which, long accustomed to no softer mattress than mother earth, tossed about all night, unable to appreciate the unusual luxury. I found chairs a positive nuisance, and in my own room caught myself in the act, more than once, of squatting cross-legged on the floor. The greatest treat to me was bread; I thought it the best part of the profuse dinners of the Planter's House, and consumed prodigious quantities of the staff of life, to the astonishment of the waiters. Forks, too, I thought were most useless superfluities, and more than once I found myself on the point of grabbing a tempting leg of mutton mountain fashion, and butchering off a hunter's mouthful. But what words can describe the agony of squeezing my feet into boots, after nearly a year of moccasons, or discarding my turban for a great boardy hat, which seemed to crush my temples! The miseries of getting into a horrible coat — of braces, waistcoat, gloves, and all such implements of torture —” etc.[1]
To the same effect — as showing the reversionary
tendencies and proclivities of many whites for barbarism, and
as encouraging the Indian in casting the balance against
civilization — is to be noted a fact which has had a very
painful significance in many saddened affections. As soon
after the settlement of this country as the savages learned
in their constant border raids on the whites that they could
get a ransom price in money or goods for captives, they, in
many cases, spared from torture and death young persons,
and women first, and then men, whom they carried back
with them to their haunts. From time to time arrangements
were made with them for the exchange of prisoners
and the redemption of captives. Then in very many cases it
was found to the dismay of parents and friends that even
young girls, as well as males, who had lived with the
Indians for quite a short time, — a year or two, — were so
fascinated with their new ways as to be utterly averse to
return to their homes and kindred in civilized scenes.
There was something in the wild life and its companion-
- ↑ Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains (p. 303). By George F. Ruxton, Esq., Member of the Royal Geographical Society, the Ethnological Society, etc.
