is Spanish Majesty with McGillivray and his Creeks in the south, but
this I do believe," and he brought down his fist among the papers, "that
the old French and Spanish treaties were right in principle. Here
are copies of the English treaties that I have secured, and in them
thousands of sovereigns have been thrown away. They are so much waste
paper. Gentlemen, the Indians are children. If you give them presents,
they believe you to be afraid of them. I will deal with them without
presents; and if I had the gold of the Bank of England stored in the
garrison there, they should not touch a piece of it."

But Captain de Leyba, incredulous, raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

"Por Dios," he cried, "whoever hear of one man and fifty militia
subduing the northern tribes without a piastre?"

After a while the Colonel called me in, and sent me speeding across the
little river with a note to a certain Mr. Brady, whose house was not far
away. Like many another citizen of Cahokia, Mr. Brady was terror-ridden.
A party of young Puan bucks had decreed it to be their pleasure to
encamp in Mr. Brady's yard, to peer through the shutters into Mr.
Brady's house, to enjoy themselves by annoying Mr. Brady's family and
others as much as possible. During the Indian occupation of Cahokia this
band had gained a well-deserved reputation for mischief; and chief among
them was the North Wind himself, whom I had done the honor to kick
in the stomach. To-night they had made a fire in this Mr. Brady's
flower-garden, over which they were cooking venison steaks. And, as I
reached the door, the North Wind spied me, grinned, rubbed his stomach,
made a false dash at me that frightened me out of my wits, and finally
went through the pantomime of scalping me. I stood looking at him with
my legs apart, for the son of the Great Chief must not run away. And
I marked that the North Wind had two great ornamental daubs like
shutter-fastenings painted on his cheeks. I sniffed preparation, too,
on his followers, and I was sure they were getting ready for some new
deviltry. I handed the note to Mr. Brady through the crack of the door
that he vouchsafed to me, and when he had slammed and bolted me out, I
ran into the street and stood for some time behind the trunk of a big
hickory, watching the followers of the North Wind. Some were painting
themselves, others cleaning their rifles and sharpening their scalping
knives. All jabbered unceasingly. Now and again a silent