The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-12 00:00:00

NORTH AMERICAN INDLINS.

The Ameridan papers give accounts of the Indians
charged with having taken part iu the outrages in
Minesota. " The business," the curreopondent
of the St. Paul Press, writing from Camp Sibley,
" has been despatched with eelv.:L;iy, as wally as 40
"st 6 having- beet, Isle‘i pet' EiLy in L,ocie instancee.
The prisoners were brought in chained together by
the feet in pairs, in some cases eight at a time, and
the charges which were preferred by Gen. Sibley
read to them through the interpreter, and then, aNr
' being exhorted to tell the truth and not equivocate,
each was asked the extent of his participation in the
outrages, and, if necessary, witnesses were called
against him. Then if there was any doubt as
to his guilt, or as to his being a willing parti-
cipant in the outrages, he was allowed to call
witnesses in his favour. Perhaps this may seem
to those who were not on the ground an unjus-
tifiably summary mode of proceeding ; but it was
as lengthy an examination as necessity would pei-
mit, and whatever necessity requires it justifies.
Besides, no individual injustice is probably done, as
ninety-nine hundredths of these devils are guilty."
The correspondent of a New York paper, after
stating that the victims in the massacre are esti-
mated at 600, reports that 303 of the Indians tried.
by court-martial have been condemned to be hung..
He says, " When the condemned are talked to ou
the subject they say, Kill me, kill me ; 1 would
kill you if I had you.' An Indian despises to beg
for his life, but abhors hanging, for ho feels that to
be hung is to be treated like a dog. He' would
much prefer death by the slow lingering torture,
such as none but an Indian can devise and exe-
cute, to a death on the gallows. The President
has requested General Pope to suspend the ,%e-
-cation of the Indians for the present, and it 'is much
feared that, looking at affairs from so distant a
stand-point, he may commute their sentence. The
demand of the people of the State is, that the
condemned be executed, and, if their sentence
should be commuted, there is danger that the people
will take the matter into their own hands, and
inflict summary justice. An officer just arrived
from Sibley's camp says that the citizens of the
interior are organising, and propose to kill the
Indians before they are set at liberty, in case Go-
vernment shall interfere. As the soldiel-s are
mostly citizens of the State, they would bo likely
to offer but a feeble resistance to such a, course;' It
appears that one of the Indians, a man named God-
frey, has given evidence against the rest, and he
has been the means of convicting a large number of
them, his testimony being substantiated by a sub-
sequent confession in every instance but two. Of
him we are told—" His observation and memory
were remarkable. Not the least thing had escaped
his eye or ear. Such an Indian had a double-bar-
relled gun, another a single-barrelled, another a
long one, another a short one, another a lance, and
another one nothing at all. One denied that he was
at the fort. Godfrey saw him there preparing his
sons for battle, and recollected that he painted the
face of one red, and drew a streak of green over his
eyes. Another denied that he made a certain statement
to Godfrey, which he testified to. 'What!' said God
frey, don't you recollect you said it when you bad
your hand upon my waggon and your foot resting
on the wheel ?"ro another, whom he charged with
admitting that he had killed a child by striking it
with his war spear over the head, and who denied.
it, he said, Don't you remember showing me the
spear was broken, and saying that you had broken
it in striking the child ?' To another, who said he
had a lame arm at New-Ulm, and couldn't fire a gun,
and who had such a bad gun that he could not have
fired it if he desired, he replied, You say you could
not fire and had a bad gun. Why don't you tell
the court the truth P I saw you go to take the gun
of an Indian who was killed, and fire two shots ;
and then you borrowed mine and shot with it; and
then you made me reload it, and then you fired
again.' I might enumerate numberless instances
)f this kind, in which his assumed recollection would
cause his truthfulness to be doubted if he had not
been fully substantiated. It was a study to watch
him as he sat in court, scanning the face of every
culprit who came in with the eye of a cat about to
spring. He is a Providence, specially designed as
an instrument of justice."