This Hunter Had Now Been
Absent For Many Years From The Frontiers, And Might Naturally
Be Presumed To Have Some
Anxiety, or at least curiosity,
to return to his friends and his country; yet, just at the moment
when he
Was approaching the frontiers, he was tempted by a hunting
scheme to give up all those delightful prospects, and to go back
without the least reluctance to the solitude of the wilds."
The two captains learned here that the Minnetarees had sent out
a war-party against the Shoshonees, very soon after the white men's
expedition had left for the Rocky Mountains, notwithstanding their
promise to keep peace with the surrounding tribes. They had also
sent a war-party against the Ricaras, two of whom they killed.
Accordingly, the white chiefs had a powwow with the Indian chiefs,
at which the journal says these incidents occurred: -
"We took this opportunity of endeavoring to engage Le Borgne
in our interests by a present of the swivel, which is no longer
serviceable, as it cannot be discharged from our largest pirogue.
It was loaded; and the chiefs being formed into a circle
round it, Captain Clark addressed them with great ceremony.
He said that he had listened with much attention to what had
yesterday been declared by Le Borgne, whom he believed to be sincere,
and then reproached them with their disregard of our counsels,
and their wars on the Shoshonees and Ricaras. Little Cherry,
the old Minnetaree chief, answered that they had long stayed at home
and listened to our advice, but at last went to war against the Sioux
because their horses had been stolen and their companions killed;
and that in an expedition against those people they met the Ricaras,
who were on their way to strike them, and a battle ensued.
But in future he said they would attend to our words and live
at peace. Le Borgne added that his ears would always be open
to the words of his Good Father, and shut against bad counsel.
Captain Clark then presented to Le Borgne the swivel, which he told
him had announced the words of his Great Father to all the nations
we had seen, and which, whenever it was fired, should recall
those which we had delivered to him. The gun was discharged,
and Le Borgne had it conveyed in great pomp to his village.
The council then adjourned."
After much diplomacy and underhand scheming, one of the Mandan chiefs,
Big White, agreed to go to Washington with the expedition.
But none of the Minnetarees could be prevailed upon to leave
their tribe, even for a journey to the Great Father,
of whose power and might so much had been told them.
The journal, narrating this fact, says further: -
"The principal chiefs of the Minnetarees now came down to bid
us farewell, as none of them could be prevailed on to go with us.
This circumstance induced our interpreter, Chaboneau, to remain
here with his wife and child, as he could no longer be of use to us,
and, although we offered to take him with us to the United States,
he declined, saying that there he had no acquaintance,
and no chance of making a livelihood, and preferred remaining
among the Indians.
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