ing brands--when his muscles crisped and
crackled in the flames. To the force of character, belonging to the
white, he added the savage virtues of the red man; and many a captive
has been rescued from the flames, through his stern contempt for
torture, and his sneering triumph over his tormentors. The highest
virtue of the savage was his fortitude; and he respected and admired
even a "pale face," who emulated his endurance.

But fortitude is only passive courage--and the bravery of the pioneer
was eminently active. His vengeance was as rapid as it was sometimes
cruel. No odds against him could deter him, no time was ever wasted in
deliberation. If a depredation was committed in the night, the dawn of
morning found the sufferer on the trail of the marauder. He would follow
it for days, and even weeks, with the sagacity of the blood-hound, with
the patience of the savage: and, perhaps, in the very midst of the
Indian country, in some moment of security, the blow descended, and the
injury was fearfully avenged! The debt was never suffered to accumulate,
when it could be discharged by prompt payment--and it was never
forgotten! If the account could not be balanced now, the obligation was
treasured up for a time to come--and, when least expected, the debtor
came, and paid with usury!

It has been said, perhaps truly, that a fierce, bloody spirit ruled the
settlers in those early days. And it is unquestionable, that much of
that contempt for the slow vengeance of a legal proceeding, which now
distinguishes the people of the frontier west, originated then. It was,
doubtless, an unforgiving--eminently an unchristian--spirit: but
vengeance, sure and swift, was the only thing which could impress the
hostile savage. And, if example, in a matter of this sort, could be
availing, for their severity to the Indians, they had the highest!

The eastern colonists--good men and true--"willing to exterminate the
savages," says Bancroft,[70] who is certainly not their enemy, offered a
bounty for every Indian scalp--as we, in the west, do for the scalps of
wolves! "To regular forces under pay, the grant was _ten_ pounds--to
volunteers, in actual service, _twice that sum_; but if men would, of
themselves, without pay, make up parties and patrol the forests in
search of Indians, _as of old the woods were scoured for wild beasts_,
the chase was invigorated by the promised 'encouragement of _fifty_
pounds per scalp!'" The "fruitless cruelties