548 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



his control ; and that in his work, both the captain and the writer of the book have 

 expressed in a proper way their abhorrence of such fiendish transactions. 



A part of the same " piebald mixture" of trappers, who were encamped in the Ric- 

 caree country, and trapping the beavers out of their streams, when, finding that the 

 Riccarees had stolen a number of their horses one night, in the morning made pris- 

 oners of two of the Riccarees who loitered into their camp, and probably without 

 knowledge of the offense committed, when they were bound hand and foot as hostages 

 until every one of the horses should be returned. 



"The mountaineers declared that unless the horses were relinquished the pris- 

 oners should be burned to death. To give force to their threat a pyre of logs and 

 faggots was heaped up and kindled into a blaze. The Riccarees released one horse, 

 and then another ; but finding that nothing but the relinquishment of all their spoils 

 would purchase the lives of their captives, they abandoned them to their fate, moving 

 off with many parting words and howlings, when the prisoners were dragged to the 

 blazing pyre, and burned to death in sight of their retreating comrades. 



"Such are the savage cruelties that white men learn to practice, who mingle in 

 savage life, and such are the acts that lead to terrible recrimination on the part of 

 the Indians. Should we hear of any atrocities committed by the Riccarees upon cap- 

 tive white men, let this signal and recent provocation be borne in mind. Individual 

 cases of the kind dwell in the recollections of whole tribes, and it is a point of honour 

 and conscience to revenge them. n * 



To quote the author further, ■ ' The facts disclosed in the present work clearly manifest 

 the policy of establishing military posts, and a mounted force to protect our traders 

 in their journeys across the great Western wilds, and of pushing the outposts into the 

 heart of the singular wilderness we have laid open, so as to maintain some degree of 

 sway over the country, and to put an end to the kind of 'black mail' levied on all 

 ©ccasions by the savage chivalry of the mountains! " 



MR. CATLIN ON INDIAN KILLING BY WHITE MEN. 



The appalling cruelties in the above quotations require no comment, and I hope the 

 author, as well as the captain, who have my warmest approbation for having so 

 frankly revealed them, will pardon me for having quoted them in this place as one 

 striking proof of the justice that may be reasonably expected in prospect, and that 

 may fairly be laid to the past proceedings of these great systems of trading with and 

 civilizing the savages ; which have been carried on from the beginning of our settle- 

 ments on the Atlantic coast to the present day, making first acquaintance with them, 

 and first impressions of the glorious effects of civilization, and of the sum total of 

 which this instance is but a mere point ; but with the singular merit, which redounds 

 to the honor of Captain Bonneville, that he has frankly told the whole truth ; which, 

 if as fully revealed as all other transactions in these regions, I am enabled to say 

 would shake every breast with ague-chills of abhorrence of civilized barbarities. 

 From the above facts, as well as from others enumerated in the foregoing epistles, the 

 discerning reader will easily see how prejudices are raised in the minds of the savage, 

 and why so many murders of white people are heard of on the frontier, which are 

 uniformly attributed to the wanton cruelty and rapacity of the savage, which we 

 denominate "Indian murders," and " ruthless barbarities," before we can condescend 

 to go to the poor savage, and ask him for a reason, which there is no doubt he could 

 generally furnish us. 



From these, and hundreds of others that might be named, and equally barbarous, 

 it can easily be seen that white men may well feel a dread at eveiy step they take in 



* During the summer of this transaction I was on the Upper Missouri River, and had to pass the 

 Riccaree village in my hark canoe, with only two men, which the reader will say justly accounts for 

 the advice of Mr. McKenzie to pass the Riccaree village in the night, which I did, as I have before 

 described, by which means it is possible I preserved ray life, as they had j ust killed the last fur 

 trader in their village, and, as I have learned since, were " dancing his scalp " when I came by them. 



