that the greatest
mark of friendship or confidence that an Indian can give is to tell you
his religion. After one has so talked with me I should ever trust him;
and I feel on very good terms with these Indians since our experience of
the other night.

A knowledge of the watering places and of the trails and passes is
considered of great importance and is necessary to give standing to a
chief.

This evening, the Shi'vwits, for whom we have sent, come in, and after
supper we hold a long council. A blazing fire is built, and around this
we sit--the Indians living here, the Shi'vwits, Jacob Hamblin, and
myself.

This man, Hamblin, speaks their language well and has a great influence
over all the Indians in the region round about. He is a silent, reserved
man, and when he speaks it is in a slow, quiet way that inspires great
awe. His talk is so low that they must listen attentively to hear, and
they sit around him in deathlike silence. When he finishes a measured
sentence the chief repeats it and they all give a solemn grunt. But,
first, I fill my pipe, light it, and take a few whiffs, then pass it to
Hamblin; he smokes, and gives it to the man next, and so it goes around.
When it has passed the chief, he takes out his own pipe, fills and
lights it, and passes it around after mine. I can smoke my own pipe in
turn, but when the Indian pipe comes around, I am nonplused. It has a
large stem, which has at some time been broken, and now there is a
buckskin rag wound around it and tied with sinew, so that the end of the
stem is a huge mouthful, exceedingly repulsive. To gain time, I refill
it, then engage in very earnest conversation, and, all unawares, I pass
it to my neighbor unlighted.

I tell the Indians that I wish to spend some months in their country
during the coming year and that I would like them to treat me as a
friend. I do not wish to trade; do not want their lands. Heretofore I
have found it very difficult to make the natives understand my object,
but the gravity of the Mormon missionary helps me much. I tell them that
all the great and good white men are anxious to know very many things,
that they spend much time in learning, and that the greatest man is he
who knows the most; that the white men want to know all about the
mountains and the valleys, the rivers and the canyons, the beasts and
birds and snakes. Then I tell them of many Indian tribes, and where they
live; of the European nations; of the Chinese, o