of an Arab, have carried him off, and so by force and robbery have effected the exchange he so much desired. Daring villains seldom want excuses; he pretended, that the man of whom Mr. Prior bought the horse, had told him to bring it away, and leave the one he offered in its stead. His first depredation, this morning, was stealing a case of razors, which being discovered in his shot pouch, were taken from him; these he said, he only wanted to shave his head, and would then have returned them.
Circumstanced as we were, it was not politic to chastize him, as he would probably, out of revenge, have lurked about a week, in order to have stolen my horse. After some persuasion, and, above all, a hint that if his conduct were made known at the garrison, from whom I had received permission to proceed up the country, he need not expect the restitution of his wife and three children, from the hands of the Cherokees, if that was to be his line of conduct; he now began to speak in a submissive tone, and ordered his squaw to unpack my horse. I was still, however, mortified to find that it was necessary, prudentially, as suggested by the trader, not only to desist from administering punishment, but even to bestow a present upon the villain by way of encouragement. Such is the indulgent method of dealing with Indians employed by the traders!
As among most other nations of the aborigines, the principal labour, except that of hunting, devolves upon the women. Accustomed to perpetual drudgery, they are stouter and lower in stature than the men. They appear scarcely to inherit the same condition. Considered almost as slaves and creatures of appetite, their lives are always secured as prisoners. It is to their industry and ingenuity, that the men owe every manufactured article
