THE DESIGN. 85 



the Seminole campaign and Texan war of independence 

 for nothing; nor had he instructed and led his braves for 

 forty years without teaching them discipline, reliance on one 

 another, and confidence in him. 



The Indian tribes of the Plains make their great annual 

 buffalo hunt in large bodies. The whole nation goes to it. 

 It is the opportunity for every man to lay in the winter's 

 meat and clothing for himself and family. The women and 

 children who are able to assist do the skinning and cutting 

 up, carrying and jerking, curing and dressing ; and busy 

 enough they all are when the edge of the great buffalo herd 

 is reached and the slaughter has commenced. Besides, it 

 is their golden opportunity to get all they can eat every 

 day, to fatten themselves up after past privations. The 

 encampment of a prairie tribe on its annual hunt is a city 

 of tents, and their buffalo-runners, their riding-hacks, their 

 pack-horses, cover the ground round about it. As they 

 move along from time to time, following the slowly migrat- 

 ing herd, they make a trail as plain and easy to see as the 

 Queen's highway one that an Indian can follow at a hand 

 gallop on the darkest night. 



Captain Connor was on his mettle, and he made a great 

 success of the expedition. An evening arrived when he 

 called his little band around him ; and informed his braves 

 only half-a-night's easy riding lay between them and a large 

 encampment of their foes, and that they would shortly have 

 another opportunity to make the name of Delaware a sound 

 of praise. 



When close to the doomed camp, he halted his men and 

 explained the plan of attack. The entire force would 



