THE INDIAN ISHMAEL. 101 



I 



paratively safe field for exploration. It is doubtful 

 if the savages ever wander there again. 



"Of the Indian warrior on the plains we may well 

 say, requiescat in pace, and may his pace be rapid 

 towards either civilization or the happy hunting 

 ground. History shows that his reaching the first 

 has generally given him quick transit to the second. 

 The white man's country has proved a spirit-land to 

 Lo, whose noble soul seems to sink when the scalp- 

 ing-knife gathers any other rust than that of blood, 

 and whose prophetic spirit takes flight at the pros- 

 pect of exchanging boiled puppies and dirt for the 

 white brother's pork and beans. Very often, how- 

 ever, it must be said, Lo's soul is gathered to his 

 fathers by reason of its tabernacle being smitten too 

 sorely by corn lightning." * 



As Gripe paused, the Professor took up the sub- 

 ject in a somewhat different strain : 



"We have here in this State," remarked he, "a 

 tribe which may well be called the Indian Ishmael. 

 Its hand is and ever has been, since history took 

 record of it, against its brethren, and its brethren's 

 against it. I refer to the pitiful remnant of the once 

 great Delawares. From the shores of the Atlantic 

 they have steadily retreated before civilization, 

 marking their path westward by constant conflicts 

 with other races of red men. The nation in its 

 eastern forests once numbered thousands of warriors. 

 Now, three hundred miserable survivors are hasten- 

 ing to extinction by way of their Kansas reservation. 



" A number of their best warriors have been em- 

 ployed as scouts by the government, when administer- 



