128 IN THE LAND OF THE GREAT SPIRIT 



and you shall be as safe as in St. James' Street at 

 home. It is so. 



But the Indian is quick at reading character. If a 



white man plays fast and loose with him, if he says one 



thing and does another, if he treats him as a creature 



uJ-^ \ inferior to himself, then there will be trouble. And, 



without going into particulars, this fact may be taken 



to explain why, on the whole, we succeed in our 



^ j management of the Indians, and why, on the whole, 



' the Americans do not. 



I think the Indian's power of physical endurance 



has been overrated. I have hunted with some of the 



leading Indian hunters of certain districts, and I think 



1 an Englishman in training could always wear them 



down in pace and staying power. But the redskin is 



very, very lithe. I have by me now an old pair of 



Hudson Bay Co.'s handcuffs that a London constable 



would mock at as far too small. And there are three 



pomts and three only in which no Englishman I 



think could ever hope to approach the redskin's skill. 



In the "homing" instinct, in abiHty of tracking, in 



moving silently and rapidly over difficult ground, here 



/^, he is quite alone, as I think we shall agree when we 



/6'3 come to the moose ; and we are moving out with this 



^ object now. 



f-L^rrr^ t^r>iJ'. / -/ 



f-rtfuckjO' 



$r7 



