116 THE HIVE’ OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 
and slept through the entire twenty-four hours of the 
day. Of all the remarkable traits of character that dig- 
nify them in history, we could not discern the least 
trace ; yet among the brutal, insensible savages at our 
feet, were many daring spirits, who had displayed in 
their warfare with the whites, dangerous talents, and 
taken many a bloody scalp. The girls were possessed 
of little or no personal charms, while the women, the la- 
borers of the tribe, were as hideous as any hags that can 
be imagined. 
The heat of the weather and the confinement of the 
boat, had a dreadful effect upon these poor wretches ; 
sickness rapidly broke out among them, and as they 
stoutly refused to take the white man’s medicine, their 
chances of recovery were poor indeed. 
The tender was turned into a perfect lazar-house, 
and nothing could be seen but the affecting attentions 
of the old squaws to their friends and relatives, as they 
wasted away before their eyes. The infant and patri- 
arch were side by side, consuming with slow fever, while 
the corpse of some middle-aged person lay at their feet, 
waiting for the funeral rites and the obscurity of the 
grave. Vain were the prescriptions of the “ medicine 
man” of their tribe; he blew his breath through a gaudy 
colored reed upon the faces of his patients, and recited 
his incantations, but without success. He disfigured his 
person with new paint, and altered his devices daily, still 
his patients would die, and at every landing where the 
