He Went Up To Them,
And Shook Hands With Each One In The Most Friendly Manner;
But Their Apprehensions, Which Had For A Moment Subsided,
Revived On His Taking Out A Burning-Glass, As There Was No
Roof To The House, And Lighting His Pipe:
He then offered
it to several of the men, and distributed among the women
and children some small trinkets which he had with him,
and gradually restored a degree of tranquillity among them.
"Leaving this house, and directing each of his men to visit a house,
he entered a second. Here he found the inmates more terrified than
those in the first; but he succeeded in pacifying them, and afterward
went into the other houses, where the men had been equally successful.
Retiring from the houses, he seated himself on a rock, and beckoned
to some of the men to come and smoke with him; but none of them
ventured to join him till the canoes arrived with the two chiefs,
who immediately explained our pacific intention towards them.
Soon after the interpreter's wife [Sacajawea] landed, and her
presence dissipated all doubts of our being well-disposed,
since in this country no woman ever accompanies a war party:
they therefore all came out, and seemed perfectly reconciled;
nor could we, indeed, blame them for their terrors, which were
perfectly natural. They told the two chiefs that they knew
we were not men, for they had seen us fall from the clouds.
In fact, unperceived by them, Captain Clark had shot the white crane,
which they had seen fall just before he appeared to their eyes:
the duck which he had killed also fell close by him;
and as there were some clouds flying over at the moment,
they connected the fall of the birds with his sudden appearance,
and believed that he had himself actually dropped from the clouds;
considering the noise of the rifle, which they had never
heard before, the sound announcing so extraordinary an event.
This belief was strengthened, when, on entering the room,
he brought down fire from the heavens by means of his burning-glass.
We soon convinced them, however, that we were merely mortals;
and after one of our chiefs had explained our history and objects,
we all smoked together in great harmony.
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