Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/50

 violent, and were only restrained from bloodshed by disarming and other vigorous measures; but, upon the last occasion, they smoked the calumet of peace and slept in the same apartments with the Sioux at the Company's headquarters, Fort Garry. The Sioux seemed highly gratified with the kindness and protection they experienced, and have on several occasions performed friendly offices to the Company's couriers and others passing through their country to the American garrison on the river St. Peter's. They are a warlike, equestrian race, with light sinewy frames and eagle eyes, who pursue the buffalo in the boundless plains of the Missouri and the upper Mississippi.

Some of the incidents connected with the first visit of the Sioux may be worth narrating, as illustrative of savage passions. A party of six-and-thirty men, headed by a daring chief, called The Burning Earth, in consequence of some disgust which originated across the lines, resolved to brave the danger arising from the implacable hatred of the Saulteaux, through whose country they must pass, and to pay a visit to the British settlement. Being obliged to leave their horses on the way, they marched during the night, and reached undiscovered the woody banks of the Red River, a short distance above the remotest