INDIAN HOSPITALITY. 249 
have been noted above almost every other 
uncivilized nation in history, for their vindic- 
tiveness and cruelty towards their enemies, 
there are, in these attributes, wide differences 
apparent among them. The Indians along 
the Pacific coast, as well as in most of Mexico, 
were always more mild and peaceable than 
those of the United States. Hence it is, in 
fact, that the Spaniards did not meet with that 
formidable resistance to their conquests which 
they encountered among the fiery tribes of 
Florida, or that relentless and desperate hos- 
tility which the Anglo-Americans experienced 
in the first settlement of most parts of the 
United States. 
But in the common trait of hospitality to 
strangers all the western tribes are alike dis- 
tinguished. The traveller who is thrown upon 
their charity, is almost universally received 
and treated with the greatest kindness ; and, 
though they might pilfer him to the skin, and 
even place his person in jeopardy, if he show 
want of confidence in them, and endeavor to 
conceal his effects, yet his property is gene- 
rally secure when under their‘ charge: they 
appear to consider a breach of confidence one 
of the greatest crimes. 
Among the wild tribes, as well as among 
most of the unadulterated border Indians, to 
set something to eat before a friend, and even 
a stranger, immediately upon his arrival at a 
iodae or acabin, is deemed not only an act of 
hospitality but of necessary etiquette; and a 
refusal to partake is looked upon as an un- 
