This Brought Out The Chief Of These Parts,
Who Informed Us That All The Canoe-Men Were His Children,
And Nothing Could Be Done Without His Authority.
He then made
the usual demand for a man, an ox, or a gun, adding that otherwise
we must return to the country from which we had come.
As I did not believe
that this man had any power over the canoes of the other side, and suspected
that if I gave him my blanket - the only thing I now had in reserve -
he might leave us in the lurch after all, I tried to persuade my men to go
at once to the bank, about two miles off, and obtain possession of the canoes
before we gave up the blanket; but they thought that this chief
might attack us in the act of crossing, should we do so.
The chief came himself to our encampment and made his demand again.
My men stripped off the last of their copper rings and gave them;
but he was still intent on a man. He thought, as others did,
that my men were slaves. He was a young man, with his woolly hair
elaborately dressed: that behind was made up into a cone, about eight inches
in diameter at the base, carefully swathed round with red and black thread.
As I resisted the proposal to deliver up my blanket until they had placed us
on the western bank, this chief continued to worry us with his demands
till I was tired.
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