A DISAPPOINTED SAVANT. 275 



i 



That valorous chieftain we found limping around 

 outside our wagons, with a lance-cut in one of his 

 legs, while several of his warriors had arrow-wounds, 

 and one a pistol-shot, none of the injuries, however, 

 being dangerous. The Pawnees probably suffered 

 with equal severity ; and this was the sum total of 

 the day's frightful carnage the entire result of all 

 the fierce display that we had witnessed. 



Not long afterward, in front of a Government fort, 

 and in plain sight of the garrison, a battle occurred 

 between two large parties of rival tribes, about equal 

 in numbers. Back and forth, amid furious cries and 

 clouds of arrows, the hostile savages charged. Noon 

 saw the affair commenced, and sunset scarcely beheld 

 its ending. The Government report states, if my 

 memory serves me correctly, that one Indian and 

 two horses were killed; and a shade of doubt still ex- 

 ists among the witnesses whether that one unlucky 

 warrior did not break his neck by the fall of his 

 pony! 



These savages fight on horseback, and are neither 

 bold nor successful, except when the attacking party 

 is overwhelming in numbers, and then the affair be- 

 comes a massacre. All this knowledge came to us 

 afterward, but our first introduction to it was a sur- 

 prise. Kind-hearted man though he was, I think the 

 resultless ending of the battle disconcerted even the 

 Professor. Having nerved one's self to expect hor- 

 rors, it is natural to seek, on the gloomy mirror of 

 fate, some rays of glimmering light which can be 

 turned to advantage. I think the Professor's rays, 



had the contest proved as sanguinary as we first antici- 

 15 



