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 tc 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 iny 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 Thftle of Her Majesty's Western dominions, as 

 *. had done, eleven years before, that of her Eastern, the passes of th 

 Hiumliya Mountains. 



