Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas. Page: 144 of 1,110
vii, 9-1011 p. incl. ill., ports. : ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY.
silent and I began to settle down, as my custom
is, to take repose. Before mine eyes
were fast closed methought I saw a vision at
which my spirit was much troubled, and
trembling at the sight a spirit cried aloud:
'Behold, my son, whom I have cherished.
See the breast that gave thee suck, the hands
that lapped thee warm and fed thee oft.
Canst thou forget to take revenge upon those
wild people who have defaced my monument
in a despiteful manner, disdaining our antiquities
and honorable customs? See, now,
the sachem's grave lies like the common people,
defaced by an ignoble race. Thy mother
doth complain and implores thy aid against
this thievish people who have newly intruded
on our land. If this be suffered I shall not
rest quiet in my everlasting habitation.'
' This said, the spirit vanished, and I, all
in a sweat, not able scarce to speak. began to
get some strength, and recollected my spirits
that were fled, and determined to demand
your counsel and assistance.'
"This anecdote represents how acts of hostility
suddenly kindled in the breasts of these
people, which have been attributed to caprice
or perfidy, did often arise from deep and generous
motives, which inattention to Indian
character and customs prevent our properly
appreciating."
COWARDICE AND TRE but in this they are fully justified by
their rude code of honor. They were early
taught that stratagem is praiseworthy; the
bravest warrior thinks it was no disgrace to
lurk in silence and take every advantage of
his foe; he triumphed in the superior craft
and sagacity by which he had been enabled
to surprise and destroy an enemy. Indeed,
man is naturally more prone to subtlety than
open valor, owing to his physical weakness
ill comparison with other animals, which are
endowed with natural weapons of defense,with
horns, with tusks, with hoofs and talons;
but man has to depend on his superior
sagacity. In all his encounters with these,
his proper enemies, he resorts to stratagem;
and when he perversely turns his hostility
against his fellow-man he at first continues
the same subtle mode of warfare.
' The natural principle of war is to do the
most harm to our enemy with the least harm
to ourselves, and this of course is to be
effected by stratagem. The chivalrous courage
which induces us to despise the suggestions
of prudence, and to rush in the face of
certain danger, is the offspring of society and
produced by education. It is honorable because
it is in fact the triumph of lofty sentiment
over an instinctive repugnance to pain,
and over those yearnings after personal ease
and security which society has condemned
as ignoble. It is kept alive by pride and the
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Lewis Publishing Company. Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas., book, 1892; Chicago, Illinois. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth20932/m1/144/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Public Library.