The Indian: On the Battle-Field and in the Wigwam — John Shaqi
The Indian: On the Battle-Field and in the WigwamFrost, John
History
The Indian: On the Battle-Field and in the Wigwam
Frost, John
Indians of North America
“I suppose you read the Bible?” The woman assented. “Well,” continued
the Indian, “the Bible say, God made the world, and then he took him,
and looked on him, and say, ‘It’s all very good.’ Then he made light,
and took him, and looked on him, and say, ‘It’s all very good.’ Then he
made dry land, and water, and sun, and moon, and grass, and trees, and
took him, and say, ‘It’s all very good.’ Then he made beasts, and bird,
and fishes, and took him, and looked on him, and say, ‘It’s all very
good.’ Then he made man, and took him, and looked on him, and say,
‘It’s all very good.’ And last of all he made _woman_, and took him, and
looked on: him, _and he no dare say one such word._” The Indian, having
told his story, departed.
Some years after, the man who had be friended the Indian had occasion
to go some distance into the wilderness between Litchfield and Albany,
which is now a populous city, but then contained only a few houses. Here
he was taken prisoner by an Indian scout, and carried off into Canada.
When he arrived at the principal settlement of their tribe, which was on
the banks of the great river St. Lawrence, some of the Indians proposed
that he should be put to death, in revenge for the wrongs that they had
suffered from the white men; and this probably would have been his fate,
had not an old Indian woman, or squaw, as they are called, demanded that
he should be given up to her, that she might adopt him in place of her
son, whom she had lately lost in war. He was accordingly given to
her, and, as it is customary under such circumstances, was thenceforth
treated in the same manner as her own son.
In the following summer, as he was one day at work in the forest by
himself, felling trees, an Indian, who was unknown to him, came; up
and asked him to meet him the following day at a certain spot which
he described. The white man agreed to do so, but not without some
apprehension that mischief was intended. During the night these fears
increased to so great a degree, as effectually to prevent his keeping
his appointment.
However, a few days after, the same Indian, finding him at work, mildly
reproved him for not keeping his promise. The man made the best excuse
he could, but the Indian was not satisfied until he had again promised
to meet him the next morning at the place already agreed on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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