TRAFFIC AMONG THE INDIANS. 105 



appeared, who made great havoc among them, and in a short time 

 caused a very sensible diminution in their numbers, and much con- 

 tracted the limits of their wanderings. This enemy was the white 

 man, who, in his steady march, causes the original proprietor of the 

 soil to recede before him, and to diminish in numbers almost as rapidly 

 as the buffalo. Thousands of these animals were annually slaughtered 

 for their skins, and often for their "tongues alone; animals whose flesh 

 is sufficient to afford sustenance to a large number of men are sacrificed 

 to furnish a "bon bouche" for the rich epicure. This wholesale slaughter 

 on the part of the white man, with the number consumed by the 

 Indians, who are constantly on their trail, migrating with them as regu- 

 larly as the season comes round, with the ravenous wolves that are 

 always at hand to destroy one of them if wounded, gives the poor beast 

 but little rest or prospect of permanent existence. It is only eight years 

 since the western borders of Texas abounded with buffaloes; but now 

 they seldom go south of Red river, and their range upon east and west 

 has also very much contracted within the same time ; so that they are at 

 present confined to a narrow belt of country between the outer settle- 

 ments and the base of the Rocky mountains. With this rapid diminu- 

 tion in their numbers, they must in the course of a very few years 

 become exterminated. What will then become of the prairie Indian, 

 who, as I have already remarked, relies for subsistence, shelter, and 

 clothing, on the flesh and hide of this animal ? He must either perish 

 with them, increase his marauding depredations on the Mexicans, or 

 learn to cultivate the soil. As the first law of our nature is self pres- 

 ervation, it is not probable that he will sit down and quietly submit to 

 starvation ; he must, therefore, resort to one of the latter alternatives. 

 But as he has no knowledge of agriculture, considers it the business of 

 a slave, and very much beneath the dignity of a warrior, it appears 

 reasonable to suppose that he will turn his attention to the Mexican*, 

 over whom he has held the mastery for many years. Heretofore he has 

 plundered these people to supply himself with animals for his own use 

 and for traffic. 



A number of Delawares, Shawnees, and Kickapoos, from Missouri 

 and the borders of Arkansas, have for several years past been engaged 

 in a traffic with the prairie Indians, which has had a tendency to 

 defeat the efforts of the military authorities in checking their depreda- 

 tions upon the citizens of the northern provinces of Mexico. These 

 traders, after procuring from the whites an outfit of such articles as are 

 suited to the wants of the prairie Indians, visit all the different bands, 

 and prosecute a very lucrative business. The goods they carry out 



