Adventures Among the Red Indians

the formidable-looking knife had no more terrible work to perform than that of shaving th

a wigwam where he found a fellow-slave, a Crow Indian, who had been captured some few weeks earlier; and both occup

d, tend the fires, and do such other menial work as the squaws were not strong enough for, and as the men were too proud to do. Having no one to converse with in his own language, he rapidly picked up theirs, more rapidly indeed than they realised, for they would often talk of their war plans in his presence as though he would not understand their talk. From the more approachable of the Cherokees he occasionally learned news of the outside 27 world; heard that General Wayne was still fighting against their people, and that "they themselves didn't care

y in his death. When he started, there must be no half-measures; all hindrances and difficulties must be foreseen and allowed for. He practised assiduously the art of following a trail, whether by land or water; already he had become very handy with a bow and a

rode into the camp and held a short parley with the chief. Very soon the place was in an uproar, and Munson was easily able to find out the news. The Iowas had spied out this camp and that of some neighbouring Hur

e chances were that he might be either shot down before he could make himself known to them, or be killed by the Indians the moment he endeavoured to do so. He would never get a better opportuni

n after sundown, crept into a canoe and paddled away from the shore. His object was to reach Buffalo if possible, but that was over a hundred miles away, and he could not paddle day and night without res

keeping his eyes open for any white men's boat that might come along. But the hours went by and he saw nothing, and the desire for sleep became as pressing-and just now as much to be dreaded-as

nd there was the hope that the redskins might be of some tribe hostile to the Cherokees, who would be willing to help him in return for promises of money, which he could easily obtain from some charitable person at Buffalo. But he knew the build, the costume, the very method of using the paddles, too well; these men were Ch

y unfriendly spirit. He looked back at his pursuers again; one of them was wav

ds sounded very much like an excerpt from Somebody or Other's "French Exercises," not the less so in that they were

, they became exceedingly friendly; but Munson (perhaps he did them grave injustice) had become far too cautious to tell them the circumstances under which he had learned their language. He confined himself to the statement that he wished to re

while trying to strike a bargain with them, 31 and now they refused to take any other payment than the tobacco an

ported himself, and of course had no difficu