THE FIRST INDIAN VISITOR. 205 



a safer position on the other side the creek. I then en 

 camped at a place called Logchain, on the banks of the 

 very steep-banked brook, where the water, by making a 

 bend, protected me on three sides. 



While arranging our camp, and attending to the pic 

 keting of my horses, my eyes were greeted by the 

 appearance of an Indian (the first I had seen), com 

 pletely equipped, on his pony leisurely, but I thought 

 oddly, coming towards us, when I soon saw that he 

 reeled in his saddle, and, on closer inspection, that he was 

 in such a state of real or pretended intoxication that he 

 could hardly maintain his position. Arrived at my 

 camp, he said something to the first of my men he met; 

 the only word I could make out was a demand for whiskey. 

 I called out " No ; " so my man, as I had previously for 

 bidden either spirits or powder to be given them, gave 

 him a piece of tobacco, and made signs that he had 

 nothing else. The little redskin for he was but a poor 

 specimen of a man then stared at me, turned his pony 

 and rode off, setting at rest any suspicion in my mind as 

 to his being a spy, perhaps in a pretended state of in 

 toxication, by reeling several times on the back of his 

 pony, and then, the girth slipping, tumbling, blankets, 

 paraphernalia, and all, heavily to the ground. The 

 poor docile pony stood still directly, and while we were 

 laughing the redskin picked himself up, re-arranged his 

 riding-gear on his pony's back, and rode slowly off into 

 the prairies, my dogs, who were luckily chained up, 

 perfectly furious to get at him. 



The Indian ponies that I met with in my travels, 

 though high enough to be called of the cob size, did not 

 take after that particular shape ; they were low for 

 their length, and calculated for quick purposes rather 



