"I swear to you that we know nothing of the act you mention," replied Baylis, with great earnestness.
"The white men are liars!"
"If we had known, or been guilty of it, would we have ventured ashore to trade or barter with you like brothers?"
"Yes; because the white men are all liars!"
"It was done by the ship of another nation."
"All the white men belong to one tribe, and one big canoe is very like another. You are liars who come over the Sea of Darkness."*
* The Atlantic.
Baylis, on finding that all his assertions of innocence met with utter disbelief, bent all his energy to bribe our release; but his sable Majesty only grinned through both his horrid mouths, and said—
"Enough! the King of the Snake River will keep what he has got, without trusting to getting more. The white men are false. Who of my people would venture to your ship when we know now what we never knew before?"
"And what is this?"