Hunting -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- West (U.S.); West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
When they prepared to depart, the chief told me that one of his men,
Black Tiger, would stop with me, as I had offered to build him a house
and give him everything he required. He would in return be a very good
friend to me, and he (the chief) would hear on his return in the
following year whether he remained a Delaware. I saw now that it was no
jest, and replied that I would be a good friend to him as to all the
Delawares. On parting I gave him the assurance that I would visit them
next morning at their camp. Black Tiger remained behind in great
delight, carried his saddle and pack into the fort, placed his long
rifle and hunting pouch in the parlour, and then came to me begging I
would build him the promised house. I intimated to him that this would
take some time, but in the meanwhile I would give him a handsome tent. I
fetched a very large white and red striped marquee and asked him where I
should put it up for him. He pointed out a spot at the eastern end of
the fence under an elm-tree on the slope over the river, and when I told
him that I locked the fort gate at night, he laughed, and replied that
in that case he would shut up his house too.
He was quite beside himself with joy when the handsome tent was up, and
the long red, white, and blue American pennant floated over it. He now
refused to have another house, as this one was much finer than mine. A
trench was dug round the tent to carry off the rain water, and the
ground inside was covered with some buffalo hides, after which Tiger
carried in his baggage and weapons, quite delighted with his house. In
order to delight him even more, I hung upon the tent-post a
looking-glass, put in a chair, and gave my young friend a gay coloured
silk handkerchief, with which he bound his fine black hair on the right
side of his head, and let the end hang over his shoulder. After supper
my new guest went to his tent, and when we closed the fort, a merry fire
was still blazing before it, behind which he sat on his stool and smoked
a short pipe which I had also given him.
The next morning, almost before sunrise, I went to Tiger and saw him
turning some spits at the fire, on which he had placed the breast of a
turkey, while by his side lay another young cock which, as he said, he
had fetched for me. He had been hunting on the other side of the river,
to which he had crossed in my canoe. An hour after he came to breakfast
with me, and enjoyed it heartily, especially the milk and bread. Then he
went to his tent, and slept till I called him to ride with me to the
camp of his tribe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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