94 The Winning of the West 



equal the Iroquois as warriors; but among them- 

 selves the palm was still held by the Wyandots, 

 who, although no more formidable than the others 

 as regards skill, hardihood, and endurance, never- 

 theless stood alone in being willing to suffer heavy 

 punishment in order to win a victory. 3 



The Wyandots had been under the influence of 

 the French Jesuits, and were nominally Christians ; 4 

 and though the attempt to civilize them had not been 

 very successful, and they remained in most respects 

 precisely like the Indians around them, there had 

 been at least one point gained, for they were not, as 

 a rule, nearly so cruel to their prisoners. Thus they 

 surpassed their neighbors in mercifulness as well as 

 valor. All the Algonquin tribes stood, in this re- 

 spect, much on the same plane. The Delawares, 

 whose fate it had been to be ever buffeted about by 

 both the whites and the reds, had long cowered un- 

 der the Iroquois terror, but they had at last shaken 

 it off, had reasserted the superiority which tradition 

 says they once before held, and had become a for- 

 midable and warlike race. Indeed it is curious to 



3 General W. H. Harrison, "Aborigines of the Ohio Val- 

 ley." Old "Tippecanoe" was the best possible authority 

 for their courage. 



4 "Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and Travels of Col. 

 James Smith," etc., written by himself, Lexington, Ky., 1799- 

 Smith is our best contemporary authority on Indian warfare; 

 he lived with them for several years, and fought them in 

 many campaigns. Besides several editions of the above, he 

 also published in 1812, at Paris, Ky., a "Treatise" on Indian 

 warfare, which holds much the same matter. 



