Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-03-02
From the San Francisco Bulletin, Feb. e.
Iudia n-Hunting in California.

Imam uuttnS IN
Indian-hunting is no doubt very rare
snort. 1t requires so much boldness to pick
of a ''bad-looking buck" unarmed though
he be, except with his wicked looks: it is
such manly entertainment to shoot down
squaws and picsninnies. as they fly winged
with terror or huddle and crouch with fear
in a corner of a wigwam, that really 1t
seems wanton TO put any hindrance in the
way Of the valiant rangers who enjoy that
sort of thing. Indian-hunting makes brave
men. men of exquisite taste. and marvell-
ouslv quickens the inventive faculty in those
who practice it. These points we fancy it
no difficult matter to prove from the docum-
entarv evidence on the Indian wars, lately
transmitted by Governor Downey to the
Assembly of our State.
LIST. Ii makes brave men. According to
the report Of Lieut.. Dillon, Thomas Henley
went over the Eel river, one bright day last
March. with some of his emplove s and
finding there some huts. sent in an Indian TO
order the squalid inhabitants to come out,
with the promise that they should not be
harmed. -Four bucks came ont, but one of
them prOfessed to he lame and unable to
walk. whereupon Mr.. Henley either shot
MN OF ldu MN fliDi. MI. lltllltN uDt0 iol
charge these Indians with having stolen any
thing from him, but saws they were too near
him. and he is afraid they will steal In
all the events of the Peloponesian war. is
there a drawer record than this of Mr.. Henley?
Again According to Major Johnson's re
port, Col. T. J. Henley. late Superintendent
Of Indian Affairs. turned out with some Of
the Round Valley settlers, one day last Au-
gust and killed eleven Indians, sex not named,
not becruse they had stolen anything, but
because Indians generally will steal and why
should not these? These brave comrades OF
Henley suffer immense loss in having neither
poet nor historian in attendance when they
90 dashing Ga company Of fifty of them into
the presence of a short dozen of shiverlng,
starving. naked diggers, when their unerring
rifles lay the "bucks'' over at a pop, and the
scared squaws and frightened children lie
still to be Drained without a protesting groan.
History and poetry lose the thrilling details
Of such spirit-stirring charges, for this neg
lect of Henley to take a poet or practiced
writer along.
Brave Jarboe, too, up to August 10Th, had
killed 80 Misunderstanding, in one camp,
according to Lieut.. johnson, four children,
four woman and six men: but whether the
latter were all lame, or seriously sick, does
not appear. Brave Jarboe!
%. Indian hunting cultivates the taste.
Henley shot the lame Indian in Eden Valley
because she looked like a bad Indian" and
he did not want any such disagreeable look
ing specimens around. Let bad looking
Indians take heed. None but your Apollos
Belvideres will b. permitted about Eden
Valley.
Sd. Tndian-hunting stimulates the in
ventive faculty. When the gallant attack
has been made, and the victims of Christian
vengeance strew the ground, it is exceed ing
" desirable to have a good excuse to make
TO the world. who ignorantly may not share
the sentiments Of the valiant volunteers who
have turned so many woman and children
into food for worms" Col. Henley and
his worthy sons. after the massacre at Eel
river. produced a horses ear and two
tongues found in the rancharia. The
quickened invention of the Colonel construed
these into evidences enough that his victims
had been horse-stealers in their days.
True, nobody had lost a horse. nobody had
complained that his horses tongue had been
plucked out but where did the ear and
and tongues come from if they had not been
stolen? 1t was by the same reasoning that a
shrewd physician charged his patient with
having eaten oysters, when he found the
shells under his bed. and his brilli,n nj student
discovered that another patient had been eat
ing a horse. because he found a saddle under
his cot. At any rate it was eminontlv sharp
in the Colonel, and worthy a professional In
dian hunter, to discover 50 excellent an apol-
ogv for his mornings work on Eel river, for
if the fatal ear and tongues had not turned
up in time. the tender-hearted world might
have deemed his entertainment massacre, and
him a wholesale murderer.
But on the other hand, itcannot be denied
that this manly game Of Indian-hunting Is
somewhat costly. 1t seems that the United
States troops find most Of their employment
in defending the inoffansiye indians from be-
ing massacred. If they hear Of anv worthless
whites stealing a horse, they must hasten into
the neighborh0od where the theft was com
nitted. or bv that token a hunt viii be rails
ed to kill a score or two of Digeorz. II they
hear of any violence committed on some pretty
Indian maid, the Infantry must get in mo-
ton straightway, or the perpetrator OF the IN
famous outrage gets up a hunting party de-
vises some stock-stealing story, and hastens
to shoot down all to whom the pretty maid
might tell her wrongs.
Lieut.. Dillon SAYS, as soon as the river
gets low enough he shall 90 down into Eden
Valley and try to get the Indians into the
camp. =" or they will all be killed Major
johnson was, at the date Of his report,
endeavoring TO get them in to the Reservation,
feeling assured that if he did not. they would
be mercilessly e~xterminated. The miserable
wretches, in their mountain Businesses,
pinched with perpetual hunger, were star
wing and dying at the rate Of eight or ten a
dav. but if they come down within rihe-shot
they are shot. Gen. Clarke Is satisfied that
the whites need no protection, and the heavy
work of the army is TO protect the Indians
from slaughter.
As we said at the beginning, Indian hunt
ing is no doubt rare sport, but if the whole
story of the campaigns were told, we sus-
pect that Henley and Jarboe, in the Judgment
of people who are not fond of sports that
make humanity blush and decency shrink
back in disgust from the haunts of civilized
men. would be deemed murderers. For such
multiplied outrages, TO hang them would
be to ~profane the ~gallows, which is retained
for crimes that swarm not in such gangs.