Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 1.djvu/95

Rh. "You will have the whole band down upon us." Then to the Indians he explained how their white brother regretted his inability to meet their wishes; but according to the customs of his people, it was impossible to sell her. When satisfied entirely with this information, the braves retired. However, the fondness of the Indians to see and even possess the white women, was a real source of danger, with which the immigrant parties had to reckon. I't was not simply an annoyance. It was apprehended by some that American families could never cross the plains safely. The Indians, it was said, would seize their women at all hazards. That they did not do so, but respected the white man's customs, even when, as in this case, they were in greatly superior numbers, shows they had a certain native morality, often not found among the whites.

This great band of Indians also could hardly be made to believe that the immigrant train had no liquors, and begged insistently for the firewater. Fitzpatrick, the pilot, both with this band and that at Independence Rock, refused to be made known, not wishing to implicate himself as a leader of white people through their country; and remarked that all the prairie was home to him, and he could drop off anywhere.,Matthieu, therefore, having learned the custom of the Sioux, and knowing some of them personally, was able to help the immigrants, and to greatly reduce the liability of trouble. "I actually believe," he says, "that they might not have got through without me.' These Sioux, being of the Blackfoot division of the nation, were at this juncture on a great expedition to cross the Rocky Mountains and attack the Snake Indians.

At Fort Hall, the exact date of reaching which is not remembered by Mr. Matthieu, the immigrants delayed,