83 OX THE FRONTIER. 



possible halts for rest and refreshment, and with many a 

 change of horses, continued until all were safe in the Pot- 

 towattomie nation, whejre the victorious old chief arrived 

 with a loss of only three killed and seven wounded, and 

 with over eight hundred captured horses, numerous scalps, 

 and a tale of victory and triumph. We had arrived just as 

 the preparations were finished for the celebration of (( the 

 late glorious victory.'* 



This brilliant and dashing night attack was made when 

 we were at Camp Gibraltar, and occurred not twenty miles 

 from there. Probably it was the real reason we had been 

 allowed to hunt in peace. While we were taking our sport 

 and pleasure, the Indians, who would have been following 

 the buffalo herd that afforded us our pastime, were howling 

 over the slain, and dancing the solemn death-dance for their 

 departed. 



An attempt to describe, interestingly, the ceremonious 

 dances and festivities of the North American Indians east 

 of the Rocky Mountains has been often made ; but de- 

 scription can hardly give an adequate conception of them, 

 and not be tedious. Such things are, from their nature, 

 very different to see and to read accounts of. To illustrate, 

 I have no doubt but that a sight of OUT dances and festi- 

 vities, of a well-appointed and executed European ballet or 

 .a Lord Mayor's feast, would be highly entertaining and 

 interesting to a travelling gentleman from the Flowery 

 Land; but his written description of the performances to 

 his friends in China, would, I am certain, convey to them a 

 very vague and uncertain idea of such spectacles. And the 

 account could only be rescued from dreariness by seizing 



