ept up a
continued discharge of arrows and darts. Now and then a musket-ball
came whizzing by us; but it was very evident that the greater number of
our assailants were armed only with bows and arrows; at the same time
there could be no doubt that they very far outnumbered us. This would
prove of serious consequence should they come to close quarters.

Red-skins, however, are not fond of close quarters, unless they can take
an enemy by surprise, which our dogs and scouts had prevented them doing
in our case. I do not think it is fair to call them cowards. Their
notions are altogether different to ours, and they consider stratagem
and deceit as the chief art of warfare. They have no notion of risking
their own lives, if they can by any other way destroy their enemies, and
they consider white men as committing the height of folly when they
stand up and exchange shots with similar weapons in a duel. I don't
know that they are far wrong.

Our assailants, having tried to shake our nerves by their shrieks and
showers of arrows, appeared to retire, and again the whole wood was
wrapped in perfect silence. It was but of short continuation. Once
more those unearthly shrieks and cries broke forth, and this time they
were echoed by our people, who kept their muskets ready, and the moment
an enemy appeared flitting from one tree to another, did not fail to
fire--with what effect I had not time to observe. I felt that I was
bound, on every account, to take an active part in the fight, and
kneeling down behind a log of timber, I loaded and fired as rapidly as I
could, whenever my eye caught sight of the dusky form of an Indian
warrior. I did not often miss, but I suspected that I inflicted more
wounds on the limbs than on the bodies of our enemies.

"Who are they, think you?" I asked of Pipestick, who was at my side.

"Dacotahs or Pawnees," he answered. "They have had scouts on our trail
for some time probably. When they discovered that their friends were
destroyed, they thought that we had done the deed, and have come in
force resolved to be revenged."

It appeared to me that we might as well have tried to shoot down all the
trees in the wood, as to destroy our enemies. They swarmed round us
like hornets, seemingly resolved, as John observed, to cut us off to a
man. I turned my eye to the right; a band was just emerging on that
side from the wood, and the same minute I saw another coming out on the
left, in a long