The chief sat down, and enveloped himself in his red blanket. Another chief, doffing his blanket (which was blue trimmed with red), standing also spoke. He said, like the first, that they loved the whites very much, and could not bear to have them injured when they came as friends, and that it was better for them to stay safely at the post and not go on. Then the great father at Washington would be grateful and would give his red children many blankets and horses and much food and powder and lead!
Other chiefs spoke, in turn—and all blandly expressed the hope that in reward for their tender care of the expedition in forbidding it to proceed, the “great father” at Washington would liberally reward them!
When the half circle of chiefs had said their say, Lieutenant Frémont replied—Agent Boudeau translating his sentences into Sioux.
“We thank you for your good words,” replied the lieutenant, to their up-turned solemn visages. “We know that you do not wish us to be harmed, and it will please the great father at Washington to hear about it. We should like to stay with you a long time, but the trail is waiting, we have not come to the end of it. We hope that your young men will not take us as enemies. That would be a great pity, when we come as friends. But in case that your young men might not see plainly, and blood would be shed, and perhaps many of them killed, we ask that two or three of you go with us, to signal the young men and tell them that we are friends. We ask that you go with us, as our guests, to spread your robes in my lodge and eat at my fire; and when we return safely I will give presents.”
The chief in the red blanket arose.
“We have heard the speech of the white chief, and it is good,” he said. “But we are old and poor and tired, and we cannot travel far on horseback. We must sit in our lodges and smoke our pipes among the women, and let our young warriors take the trail. Besides, we have no power now over the young men, and it would be bad for us if we tried to interfere on the war-path.”
He seated himself, and was applauded by a chorus of grunts from his comrades.
Lieutenant Frémont answered, instantly and energetically—with a glance at Kit Carson as if to read approval in his sober face.
“You say that you love the whites; why have you killed so many already this spring? You say you love the whites, and you are full of words about friendship; but you are unwilling to undergo the fatigue of a few days’ ride to save our lives! We do not believe what you have said; we will listen to you no more. Whatever a chief among us tells his soldiers to do, is done. We obey our chiefs. We are soldiers of the great chief your father. He has told us to come out here, and see this country and all the Indians, his children. Why should we not go on and do it? Before we came, we heard that you had killed his people and wanted to be his children no longer; but we came anyway, holding out our hands in peace. Now we find that the stories we heard are not lies, and that your young men are on the war-path and you are no more his friends and children. But we have thrown away our bodies, and will not turn back. When you told us that your young men would kill us, you did not know that our hearts were strong, and you did not count the rifles that my young men carry in their hands. We may be few, and you are many, in numbers, and you may think to kill us; but if you try there will be much crying of women in your villages, for many of your young men will stay behind and forget to return with the others from the mountains. Do you think that our great chief will let his soldiers die, and will not cover their graves? Before the snows melt again his warriors will have swept away your villages as the fires in autumn sweep the prairies. Look around. See! I have pulled down my white lodges and my people are ready: when the sun is ten paces higher, we shall be on the march. If you have anything new to tell us, you should say it soon. I am done.”
With that the lieutenant turned his back, and strode out; after him strode Kit Carson and Lucien Maxwell and all, even the agent, with the three boys forming the rear. Presently, at decent interval, filed forth the chiefs, blanket shrouded; they crossed the court and passed through the gate, for the lodges without.