Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/139

 of which I had heard before. All this dampened my ardor for the search of a known sea; nevertheless I should have liked very much to go there, if it had been feasible.

We continued to march, sometimes south southwest, sometimes northwest; our band was augmented continually by the addition of a number of villages of different tribes. On January 1st, 1743, we were in sight of the mountains. The number of the warriors exceeded two thousand; with their families it made a considerable band, advancing all the way through a magnificent prairie where animals are plentiful. At night there was singing and shouting, and they wept continually, begging us to accompany them to war. I resisted steadily saying that we were sent to pacify the land and not to stir it up. The chief of the Bow Indians repeated often that he was troubled on our account because of what all the tribes would think of us for hesitating to accompany them, and he asked us as a favor (since he was bound to the other Indians and could not go off with us until after their return from the war) to accompany him simply as spectators, not asking us to expose ourselves; the Snakes were our enemies as well as theirs and we must surely know that they had no friends.

We conferred among ourselves as to what we should do. We resolved to accompany them, because of the impossibility of coming to any other decision, in addition to my desire to see the ocean from the summit of the mountains. I acquainted the chief of the tribe with our decision and he seemed well satisfied with it. A grand council was then called to which they invited us, as was their custom. The harangues of members of each tribe were very long. The chief of the Bows explained them to me. Everything turned upon the measures which must be taken for the safety of their women and children during their absence and the manner in which they should approach their enemies. Then they turned to us, begging us not to abandon them. I made the reply to the