would be still less frequent, if proper pains were taken to turn the Indians away from this heathenish custom. Instead of this, it is but too true that they have been excited to cruelty by unprincipled white men, who have joined in their war-feasts and even added to the barbarity of the scene. Can there be a more brutal act than, after furnishing those savages, as they are called, with implements of war and destruction, to give them an ox to kill and to roast whole, to dance the war dance with them round the slaughtered animal, strike at him, stab him, telling the Indians at the same time, ‘Strike, stab! thus you must do to your enemy!’ Then taking a piece of the meat and tearing it with their teeth, ‘So you must eat his flesh!’ and sucking up the juices, ‘Thus you must drink his blood;’ and at last devour the whole as wolves do a carcass. This is what is known to have been done by some of those Indian agents that I have mentioned. “Is this possible? the reader will naturally exclaim. Yes! it is possible! and every Indian warrior will tell you that it is true. It has come to me from so many credible sources that I _am forced_ to believe it. How can the Indians now be reproached with acts of cruelty to which they have been excited by those who pretended to be Christians and civilized men, but who were worse savages than those whom, no doubt, they were ready to brand with that name.