Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the year 1852 / by Randolph B. Marcy ; assisted by George B. McClellan. Page: 121 of 368
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TRAFFIC AMONG THE INDIANS.
105
appeared, who made great havoc among them, and in a short time
caused a very sensible diminution in their numbers, and much contracted
the limits of their wanderings. This enemy was the white
man, who, in his steady march, causes the original proprietor of the
soil to recede before him, and to diminish in numbers almost as rapidly
as the buffalo. Thousands of these animals were annually slaughtered
for their skins, and often for their tongues alone; animals whose flesh
is sufficient to afford sustenance to a large number of men are sacrificed
to furnish a "bon bouche" for the rich epicure. This wholesale slaughter
on the part of the white man, with the number consumed by the
Indians, who are constantly on their trail, migrating with them as regularly
as the season comes round, with the ravenous wolves that are
always at hand to destroy one of them if wounded, gives the poor beast
but little rest or prospect of permanent existence. It is only eight years
since the western borders of Texas abounded with buffaloes; but now
they seldom go south of Red river, and their range upon east .nd west
has also very much contracted within the same time; so that they are at
present confined to a narrow belt of country between the outer settlements
and the base of the Rocky mountains. With this rapid diminution
in their numbers, they must in the course of a very few years
become exterminated. What will then become of the prairie Indian,
who, as I have already remarked, relies for subsistence, shelter, and
clothing, on the flesh and hide of this animal ? He must either perish
with them, increase his marauding depredations on the Mexicans, or
learn to cultivate the soil. As the first law of our nature is self-preservation,
it is not probable that he will sit down and quietly submit to
starvation; he must, therefore, resort to one of the latter alternatives.
But as he has no knowledge of agriculture, considers it the business of
a slave, and very much beneath the dignity of a warrior, it appears
reasonable to suppose that he will turn his attention to the MexicanP,
over whom he has held the mastery for many years. Heretofore he has
plundered these people to supply himself with animals for his own use
and for traffic.
A number of Delawares, Shawnees, and Kickapoos, from Missouri
and the borders of Arkansas, have for several years past been engaged
in a traffic with the prairie Indians, which has had a tendency to
defeat the efforts of the military authorities in checking their depredations
upon the citizens of the northern provinces of Mexico. These
traders, after procuring from the whites an outfit of such articles as are
suited to the wants of the prairie Indians, visit all the different bands,
and prosecute a very lucrative business. The goods they carry out
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Marcy, Randolph Barnes. Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana, in the year 1852 / by Randolph B. Marcy ; assisted by George B. McClellan., book, 1854; Washington, DC. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6105/m1/121/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.