United States

When the shrapnel burst among us on the hill-side we made up our minds that we had better settle down to solid siege work. All of the men who were not in the trenches I took off to the right, back of the Gatling guns, where there was a valley, and dispersed them by troops in sheltered parts.

Two or three days after the surrender the cavalry division was marched back to the foothills west of El Caney, and there went into camp, together with the artillery. It was a most beautiful spot beside a stream of clear water, but it was not healthy. In fact no ground in the neighborhood was healthy.

[Owing to the circumstances of the regiment's service, the paperwork was very difficult to perform. This muster-out roll is very defective in certain points, notably in the enumeration of the wounded who had been able to return to duty. Some of the dead are also undoubtedly passed over. Thus I have put in Race Smith, Sanders, and Tiffany as dead, correcting the rolls; but there are doubtless a number of similar corrections which should be made but have not been, as the regiment is now scattered far and wide.

More than two centuries have elapsed since the Hurons vanished from their ancient seats, and the settlers of this rude solitude stand perplexed and wondering over the relics of a lost people. In the damp shadow of what seems a virgin forest, the axe and plough bring strange secrets to light: huge pits, close packed with skeletons and disjointed bones, mixed with weapons, copper kettles, beads, and trinkets. Not even the straggling Algonquins, who linger about the scene of Huron prosperity, can tell their origin.

 DU PERON'S JOURNEY. - DAILY LIFE OF THE JESUITS. - 
 THEIR MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS. - CONVERTS AT OSSOSSANE. - 
 MACHINERY OF CONVERSION. - CONDITIONS OF BAPTISM. - BACKSLIDERS. - 
 THE CONVERTS AND THEIR COUNTRYMEN. - THE CANNIBALS AT ST. JOSEPH.

 ST. LOUIS ON FIRE. - INVASION. - ST. IGNACE CAPTURED. - 
 BREBEUF AND LALEMANT. - BATTLE AT ST. LOUIS. - SAINTE MARIE THREATENED. - 
 RENEWED FIGHTING. - DESPERATE CONFLICT. - A NIGHT OF SUSPENSE. - 
 PANIC AMONG THE VICTORS. - BURNING OF ST. IGNACE. - 
 RETREAT OF THE IROQUOIS.

And now, before entering upon the very curious subject of Indian social and tribal organization, it may be well briefly to observe the position and prominent distinctive features of the various communities speaking dialects of the generic tongue of the Iroquois. In this remarkable family of tribes occur the fullest developments of Indian character, and the most conspicuous examples of Indian intelligence. If the higher traits popularly ascribed to the race are not to be found here, they are to be found nowhere.

 A CHANGE OF PLAN. - SAINTE MARIE. - MISSION OF THE TOBACCO NATION. - 
 WINTER JOURNEYING. - RECEPTION OF THE MISSIONARIES. - 
 SUPERSTITIOUS TERRORS. - PERIL OF GARNIER AND JOGUES. - 
 MISSION OF THE NEUTRALS. - HURON INTRIGUES. - MIRACLES. - 
 FURY OF THE INDIANS. - INTERVENTION OF SAINT MICHAEL. - 

 THE RUINS OF ST. IGNACE. - THE RELICS FOUND. - BREBEUF AT THE STAKE. - 
 HIS UNCONQUERABLE FORTITUDE. - LALEMANT. - RENEGADE HURONS. - 
 IROQUOIS ATROCITIES. - DEATH OF BREBEUF. - HIS CHARACTER. - 
 DEATH OF LALEMANT.

In Indian social organization, a problem at once suggests itself. In these communities, comparatively populous, how could spirits so fierce, and in many respects so ungoverned, live together in peace, without law and without enforced authority? Yet there were towns where savages lived together in thousands with a harmony which civilization might envy. This was in good measure due to peculiarities of Indian character and habits. This intractable race were, in certain external respects, the most pliant and complaisant of mankind.