Transcriber's Note:
A Table of Contents has been added.
BUCKSKIN MOSE by George W. Perrie
BUCKSKIN MOSE;
OR,
LIFE FROM THE LAKES TO THE PACIFIC,
AS
ACTOR, CIRCUS-RIDER, DETECTIVE, RAN-
GER,GOLD-DIGGER, INDIAN SCOUT,
AND GUIDE.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."—Hamlet.
EDITED, AND WITH ILLUSTRATIONS,
By C. G. ROSENBERG.
NEW YORK:
HENRY L. HINTON, PUBLISHER, 744 BROADWAY.
1873.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by
CURTIS B. HAWLEY,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Stereotyped at the
WOMEN'S PRINTING HOUSE,
56, 58 and 60 Park Street,
New York.
PREFACE.
As a young author, although scarcely what the world would consider ayoung man, I should scarcely feel inclined to say a word in presentingthis volume to it, were it not that I wish the public to comprehend oneof the two reasons which have induced me to write it. As it would beidle, even for a man of decided literary genius, to deny that pecuniaryprofit is, in most instances, the incentive to the exercise of hispower, so, in a humbler fashion (for I consider myself a man of nogenius), I will scarcely affirm that I do not look with a degree oflonging on the possible success of my first effort.
Let me, however, frankly say that I have another and a stronger reasonfor writing this work.
While hoping that I have not thrust this into undue prominence, as Ihave, in every case, made it secondary to the facts which are detailed,it is my wish to demonstrate to the public of the United States, thatthe manner in which the Government protects the settler is neither goodfor him nor for the Indian. It must equally fail in satisfying itschildren and its vassals. At times, it leaves the first totallyunprotected. When they grow accustomed to the habit of self-protection,it not infrequently represses the sturdy independence thus begotten,instead of guiding it by the ability, wisdom, and honesty of itsappointed officials. In like manner, it has no settled course of policywith the latter. At one time it bribes, and at another, it lashes theminto subjection.
Perhaps, the settler is not entirely elevated in character, nor theIndian thoroughly debased. But this wavering and uncertain line ofpolicy cannot do otherwise than lower the nature of the first, while itcertainly cannot raise that of the last.
That one considers his Government as weak and capricious, while this onebelieves it to be both tyrannical and asinine.
In addition to this, those who are selected to command the troopsemployed in the neighborhood of the Reservations, or to act as Indian[Pg 6]Agents, are, in nine cases out of ten, utterly ignorant of the natureof the savage with whom they have to deal, the character of the countryin which they have to move; and, in the latter position, notinfrequently deficient in one