The
second day we started very early in the morning and traveled about
thirty-five
miles, which was the 29th of March.
The
third day we traveled about thirty miles, which was the 30th of
March.
They killed a deer that day--in the evening they took the
intestines
out of the deer and freed them of their contents, when they
put
them in the kettles with some meat and made soup, I could not eat
any of
it.
The
fourth day we traveled about twenty-five miles. We stopped about 3
o'clock
in the afternoon at a pond. They staid there all night. They had
some
dried meat, tallow, and buffalo marrow, rendered up together,
lashed
and hung upon a tree about twenty feet from the ground, which
they
had left there in order to be sure to have something to eat on
their
return. They killed two ducks that evening. The ducks were very
fat.
They picked one of the ducks, and took out all its entrils very
nice
and clean, then stuck it on a stick, and stuck the other end of the
stick
in the ground before the fire, and roasted it very nice. By the
time
the duck was cooked, one of the Indians went and cut a large block
out of
a tree to lay the duck upon; they made a little hole in the
ground
to catch the fat of the duck while roasting. When the duck was
cooked,
they laid it on this clean block of wood, then took a spoon and
tin
cup, and lifted the grease of the duck out of the hole and took it
to the
cooked duck on the table, and gave me some salt, then told me to
go and
eat. I sat by and eat the whole of the duck, and could have eat
more if
I would have had anything more to eat, though I had no bread. I
thought
I had never eat anything before that tasted so good. That was
the
first meal I had eaten for four days. The other duck they pulled a
few of
the largest feathers out off, then threw the duck, guts, feathers
and all
into their soup-kettle, and cooked it in that manner.
The
fifth day we traveled about thirty miles. That night I felt very
tired
and sore, my hands, arms, legs and feet had swelled and inflamed
very
much, by this time; the tying that night hurt me very much, I
thought
I could not live until morning; it felt just like a rough saw
cutting
my bones. I told the Indians I could not bear it, it would kill
me
before morning, and asked them to unslack or unloose the wrist rope a
little,
that hurt me the most. They did so, and rather more than I
expected,
so much that I could draw my hands out of the tying, which I
intended
to do as soon as I thought the Indians were asleep. When I
thought
the Indians were all asleep I drew my right hand out of tying,
with an
intention to put it back again before I would go to sleep, for
fear I
should make some stir in my sleep and they might discover me.
But,
finding so much more ease, and resting so much better, I fell
asleep
before I knew it, without putting my hand back into the tying.
The
first thing I knew about 3 o'clock in the morning, an Indian was
sitting
astraddle me, drawing his tomahawk and rubbing it across my
forehead,
every time he would draw a stroke with the pipe of his
tomahawk,
he threatened to kill me, and saying I wanted to run away; I
told
him to kill away. I would as leave die as live. I then told him I
was not
able to run away. He then got off me, and the rest of the
Indians
were all up immediately. They then held a short council and
agreed
to tie me as tight as ever, and they did so. I got no more sleep
that
night. I never asked them to loose my ropes any more.
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