'WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1855
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to that. It was very natural to expect that it would be done. The Sioux chief, who was wounded on the occasion to which I have referred, was taken to the Arkansas, and there he expired in consequence of the injury he had received. His kindred re- solved to revenge his death. The Indian appreciates the ties of kindred far beyond any white man. They may have less intelli- gence, but the chords of nature are stronger, the sensibilities of the heart more lively than those which stimulate our Chris- tian, enlightened nation. It is well known that the grief which resounds through the Indian camp when a warrior or chief ex- pires, or when a relative dies, is like the wailing of Egypt. When this chief expired his friends sought for a white man, that they might take vengeance on him-not for those who had inflicted the wrong, but whoever they might happen to find among the whites. They first came upon the mail party. One, who was not a relative of the chief, said to one of his kindred, "There is a white man, you can now take vengeance on him; you are a cowar~ if you do not do so." He said: "I am no co\Va1·d; but if you say it, I will kill him." Then he went and killed two of the three composing the mail party. Now, sir, what has been the condition of the Indian country previous to these occurrences? I have been assured by gentle- men who have passed from California to Fort Laramie, a dis- tance of one thousand four hundred or one thousand five hundred miles, that they met individuals traveling alone through that vast region. They passed through a wilderness of one thousand four hundred or one thousand five hundred miles unassailed, and with- out injury from any one. Did this look like a desperate feeling on the part of the Indians, when they allowed unprotected indi- viduals, sometimes singly, occasionally in small companies of three or four persons, to pass through their country unmolested? No, sir. It is some sudden act of wrong and outrage which stimulates the Indian to aggression. He has no inducement to it unless he expects great plunder, because he is very well aware that if he cultivates kind and friendly relations with the whites, he can receive from them supplies that he can not obtain any other way-things which gratify his taste for dress, and supply his wants and appetites. For this reason the Indian is always disposed to be in peace and friendship with his white neighbors if he can. I have given some illustrations of the so-called Indian outrages. I may refer to another one, which not long since took place in
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