THE NORTHWEST.
[Sidenote: 1881.]
“Uncle Fritz, you spoke of Jefferson as a geographer or naturalist.”
“Oh, yes,” said Uncle Fritz, “when he was in France he was a great deal with the philosophical set, who all thought that if people knew the length of a degree of the meridian, and could rightly analyze water, all would be well.”
“They should learn Dr. Watts,” said Esther.
“Dr. Watts! Frenchmen learn Dr. Watts?”
“Why, Dr. Watts implies that knowing is not quite enough. Don’t you remember?
‘Who know what’s right, not only so, But also _practise_ what they know.’”
And Esther gave a very funny emphasis and accent to “practise,” just as she said Mr. Ockley, the Sunday-school teacher at North Holderness, did.
Uncle Fritz, not displeased with the comment, went on to say that some of Jefferson’s worst follies and some of his most sensible enterprises were dictated by his wish to be called a philosopher. “Of the whole set of the philosophers whom he used to meet in the society of Paris, about the time when the French Revolution was brewing, he only came to an important post of power.
“One of his theories was peaceful war. He thought that the United States could starve Europe into submission, if he cut off all trade. But alas! It was the United States which starved, and Europe did not know that anything was happening.
“Then he had a plan for keeping his navy on land, and carrying it about in carts wherever the enemy might attack. But this never worked well.
“But he wrote an interesting book on the resources of Virginia,--he was president of the Philosophical Society, and when you go and visit Mary Lesley, at Philadelphia, she will take you to the library, and show you no end of curious things in the archives, which have to do with him.
“I have a copy of a letter which he wrote to our old friend, Phil. Nolan, when he was hunting wild horses in Texas. His namesake, Mr. Joseph Jefferson, was kind enough to hunt that up for me in the State Department at Washington.
“Philip Nolan was the first person to bring back to the United States any accurate knowledge of the wonderful resources of Texas. The Spaniards caught him there, violated their own safeguard, and killed him in 1801. That is probably the reason why we have no answer to Mr. Jefferson’s letter to him.
“Then, when Jefferson was well established in the presidency, he determined to find what there was between the Mississippi and the Pacific. Nobody who had left any reliable account had ever gone across in the regions north of Mexico.
“If you will look in the Popular History again,” said Uncle Fritz, “where you were looking when we had the Coronado reading, you will find how four poor fellows of Narvaez’s expedition straggled across from the gulf, slaves most of the time to Indians, in the years following 1528. But after them there was no authentic account of any passage.
“It is odd enough,” continued Uncle Fritz, “that every cyclopædia, till within a few years, says that Carver, who went from here to Lake Superior in 1768, went to the Pacific. You will find that in the earlier editions of Appleton. So the old French cyclopædias say that Chateaubriand, in 1792, went to the Pacific. In truth, he never went beyond the Red River of Louisiana. Lewis and Clarke were the first men to cross the Rocky Mountains and back, from the Mississippi to the Pacific.
[Sidenote: 1804.]
“You see that as long ago as 1792, in that very fur-trade of which Captain Cleveland gives you some account, Robert Gray, from Salem, here in the ship Columbia, discovered the Columbia River. He sailed up, gave his vessel’s name to it, and on that discovery, in a considerable measure, rested, at one time, our claim to Oregon. Jefferson selected two captains from the army, Meriwether Lewis and George Clarke, and bade them organize an expedition to find this same Columbia River and descend to the sea. This they did in the years 1804, 1805, and 1806. You see, there were as yet no steamboats. They had to row, sail, and tow, on their way up the Missouri, till they came to the mountains. Slow work it was, to be sure. Then they bought horses from the Indians and crossed the passes,--in the same regions where the Northern Pacific Railroad was built in our own time,--and to them are due the names of Lewis’s River and Clarke’s River, the two branches which unite in the Columbia River.
“When they came back, they had not been heard from for more than two years.
“This was the beginning of a series of government explorations which have lasted till our time. The authorities at Washington publish every year valuable reports of their agents in the Ethnological Department, in the Irrigation Department, and in the Alaskan Department. Keep your eyes on these reports. They do not get into book stores, but are distributed with great liberality at Washington to any persons who are interested. Of all the books made out of the journals of those explorations, Irving’s ‘Astoria’ and ‘Captain Bonneville’ are the most entertaining. Later down Francis Parkman’s book, when he spent a summer with the Sioux, is charming.[25] Fremont is very entertaining. There are several of his reports.
“Suppose we try the Great Northwest. That is a country which, before Fulton invented the steamboat, seemed so useless that we almost lost it at the treaty of Ghent by the mere indifference of our own negotiators.
“It was our dear old John Quincy Adams who hung on. He hated the English so that he would not let them have even a wilderness if he could help it.”
[Sidenote: 1814.]
Then Uncle Fritz asked Clement to bring him the third volume of Adams’s Memoirs,[26] and he showed Clem. some of his marks at passages in the negotiation of the treaty of 1814 with England.
“Mr. Gallatin told them that if they considered the remainder of the article, the forty-ninth parallel of latitude, an equivalent, he wished them to understand that we attached no importance to it at all. It would, indeed, be a convenience to have the boundary settled; but the lands there were of so little value, and the period when they might be settled so remote, that we were perfectly willing that the boundary there should remain as it is now, and without any further arrangement.”
“Why, Uncle Fritz, it was the State of Minnesota which Gallatin says was of so little value,” said Bedford, who was on the floor, with Colton’s Atlas open.
“To be sure it was, my boy. But please think what the State of Minnesota would be without steamboats and without railroads. And even in 1814, even Mr. Gallatin did not dream of what steamboats were to do.
[Sidenote: 1823.]
“But the steamboat was already pushing its nose into every river of the West. And nine years after that remark of Mr. Gallatin, Col. Long was sent up there to see where the new boundary--which is our present boundary of 49° north latitude--would run. The old boundary of the first treaty had proved quite impossible, because the Mississippi did not rise where they thought it did.”
“And with Col. Long,” said Col. Ingham, “your readings connect with Uncle Fritz. For this same Col. Long afterwards was interested in railroads, and invented a locomotive which should burn hard coal,--anthracite. When I was a boy, Mr. Hale bought one of these engines for the Boston and Worcester Railroad. Those were days, Bedford, when a good-natured boy had more rights than he has now, and rules and regulations were not so many. I used to be a good deal at the railroad station in Washington Street, and more than once have I coaxed a good-natured engine-driver to give me a ride on ‘Col. Long,’ as we always called his engine. What her real name was I have forgotten.
“But Laura did not come here to hear stories about locomotives; she is all ready to read.”
And Laura read from the narrative of an expedition to the source of St. Peter’s River.
PLAN OF THE PARTY.
The success which attended the expedition to the Rocky Mountains, and the important information which it imparted concerning the nature of the valley drained by the Missouri and its tributaries, of which nothing was known but what had been observed by Lewis and Clarke, induced the Government of the United States to continue its endeavors to explore the unknown wilds within its limits. The first object which appeared to it deserving of investigation was the district of country bounded by the Missouri, the Mississippi, and the northern boundary of the United States.
Accordingly it was determined in the spring of 1823, by the executive, that an expedition be immediately fitted out for exploring the river St. Peter’s and the country situated on our northern boundary between the Red River of Hudson’s Bay and Lake Superior.
The command of the expedition was intrusted to Major S. H. Long, and he received orders from the War Department, dated April 25, 1823, from which the following is taken:--
“The route of the expedition will be as follows: commencing at Philadelphia, thence proceeding to Wheeling in Virginia, thence to Chicago via Fort Wayne, thence to Fort Armstrong or Dubuque’s Lead Mines, thence up the Mississippi to Fort Anthony, thence to the source of the St. Peter’s River, thence to the point of intersection between Red River and the forty-ninth degree of north latitude, thence along the northern boundary of the United States to Lake Superior, and thence homeward by the lakes.
“The object of the expedition is to make a general Survey of the country on the route pointed out, together with a topographical description of the same, to ascertain the latitude and longitude of all the remarkable points, to examine and describe its productions, animal, vegetable, and mineral, and to inquire into the character, customs, etc., of the Indian tribes inhabiting the same.”...
The party travelled in light carriages from Philadelphia to Wheeling, where they disposed of them and purchased horses in exchange. The usual route through Lancaster, Columbia, York, and Gettysburg, was travelled. Here they left the Pittsburg turnpike road and reached Hagerstown in Maryland by a cross road; from Hagerstown they continued along the Maryland turnpike road to Cumberland, where it unites with the national road, upon which they travelled to Wheeling....
The country about the Muskingum appears to have been at a former period the seat of a very extensive aboriginal population. Everywhere do we observe in this valley remains of works which attest at the same time the number, the genius, and the perseverance of those departed nations. Their works have survived the lapse of ages, but the spirit which prompted them has disappeared. We wander over the face of the country; wherever we go we mark the monuments which they have erected; we would interrogate them as to the authors of these mighty works, but no voice replies to ours save that of the echo. The mind seeks in vain for some clew to assist it in unravelling the mystery. Was their industry stimulated by the desire of protecting themselves against the inroads of invaders, or were they themselves the trespassers? did they migrate to this spot, and if so, whence came they? who were they? where went they? and wherefore came they here? Their works have been torn open; they have been searched into, but all in vain. The mound is now levelled with the sod of the valley; the accumulated earth, which was perhaps collected from a distance into one immense mass to erect a monument, deemed indestructible, over the remains of some western Pharaoh, is now scattered over the ground so that its concealed treasure may be brought to light. Every bone is accurately examined, every piece of metal or fragment of broken pottery is curiously studied; still no light has as yet been thrown upon the name and date of the once populous nation which formerly flourished on the banks of the numerous tributary streams of the Ohio.
Such were the reflections suggested to us by our visit to the numerous mounds and Indian works which abound in this part of the country, the first of which we observed in the small village of Irville, situated eleven miles west of Zanesville. It has been opened, and as usual it has yielded bones. This mound was about fifteen feet in diameter and four and a half in height; it appears to have had an elliptic basis. Our guide told us that he was present at the opening of it, and that there were a number of human bones, and among others a tolerably entire skeleton which laid with its head to the northwest; the arms were thrown back over the head. Besides the bones there were numerous spear and arrow points, and of the latter we picked up one on the spot. There was also a plate of copper of the length of the hand, and from five to six inches in width; it was rolled up at the sides and had two holes near the centre; its weight we were told might have been about a quarter of a pound, but was probably heavier; for it must have been very thin, if, with those dimensions, it weighed so little. What could have been the use of it, except as an ornament, was not determined; indeed, the inhabitants of that part of the country are so much accustomed to dig up the bones and remains of the aborigines that they are very careless about observing or recording the objects found, and the circumstances under which they were discovered. We are told that pieces of copper, and even of brass, had been frequently collected. The copper may be easily accounted for without a reference to a higher degree of civilization or to an intercourse with nations more advanced in the arts. The existence of native copper strewed upon the surface of the ground in many places will easily account for the circumstance of its being used by the natives as an ornament, in the same manner that the Copper Indians of the north have been known, from the earliest days of their discovery by the whites, to adorn their persons with it; but we cannot account for the discovery of ornaments of brass unless we admit an intercourse with nations that had advanced in civilization.
The existence, therefore, of fragments of this alloy in mounds appears to us doubtful; for, if true, the Indians who constructed them must have been much more refined than we can suppose they were, or they must have had intercourse with civilized nations. The erection of these mounds, which appear to be in a great measure contemporary, was certainly much anterior to the discovery of this continent in the fifteenth century; and therefore it is not from Europeans that these pieces of brass were obtained, if, again we repeat it, they have been found interred in these works.
Besides this mound there are many others in the immediate vicinity of Irville, some of which have very great dimensions. We observed one near the road, which had been but recently excavated at its summit; it was perhaps thirty-five or forty feet high. These mounds were for the most part overgrown with bushes; we could discover no order or plan in their relative positions, and from the scattered and irregular manner in which they lie, it does not appear that they were intended to be connected with any work of defence; it is more probable that they were erected as mausoleums over the remains of the dead, and that the difference in their size was intended to convey an idea of the difference in the relative importance of those whose bones they covered. We were informed that this valley and the neighboring hills abound in excavations resembling wells. We met with none of these; they are said to be very numerous, and are generally attributed to the first French adventurers, who, being constantly intent upon the search of the precious metals, commenced digging wherever they observed a favorable indication. Not having seen any of these, we could not pretend to express an opinion upon their origin, but from the number in which they are represented to be, as well as from their dimensions, they appear to us far exceeding the abilities of those to whom they are attributed, and to have required a much more numerous and permanent population than these adventurers are known to have brought over with them; we would, therefore, prefer the opinion which ascribes them to the nations that erected the mounds, and who may have sunk these wells, either for purposes of self-defence according to the usual mode of Indian warfare, or as habitations, in the manner known to be practised by some tribes, or, finally, for some other cause as yet undiscovered. Their great depth, which is said at this time to exceed twenty feet, may be considered as an objection to the opinion which we have advanced. The supposition of Mr. Atwater that these wells, which he states to be at least a thousand in number, were opened for the mere purpose of extracting rock-crystal and horn-stone, appears to us too refined. Whatever may have been the advances in civilization of these nations, we have no reason to believe that they had carried them so far as to be induced to undertake immense mining operations for the mere purpose of obtaining these articles.
“All this,” said Uncle Fritz, “is about Ohio, you see. Now if you will turn over to my mark you will find something farther off.”
AN INDIAN TRIBE.
While travelling over the prairie which borders upon that part of St. Peter that connects Lac-qui-parle with Big Stone Lake, our attention was aroused by the sight of what appeared to be buffaloes chased across the prairie. They, however, soon proved to be Indians. Their number, at first limited to two, gradually increased to near one hundred. They were seen rising from every part of the prairie, and after those in the advance had reconnoitered us and made signals that we were friends by discharging their guns, they all came running toward us, and in a few minutes we found ourselves surrounded by a numerous band. They had at first been apprehensive that we might be enemies, and this was the cause of the different manœuvres which they made previous to discharging their guns. The effect of these guns fired upon the prairie in every direction, and by each as soon as he had required the requisite degree of certainty that the strangers were friends, was really very beautiful.
As they approached we had an opportunity of observing that these Indians were good-looking and straight; none were large, nor were remarkable for the symmetry of their forms. They were for the most part destitute of clothing, except the breech-cloth which they wore. Some of them, and particularly the young men, were dressed with care and ostentation. They wore looking-glasses suspended to their garments. Others had papers of pins, purchased from the traders, as ornaments. We observed that one who appeared to be a man of some note among them had a live sparrow-hawk upon his head by way of distinction; this man wore, also, a buffalo-robe, on which eight bear-tracks were painted. Some of them were mounted on horseback, and were constantly drumming with their heels upon the sides of their horses, being destitute of whip and spur. Many of them came and shook hands with us, while the rest were riding all round us in different directions. They belonged, as we were told, to one of the tribes of the Dakotas. Their chief being absent, the principal man among them told us that they had thirty lodges of their people at the lower end of the lake, and invited us to visit them, which invitation we accepted. These Indians demonstrated the greatest friendship and affection at seeing us. The village to which they directed us consisted of thirty skin-lodges, situated on a fine meadow on the bank of the lake.
Their permanent residence, or at least that which they have occupied for the last five years, is on a rocky island in the lake, nearly opposite to, and within a quarter of a mile of their present encampment. Upon the island they cultivate their cornfields, secure against the aggressions of their enemies. They had been lately engaged in hunting buffalo, apparently with much success.
The principal man led us to his lodge, wherein a number of the influential men were admitted, the women being excluded. But we observed that they, with all the children, went about the lodge, peeping through the crevices, and not unfrequently raising the skins, to observe our motions. They soon brought in a couple of large wooden dishes filled with pounded buffalo meat boiled, and covered with the marrow of the same animal; of this we partook with great delight. It was the first time that several of the party had tasted fresh buffalo meat; and it was the first meal made by any of us upon fresh meat since we had left Fort Anthony.
During the entertainment Major Long made known to them the objects of the expedition, at which they appeared very much gratified. As we rose to depart we were informed that another feast was preparing for us in one of the adjoining tents, of which we were invited to partake. We were too familiar with Indian manners not to know that the excuse of having just eaten a very hearty meal would not be considered as sufficient among them; and so we readily resigned ourselves to the necessity of again testifying our friendly disposition by doing honor to their meal. It consisted of a white root, similar in appearance to a small turnip; it is called by the French _pomme blanche_. It was boiled down into a sort of mush, and was very much relished by most of the party; had it been seasoned with salt or sugar, it might have been delicious. This was held, even by the guides, to be a great treat. As we were rising from this meal we were informed that a third was preparing for us. We begged to decline it, having a considerable distance to travel that afternoon; but we were informed that this would be a great disappointment to him who had prepared the feast, as, in order to outdo all the others, he had killed a dog, which is considered not only as the greatest delicacy, but also as a sacred animal, of which they eat only on great occasions. In order to meet his wishes we deferred our journey for an hour, but the repast not being then prepared we were compelled to leave the village, to the great and manifest mortification of our third host, and to the no small disappointment of most of our party, who were desirous of tasting of the sacred animal. In order to make a return for the civilities which we had received at the hands of the Indians, we informed them that if they would despatch a messenger with us we would send them from a neighboring trader’s house some tobacco, all ours having been lost on the river. They gladly accepted the proposal, and sent two lads with us for it. We met on the bluff which commands the superintendent’s house an Indian who claims the command of the Mahkpatoons. We had declined his invitation to stay at his lodge in the afternoon, being desirous of reaching Mr. Moore’s house as early as possible, but we promised to return about sunset, and he accordingly made all due preparations to receive us. The chief and his principal men were in waiting. We entered the skin-lodge, and were seated on fine buffalo-robes spread all around; on the fire, which was in the centre of the lodge, two large iron kettles, filled with choicest pieces of buffalo, were placed. When the chief took his seat he had near him a large pouch or bag, decorated with but little taste, although he seemed to have gathered up all that he could collect in the way of ornament. Among other things we observed an old and dirty comb. He had, since our first visit, bedaubed his face with white clay. After the usual preliminaries of shaking of hands, smoking the pipe of peace, etc., we proceeded to the feast, which was found excellent. The buffalo meat had been selected with care, the fat and the lean judiciously portioned out, the whole boiled to a proper degree; and in fine, though our appetites were not stimulated to a long fast, this repast was one of the best of which we had ever partaken. Our hosts were gratified and flattered at the quantity which we ate; the residue of the feast was sent to our soldiers. In this, and every other instance where we have been invited to a feast by the Indians, we observed that they never eat with their guests.
Tatanka Wechachita is the nephew of a man of considerable distinction among these Dakotas. Since the death of his uncle he has attempted to be considered as his successor; but the former was never duly acknowledged as chief, this title residing in Nunpakea, a man of considerable bravery, who, by the influence of his family and his talents, acquired that dignity in preference to his first cousins on the death of their father.
Our host boasted of many flags and medals which his uncle had obtained from our government, and which were then in his possession; these and the influence of his great magician may probably secure to him the dignity to which he aspires if he has talent enough to uphold it. After the feast was over our host rose, shook hands with all the gentlemen of our party, then resumed his seat and delivered a speech which at the time appeared to us very pertinent and interesting. It was delivered with apparent feeling, but not without some hesitation. Having expressed to Renville our satisfaction at the speech, he immediately observed that it expressed too much adulation and too much whining; had Tatanka Wechachita been the chief that he professed himself to be, his tone would have been more imposing, and his style more dignified and decisive.
“Brothers, the subject upon which I am to address you is grievous to me; and this grief is the motive which has thus far prevented me from speaking to you. Since the lamented death of my revered uncle, who died last year, I hate been called upon to succeed him, but as I am not endued with experience to know how to direct myself, I shall follow the advice which I have received from him, and therefore I rejoice at seeing you, and I am gratified at your visit.
“I regret that my followers are now all absent. This is our hunting season. In the autumn we collect in our villages to meet the traders. Had you seen us thus collected, you would have found me at the head of a large and powerful band of men. At present I am alone; still I am pleased to see you.
“Brothers, there are two roads which we Dakotas usually travel; my uncle trod both these paths. The first led him to the British, far towards the rising sun. From them he received both kindness and honor; they made him many presents, among which were flags and medals. The other road led him to the Americans at St. Louis; this road he subsequently travelled. From them he, in like manner, received flags and medals. These he has bequeathed all to me.
“I should have unfurled my flags at your approach, but I am unacquainted with the customs of your nation, and I am new in the duties of my rank. I am ignorant how to act; but I am desirous of following the advice of my dying uncle, who bade me remain at peace with the Americans, and always consider them as my friends; and as such I hold you.
“My friends, I am poor and very destitute; not so was my uncle. But I have as yet followed neither of the roads which he travelled. Since I have been called upon to rule over my people I have dwelt among them, and have not been able to visit St. Louis in order to obtain presents of powder and tobacco.
“I have already told you that my followers are absent; they are hunting at the north; I have left with them my flags. I know not whither you are going, but I presume you may meet them. They will exhibit to you my flags, and you will know them, for they are those of your nation. I shall send them word of your intention to travel that way, and bid them if they see you to treat you with becoming respect, assist you, supply you with provisions, and with whatever else you may require.
“My friends, I am poor, and could not do much; but I have prepared this little feast. You have partaken of it, and it has gratified me. I am young, and inexperienced in speaking, but I have done my best. Again I thank you for your flattering visit.”
While riding quietly across the prairie, with the eye intent upon the beautiful prospect of the buffaloes that were grazing, our attention was suddenly aroused by the discharge of a gun in the vicinity of the river (Red River), which flowed about half a mile west of the course that we were then travelling. While we were reckoning up our party to know if any had straggled to a distance, we saw two Indians running across the prairie; their number increased very soon to twelve or fifteen, who hastened towards us, but as soon as they came near our party, stopped and examined us with minuteness, after which they presented their hands to us; we gave them ours. It was immediately observed that they were in a complete state of preparation for war, being perfectly naked with the exception of the breech-cloth. They had even laid their blankets by. All of them were armed with guns, apparently in very good order, or with bows and arrows, and some with both. Their appearance, though at first friendly, soon became insulting. Their party had, in the mean while, increased to thirty or forty, so that they outnumbered ours. We found that they belonged to the Wahkpakota or Leaf Indians, whose character, even among their own countrymen, is very bad. We availed ourselves of Mr. Snelling’s knowledge of the language to communicate to them, in the course of conversation, our objects and intentions, as well as the friendly reception which we had met with on the part of Wanotan and the other Indians whom we had seen. In a tone rather imperative than courteous, they expressed their wish that we should go to their camp and speak to their old chief. This we declined doing, informing them that some of our party had separated from us, and that we had a long journey to travel.
They pointed to the sun, which was then low in the horizon, and added that we had no time to proceed further, and that we had better encamp with them that night.
While this conversation was going on Mr. Say remarked that, either through design or accident, the Indians had intermixed themselves so with our party that every one of our number was placed between two or more of theirs. Mr. Snelling overheard them talking of our horses, admiring them, and examining the points of each; one of their band had even ventured so far as to ask him which horse was considered the best of the party.
Finding that all further conversation was a waste of time, and having given them as much tobacco as our small stock allowed us to spare, Major Long mounted his horse and gave his men orders to march. The Indians attempted no opposition at the time, but after we had travelled about a quarter of a mile, they following in our rear, a gun was fired at some distance on the prairie to the right of our line, and a number of mounted Indians were seen in that direction coming towards us. Those who had followed us then made a signal to them that we were white men, and ran up to desire that, as their chief was then coming up, we would stop and shake hands with him. The party halted until the mounted Indians had come up and greeted us in the usual manner. Observing that their chief was not among them, Major Long again set his men in motion, but before we had proceeded far several of them ran up to the head of the line, fired their guns across our path, reloaded them immediately, and formed a crescent in front of the leader to prevent him from proceeding. At that time the number of Indians must have been about seventy or eighty, while ours amounted only to twenty-five. Their intentions could not be misunderstood. It was probable they did not care to harm our persons, but they were anxious to pilfer our baggage, and especially to secure our horses; and as we were resolved not to part with them without a struggle, it was evident that the first gun fired would be the signal for an attack which must end in the total destruction of our party; for the number of the Indians, and their mode of dispersing upon the prairie, and continually changing their situation during a skirmish, would have given them a very great advantage over us, as, in order to protect our horses and baggage, we would have remained in a body, and exposed to their arrows and balls. But even in such a case they must have lost some of their number, and this consideration, all-powerful with Indians, probably induced them to defer their attack until night, when their advantages would be still greater; and hence their anxiety that we should encamp in the vicinity. Had Major Long been entirely free to act as he pleased he would have avoided all further conversation, and have proceeded the whole night without stopping at all that evening; but this he could not do so long as some of the gentlemen were separated from us, for in such a case they would easily have been cut off by the Indians. It was to give them a chance to overtake us that he had continued the conference so long, and that he finally decided upon encamping at a point of wood then in sight, but further than that which had been proposed by the Indians.
With this view the Major ordered his men to march, when one of the Indians advanced up to the head of the line, stopped the horse of the leader, and cocked his gun. The soldier who was there, and whose name was George Bunker, immediately imitated this action, determined to be prepared for a shot as soon as his antagonist. At this moment Major Long marched up to the head of the line and led off his party. There can be no doubt that the resolution thus manifested had a great influence in preventing the Indians from making an immediate attack. The party being again safely united, Major Long considering that if an attack was intended it would be made a short time before daylight, determined to allow the horses to rest until midnight, when the moon, rising, would make it safe and pleasant to travel. Accordingly at that hour we resumed our line of march. Our preparations were made with the greatest expedition and silence, so as not to be observed by the Indians at a distance, and to avoid disturbing the old Indian sleeping, or affecting to sleep, under one of our carts. In the latter purpose, however, we failed; the old man awoke, and seeing what we were about, he left us immediately, notwithstanding the attempt made to amuse him with conversation until we should be ready to start; but we could not detain him; we saw him walk over the prairie, and by the light of the moon traced his figure until he approached near to the river, when he disappeared in the woods. This was the last Dakota whom we saw....
Had not our attention been seriously occupied by the hostile disposition manifested by these Indians we should have taken much interest in witnessing one of their great diversions.
Some time before we met them we observed a fine buffalo bull, who seemed to challenge a combat with our party; he travelled for about two miles abreast of us, and almost within gun-shot; his eyes were intently bent upon us. Though occasionally driven off by our dog, he would constantly return, and continue in a parallel line, as though he were watching our motions. This fearless character, so unlike that of buffaloes in general, excited our surprise and admiration; and accordingly we determined to spare him and see how long he would continue to travel with us. But the noble animal offered too strong a temptation to the Indians. Seeing him stop at the same place where we halted, a few of them, especially the youngest of the party, ran up to him, and in a few moments several balls and perhaps a dozen arrows had reduced the animal to his last gasp. They then approached on all sides, and while he was engaged in keeping off those on his left the youths on his right would come so near him as to draw his attention to them; the animal appeared galled, his rage was extreme, but his weakness was equally so. At length some of them came very near to him and caught hold of his tail: at this moment he was observed to be tottering; they all drew off, the animal fell, and after two or three convulsive throes he expired. A shout from the Indians announced the death of their victim. This seemed to be a schooling for the youngest of their party, a few of whom were mere boys.