Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/125

 *cerning the boundaries of the lands which they claimed, a very old chieftain related to the agent, that at a very remote period his nation had descended the Mississippi, and after having proceeded in one body to the entrance of a large and muddy river (the Missouri), they had there divided, one party continuing down the Mississippi, and the other up the miry river. The descending band were checked in their progress by the Kaskaskias,[88] whose opposition they at length subdued. In their further descent they were harassed by the Chicasaws and Choctaws, and waged war with them for some considerable time, but, at length, overcoming all opposition, they obtained the banks of the Arkansa, where they have remained ever since. Some of them, reverting apparently to the period of creation, say, that they originally emerged out of the water, but made many long and circuitous journeys upon that element, previous to their arrival on the banks of this river.

As their language scarcely differs from that of the Osages, Kanzas, Mahas, and Poncas of the Missouri, it is presumable that these sprung from the band {83} which ascended the Missouri. They say, they remained separated from a knowledge of each other for many years, until mutually discovered on a hunting party, taking each other at first for enemies, till assured to the contrary by both uttering the same language.

They bear an unexceptionally mild character, both amongst the French and Americans, having always abstained, as they say, from offering any injury to the whites. Indeed, to do them justice, and to prove that this opinion concerning them is no modern prejudice, I cannot do less