The War in the Northwest 195 



companiments had gradually wrought up many even 

 of the best of the backwoodsmen to the point where 

 they barely considered an Indian as a human being. 

 The warrior was not to them a creature of romance. 

 They knew him for what he was filthy, cruel, lech- 

 erous, and faithless. He sometimes had excellent 

 qualities, but these they seldom had a chance to see. 

 They always met him at his worst. To them he was 

 in peace a lazy, dirty, drunken beggar, whom they 

 despised, and yet whom they feared; for the squalid, 

 contemptible creature might at any moment be 

 transformed into a foe whose like there was not to 

 be found^in all the wide world for ferocity, cunning, 

 and bloodthirsty cruelty. The greatest Indians, 

 chiefs like Logan and Cornstalk, who were capa- 

 ble of deeds of the loftiest and most sublime hero- 

 ism, were also at times cruel monsters or drunken 

 good-for-nothings. Their meaner followers had 

 only such virtues as belong to the human wolf 

 stealth, craft, tireless endurance, and the courage 

 that prefers to prey on the helpless, but will fight to 

 the death without flinching if cornered. 



Moreover, the backwoodsmen were a hard peo- 

 ple; a people who still lived in an iron age. They 

 did not spare themselves, nor those who were dear 

 to them ; far less would they spare their real or pos- 

 sible foes. Their lives were often stern and grim; 

 they were wonted to hardship and suffering. In the 

 histories or traditions of the different families there 

 are recorded many tales of how they sacrificed them- 

 selves, and, in time of need, sacrificed others. The 



