188 THE CONSPIRACY. [1760-1763. 



exertions, however, were barely sufficient to allay 

 their irritation.^ 



While thus on the very eve of an outbreak, the 

 Indians concealed their designs with the dissimu- 

 lation of their race. The warriors still lounged 

 about the forts, with calm, impenetrable faces, 

 begging, as usual, for tobacco, gunpowder, and 

 whiskey. Now and then, some slight intimation 

 of danger would startle the garrisons from their 

 security. An English trader, coming in from the 

 Indian villages, would report that, from their man- 

 ner and behavior, he suspected them of brooding 

 mischief; or some scoundrel half-breed would be 

 heard boasting in his cups, that before next sum- 

 mer he would have English hair to fringe his hunt- 



laces, collars, and embroidery ; but when employed for public purposes, 

 they were disposed in a great variety of patterns and devices, which, to 

 the minds of the Indians, had all the significance of hieroglyphics. An 

 Indian orator, at every clause of his speech, delivered a belt or string of 

 wampum, varying in size, according to the importance of what he had 

 said, and, by its figures and coloring, so arranged as to perpetuate the 

 remembrance of his words. These belts were carefully stored up like 

 written documents, and it was generally the office of some old man to 

 interpret their meaning. 



When a wampum belt was sent to summon the tribes to join in war, its 

 color was always red or black, while the prevailing color of a peace-belt 

 was white. Tobacco was sometimes used on such occasions as a substi- 

 tute for wampum, since in their councils the Indians are in the habit of 

 constantly smoking, and tobacco is therefore taken as the emblem of 

 deliberation. With the tobacco or the belt of wampum, presents are not 

 unfrequently sent to conciliate the good will of the tribe whose alliance is 

 sought. In the summer of the year 1846, when the western bands of the 

 DahcotaJi were preparing to go in concert against their enemies the 

 Crows, the chief who was at the head of the design, and of whose village 

 the writer was an inmate, impoverished himself by sending most of his 

 horses as presents to the chiefs of the surrounding villages. On this 

 occasion, tobacco was the token borne by the messengers, as wampum is 

 not in use among the tribes of that region. 

 1 MS. Johnson Papers. 



