All This Being Adjusted, They Were Conducted To The Main Building
Or Council House Of The Village, Where An Ample
Repast, or rather
banquet, was spread, which seemed to realize all the
gastronomical dreams that had tantalized them during their
Long
starvation; for here they beheld not merely fish and roots in
abundance, but the flesh of deer and elk, and the choicest pieces
of buffalo meat. It is needless to say how vigorously they
acquitted themselves on this occasion, and how unnecessary it was
for their hosts to practice the usual cramming principle of
Indian hospitality.
When the repast was over, a long talk ensued. The chief showed
the same curiosity evinced by his tribe generally, to obtain
information concerning the United States, of which they knew
little but what they derived through their cousins, the Upper Nez
Perces; as their traffic is almost exclusively with the British
traders of the Hudson's Bay Company. Captain Bonneville did his
best to set forth the merits of his nation, and the importance of
their friendship to the red men, in which he was ably seconded by
his worthy friend, the old chief with the hard name, who did all
that he could to glorify the Big Hearts of the East.
The chief, and all present, listened with profound attention, and
evidently with great interest; nor were the important facts thus
set forth, confined to the audience in the lodge; for sentence
after sentence was loudly repeated by a crier for the benefit of
the whole village.
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