A WHITE MEDICINE-MAN. Of the early life of the subject of this sketch, very little is known. It is only of his career in California that mention will be made. He was a pioneer of the Territory before the period of Statehood; and the vast region then included in the boundaries of Mariposa was his broad field of action. He was above medium stature, of Herculean frame, with a broad, square chest and sturdy limbs, and from his large and grandly supported head the thick suit of long and uncut yellowish-brown hair fell in a graceful wild mass about his Taurus-like neck, and upon his heavy-set shoulders. His face was of striking mold and expression, with broad forehead of fair front, strongly formed, projecting eyebrows, deep-set, large eyes of deep blue, tinged with gray, which changed in hue and luster with the humor of the manordinarily as placid as the motionless surface of the mountain lake, but in moments of passion, as flashing and penetrating as the fiery beams of the torrid sun; bold and high cheek-bones, large and finely formed nose, a strong, firm mouth, with lips thin and denoting great decision, a well-rounded and prominent chin, and heavy, powerful jaws all betokening the indomitable will of this master of his kind: and his complexion was of that hearty bronze which robust health and constant exposure to the elements impart in course of time. At his home, overseeing his large force of working and dependent Indians, or going about the country, he always went without other covering for the head than its natural protection against storm and rain and sun; and likewise he covered his feet only with moccasins, but mostly wore nothing upon them. It was only when he visited San Francisco that he indulged in the civilized wear of hat and boots; and these always seemed distasteful to him, as though they imposed an uncomfortable restraint upon him, to satisfy the demands or to con form to the exactions of town life. And his walk and action were so apparently confirmed in Indian characteristics, that the ordinary observer would intuitively fancy that he was himself a native and to that wild life born and bred. But his visits were never for pleasure or curiosity, or without motive and purpose, business or otherwise. He was essentially a man of affairs, whether at home or abroad. Where, or under what circumstances, Major James D. Savage became addicted to the life he adopted in California, is not known; but it remains an undisputed fact, that he had mastered every phase of Indian nature. There was nothing that the most active, the most expert, the fleetest, or the bravest, or the craftiest, of any tribe he ever encountered or dwelt among, could do or had done, that he would not excel them in. He made it a point always to be first in the chase, foremost and fiercest in the fight, last in the field, and most effective in the attack or defense. He surpassed the "medicine-man" of the tribe in his mysterious specialty, by working wonders more astounding and appalling, by the efficacy of his treatment and the skill of his cures, and in mystifying and terrifying the tribe by the marvels and mysteries he wrought by artful means, to them inexplicable, to confound, awe, sway, and rule them to his purpose and profit, by simulating the supernatural tokens they most dreaded, and imposing upon their untutored and superstitious minds the conviction that he possessed and could exercise at will the awful attributes and all-controlling powers of the Great Spirit which they feared and worshiped. And even in their barbarian sports and dances, their wild orgies, and in the celebration of their victories in battle, by the savagest of savage saturnalia, and most diabolical ceremonies, he led and surpassed them all. Uneducated in his mother language, incapable of reading or writing a line of English, he was nevertheless as ready in the acquisition, and as facile in the use of the vernacular of all the various tribes he dwelt among, as was the famous Major Hopkins of the Florida Indian war campaign, in Jackson's time, or the celebrated Albert Pike of Choctaw and Creek and Cherokee He could speak the peculiar dialect of each of the five great confederated tribes which then possessed the country from the Tuolumne to the Kern River Mountains, as glibly as their respective most fluent chiefs; and he had also mastered the key tongue of the head chiefs, in which they conversed among themselves, and which only themselves, of all their distinctive tribes, understood. It was their most important secret council "talk"; and by what means or strategy Savage acquired it, was unknown to the chiefs. These varied accomplishments and surprising powers caused the Indians, at the same time, to respect and fear him. By them he was more dreaded, and even more venerated, as well by their warriors and chiefs as by the tribes, than the aged and mighty Naiyakqua, the great head chief of the leagued Howechees, the Chookchanees, the Chowchillas, the Pohoneeches, and the Nookchoos; than Tomquit and Pasqual, head chiefs of the warlike and powerful Pitoachees, Capoos, Toomanahs, Tallinochees, Poskesas, Wacheetes, Itachees, Choonemnees, Chokimenas, Wewachees, and Notohotas. And while these three ranking chiefs were as the ministers of his cabinet, their several tribes regarded and obeyed him as the most devoted and most humbled of Asiatics regard and obey the despots who rule over them with the power of life and death. But to maintain this extraordinary and arbitrary supremacy over the numerous Indians subjected to his mastery, illiterate and unlearned as he was in books and science, Savage found it necessary to have recourse to craft and strange devices, by which he was enabled to work what appeared to them as miracles, possible only to the power of the Great Spirit; and by these means he succeeded in impressing them with the belief and awe which only that invisible and incom prehensible power could command, to the effect that to himself was confided the authority to punish them for their misdeeds, and to exercise over them the dispensation of their destiny, whether to save or to destroy; and his cunning interpreted to them his disposition in either case, by his spells of feigned, unspeakable sorrow or of vehement anger, displayed solely in his looks and actions. Although uneducated, he was far above a state of ignorance. His intellect was naturally of high order, and his quick, apt, intuitive, and comprehensive mind was alert to grasp, and instantly to turn to good account, everything which learning, invention, and science had developed of practical nature. He had learned the Indian character well enough to know that, as with other savage, pagan, and simple-minded races, they were superstitious to the last degree, and therefore that they were moved and swayed more through their fears than their impulses or passions; that their awe of the mysterious, or that which they considered as beyond human agency, was greater than their dread of the most terrible of earthly or visible powers. And it was by invoking the mysterious, and to them incomprehensible, agency of electricity, in one of its simplest forms, that he imposed upon, awed, and governed them as he did. At some period of his life, Savage had made himself fairly conversant with the powers and marvels of the galvanic battery, and in California he had obtained a battery of sufficient force to serve his crafty purpose among the Indians. He had measurably learned how to use it, and received instruction as to what were or were not conductors of the electric fluid. Thus equipped and instructed, he made effective use of his little machine in terrorizing and governing his unsophisticated and untutored subjects. He had watched and studied the arts and mysteries of their "medicine-men,” in working their spells and cures, and he took crafty advantage of their trick of choosing the skins of wild beasts, or of serpents and reptiles, as essential agencies to their charms and incantations; and to better adapt his scheme to their superstition in this | er friendship of the chiefs and the firmer respect, he chose for his chief charm the loyalty of the tribes. skin of a grizzly bear cub, as he knew that the Indians felt for the grizzly a fear and reverence above that with which they regarded any other animal or created thing. Indeed, to some of them, this huge and intractable monarch of the wilderness was held as sacred; and the proudest hope of the warrior was that, after death, his spirit might roam again in the substantial form of the mighty beast. Inside of the aptly prepared skin, Savage concealed his little battery, and from it extended his operating wires, easily regulating the charge, and directing the application as the wondering and obedient Indians formed the line or circle to receive it. Already he was their generally acknowledged best friend and trusted counselor, without a superior among even the highest chiefs; for he could outrun their fleetest of foot, excel their bravest warrior in battle, and from the strong Indian bow shoot the arrow with quicker aim and greater precision than the most expert in its use among them. He more tirelessly pursued the game, more undeviatingly tracked the fugitive foe, and when the hunt or the fight was over, could show less fatigue, dance longer, yell louder, leap higher, squirm and twist his body into more extraordinary contortions, and, under all circumstances, preserve a more imperturbable demeanor, and exhibit a severer stoicism, than the most conspicuous for any of these performances or qualities among all the tribes. Moreover, his skill and power as "Chesara," or "medicine-man," was immeasurably superior to that ever exercised by the most consummate of that rank and art they had ever known. These various accomplishments and qualifications, of themselves, were ample and more than enough to recommend him to leadership in Indian life, and to win him respect and reverence as one superior even to their chiefs; but Savage had strengthened himself in this topmost rank, by taking to wife the daughter of one of the great chiefs of each of the five commanding tribes; thus securing, by such binding alliance, the strong Yet, above and beyond all this respect and reverence, and the influence he had thus acquired, by which to impress and to govern the Indians, it was upon his galvanic battery that Savage mainly depended to more thoroughly and strictly command them. He utilized it in various ways to accomplish his designs. Now, as Mahomet had recourse to his visions, to perfect his Koran and sway his devotees; or as Brigham Young fabricated his "revelations," to make his own will and desires the unquestionable faith of his infatuated Mormon believers; and then, as the all-compelling Jove, to inspire and move by fear the rebellious, who had continued stubborn against persuasion, or could not be otherwise wrought to obedience and submission. The flashing sparks and the tetanic shocks which they saw and felt, as Savage applied his duly charged battery, evoked their wonder and subdued their refractory or turbulent spirit; and they regarded him as the man-god, possessed of the dread power of the Great Spirit they alike reverenced and feared above all else in life and death. Only on one occasion did he ever find it necessary to prove to any of the Indians the deadly power of the battery. It was in the case of a powerful young chief, who had in his youth been taken by the Catholic fathers, at Santa Barbara Mission, to educate and rear. He had been schooled and disciplined at the Mission, two or three years, and then escaped to regain his tribe and return to the wild life more congenial to his nature; signalizing his flight by stealing the fleetest and most valuable horse at the Mission. His little learning was a dangerous thing at times, to himself and his tribe; and Savage found him intractable, headstrong beyond patient endurance, and capable of great mischief. His rank gave him a standing among the Indians, of which he was ever quick to take advantage upon every occasion when it served his purpose; and his life at the Mission had enabled him to nearer comprehend some of Savage's actions and marvels than any other of the tribe. He was the thorn in the side of the crafty Savage, the lion .in | ish he improvised for the strange scene, and his path; and it at last came to the extrem- at last rubbed the arms and legs, and lifted and another wave of his hand imposed upon the half-erect chief the maintenance of his awkward position. Savage then broke forth in a brief, low, earnest, impassioned invocation, and, suddenly turning to the young chief, bade him leap to his feet. The act followed the word, and as he stood erect, but visibly tremulous, Savage went to him, took him by the hand, and led him to the ity, at a critical moment, when either the the now partly conscious wretch to a sitting obstinate and defiant young chief or Savage position. As his senses returned to him, must show himself the master. The electric the chief felt apparent bewilderment at his battery was Savage's sole resource and sure situation. His face betokened the comagency. He chose his opportunity at a mingled emotions of fear and joy and fresh act of open and perilous rebellion on amazement which possessed him. He seemthe part of the young chief, and cunningly ed perplexed or irresolute whether to remain managed to apply the battery, with heavy as he was, or to rise to his feet. Savage furcharge. It came near proving too much for ther availed himself of this quandary. The the stalwart brave. He fell prone to the surrounding Indians were still held fixed in ground, and for a while, Savage himself their places, gazing with intense curiosity, or feared the shock was fatal. Above two hun-glancing with awe or doubt. A motion, by dred of the tribe were gathered around, Savage, stilled them all into a deeper silence, many of them more or less impregnated with the defiant and rebellious spirit of their young chief. His certain death might possibly awe them into instant submission to Savage; or the impulse of the moment might be to serve him as they were wont to serve their "Chesara," in instances where death befell instead of cure-to fall upon him at once, and cruelly put him to death. Savage clearly comprehended the desperate sit-old chief, his father, and then to his squaw, uation, and felt that his life depended upon his tact, and nerve, and adroitness. A heaving of the chest of the prostrate and other wise motionless chief satisfied him that the shock was not mortal, and his revival was only the question of a few minutes. His craft came immediately to enable him to turn the apparent catastrophe to the very best account. The Indians, with their squaws, were still standing a little distance away, awe-stricken and nonplussed. To a few, who had started to come up to the fallen chief, he had sternly motioned an instant halt, which was obeyed. He had shown to them his mysterious power to strike the stubborn warrior instantly dead-as they believed he was; he would now show to them that also he possessed the power to restore him to life. Then uttering his ceremonial incantation, as if communing with the Great Spirit, and with solemn imploration, he kneeled by the side of the young chief, breathed into his mouth, gently stroked his eyes, his forehead and cheeks, muttering all the while, in deep, gutteral tone, the nonsensical gibber who were alike recovering from the terror and stupefaction which the startling scene had occasioned. The event was made the more impressive by the craft of Savage in then hastening to his own tent without speaking another word. That night the tribe held a dance of uncommon order, to celebrate the restoration of their brave young chief to life. From and after that day, he was the most submissive and loyal of all the tribe to Savage, and never again had the wily leader to invoke the mysterious power of his battery to subdue the most rebellious and most defiant of his Indian subjects. Near and far, among neighboring and remote tribes, after the fashion of the marvelous communication of intelligence peculiar to the race, the word sped and spread, of how the strong young chief had been instantly struck dead, of his miraculous restoration to life and strength, and of the power of Savage thus to command both life and death; and it served him, as he shrewdly reasoned it would serve him, to such purpose, that wheresoever he went among the tribes, he was hailed as chief over all, and dreaded quite as they dread | his estimate or opinion of their character the Great Spirit alone. This tremendous power over the Indians was signally utilized by Savage during the first year of the gold-discovery rush to the southern mines in his extensive Mariposa district, where the placers were very rich. It would be unjust to say that he was avaricious, yet he knew the worth and potency of gold, and desired to accumulate large wealth; and the mines, which then proved so rich, afforded him great opportunity to amass it. He chose for his purpose a very large tract of rich gold region, and there not only worked his hundreds of Indians, who were ignorant of its value, and to whom he gave as pay the cheap trinkets, and the blankets and bright calicoes and gaudy handkerchiefs, knives, etc., which they cared most to have, besides their daily support of the commonest food, but also used them as a garrison to keep away intruders, as he taught them to regard all white men, and all who came to prospect for or locate claims or diggings. Hence he held this vast region exclusively to his own benefit, and it was worked only by his own Indians, according to his sole orders. It is no doubt true, that, in obeying his commands to them, the Indians went to the extremity, on two or three occasions, of taking life; at least, that was the story of that period, as told by parties who were themselves kept from the mines within Savage's boundaries by his Indians. But he never himself took life, nor had recourse to violence. and worth; but he sometimes preferred to bestow money, in order that he should escape the tedious story of the applicant. There was neither the disposition to wild revel in his nature, nor the indication to boisterousness, even in moments of excitement, whether roused to passion or stirred to exhilaration; a natural stealthiness of demeanor, and a diffidence when among strangers, akin to bashfulness, were peculiar to him; although in the company he liked, wherever congeniality and conviviality ruled, he was a boon companion, not apt to be neglected or forgotten. Positive in his manner, without betokening aggressiveness, candid in speech, upright in his dealings, and usually more disposed to avoid an unpleasant scene than to provoke a difficulty, he did not readily form new acquaintances, and he clung with tenacity to strongly formed friendships. He had more disdain and contempt in his composition than hatred or revenge, and he despised rather than feared either foes or danger. On one of his visits to San Francisco-his last, in fact he visited Maguire's Jenny Lind Theater, in company with Mr. A. J. Moulder, and there witnessed James Stark, the favorite tragedian of that period, and his wife, formerly Mrs. Kirby, in some of their best acting. It was evidently a fresh and new treat to him, and gave token that he had been a stranger to city life before his advent to this coast. The performance delighted him, and he wanted to express his hearty appreciation of it in a more substantial form than the admission price, or words or ap The product of his gold diggings was enormous, and beyond even approximate estimate. On his rare visits to San Francis-plause. He seemed entirely unaware, too, co, he had been known to bring with him several hundred pounds of gold-dust, to purchase presents for his Indians and large stocks of supplies. He was not extravagant in his use of money, for his wants were few and his habits simple. He was generous to friends, and ready to pour out his gold to aid or serve them; and every charity, often when it was not meritorious, found in him a ready and a liberal giver. Yet he was an excellent judge of men, and rarely erred in that, as he sat in the theater box, he was himself the object of considerable interest to the audience: for, no sooner had the whisper passed throughout the theater that the strange-looking man was Major Jim Savage, than all eyes were directed toward him, while his were intent only upon the stage and the actors. He had already made his name famous as an Indian fighter, or, more properly, as one greatly skilled in subduing and governing Indians. And he certainly |