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Show [ 243] 42 Lcs noms de qnr.lqncs C'hefs : lc LUco •Cuhf.n pcau de Loutre, le Casseur de Flcchcs, I:.-.... N · Nr · L nrt otr, a Queue [Translation.] " ., . "FonT PLATTE, July 1, 1 12. :Mn. l REMONT: The clucfs havino- assembled in . . . told me to warn yon not to set out beiolo~ l . conned, hav~ .JUSt uow ont sllllll have returned Furthe;~ JC parlty of young men which is v~~y dsulrc th~y wll I fire upon yon as soon u~~f;e~ ~~[e;~lyl o~c ~~~rt, tl.~~~ nro pectc )ilCk 111 seven or cio-hl dn . . ~ " . . wy di u <'Xt ions, but it seems my dutyo to \V: ' excu,:)fc .!ne for makJug these obscrva-l . . .trn yon o uan<Ycr Mo., I I . r. w lo prolubit your settino- out befl . h ::- . Jeover, tIC c lJets bearers of this note. t> Ole t c return of the warriors, arc the '' 1 am your obedient servant ' ' J'O SEPH BI SON f..~T'rE, "By L. ll. CliARTRAIN. "Names of som~ of the chiefs · " 'rltc Ott H h . •rail." cr at, t e Breaker of Arrows, the Black Night, the Bull's . After reading this, I mentioned its ur . ng thnt all were fully posses d f .t p port to my compamons, nnd sec-and hnvin(r first shak.cn ha d ,e ?tl 1 s contents, one of the Indians rose up "y 1 h u s Wt 1 me, spoke us follows · ' on la-v·e come amouo- us ·tt b d . :-.. . been killed , and our vouncrbnlcn .. t a time. ~ome of our people have to avenge the blood of th~ir rel;t~~~:~ ~~~ ~~nc to the mountains, aro C(.~ger Our yonng men arc bad and if th ' ~~c ha been s.hed by the whit s. are carryi ucr O'Oods arid' .. cy meet Y.0 u t!Jcy Will believe that you ~ ~ ammumtwn to thc1 · d · you. You have told us that this will r cnemJCs, an will fire npon f~ther has many soldiers and bier o-ur~al~c wnr. We kn~w that our g reat h ves. V\' c love the wh .t . d b. . ' ~l.nd we are anxiClUS to have our t hese things, we lwve dc~ce;(ut:~~d ~~c k~~sJ rous of peace .. 'rhinking of all turn. \Vc arc crhd to snc . p you here until our warriors re-d b ' ,-. you tll110l) (T us Ot r [; a . . h pcctc that you would have brourrht b . .) I a lcr IS nc ' and we ex-lJlnnkcts. Bnt we "t·c <YI·td t , ::- ptesents to us- horses, and guns aud 1. n ~ .. o sec you W c 1 l ' 1ght which Q"ocs before the sun. [I . • .11 °0 { upon your comiug as tho seen us, and that we are Ilakcd ' (dH you WI dtcll onr great father thnt you have d < an poor an h·tv n tl · . sen us all these thiJJO'"" 11 . ~ II ' d ' c 0 1ll1g to cat, and l1c wtll 'rhc observations ~f· tile c \~ .. l.S o owe by the or hers to the same crrcct. tl sa Vd.Q"e appeared reaso bl b [ 1n.1 they had in view only the .... l' .. na e i ut was aware unwillitJrr I hould rro frt ·th . presc,ut o )jCCt of detaining- me, and were tl . h . b I cr Into t 1e courJtry I , 1 I I. llong- the lllterpretation or Mr 13 d . . n rep y, l\St\Cd them, unmber to accompany us until w. ~u ~~u, to selc~t two or three of th eir ::>pread th eir robes in my tent ·u~d s l·otu· t meet th ctr people-they should ~vonld give them prescuts in rc,~ard c~ ..t . ~ny tl~bl e, m;~ Oil onr return I Jn.g'" - that there were tlO yourw rnen lo ft th. en Is ervt.c es. J h ' v' declinetl' "... 'l.Y- ,< too old to travel so man d· '"'. e m t te village, and tlwt tlley were their pipes in the lod~c ~ .';yls onl horse~ack, and preferred now to smoke tll cy l . d t-> ' Ullu ct t lC warnors rro tt . la no pow<;r over tl o on IIC wnr-path. B c~ td <•s te younrr men and [ · ,1 · ' ... ' 0 ' were a ratu to 111 tcrfcre with • 43 [ 243] them. In my turn I add rcssrd them : ,: You say that you love the whites; why have you killed so many nlrcady thi sprinrr? Yon say that you love the whites, ttUd arc full of many exprcs ion of fric·ndship to us, but you a rc uot willing to undergo tile fittiguc of a few days' ride to save our lives. \Vc do uot believe what you have said, nnd will not listen to you. Whatever a chief amono- us tells his soldiers to do, is done. We arc the soldiers of the great chief~ 0 your fath er. llc hns told us to come here and see this country, und all the lnuian::;, his children. Why should we not go? Before we came, we heard that you had killed his people, and ceased to be his chi ldren; l.nlt we came among you peaceably, holdi ng out. our hands. Now we find that the stori es we heard are not l ics, and that you arc no longer his friends and children. \Ve have thrown away our bodies, and \vill not turu back. When you told 11s that your yo un(J" men would kill us, you did not know thut our hearts were strong, aud you did not sec the r itles which my young men cnrry in their hand ~ . We are few, and you ar9 many, and mny kill ns all; but there will he much crying· in your villn~ cs, for mnuy of your youug ntcn will stay behind, nnd forget to return WII h your warriors from the moun tnius. Do you think that on r great chief will let his soldiers die, and forget to cover their g rav<'s? Before the snows melt aanin, his warriors will sweep away your villages as tile fire docs the pruirie in the uutumn. See ! 1 have pulled down my white houses, and my people arc r ·udy: when the sun is len puc~s higher, we shall be on the march. If you have anything to tell us, you \vill say it soon." I broke up the conference, a~ I could do nothing with these people, and being resol vcd to proceed, nothing was to he gni ncd by delay. Accompanied by our lso~pi tablc friends, we rctu rncd to the camp. Vv c had nwunted our horses , and our parting salutations had be ·u exchanged, when one of the chiefs, the Hull's Tail, arrived to tell me that they had dctcrlnined to se11d a young man with us; and if I wou ld point out the place of onr evenincr camp, he shoui<.J join us there. '' Tho young man is poor," said he, "he has 110 horse, and expects you to give him Oll<'." I d 'Sc ribed to him the place where I intended to encamp, and shaking hands, iu a few minutes we were among the hi lls: and this lust habitation of whites shut out from our view. 'l'he road led over an interesting phtcau between tile north fork of the Piattc on the right and Laramie ri\'cr ou the left. At the distance of ten miles from the fort we cutcrc<.l the f;andy bed of a creRk, a kind of dcfilet s haded by precipitous rocks, down which we wound our way for several hundred yards to a place where, on the l<'ft ballk, a vety large sp ring gushes with cousidcrable uoisc and force ont of the limestone rock. It is called "the Warm Spring," and furnishes to the hi1herto dry bed of the creek a considerable rivn let. On the uppositc sidC', a little below the ~pring, is a lofty limestone escarpment, partially slwded by a grove of la rgt! tr('rs, whose g reen folia~e, in co11tra t with tl1c whit C'ucss of the rocl<, renders this a pictnre~ qnc locality. The rock i · fo · ilifcrous, and, so far as I was able to determine the character of the fos ·ils, belong to the carboni fe rous limestone of the Missouri rivrr, and is prol.mbly tl1c western linllt of tbat formation. Beyond this p()int I mrt willt uo fossils of auy desc rip1i on. I was desirous to visit the Platte ncar the point where it leaves the Black IIi li s, anu therefore followed til i~ st ream, for two or th rec miles, to the mouth; where l cnciunped on a sptn which a.fl'ordcd o-ood grass and JiTClc (cquisetum) for our auimuls. Our tents having been found too thin to protect |