The example of this man shows how easily men may be weaned from the habits of civilized life to the ruder, though scarcely less fascinating, manners of the woods. 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. This man had been very serviceable to us, and his wife was particularly useful among the Shoshonees: indeed, she had borne with a patience truly admirable the fatigues of so long a route, encumbered with the charge of an infant, who was then only nineteen months old. We therefore paid him his wages, amounting to five hundred dollars and thirty-three cents, including the price of a horse and a lodge purchased of him, and soon afterward dropped down to the village of Big White, attended on shore by all the Indian chiefs, who had come to take leave of him.
"We found him surrounded by his friends, who sat in a circle smoking, while the women were crying. He immediately sent his wife and son, with their baggage, on board, accompanied by the interpreter and his wife, and two children; and then, after distributing among his friends some powder and ball which we had given him, and smoking a pipe, he went with us to the river side.
The whole village crowded about us, and many of the people wept aloud at the departure of their chief."
Once more embarked, the party soon reached Fort Mandan, where they had wintered in 1804. They found very little of their old stronghold left except a few pickets and one of the houses.
The rest had been destroyed by an accidental fire.
Eighteen miles below, they camped near an old Ricara village, and next day, as they were about to resume their voyage, a brother of Big White, whose camp was farther inland, came running down to the beach to bid Big White farewell.
The parting of the two brothers was very affectionate, and the elder gave the younger a pair of leggings as a farewell present.
The Indian chief was satisfied with his treatment by the whites, and interested himself to tell them traditions of localities which they passed. August 20 they were below the mouth of Cannon-ball River, and were in the country occupied and claimed by the Sioux. Here, if anywhere, they must be prepared for attacks from hostile Indians. At this point, the journal sets forth this interesting observation:--"Since we passed in 1804, a very obvious change has taken place in the current and appearance of the Missouri. In places where at that time there were sandbars, the current of the river now passes, and the former channel of the river is in turn a bank of sand.
Sandbars then naked are now covered with willows several feet high; the entrance of some of the creeks and rivers has changed in consequence of the quantity of mud thrown into them; and in some of the bottoms are layers of mud eight inches in depth."
