d precepts of virtue. A traveller, could
he understand what was said, as he viewed the scene, might fancy some of
the sages of ancient Greece inculcating to their disciples those
precepts of wisdom which have transmitted their name down to us bright
and glorious, through more than twenty centuries.

I have stated that the holy men among the Indians, that is to say, the
keepers of the sacred lodges, keep the records of the great deeds
performed in the tribe; but a tribe will generally boast more of the
great virtues of one of its men than of the daring of its bravest
warriors. "A virtuous man," they say, "has the ear of the Manitou, he
can tell him the sufferings of Indian nature, and ask him to
soothe them."

Even the Mexicans, who, of all men, have had most to suffer, and suffer
daily from the Apaches[19], cannot but do them the justice they so well
deserve. The road betwixt Chihuahua and Santa Fe is almost entirely
deserted, so much are the Apaches dreaded; yet they are not hated by the
Mexicans half as much as the Texans or the Americans. The Apaches are
constantly at war with the Mexicans, it is true; but never have they
committed any of those cowardly atrocities which have disgraced every
page of Texan history. With the Apaches there are no murders in cold
blood, no abuse of the prisoners. A captive knows that he will either
suffer death or be adopted in the tribe; but he has never to fear the
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 Fe, 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, t