Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/137

Rh abundance of meat and would not disturb them; and continued still to move on at a rapid rate. They then began to threaten, and finally finding all of no avail, they rushed out towards the river several hundred yards, and began yelling and throwing up their blankets into the air. In a few minutes after the signal was given, we saw two or three long columns of mounted men emerge from the brush along the bank of the river, and come at full speed towards us. We had but a moment to counsel. Retreat was folly, since it would be impossible for us to gain any shelter, of advantageous place, before they would be on us. To fight, in the open prairie, against such odds—for there were more than forty to one, and would have been supported by four times that number—would have been madness. The only alternative left, was to wait the event, and be ready for the worst. There was a possibility that in this way, by proper management, we might avoid serious difficulty; any other would have been certain destruction. We were, however, determined, of course, to defend our lives and property as best we could, in the last extremity.

Three hundred armed men rushed up and surrounded us. Standing with our backs together, that we might see them draw, and be ready to return the blow, though feebly, when they struck, we watched their tone and movements. They seemed to differ, and to be undecided. Some appeared strongly inclined to insult and abuse; others checking these, seemed to require time to decide. After the expiration of some minutes, an old Indian came up, passed through the crowd, which gave way at his approach, and handed us a folded paper. We read it. It purported to be from the Indian Agent, and was addressed to white people, passing throgh that country. It stated that this Indian, who called himself White Man, was a Chief of the Pawnees, and had previously saved the lives of a small party from the United States, and returned them their property, which had been taken from them by some of the young men of his tribe; that he was a friend to the white people: and the writer desired those who might meet with him, to make him presents.

This Chief also requested us, to go over with them to the village; telling us the same story which had been told by those who first came to us, that there was a herd of Buffalo below, and that he did not wish us to frighten them away, since he intended to surround them on the following day.

From the character which the paper of the Agent gave the Chief, and