I was perfectly
surprised at his dastardly movement, for I had supposed him before to be
a brave man, and I heard or saw no more of him while there.[87]
[Footnote 87: Eight years afterwards, namely, in July, 1846, this lawless
vagabond waylaid and shot my brother James, having concealed himself in
a cedar thicket.]
Tanner was stolen by old Kishkako, the Saginaw, from Kentucky, when he
was a boy of about nine years old. He is now a gray-headed,
hard-featured old man, whose feelings are at war with every one on
earth, white and red. Every attempt to meliorate his manners and Indian
notions, has failed. He has invariably misapprehended them, and is more
suspicious, revengeful, and bad tempered than any Indian I ever knew.
Dr. James, who made, by the way, a mere pack-horse of Indian opinions of
him, did not suspect his fidelity, and put many things in his narrative
which made the whites about St. Mary's call him an old liar. This
enraged him against the Doctor, whom he threatened to kill. He had
served me awhile as an interpreter, and, while thus employed, he went to
Detroit, and was pleased with a country girl, who was a chambermaid at
old Ben.
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