tre,
and we made our preparations for attack; as we gradually approached
there appeared to be no little commotion among the herd, which we now
plainly perceived to be horses without any riders.

When we first noticed them, we discerned two or three white spots, which
Gabriel and I mistook for flags; a nearer view convinced us that they
were young colts.

We continued our route. The sun had scarcely risen when we arrived on
the shore of the river, which was lined with hundreds of canoes, each
carrying green branches at their bows and white flags at their sterns.
Shortly afterwards, several chiefs passed over to our side, and invited
all our principal chiefs to come over to the village and talk to the
Pawnee Picts, who wished to remain brothers with their friends--the
Comanches. This was consented to, and Gabriel, Roche, and I accompanied
them. This village was admirably protected from attack on every side;
and in front, the Red River, there clear and transparent, rolls its deep
waters. At the back of the village, stony and perpendicular mountains
rise to the height of two thousand feet, and their ascent is impossible,
except by ladders and ropes, or where steps have, been cut into the
rock.

The wigwams, one thousand in number, extend, for the space of four
miles, upon a beautiful piece of rich alluvial soil, in a very high
state of cultivation; the fields were well fenced and luxuriant with
maize, pumpkins, melons, beans and squashes. The space between the
mountains and the river, on each side of the village, was thickly
planted with close ranks of prickly pear, impassable to man or beast, so
that the only way in which the Pawnees could be attacked was in front,
by forcing a passage across the river, which could not be effected
without a great loss of life, as the Pawnees are a brave people and well
supplied with rifles, although in their prairie hunts they prefer to use
their lances and their arrows.

When we entered the great council lodge, the great chief, Wetara Sharoj,
received us with great urbanity, assigned to us places next to him, and
gave the signal for the Pawnee elders to enter the lodge. I was very
much astonished to see among them some white men, dressed in splendid
military uniforms; but the ceremonies having begun, and it being the
Indian custom to assume indifference, whatever your feelings may be, I
remained where I was. Just at the moment that the pipe-bearer was
lighting the calumet of p