306 HUNTING SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



was fortunate as to season, and passed some very pleas- 

 ant days there. The races took place on an excellent 

 course, formed by the 34th, on the glacis of Fort Mai- 

 den ; and on the very ground rendered famous by bloody 

 conflicts, maintained during the last and former wars by 

 the British, French, Canadians, Americans, and Indians, 

 a vast concourse of these several people were now met 

 in amity to enjoy the sports. The Indians stood some- 

 what aloof from the crowd, and did not seem much in- 

 spired by the equestrian exploits ; but the French and 

 Yankees joined zealously in the amusements. Among 

 the " Red skins," I noted not a few erect and actively- 

 made fellows, painted, feathered, and tinselled, and look- 

 ing as proud as peacocks. In the evening I met one of 

 the objects of my admiration staggering homeward from 

 the race-course, uproariously drunk ! Where was now 

 the proud gait and dignified reserve of the descendant 

 of Tecumseh ? Where, indeed ! A drunken Indian is, 

 in my eyes, almost as loathsome a sight as a drunken 

 woman ; and of the disgust with which the spectacle im- 

 presses me, not a little may be placed to the account of 

 the civilized Briton who first taught the "noble savage" 

 the brutalizing use of the fire-water. I will hereupon 

 give the United States government, in two words, a hint 

 for their conduct of the Florida war. Let them lay 

 whiskey on the " war-path "of their Indian foes a more 

 potent agent than less "villainous saltpetre," or the 

 West Indian bloodhound, proposed to be employed 



visiting of this Ultima Thule of Her Majesty's Western dominions, as 

 I had done, eleven years before, that of her Eastern, the passes of the 

 Himalaya Mountains. 



