in the clouds, and who sent the sunshine, and the snow and 

 the rain and the hail. These men built themselves a house 

 of logs on a little stream only a few miles from where I stood, 

 and they lived there. And later they built a large house, that 

 they used only for the purpose of going into when they talked 

 to this Great Spirit. Their conduct was different from that 

 of all the other men people I had seen, both white and red . 

 They didn't try to kill anybody and didn't carry with them 

 anything to kill people with. The red men also said that these 

 black-gowned men claimed that this Great vSpirit was the father 

 of all the men in the world, of all colors, and that he wanted 

 all his children to be good, and not kill one another or do 

 any other bad things ; that if they were good, then, when they 

 died, they would go to a beautiful country where it was always 

 summer, and where game of all kinds was plentiful, and corn 

 and beans and pumpkins grew all around everywhere without 

 being planted, or any care and labor whatever; that there 

 were no snakes or other poisonous or bad things in this blissful 

 land, and everybody there lived a life of everlasting peace, 

 health, and happiness. But I think the red men liked their 

 own modes of life too well to give them up for just a mere 

 hope of something better after they were dead. 



"A few years after these black-gowned men appeared in 

 my neighborhood, there came to where I stood a small party 

 of red men, riding on their ponies. With them was an old 

 man, who was one of their chiefs. I had frequently seen him 

 before. They stopped under my shade, and tied their ponies 

 to the bushes near by, and made a pallet at my foot of buffalo 

 robes, on which the old chief lay down. I then saw that he 

 was very sick, and I soon learned from the talk I heard that 

 the party had stopped here because the chief was too sick 

 to go on. They stayed here some days, but the sick man 

 got no better. One morning he called to one of the young 

 men and had a short talk with him, and then the young man 

 got on his pony and quickly rode away down the river. He 

 was not gone long, and when he returned one of the black- 

 gowns came with him, riding on a pony. He came to the 

 sick chief and talked with him awhile. From their manner 



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