tive camps. The bulk of the whites doubtless
intended to treat the Indian honorably; but the forest traders were
beyond the pale of law, and news of the details of their transactions
seldom reached the coast settlements.

As a neighbor, the Indian was difficult to deal with, whether in the
negotiation of treaties of amity, or in the purchase of lands. Having
but a loose system of government, there was no really responsible
head, and no compact was secure from the interference of malcontents,
who would not be bound by treaties made by the chiefs. The English
felt that the red men were not putting the land to its full use, that
much of the territory was growing up as a waste, that they were best
entitled to it who could make it the most productive. On the
other hand, the earlier cessions of land were made under a total
misconception; the Indians supposed that the new-comers would, after
a few years of occupancy, pass on and leave the tract again to the
natives. There was no compromise possible between races with
precisely opposite views of property in land. The struggle was
inevitable--civilization against savagery. No sentimental notions
could prevent it. It was in the nature of things that the weaker must
give way. The Indian was a formidable antagonist, and there were times
when the result of the struggle seemed uncertain; but in the end he
went to the wall. In judging the vanquished enemy of our civilization,
let us not underestimate his intellect, or the many good qualities
which were mingled with his savage vices, or fail to credit him with
sublime courage, and a tribal patriotism which no disaster could cool.

CHAPTER V.

Houseboat life--Decadence of steamboat traffic--Wheeling, and
Wheeling Creek.

Above Moundsville, W. Va., Thursday, May 10th.--Our friends saw us
off at the gravelly beach just below the "works." There was a slight
breeze ahead, but the atmosphere was agreeable, and Pilgrim bore a
happy crew, now as brown as gypsies; the first painful effects of
sunburn are over, and we are hardened in skin and muscle to any
vicissitudes which are likely to be met upon our voyage. Rough
weather, river mud, and all the other exigencies of a moving camp,
are beginning to tell upon clothing; we are becoming like gypsies in
raiment, as well as color. But what a soul-satisfying life is this
gypsying! We possess the world, while afloat on the Ohio!

There are, in the course of the summer, so many s