This Paradise of Ours 131 



of the eastern and the western mountains. The 

 Indian had been in it before him, long before his 

 ancestors had entered Europe — for the red man was 

 contemporary with the extinct mammoth. The ruin 

 of the Indian was the lap of luxury in which he 

 found himself. But little of his energy was re- 

 quired to clothe himself in the best of mantles — 

 that of the buffalo hide. He did not scruple to sit 

 at the second table of the panther, and skin and eat 

 what the great cat had slain. His forest trees and 

 the ground were covered with fruits and nuts in 

 wasting profusion. He could imitate the bear by 

 tossing fish out of the stream with his hands. And 

 so needing not to do any good work he found evil 

 to do, and waged incessant wars of extermination 

 against his fellow-man. He turned the conditions 

 which would have given a teeming population and 

 a high grade of civilization, into the conditions for 

 paucity and savagery of human life. But he sought 

 his pleasure in things most congenial to him. He 

 fought for revenge and glory, and scalped for 

 trophies. He lived for the present, and died with 

 unquailing courage. I know of no stoicism in his- 

 tory so near to the sublime as the conduct of Old 

 Tassel and the friendly Cherokee chiefs. They 

 had been invited to a friendly conference, and 

 seated themselves in a cabin. Gilmore, in his 

 "John Sevier," describes the entering into this 

 friendly circle of the leader of the white conspira- 

 tors: 



