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not a lt;cirrapProm the N- 0. Pteeyone- V 1ALLIGATOR, ALIAS RXl-rA-LA-MlC-CO. I weiWe yererday took a ride down to the United I®** States steamboat Cot. W. S. Harney, lying oppo- JfP* •ite the barracks. Oar chief parpose was ro Kee|f°l Alligator, the Seminole chief, and his companions,! and to have “4 talk” with them, through “Jim” the I ihtefpfreter. The first obj-ct of our mission we|°*fulfilled—he latter we did not accomplish, ^*1*^ »aw Alligator and hia red brethren, bnt as for get* j ting the interpreter to ask them a Question, or get-1as 1 ting them to answer one, in the mood we found *a them, it was futile—absurd to think of.We reached there about twelve o'clofck. The I Indians, except Allgator, lay lazily over the bows] of the boat. They seemed“Gatheiinf their brow* like t gathering *10101,Nunrin^ their Wrath, to keep it warm I a fAlligator looked as aour and sullen as aay of C01 them—as full of fury as a Congreve rocket—but, 60,1 unlike them, be was not silent. He was haranging sar his companions with all the energy, and, for all arc we know, with more than the eloquence, of a P^i stamp orator at election time. He frequently J anc pointed to the sun, which was then in its meridian,] car and kept making imaginary hieroglyphics on the deck of ihe vessel with his knife. We asked tie] interdreler, a half-breed, being Spanish on the Ithe paternal eide, to inquire of Alligator how he 1 *ai liked to live in Arkansas? No, he would not—1 Alligator was in a passion. We requested him to I *iei inquire of the chief what influence did he think his! appearance would have among his lefractory bre-j thren? No, be would not—Alligator was in a rage. 1 C?B All the Indians felt the/ were not treated well—I C1® they had had no breaktas*, and it was then twelre . o’clock. I1 W 3On hearing this, the angry tone of Alligator and I „g the dark and frowning aspects of his companions, I ^r( were accounted for. The Indians, it must be recollected, have not reached that state of civilization yet which would teach them to feel happy and be joyous on an erapt; stomach- I MInfluenced, partly by pity and partly by a desire f to make the interpreter more communicative, we gave him some “small chaoge,” telling him to gei something to cat for it as best he might. Toe effect th? small donation had on his organ of language was truly surprising! He discarded at o.ice the silent system, and actually became garrulous. Alligator had just finished a vehement sentence, and we asked ‘ Jim” wbat be had been saying.He replied that the chief was protesting against the treatment to which he and the other members of the delegation were subjected. The white men, he said, reproached ibe Indians with breaking their fai'h and disregarding their w.rd; but, he asked, did not the former leave themselves open to the 11 same charge? They were taken from thvir bouses I and their hunting grounds to prevail, if possible, lion their led brethren to bury the tomahawk so ■ j long raised against the whit / man; promises were i made to them that they would be treated well and : kindly, as the former delega'ion of Indians, who ) had been sent on a similar mission, represented r they had been, and yet the sun was now in the ‘ centre of the heavens, and they were without I breabf/ut! The neglect or disrespect, of which s Alligator conceived this was evidence, seemed to - j sting him more than the phjsical pains of hunger t j // a man, he f ai!, put a hog: in o pen, he would have ' I thrown him food before that hour of ihe day, and were s J not Indian warriors worthy of as mucfi consideration e «i hogs? They never hungered in th; forest, on i the prairie, or over the lake, and why was it that 3 they voluntarily went on board a fire-ship to r I starve!1 If Alligator had been without food during the . morning, however, it was evident he bad not been it without drink. He managed, we understood, to get some of the liquid fire; indeed, his appearance j showed he did, and this may have increased, iu some measure, the bitterness of hi* invective.The Col. Harney sailed yesterday, however, and 1 there is no doubt hut Captain Thornton will be 181 able to satisfy Alligator tad his friends that the * abstinence to which they were subjected arose from y I chance or accident, and not from design. It is '* I also to be hoped that the powers of eloquence with l* j which the Great Spirit has endowed Alligator, will j be succesafuliy used in mediating between the d United States and hia refractory countrymen. a Alligator is about five feet nine inches high, but ** j of immense muscular powers. His hair falls down r* in great abundance over his ears and face, which 1 I gives him a somnolent appearance, that is only re*18 [ lieved by 'he lustre of his eve He is a regular, and perhaps the original, soapkek, but necessity, l(* and not fashion, has made him one. We were 7 I told that he had keen found guilty of intruding on I the conjugal rights of another, and that the forfei-e ture of his HsUnen was the consequence, as the law te 1 of his tribe directs! Certain it is, that his ears are 5t I lopped off, and he wears soaplocks to conceal the 5* defi r nity.ie j —— - .......IS I A ___—,-r.rv t»,„ Tk. th.. IT - - r* «\nstvPhrkatM'tvetaioflofdeanceCimTtewclalaiIemtrana*tlvtccneEat?tifiHfi
Newspaper Details
Washington Globe
Washington, Washington-DC, US
Mon, Oct 25, 1841
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 31 Dec 2018
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