and have seen your people, your houses, your vessels on the big lake, and a great many wonderful things, far beyond my comprehension, which appear to have been made by the Great Spirit, and placed in your hands, I am indebted to my father here, who invited me from home, under whose wings I have been protected.* Yes, my Great Father, I have travelled with your chief. I have followed him, and trod in his tracks; but there is still another Great Father, to whom I am much indebted-it is the Father of us all. Him who made us and placed us on this earth. I feel grateful to the Great Spirit for strengthening my heart for such an undertaking, and for preserving the life which he gave me. The Great Spirit made us all-he made my skin red, and yours white. He placed us on this earth, and intended that we should live differently from each other. He made the whites to cultivate the earth,

sented a broken surface of rocks, with here and there a little clump of bushes, and without snow. In some places the prairie extends quite to the base of the mountains; in others, even up its sides, for a short distance. The soil appeared better, as we approached the point where the river issues from the Mountains.

"Red, yellow, and black currents, grow on the sides of the Rocky Mountains, at the head of Platte river; the effects of eating a few of them was injurious."

"Head Springs of the Arkansaw river.-This river issues from a perpendicular rock, near which are six remarkable springs, issuing from the earth within the area of a rod square. Their waters are highly impregnated with different mineral substances. The surrounding sɔil, from the banks of the stream, a distance of about one hundred yards, produces grass af various species.

Remarkable Springs.

"At the base of what is called the Peak of the Rocky Mountains, are two remarkable medicinal Springs, bubbling up into basins, through limestone rocks. One is a strong and pleasant soda, of the temperature of 62° with a diameter of about three feet; the other impregnated with sulphur, has a diameter of thirty inches, and a temperature of 75°. Both are on the margin of a rivulet issuing from the mountain near to an Indian trace. When passing these springs, the wandering bands throw into them their ornaments of beads, shells, &c attended with a religious ceremony, intended as an offering to the Great Spirit. The French Traders, it is said, are accustomed to obtain these ornaments from the springs, and to sell them again to the Indians.

* Pointing to Major O'Fallon.

and feed on domestic animals; but he made us red skins, to rove through the uncultivated woods and plains, to feed on wild animals, and to dress in their skins. He also intended that we should go to war to take scalps-steal horses, and triumph over our enemies-cultivate peace at home, and promote the happiness of each other. I believe there are no people, of any color, on this earth, who do not believe in the Great Spirit-in rewards and in punishments. We worship him, but we worship him not as you do. We differ from you in appearance and manners, as well as in our customs; and we differ from you in our religion. We have no large houses, as you have, to worship the Great Spirit in; if we had them to day, we should want others to morrow, for we have not, like you, a fixed habitation-we have no settled home, except our villages, where we remain but two moons in twelve; we, like animals, rove through the country, whilst you whites reside between us and heaven; but still my Great Father, we love the Great Spirit-we acknowledge his supreme power-our peace, our health, and our happiness depend upon him; and our lives belong to him-he made us, and he can destroy us.

"My Great Father--Some of your good chiefs, or, as they are called, Missionaries, have proposed to send of their good people among us to change our habits, to make us work, and live like the white people. I will not tell a lie, I am going tell the truth. You love your country; you love your people; you love the manner in which they live, and you think your people brave. I am like you, my Great Father, I love my country; I love my people; I love the manner in which we live, and think myself and warriors brave; spare me then, my Father, let me enjoy my country, and pursue the buffaloe, and the beaver, and the other wild animals of our wilderness, and I will trade the skins with your people. I have grown up and lived thus long without work; I am in hopes you will suffer me to die without it. We have yet plenty of buffaloe, beaver, deer, and other wild animals; we have also an abundance of horses. We have every thing we want. We have plenty of land, if you will keep your people off of it.

"My Father has a peice on which he lives (Council Bluffs) and we wish him to enjoy it. We have enough without it; but we wish him to live near us to give us good counsel; to keep our ears

and eyes open, that we may continue to pursue the right road; the road to happiness. He settles all differences between us and the whites, and between the red skins themselves-He makes the whites do justice to the red skins, and he makes the red skins do justice to the whites. He saves the effusion of human blood, and restores peace and happiness in the land. You have already sent us a father; it is enough, he knows us, and we know him. We have confidence in him. We keep our eye constantly upon him, and since we have heard your words, we will listen more attentively to his.

"It is too soon, my Great Father, to send those good men among us. We are not starving yet. We wish you to permit us to enjoy the chase, until the game of our country is exhausted; until the wild animals become extinct. Let us exhaust our present resources, before you make us toil, and interrupt our happiness. Let me continue to live as I have done, and after I have passed to the Good or Evil Spirit from the wilderness of my present life, the subsistence of my children may become so precarious, as to need and embrace the offered assistance of those good people.

"There was a time when we did not know the whites. Our wants were then fewer than they are now. They were always within our control. We had then seen nothing which we could not get. But since our intercourse with the whites, who have caused such a destruction of our game, our situation is changed. We could lie down to sleep, and when we awoke, we found the buffaloe feeding around our camp; but now we are killing them for their skins, and feeding the wolves with their flesh, to make our children cry over their bones.

"Here my Great Father, is a pipe which I present you, as I am accustomed to present pipes to all red skins in peace with us. It is filled with such tobacco as we were accustomed to smoke, before we knew the white people. I know that the robes, leggins, moccasins, bear's claws, &c. are of little value to you, but we wish you to have them deposited and preserved in some conspicuous part of your lodge, so that when we are gone, and the sod turned over our bones, if our children should visit this place, as we do now, they may see and recognize with pleasure the deposites of their fathers. and reflect on the times that are past."

OTTOE PARTIZAN.

"My Great Father: I am brave, and if I had not been brave, I should not have followed my father here. I have killed my enemies, I have taken their horses, and will do any thing he tells me. I will not submit to an insult from any one. If my enemies, of any nation, should strike me, I will rise in the might of my strength, and avenge the spirit of my dead.”

O`MAHA CHIEF.

My Great Father: Look at me-look at me, my father; my hands are unstained with your blood; my people have never struck the whites, and the whites have never struck them. It is not the case with other red skins. Mine is the only nation that has spared the long knives. I am a Chief, but not the only one in my nation; there are other Chiefs who raise their crests by my side. I have always been the friend of the long knives, and before this Chief (Maj. O`F.) came among us, I suffered much in support of the whites. I was often reproached for being a friend, but when my father came among us, he strengthened my arms, and I soon towered over the rest.

"My Great Father—I have heard some of your Chiefs, who propose to send some good people amongst us, to learn us to live as you do; but I do not wish to tell a lie—I am only one man, and will not presume, at this distance from my people, to speak for them on a subject with which they are entirely unacquaintedI am afraid it is too soon for us to attempt to change habits. We have too much game in our country. We feed too plentifully on the buffaloe to bruise our hands with the instruments of agriculture.

“The Great Spirit made my skin red, and he made us to live as we do now; and I believe that when the Great Spirit placed us upon this earth, he consulted our happiness. We love our country, we love our customs and habits. I wish that you would permit us to enjoy them as long as I live. When we become hungry, and naked; when the game of our country becomes exhausted, and misery encompasses our families, then, and not till then, do I want those good people among us. Then they may lend us a helping

* Pointing to Major O'Fallon.

hand; then show us the wealth of the earth; the advantages and sustenance to be derived from its culture."

O'MAHA PARTIZAN.

"My Great Father.-My Father was a Chief, but he grew old, and became dry like grass, and passed away, leaving the root from which I sprung up, and have grown so large without one mark of distinction. I am still green, but am afraid to die without the fame of my father. I wish you would be so good as to give me a mark, to attract the attention of my people, that when I return home, I may bring to their recollection the deeds of my father, and my claims to distinction. Since I left home, I have been much afflicted; death sought me, but I clung to my father, and he kept it off. I have now grown fat, and am in hopes to return to my nation. There is my Chief, (pointing to the Big Elk,) who has no claims, no inheritance from his father. I am now following behind him, and tracking upon his heels, in hopes that you and my Father here,* will take pity on me, and recollect who my father was.”

Anecdote of a Pawnee Brave.

The facts in the following anecdote of a Pawnee Brave, son of Old Knife, one of the delegation who visited Washington, the last winter, highly creditable to his courage, his generosity, and his humanity, were taken, by permission, from a very interesting M. S. Journal of Capt. Bell, of his expedition with Major Long, to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, in 1821, and are sanctioned by Major O'Fallon, Indian Agent, near the scene of the transaction here related, and also by the Interpreter, who witnessed this scene.

This Brave, of fine size, figure, and countenance, is now about twenty-five years old. At the age of twenty-one, his heroic deeds had acquired for him in his nation, the rank of "the bravest of the braves."* The savage practice of torturing and burning to

The Braves, are warriors who have distinguished themselves in battle, and stand highest in the estimation of the tribe.

+ Pointing to Major O'Fallon.