this detection of their common weakness he forgot his own. Most heroes
require the contrast of the unheroic to set them off; and Elijah
actually found himself devising means for strengthening the defensive
and offensive character of the tribe, and was himself strengthened
by it. Meanwhile the escaped packers did not fail to heighten
the importance of their adventure by elevating the character and
achievements of their deliverer; and it was presently announced
throughout the frontier settlements that the hitherto insignificant and
peaceful tribe of Minyos, who inhabited a large territory bordering on
the Pacific Ocean, had developed into a powerful nation, only kept from
the war-path by a more powerful but mysterious chief. The Government
sent an Indian agent to treat with them, in its usual half-paternal,
half-aggressive, and wholly inconsistent policy. Elijah, who still
retained the imitative sense and adaptability to surroundings which
belong to most lazy, impressible natures, and in striped yellow and
vermilion features looked the chief he personated, met the agent with
silent and becoming gravity. The council was carried on by signs.
Never before had an Indian treaty been entered into with such perfect
knowledge of the intentions and designs of the whites by the Indians,
and such profound ignorance of the qualities of the Indians by the
whites. It need scarcely be said that the treaty was an unquestionable
Indian success. They did not give up their arable lands; what they did
sell to the agent they refused to exchange for extravagant-priced shoddy
blankets, worthless guns, damp powder, and mouldy meal. They took pay in
dollars, and were thus enabled to open more profitable commerce with the
traders at the settlements for better goods and better bargains; they
simply declined beads, whiskey, and Bibles at any price. The result
was that the traders found it profitable to protect them from their
countrymen, and the chances of wantonly shooting down a possible
valuable customer stopped the old indiscriminate rifle-practice.