choice of horses, etc. A quarter of an hour probably passed in this way, our men imitating the captain's example as near as they could, preparing for breakfast, collecting our blankets, etc., and showing a general indifference; but in passing each other would ask in undertones, 'what does he mean? Is he going to let them put us afoot here, and kill us by piecemeal?' 'How long is this thing going to last?' The mystery was finally solved. The opportunity came. He had waited to throw their chief off his guard, and catch him apart from his warriors. Our first warning of it, however, was by being startled by our leader's quick, sharp order: 'Look out!' And at the same time he covered the principal chief's heart, with his unerring rifle, the muzzle of which was not more than two feet from the old warrior's breast. Instantly we all followed suit, by covering an Indian with a cocked rifle or revolver, and like a flash their robes fell from their shoulders, and they were naked, with their guns leveled on us in return. The suspense and anxiety we endured for a few moments, while we glared at each other, was fearful. To realize it, one has only to imagine himself surrounded by these savage fiends, hundreds of miles from any relief or reinforcements. They were two to one of us, equally as well armed as we were, and several hundred more of them within a few miles. But, fortunately,

they all looked to their chief, and saw that he was lost if a gun was fired.

"We, too, looked to our captain, and our danger was almost forgotten in admiration. His whole features, face and person had changed. He seemed and was-taller; his usually calm face was all on fire; his quiet, light-blue eye was now flashing like an eagle's, and seemingly looked directly through the fierce and, for a time, undaunted savage that stood before him. For several seconds it was doubtful whether the old warriorchief would cower before his white brother or meet his fate then and there.

"Our captain, with his flashing eyes riveted upon him, was fiercely and eloquently reproaching him with his bad faith to the pale faces and their Great Father, winding up by saying, in a voice of stern determination, 'Signal your warriors off, or I'll send you to your last hunting-ground!' For an instant the suspense was beyond description. A death-like silence reigned. The dark, fierce, snake-like eyes of the fiends about us were enough to unnerve the most of To me the delay was awful; and I could not decide, from the defiant air of their chief, whether he was going to give the signal or die. But, finally, a wave of his hand relieved our doubts, and his braves all lowered their weapons of death and sullenly sought their robes and ponies.

men.

"Upon his giving the signal, our

captain looked around at us, saying, 'Boys, he has weakened.' His expression was so changed and peculiar, and the remark so unexpected, from his sublime and noble appearance of a moment before-and, at the same time, was such welcome news and great relief that I threw up my hat and shouted with laughter, although a short moment before I had been under the most intense excitement of my life. This hilarity of mine caused the serious aspect of things to change into a moment's fun and absolute forgetfulness of our dangerous situation. —at least for a moment or two."

When the party moved along upon their destined road, two of the chiefs and six of the warriors accompanied them. At a distance of six or seven miles the party camped and had a meal that combined both breakfast and dinner. While upon the road, Captain Stuart had talked to the Indians (as he says) "like a step-father," and made some impression; for they sat down upon a log when the white men camped and remained quiet while the meal was being dispatched. When that was done, the captain "collected the fragments from the different messes and invited them to partake. After dinner the head-man threw down his robe, and all the others, except two, followed his example. He told me that he gave me the robes, to show that we would be friends hereafter. I replied that we could be friends without my taking the robes, and that we were poor and

could not give anything in return for them, and for him to keep them until we met again. After breakfast they went back, and we traveled on down the river." Good judgment, prompt action and wonderful nerve had stood them in stead and saved the expedition for that time.

At sun-down of the same night they saw two more Indians coming; concluded there were more coming, got their horses together and awaited developments. "We let them come into camp without moving or saying a word. They sat on their horses a few minutes, taking a mental inventory of the crowd. The head-man then asked for our chief. I responded, and he then dismounted, pulled off his saddle, sat down on it, pulled off his hat, took a roll of something out of it, and, after undoing sundry wrappers, opened it and displayed a paper from Schoonover, Indian agent at Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone River, which stated that the bearer was Red Bear, one of the principal chiefs of the Crow nation. We gave them some supper. He then presented me with a black horse; said he was all right-a friend of ours. When we retired to rest I gave orders to the guards not to kill, but to take prisoners any Indians that they might discover prowling around. after our horses; and, sure enough, about 11 p.m., they discovered one crawling up to two of our best horses that were tied to the same tree. They waited and watched until they got

"dead-wood" on him, and then captured him and called me up. I introduced him to Red Bear as one of his good Indians, who, he had just been. telling me, would not annoy us any more, as he had told them not to. He said the man was crazy, had no ears,

etc. The old story-anything to excuse him. We turned the thief loose, and early in the morning they all started back, leaving us alone in our glory." The further adventures of the band will be reserved for a later paper. SEELYE A. WILLSON.

THE

AN affirmative answer to the question, Is life worth living, is to be found in the careers of our prominent citizens, who having reached. mature years, leave behind them a pathway of good deeds and an honored name. Whatever may be their profession, the law, mercantile, financial, or medicine, they form an example for the ambition and emulation of the younger generation, and an emphatic denial to the statement that there is not a reward in the present life for the good that is done in it.

Such an example do we find in the career of the Hon. Benjamin D. Silliman, L.L. D., the distinguished lawyer of New York City; a very Nestor of the bar, and an advocate, who for considerably more than half a century has been in active practice before the courts. Within the space at our disposal an adequate resume of such a life is an impossibility, and only a mere outline can be given; such as is done, however, must be a

pleasure, for none could otherwise review the career of a man who in the ripeness of years, looks back upon a life well lived, full of good deeds, and punctuated throughout its length by manifestations of respect and reverence such as come to very few in this world.

Mr. Silliman was born in Newport, R. I., September 14, 1805. When he was but a small child his parents came to this State to reside, and settled in Brooklyn, where he has since. lived. His father was the well-known and honored Gold S. Silliman, of Brooklyn, who departed this life at the ripe age of 90 years, in 1868. His father, General Gold S. Silliman, was a gallant soldier in the Revolutionary war, and attorney for the Crown, in Fairfield county, Conn. He died in 1790. The father of General Silliman was Judge Ebenezer Silliman, who for twenty-eight years was a member of the Council or Upper House of the Colonial Legislature,

and for eight years its Speaker. For twenty-three years in succession he was elected judge of the superior court of the colony. His death occurred in 1775. The mother of the subject of our sketch was a daughter of the Rev. David Ely, D.D., of Huntington, Conn. She was a person of unusual mental and social acquirements, as was her father, who was for twenty-one years a trustee of Yale College, at New Haven. On the maternal side of his father's family, Mr. Silliman is a lineal descendent of John Allen and Priscilla Mullins or "Moulins," the Huguenot pilgrims, who landed at Plymouth Rock, from the "Mayflower," in 1620.

Benjamin

D. Silliman, was graduated from Yale College in 1824. The family had for several generations been more or less identified with this institution, both Mr. Silliman's father and his distinguished uncle, the late Professor Benjamin D. Silliman, having been graduated from there in 1796. General Silliman was a graduate in 1752, and his father, Judge Silliman, in 1727. This distinction was also that of the family on his mother's side, no less than five of her relatives having been graduated from "Old Yale."

After leaving college, Mr. Silliman took up the study of the law in the office of Chancellor Kent and his son William-subsequently a judge of the Supreme Court, and the successor of Judge Story as law professor in Harvard University. Young Silliman and Kent formed a warm attachment

never

for one another, which was broken. Mr. Silliman was admitted to practice at the May term of the Supreme Court in 1829, and, excepting during a visit to Europe, in 1848, his practice in New York city and Brooklyn has been uninterrupted, and has been of a varied character, embracing causes in all the courts, State and Federal, the Supreme Court of the United States, at common law, admiralty, equity, etc. As a counsel, he is especially sought and has been retained by many of the largest and most important firms in the metropolis and elsewhere; and the Reports of the United States courts and the courts of the State demonstrate at every turn the industry and ability of this man, whose life has been one of constant activity and industry in his chosen profession. As a lawyer, he mapped out his course, and as a lawyer has he become the prominent figure we find him to-day. In the span of a life much longer than is given to most men to live, he has seen the most wonderful progress of any age. New York city and its environs have grown from a comparative village to the aggregation of population, commerce and wealth which make it the second city in size and importance on the face of the earth. He has seen many of his personal friends, who were eminent and active in their time, grow up to manhood with him, and, completing their allotted course, pass away-to leave their honored names alone in the places that knew them

once so well. He has seen the child of his early professional life become the distinguished jurist of the present day. And, just here, it is proper to say that one of Mr. Silliman's distinguishing characteristics is the encouragement and advice he has always delighted in giving the young barrister in his struggle up the ladder of fame and fortune. Many a man matured in years looks back with pleasure and a thankful heart to the kindly word and look which inspired him to renewed effort and ultimate success.

While a member of the Legislature of the State, in 1837, he introduced. the charter incorporating the Greenwood Cemetery Association, and has seen its beautiful hills and valleys tenanted by more than a quarter of a million of those who have gone to their reward.

Mr. Silliman was, in politics, an oldline Whig, until the formation of the Republican party, since when he has been identified with that faction. He was an energetic and zealous Unionist during the civil war. He has been a frequent delegate to State and national conventions. Even as early as 1839, he was a member of the Harrisburg convention which nominated Harrison and Tyler on the national ticket. Though Mr. Silliman has not desired public office, as being antagonistic to his plan of professional life, he has been several times a candidate for office where he considered it his duty as a citizen. He was nominated by the Whigs for Con

gress in 1843, leading his ticket, which was, however, defeated by the Democrats. He declined the nomination in 1853 for the State senate, having previously represented King's county in the State legislature. As United States Attorney, through appointment by President Lincoln, he argued many important questions; but, finding that the duties of the office interfered with his private practice, he resigned the position in 1866. He was prominent as a member of the commission for the revision of the State constitution in 1872. In 1873 the Republicans nominated him. for Attorney General of the State, and although the ticket was defeated, he received a flattering support. Columbia College conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1873, as did also Yale College the following year.

He has been for many years prominent in the social and benevolent institutions of Brooklyn, among which have been the presidency of the Brooklyn Club and Yale Alumni Association of Long Island; director of the Long Island Historical Society; a trustee of Greenwood Cemetery, and president of the New England Society of the city of Brooklyn from its organization till 1886, when he declined a continuance of the office. For twenty years he was one of the managers of the House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents. In New York city, he was one of the founders and vice-president of the Bar Association.