Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/360

343 WITH THE GRAND OSAGES; 343 the Osages at some distance, and killed at lea,st one. Not being acquainted with the country, they fought vaUantly until they reached the timber, but ijrhich was their undoing, and the Indians killed every m,an. " It was afterwards discovered that this twentiy or twenty-two men were all officers of the Gonf ederate army, who had come into the Indian Territory to in- duce the Indians to rise against the settlers of Kan- sas. This was learned from the papers found upon them. It; cannot be stated that our party was now visit- ing the most numerous tribes, for the Pawnees and the Confederates were more numerous, but the lodges of the Osages were more permanent than either of the other two tribes visited, as the early authorities say that some of their lodges were 100 feet long and had an upper stxjry; and the fact of their being so long permanently located at the place where they were first seen, 'Would indicate the stability of the vUla.ge. The Spaniards miss Ysopete, for they are unable to properly converse with these natives, and had it not been for Alonso and Monte, hardly a word could have been understood, but owing to the close friend- ship and many months companionship of the three, both Alonso and Monte had acquired quite a smatter- ing of the dialect, and between the two both sides were able to comprehend the principal desires of each other. As you know, our party is now visiting the Grand or Great Osages, the Little Osages in 1541 being situ- ated along the Missouri river; and so the term or der-