led and passed from hand to hand around
the company. Then I began my speech, each sentence being interpreted
by Reynal as I went on, and echoed by the whole audience with the usual
exclamations of assent and approval. As nearly as I can recollect, it
was as follows:

I had come, I told them, from a country so far distant, that at the rate
they travel, they could not reach it in a year.

"Howo how!"

"There the Meneaska were more numerous than the blades of grass on the
prairie. The squaws were far more beautiful than any they had ever seen,
and all the men were brave warriors."

"How! how! how!"

Here I was assailed by sharp twinges of conscience, for I fancied I
could perceive a fragrance of perfumery in the air, and a vision rose
before me of white kid gloves and silken mustaches with the mild and
gentle countenances of numerous fair-haired young men. But I recovered
myself and began again.

"While I was living in the Meneaska lodges, I had heard of the
Ogallalla, how great and brave a nation they were, how they loved
the whites, and how well they could hunt the buffalo and strike their
enemies. I resolved to come and see if all that I heard was true."

"How! how! how! how!"

"As I had come on horseback through the mountains, I had been able to
bring them only a very few presents."

"How!"

"But I had enough tobacco to give them all a small piece. They might
smoke it, and see how much better it was than the tobacco which they got
from the traders."

"How! how! how!"

"I had plenty of powder, lead, knives, and tobacco at Fort Laramie.
These I was anxious to give them, and if any of them should come to the
fort before I went away, I would make them handsome presents."

"How! howo how! how!"

Raymond then cut up and distributed among them two or three pounds of
tobacco, and old Mene-Seela began to make a reply. It was quite long,
but the following was the pith of it:

"He had always loved the whites. They were the wisest people on earth.
He believed they could do everything, and he was always glad when any
of them came to live in the Ogallalla lodges. It was true I had not made
them many presents, but the reason of it was plain. It was clear that I
liked them, or I never should have come so far to find their village."

Several other speeches of similar import followed, and then this more
serious matter being disposed of, there was an interval of smoking,
laughing, and conversation; but old Mene-Seel