xt
morning Black-snake came, followed by two chiefs, and having entered the
hut, first put out the squaw, he then returned and stood before his
brother, his eyes bent on the ground. Red-hand said calmly, "Has my
brother come that I may die?"--"It is so," was the reply. "Then,"
exclaimed Red-hand, grasping his brother's left hand with his own right,
and dashing the shawl from his head, "Strike sure!" In an instant the
tomahawk was from the girdle of Black-snake, and buried in the skull of
the unfortunate man. He received several blows before he fell, uttering
the exclamation "hugh," each time. The Indians placed him on the grass to
die, where the backwoodsman who told me the story, saw him after the lapse
of two hours, and life was not then extinct,--with such tenacity does it
cling to the body of an Indian. The scalping knife was at length passed
across his throat, and thus ended the scene.

From Sandusky city, in Huron county, I passed into Sandusky county, and
from thence through Seneca county. These three counties are entirely
woodlands, with the exception of a few small prairies which lay eastward
of my course. The land is generally fertile. Some light sandy soil is
occasionally to be met with, which produces more quickly than the heavier
soil, but not so abundantly. I saw in my travels through these counties a
few persons who were ill of ague-fever, as it is here called. The
prevalence of this disease is not to be attributed to a general
unhealthiness of the climate, but can at all times be referred to
localities.

I next entered Crawford county, and crossed the Wyandot prairie, about
seven miles in length, to Upper Sandusky. This was the first of those
extensive meadows I had seen, and I was much pleased with its
appearance--although this prairie is comparatively but small, yet its
beauty cannot be surpassed; and the groves, and clusters of trees, _iles
de bois_, with which it is interspersed, make it much resemble a beautiful
domain.

Attached to the Wyandot reserve (nine miles by sixteen) is that of the
Delawares (three miles square). On reaching Little Sandusky--Kahama's
curse on the town baptizers of America!--there are often five or six
places named alike in one state: upper and lower, little and big, great
and small--and invariably the same names that are given to towns in one
State, are to be found in every other. Then their vile plagiarisms of
European names causes a Babelonish confusion of ideas, enoug