After this affair had been long discussed, and all possible assurances of friendship given on both sides, I turned the conversation to my guests, and heard that Pahajuka was supreme chief of the whole Comanche nation, and his wife a person of importance in all consultations. The old lady was very sensible and really amiable. She moved with a great deal of gracefulness, and was constantly in the merriest temper. She laughed and joked with her husband as if she were a young girl, and if he reproached her for it by a serious look, she turned laughingly to me, and asked me if she looked so old as not to be allowed a joke? At dinner the two old people behaved very properly, although they could not quite manage to eat with a knife and fork, and frequently helped with their fingers. They enjoyed everything excessively, and said they would take with them a bit from each dish. I was curious whether they would sleep in the fort or prefer the camp of their people. The evening came, and after we had supped, and food had been given the Indians outside, I prepared a bed for the old couple in the parlour, put up two tallow candles for them, and told them when one was burnt out to light the other, as candles delighted them uncommonly. Then I intimated to them that I always closed the fort at night, as they must tell their Indians. They were quite satisfied and lay down on the unusual bed, laughing and jesting.
I chained up all the dogs during the night to prevent any disturbance of the peace, and was awakened at a very early hour by my new friends rapping at my door. They had both slept famously, and assured me that ere long all the chiefs of their nation would come to make friendship with me, and wherever Comanches lived, I could now ride and lie down to sleep in safety. The old people had something so honest in their manner, that I no longer doubted the truth of the sentiments they expressed; and though I never carelessly trusted to the honesty of isolated Indians of this tribe, the assurance of the couple was confirmed, and I was never again engaged in hostilities with these people.
My guests remained three days with me, after which I dismissed them with numerous trifling presents, consisting of articles of clothing, coloured handkerchiefs, tobacco, a couple of blankets, small hand-glasses, &c. I accompanied them on their first day's journey, slept with them that night, and then took leave with promises of a speedy meeting. Afterwards they visited me regularly several times a year, and as they had predicted, all the tribes of their nation came in turn to make peace with me, and their example was followed by others, such as the Mescaleros, Kioways, Shawnees, &c.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE NEW COLONISTS.