The Chiefs of these different nations rose up to a man, and said with one consent, they were well satisfied to comply with his request; and instantly gave each other their pipes of peace.
After an entertainment prepared for them, the Padoucas sung the songs, and danced the dances of peace; a kind of pantomimes, representing the innocent pleasures of peace.
On the 6th of October, M. de Bourgmont caused three lots of goods to be made out; one for the Othouez, one for the Aiaouez, and one for the Panimahas, which last arrived in the mean time; and made them all smoke in the same pipe of peace.
On the 8th M. de Bourgmont set out from the Canzas with all the baggage, and the flag displayed, at the head of the French and such Indians as he had pitched on to accompany him, in all forty persons. The goods intended for presents were loaded on horses. As they set out late, they travelled but five leagues, in which they crossed a small river and two brooks, in a fine country, with little wood.
The same day Gaillard, Quenel, and two Padoucas were dispatched to acquaint their nation with the march of the French. That day they travelled ten leagues, crossed one river and two brooks.
The 10th they made eight leagues, crossed two small rivers and three brooks. To their right and left they had several small hills, on which one could observe pieces of rock even with the ground. Along the rivers there is found a slate, and in the meadows, a reddish marble, standing out of the earth, one, two, and three feet; some pieces of it upwards of six feet in diameter.
The 11th they passed over several brooks and a small river, and then the river of the Canzas, which had only three feet water. Further on, they found several brooks, issuing from the neighbouring little hills. The river of the Canzas runs directly from west to east, and falls into the Missouri; is very great in floods, because, according to the report of the Padoucas, it comes a great way off. The woods, which border this river, afford a retreat to numbers of buffaloes and other game. On the left were seen great eminences, with hanging rocks.
The 12th of October, the journey, as the preceding day, was extremely diversified by the variety of objects. They crossed eight brooks, beautiful meadows, covered with herds of elks and buffaloes. To the right the view was unbounded, but to the left small hills were seen at a distance, which from time to time presented the appearance of ancient castles.
The 13th, on their march they saw the meadows covered almost entirely with buffaloes, elks and deer; so that one could scarce distinguish the different herds, so numerous and so intermixed they were. The same day they passed through a wood almost two leagues long, and a pretty rough ascent; a thing which seemed extraordinary, as till then they only met with little groves, the largest of which scarce contained an hundred trees, but straight as a cane; groves too small to afford a retreat to a quarter of the buffaloes and elks seen there.
The 14th the march was retarded by ascents and descents; from which issued many springs of an extreme pure water, forming several brooks, whose waters uniting make little rivers that fall into the river of the Canzas: and doubtless it is this multitude of brooks which traverse and water these meadows, extending a great way out of sight, that invite those numerous herds of buffaloes.