[3] Indians consider the running of the gauntlet, as but the ceremony of an introduction; and say that it is "like the shake hands and howde do, of the whites."
[4] While performing this tour, Tecumseh carried a RED STICK, the acceptance of which was considered a joining of his party--Hence those Indians who were hostile to the United States, were denominated RED STICKS.
[5] Pope has very finely expressed the leading articles of religion among the Indians in the following lines.
Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul proud science never taught to stray Far as the Solar Walk or Milky Way; Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n, Behind the cloud-topt hill an humbler heav'n; Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd, Some happier island in the wat'ry waste; Where slaves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. To BE, contents his natural desire, He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire: But thinks admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company.
[6] The author's summary of Indian character is for the most part excellent, and in accord with more recent conclusions. See Chap. I. of _The Colonies_, in "Epochs of American History" (Longmans, 1892.)--R. G. T.
[7] Gen. George Rogers Clark, an early and careful observer, scouted the idea advanced by Noah Webster, in Carey's _American Museum_, in 1789, that these extraordinary Western military defenses were the work of De Soto. "As for his being the author of these fortifications," says Clark, "it is quite out of the question; they are more numerous than he had men, and many of them would have required fifty thousand men for their occupancy."--L. C. D.
[9] This description, written by Withers in 1831, still holds good in the main. The mound, which proves to have been a burial tumulus, is now surrounded by the little city of Moundsville, W. Va., and is kept inclosed by the owner as one of the sights of the place. The writer visited it in May, 1894.--R. G. T.
[10] George Rogers Clark, who was repeatedly at Cahokia during the period 1778-80, says: "We easily and evidently traced the town for upwards of five miles in the beautiful plain below the present town of Kahokia. There could be no deception here, because the remains of ancient works were thick--the whole were mounds, etc." Clark's MS. statement; Schoolcraft's _Indian Tribes_, IV., p. 135.--L. C. D.