Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/133

Rh reiterated the Colonel. “I say, can you hear?” “We are not deaf; we can hear well; our ears are open. Speak. Let the great Chief of the white people speak whatever he wished.”

Col. Carney addressed them. “I am,” said he, “very little. The Great Chief of the white people is afar: he is in the bosom of a mighty nation; and his warriors around him, are like the grass upon the prairie, or the sand which cover the plains. He told me to go and talk to the Sioux and Shians, and I obeyed him. I am here. A thousand Chiefs who are mightier than I, wait to do his commands. He loves his friends, and is kind to them, but to his enemies, to those who destroy the lives of his people, he is dreadful. As the storm when it walks upon the mountains, and treads down the pines, so terrible are the warriors of the Great Chief, when they come upon their foes. Beware then, lest ye make him angry. Think before you break the pipe, which we have smoked together in friendship. Think well before you violate the covenant you have made with me and with my people, and to which we have called the Great Spirits to witness. Talk to your young men; counsel them that are foolish; tell them that we are mighty, and terrible in war. Bid them pause, and think, and tremble, before they spill again the blood of a white man. The past we will forget; it is buried. We will soon return to our homes, with the tidings of peace: but when we hear that your hands have split one drop more of the blood of our countrymen, we will come again. We will come with war. We will revenge all the wrongs that we have ever received. Then your eyes shall not be dry from weeping over your fallen warriors, and the blood of your nations shall not cease to flow, until we are weary from destroying. You say that you can hear. We will see. Be careful that your ears do not forget.;” They all answered, “It is good.”

Such we believe, is about the sense, in which we understood Mr. Bisonette, describing the treaty made by Col. Carney, with the Sioux and Shians. He is one of the principal partners in the neighboring trading establishment, Fort Platte, and we presume th: it is mainly correct. He gave us, as his opinion, that for a time, it would have a favorable influence over the conduct of the Indians; but that it would soon be forgotten, and disregarded, and that nothing but a strong military post, located in their country, could keep them in awe, and make the lives of Ameicans, safe among them.

Our little company, after a short delay, continued down the North