Page:The life and adventures of James P. Beckwourth, mountaineer, scout, pioneer, and chief of the Crow nation of Indians (IA lifeadventuresof00beckrich).pdf/13

Rh and Beckwourth asked of a great number of Crows who were present whether any one of them would go in and kill the creature. All declined, for it seemed to be certain death. Then Beckwourth stripped himself naked, and wrapping a Mexican blanket round his left arm, and holding a strong sharp knife, entered the cave, and after a desperate fight, killed the bear. I came up to the place in time to see Beckwourth come out of the cave, all torn and bleeding. He looked like the devil if ever man did. The Crows were so much pleased at this that he was declared a sub-chief on the spot."

This same authority stated that Beckwourth was the offspring, not of a negress, but of a quadroon and a planter. I incline to believe this. If Beckwourth's mother had been a negress, he could never have resembled an Indian so much as to pass for one; while the education given him and the care bestowed on him in youth, are more likely to have come from an American planter than an Irish overseer. It may be remarked here that among the rough class of frontiersmen from whom biographical items of one another may be derived, there is always a cynical disposition to ridicule and make fun of, or to detract from the reputation of, almost everybody. Ask any one of them who has known Kit Carson, or Buffalo Bill, or any other great man of the Plains, for information as to them, and nine times out of ten he will demonstrate to you that the man in question was a humbug, and proceed to relate anecdotes to his discredit. For this reason I incline to think that Beckwourth has been too severely judged as regards veracity, since the strictest judges must admit that there is nothing improbable in his biography, or which might not have occurred to any bold and intelligent man who was in the varied positions which, according to the most authentic testimony of others, he really occupied.

The same friend to whom I have alluded, who had