aders and all the Indian
tribes represent them as "thieves never known to keep a promise or to do
a honourable act."

None but a stranger will ever trust them. They are as cowardly as
cruel. Murder and robbery are the whole occupation of their existence,
and woe to the traders or trappers whom they may meet with during their
excursions, if they are not at least one-tenth of their own number. A
proof of their cowardice is that once Roche, myself, and a young
Parisian named Gabriel, having by chance fallen upon a camp of thirteen
Crows and three Arrapahoes, they left us their tents, furs, and dried
meats; the Arrapahoes alone showing some fight, in which one of them was
killed: but to return to our subject. The chief heard the Prince
Seravalle with a contemptuous air, clearly showing that he knew who the
Prince was, and that he entertained no goodwill towards him. His
duplicity, however, and greediness, getting the better of his hatred, he
asked the prisoners what they would give to obtain their freedom. Upon
their answer that they would give two rifles, two horses, with one
hundred dollars, he said that all which the prisoners possessed when
taken, being already his own, he expected much more than that. He
demanded that one of the Canadians should go to Fort Hall, with five
Crows, with an order from the Prince to the amount of sixty blankets,
twenty rifles, and ten kegs of powder. In the meantime the prisoners
were to be carried into the country of the Crows, where the goods were
to follow them as soon as obtained; upon the reception of which, the
white men should be set at liberty. Understanding now the intention of
their enemies, and being certain that, once in the strong-holds of the
Crows, they would never be allowed to return, the Prince rejected the
offer; wishing, however, to gain time, he made several others, which, of
course, were not agreed upon. When the chief saw that he was not likely
to obtain anything more than that which he had already become master of,
he threw away his mask of hypocrisy, and, resuming at once his real
character, began to abuse his victims.

"The Pale-faces," he said, "were base dogs, and too great cowards to
fight against the Crows. They were less than women, concealing
themselves in the lodges of the Shoshones, and lending them their
rifles, so that having now plenty of arms and ammunition, that tribe had
become strong, and feared by all. But now they would kill the
Pale-