Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/169

 often listened to his graphic description of incidents that came under his observation while he was in the service of the Missouri Fur Company. I remember a very interesting narration which I heard from him. I can only give the substance.

The hired men of the company were mostly employed in trapping beaver and otter. A war grew up between the whites and Indians, as usual.. It was not desirable to the company, and its manager made efforts to secure peace. For this purpose he consulted with Newell, and asked him if he would be willing to go as a commissioner to the Crow Indians to treat for peace. Newell consented, upon condition that he should only take with him an interpreter and a cook.

With these two men Newell boldly made his way to the Crow camp. The Indian chiefs assembled in the council-lodge, and the orator on the part of the tribe brought in a bundle of small sticks. He commenced and stated an aggressive wrong against the Crows on the part of the whites, and demanded for that a certain number of blankets. Having done this he laid aside one stick, and then proceeded to state another grievance and to lay aside another stick, and so on until the bundle was exhausted. The number of these complaints was great, and the amount of merchandise demanded far exceeded the ability of the company to pay.

Newell said that while this process was going on he felt himself almost overwhelmed. He could not make a detailed statement of wrongs committed by the Indians against the whites sufficient to balance this most formidable account. He had not prepared himself with a mass of charges and a bundle of sticks to refresh his memory. In this emergency he determined to take a bold, frank position, and come directly to the point by a short and comprehensive method. When it came to his turn to speak he told the council that he was sent as the mere agent of the company, and was not authorized to enter into any stipulation for payment to either party; that he did not come to count ever the wrongs committed in the past; that both parties had done wrong often, and it was