cruel and cowardly principles of warfare. The chastisement they then
received closed the history of their wars, and prepared them for
receiving the elements of civilization, which, zealously inculcated by
the present government of the United States, have rendered them an
industrious, peaceable, and happy people. This member of the family of
Lewises, whose bravery was so usefully proved on this occasion, was
endeared to all who knew him by his inflexible probity, courteous
disposition, benevolent heart, and engaging modesty and manners. He was
the umpire of all the private differences of his county--selected always
by both parties. He was also the guardian of Meriwether Lewis, of whom
we are now to speak, and who had lost his father at an early age. He
continued some years under the fostering care of a tender mother, of the
respectable family of Meriwethers, of the same county; and was
remarkable even in infancy for enterprise, boldness, and discretion.
When only eight years of age he habitually went out, in the dead of
night, alone with his dogs, into the forest to hunt the raccoon and
opossum, which, seeking their food in the night, can then only be taken.
In this exercise, no season or circumstance could obstruct his
purpose--plunging through the winter's snows and frozen streams in
pursuit of his object. At thirteen he was put to the Latin school, and
continued at that until eighteen, when he returned to his mother, and
entered on the cares of his farm; having, as well as a younger brother,
been left by his father with a competency for all the correct and
comfortable purposes of temperate life. His talent for observation,
which had led him to an accurate knowledge of the plants and animals of
his own country, would have distinguished him as a farmer; but at the
age of twenty, yielding to the ardour of youth, and a passion for more
dazzling pursuits, he engaged as a volunteer in the body of militia
which were called out by general Washington, on occasion of the
discontents produced by the excise taxes in the western parts of the