slow fire and the excruciating torture so generally employed by the
Indians in the United States territories.

[Footnote 19: What I here say of the Apaches applies to the whole
Shoshone race.]

Their generosity is unbounded; and by the treatment I received at their
hands the reader may form an idea of that brave people. They will never
hurt a stranger coming to them. A green bough in his hand is a token of
peace. For him they will spread the best blankets the wigwam can afford;
they will studiously attend to his wants, smoke with him the calumet of
peace, and when he goes away, whatever he may desire from among the
disposable wealth of the tribe, if he asks for it, it is given.

Gabriel was once attacked near Santa Fé, and robbed of his baggage, by
some honest Yankee traders. He fell in with a party of Apaches, to whom
he related the circumstance. They gave him some blankets, and left him
with their young men at the hunting-lodges they had erected. The next
day they returned with several Yankee captives, all well tied, to
prevent any possibility of escape. These were the thieves; and what they
had taken of Gabriel was, of course, restored to him, one of the Indians
saying, that the Yankees, having blackened and soiled the country by
theft, should receive the punishment of dogs, and as it was beneath an
Apache to strike them, cords were given to them, with orders that they
should chastise each other for their rascality. The blackguards were
obliged to submit, and the dread of being scalped was too strong upon
them to allow them to refuse. At first they did not seem to hurt each
other much; but one or two of them, smarting under the lash, returned
the blows in good earnest, and then they all got angry, and beat each
other so unmercifully that, in a few minutes, they were scarcely able to