Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-09-04
Ghildren's Department.
(Original..
THE INDIAN.


Two hundred and fifty years ago, the coun-
try, now called the United States, was inhab-
tied by race of people very different from
its present inhabitants. Christopher Colum.
bus called them Indians, because he thought,
at first, the country was India. The country
was not India, and the people, with no pro-
priety, were called Indians. The name, how
ever, still continues, and will, no doubt, con.
tinue to be given to this people, as long as
any of them remain.
The Indians now reside onl in the far west.
They are fast becoming extinct. In ii few
years they will be known only as a people
that once existed. Only few of the present
inhabitants of the older States ever saw the
face of red man. They were very pecu-
liar people. They rarely forsook friend or
forgot an enemy. In proof of this many facts
could be related When they had a quarrel
with one white man, they regarded every
white man as their enemy, and were ready to
give vent to their wrath upon the first one
they met.
1t is related that once an Indian had been
driven off by some white people from his
hunting ground. The white men followed
him up and finally he was killed. His wife,
or squaw, as she was called, took her little
son and went away to the far west, beyond
the reach, as she thought, of the pale faces.
She took the bones of her husband with her.
These she burned and placed the ashes in a
kind of coffin, near by the wigwam.
Year after year rolled on. Her son grew up
to be man. The cruel treatment his mother
received from the white men, and the murder
of his father, filled his soul with vengeance,
and he determined to kill every white man
he put his eye upon. His home was in
in the midst of an extensive forest. No white
man came near his house for years. At last,
when his mother was grown old and frail, a
white man, an English traveller, came to their
home. 1t was late in the evening" The old
woman trembled with fear. Her son, now
becoming an old man, was out in the woods
hunting deer. The traveller saw the old In
dian woman's fears and pushed on to make
his way through the unbroken forest. At
last night came on. He dismounted and tied
his horse to tree and prepared to spend the
night in the woods. He kindled fire and
lay down before it to sleep. Late in the
night, when his fire had burned down and
only few Goals remained, he thought he saw
a man seated on a log near by. He raised
himself up and looked carefully but could see
nothing His mind become agitated. He
could not sleep. In short time he saw the
form of man standing near the place where
he lay. In fright he rose from his bed on
the ground, seized his pistol and prepared to
shoot the intruder In moment, before he
could shoot, the Indian sprang upon him and
wrested the pistol out of his hand and crush
ed him to the ground, and with his strong arms
held him firmly there. Not a word was spo-
ken. Each thought the other ignorant of
his language. At last the Indian said, in
broken English, "you kill my father" The
traveller felt now that there was little, if any
hope for him. He declared his innocence
and begged for his life. So soon as the In
dian discovered that he had no other weapons,
he permitted him to rise. He was ordered to
mount his horse and follow the Indian through
the painless forest At late hour in tho
night they reached the wigwam. The white
man was taken in and shown pile of skins
on which he could sit down. So soon as
morning came the Indian PORTED out to the
traveller a number of scalps which he had
cut from the heads of persons he had killed.
Some of them were apparently from the heads
Of old men, others from old women, and 9th
ers again seemed to be the scalps of small
children. These the savage had hung up in
his rude house as ornaments, just as civilized
people hang up pictures on the walls of their
parlors. Led by an overruling Providence,
the Indian, after giving to the traveller the
evidence of his success in avenging the MUIR
der of his father, fed him and permitted him
to depart, in no other way injured except
that his pistol was taken from him and his
life had been nearly frightened out of him.