Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/85

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE CO I' NT V 55 mit rowed us; the first boat or canoe we met with on the voyage able to do it, but then they were double manned and light. Ar- rived at the band of the Aile Rouge (Red Wing) at two o'clock, where we were saluted as usual. We had a council, when he spoke with more than detestation of the rascals at the mouth of the St. Peter's than any man I had yet heard. He assured me, speaking of the fellow who had fired on my sentinel and threat- ened to kill me. that if 1 thought it requisite, he should be killed; but that, as there Mere many chiefs above with whom he wished to speak, he hoped I would remain one day, when all the Sioux would be down, and I might have the command of a thousand men of them, that I would probably think it no honor 1 ; but that the British used to flatter them ; they were proud of having them for soldiers. I replied in general terms, and assured him it was not for the conduct of two or three rascals that I meant to pass over all the good treatment I had received from the Sioux nation, but that in general council I w T ould explain myself. That as to the scoundrel who fired at my sentinel, had I been at home the Sioux nation would never have been troubled with him, for I would have killed him on the spot. But that my young men did not do it, apprehensive that I would he displeased. I then gave him the news of the Sauteurs; that as to remaining one day it would be of no service ; that I was much pressed to arrive below, as my general expected me, my duty called me, and that the state of my provision demanded the utmost expedition; that I would be happy to oblige him, but that my men must eat. He replied that Lake Pepin, being yet shut with ice, if I w r ent on and encamped on the ice it w T ould not get me provision. That he would send out all his young men the next day, and that if the other bands did not arrive he would depart the day after w T ith me. In short, after much talk. I agreed to remain one day, knowing that the lake was closed, and that Ave could proceed only nine miles if w T e went ; this appeared to give general satisfaction. I was invited to different feasts, and entertained at one by a person whose father w T as enacted a chief by the Spaniards. At this feast I saw a man (called by the French the Roman Nose, and by the Indians the "Wind that Walks) who w y as formerly the second chief of the Sioux, but being the cause of the death of one of the traders, seven years since, he voluntarily relinquished the dignity and has frequently requested to be given up to the whites. But he was now determined to go to St. Louis and deliver himself up where he said they might put him to death. His long repentance, the great confidence of the nation in him, would perhaps protect him from a punishment which the crime merited. But as the crime w T as committed long before the United States assumed its authority, and as no law of theirs could affect it, unless it w^as