Spread of English-Speaking Peoples 117 



or sleeping, the sight of the skinned, mutilated, hide- 

 ous body of the baby who had just grown old enough 

 to recognize him and to crow and laugh when taken 

 in his arms. Such incidents as these were not ex- 

 ceptional; one or more, and often all of them, were 

 the invariable attendants of every one of the count- 

 less Indian inroads that took place during the long 

 generations of forest warfare. It was small won- 

 der that men who had thus lost everything should 

 sometimes be fairly crazed by their wrongs. Again 

 and again on the frontier we hear of some such un- 

 fortunate who has devoted all the remainder of his 

 wretched life to the one object of taking vengeance 

 on the whole race of the men who had darkened his 

 days forever. Too often the squaws and pappooses 

 fell victims of the vengeance that should have come 

 only on the warriors ; for the whites regarded their 

 foes as beasts rather than men, and knew that the 

 squaws were more cruel than others in torturing the 

 prisoner, and that the very children took their full 

 part therein, being held up by their fathers to toma- 

 hawk the dying victims at the stake. 26 



*' As was done to the father of Simon Girty. Any history 

 of any Indian inroad will give examples such as I have men- 

 tioned above. See McAfee MSS., John P. Hale's "Trans- 

 Alleghany Pioneers," De Haas' "Indian Wars," Wither's 

 "Border War," etc. In one respect, however, the Indians 

 east of the Mississippi were better than the tribes of the 

 plains from whom our borders have suffered during the pres- 

 ent century ; their female captives were not invariably rav- 

 ished by every member of the band capturing them, as has 

 ever been the custom among the horse Indians. Still, they 

 were often made the concubines of their captors. 



