elcome, but I ignored all greetings
till I had pushed my way to the pole where the dried band of rushes
still hung. I tore it away, and hung a silver chain in its place.
"Brother!" I said to Outchipouac, and he gave me his calumet in answer.

And then I had ado to compel a hearing. The Malhominis repented their
injustice, and would have overpowered me with rejoicings and flattery,
but I made them understand at last that I had but two hours to spend
with them, and they quieted like children before a tutor. My first
question was for news of Labarthe and Leclerc, but I learned nothing.
Indeed, the Malhominis could tell me nothing of the Seneca camp beyond
the fact that it was still there. They had cowered in their village
dreading a Seneca attack, and they were feverishly anxious for
concerted action. They suggested that I save time by sending
messengers to the Chippewas and Winnebagoes, while I went myself to the
Sac camp.

This was good advice and I adopted it. I drew maps on bark, gave the
messengers my watchword, and instructed them what to say. The
rendezvous I had selected was easy to find. Some few miles south of
the Seneca camp a small river debouched into La Baye des Puants. We
would meet there. Cadillac and the Pottawatamies would come together
from the north; the Malhominis, the Winnebagoes, and the Chippewas
would come separately, and I would lead the Sacs under my command. All
was agreed upon, and I saw the messengers dispatched. Then I took a
canoe and eight men, and started on my own journey. It was then past
midnight.

The eight men worked well. By sunrise I was fighting the dogs and the
stench in the Sacs village, and by eleven the same morning I was on my
way again with eighty braves following. The Sacs were such clumsy
people in canoes that I did not dare trust them on the water, so we
arranged to make a detour to the west and reach the rendezvous by land.

It was a terrible journey. We had to make on foot nearly double the
distance that the other tribes would make by canoe, so we gave
ourselves no rest. The trail led by morass and fallen timber, and it
was the season of stinging gnats and breathless days. The Sacs were
always filthy in camp or journeying, and I turned coward at the food I
was obliged to eat. But I did not dare leave them and trust them to
come alone. They were a fierce, sullen people, unstable as hyenas, but
they were terrible in war. I had won some power over t