[138] On these ceremonies, see our volume xxiii, p. 324, note 292, and p. 378, note 350.—Ed.
[139] On the subject of cannibalism see our volume xxiii, p. 278, note 242.—Ed.
[140] Consult references cited in our volume xxiii, p. 279, note 245.—Ed.
[141] See the brief account of Arikara jugglers in Maximilian's Travels, our volume xxiii, pp. 393, 394—Ed.
[142] Juggleries are much practised among the savages, although many of them consider them as so many impostures. Mr. Belcourt, who witnessed a great many of them, always succeeded in discovering the deception. One of the most celebrated jugglers acknowledged, after his conversion to Christianity, that all their delusion consists in their cleverness in preparing certain tricks, and in the assurance with which they predict to others what they themselves know not, and, above all, in the silly credulity of their admirers. They are like our own calculators of horoscopes.—Extract from the Journal of a Missionary in Canada.—De Smet.
[143] For references on burial customs among the Indians of the Missouri, see Maximillian's Travels, in our volume xxiii, p. 360, note 329.—Ed.
[144] For a sketch of Independence, Missouri, see Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies in our volume xix, p. 189, note 34.—Ed.
[145] De Smet had been associated with Nicollet in his exploration of the Missouri River in 1839. Nicollet intended another expedition westward, but was detained in Washington by business connected with the publication of his hydrographical map, and the report to Congress, and was never again in the Western country. See his letter in Chittenden and Richardson, De Smet, iv, pp. 1552, 1553.
Jean Nicolas Nicollet was born in Savoy in 1786. After being educated in Switzerland, he was for a time assistant professor of mathematics at Chambery, and later librarian and secretary at the Paris observatory under the celebrated La Place. In 1832 he came to America, and occupied himself in scientific exploration of the Arkansas and Red rivers. In 1836 he made his well-known voyage to the sources of the Mississippi, and in 1839 explored the Missouri, crossing over to the Red River Valley, being accompanied on this expedition by John C. Frémont. The following years, until his death in 1843, he was employed in government service at Washington.—Ed.
[146] This was the first overland emigrant train to California, composed of members of the Western Emigration Society, organized in the winter of 1840-41 in Platte County, Missouri, under the stimulus of reports of the fertility and beauty of California, brought back by one of the Roubidoux brothers. Discouraged by contrary accounts, most of the members of the society withdrew, leaving John Bidwell to organize the caravan, which finally consisted of sixty-nine persons, exclusive of De Smet's party. See Bidwell's account in Century Magazine, xix, pp. 106-120. De Smet's party of eleven consisted of the priests and brothers, one guide, one hunter, and three French Canadian drivers.—Ed.