xxvi INTRODUCTION. 



He makes many raids upon white settlers ; but his 

 favourite victims are Mexicans. Like all barbarians, he 

 believes his tribe the most prosperous and powerful on 

 earth, and, whenever the Government supplies him with 

 blankets, sugar, or money, attributes the gifts solely to 

 fear of Comanche prowess. Never tilling the ground, 

 insensible alike to the comforts and wants of civilisation, 

 daring, treacherous, and bloodthirsty, they are the Bedouins 

 of the frontier, and the mortal terror of weaker Indians 

 and of Mexicans. According to tradition, their ancestors 

 came from a far country in the west, where they expect 

 to join them after death. 



Catlin says of them : ' In their movements they are 

 heavy and ungraceful ; and on their feet one of the most 

 unattractive and slovenly-looking races of Indians I have 

 ever seen ; but the moment they mount their horses, they 

 seem at once metamorphosed, and surprise the spectator 

 with the ease and grace of their movements. A Comanche 

 on his feet is out of his element, and comparatively almost 

 as awkward as a monkey on the ground, without a limb 

 or branch to cling to ; but the moment he lays his 

 hand upon his horse, his face even becomes handsome, 

 and he gracefully flies away like a different being.' 



The Kiowas number at present about 2,000 and the 

 Comanches 3,000. 



The principal chiefs of the Kiowas are ' Lone Wolf ' 

 and ' Satanta,' or ' White Bear.' The latter in cunning and 

 native diplomacy has no rival. In wealth and influence 

 the Dakota chief, ' Eed Cloud,' is his rival ; but in 

 boldness, daring, and merciless cruelty, ' Satanta ' is far his 

 superior. If a white man does him an injury, he never 

 forgives him; but if, on the other hand, the white man 

 has done him a service, death alone can prevent him 

 from paying the debt. Mr. Kitchin, who visited him in 

 1864, describes him as ' a fine-looking Indian, very 



