liars who have set these rumors afloat. Thou wilt know the truth in time. So long as the French hold our lands here, we promise thee not to go elsewhere.
I made then a small present to encourage them to keep their word; I told them everything I had said to the others, as well your orders as the news. Our old man then gave a great account of his journey, which afforded them much pleasure. The chief whom I had accused said to me: My father, we thank thee that thou hast spoken well below to our father for us; we now know that he has had pity on us by sending to us Frenchmen on our lands to supply our wants; we will keep quiet as he desires; the Sioux should do the same; our hearts are still sick for thy son who came the first to build a fort on our lands; we loved him much; I have once already been at war to avenge him; I have destroyed only ten huts, which is not enough to satisfy us; but now our father has ordered us to keep quiet; we shall do so. He then asked me where I intended to go; that the river Assiniboine was very low; that we ran the risk of making our canoes useless; that we were going among people who did not know how to kill the beaver, and covered themselves only with ox skins, which we did not need. They were a people without intelligence, who had never seen the French and could not know them.
I answered that I wished to go in the autumn among that nation of whites who had been so much spoken of; that I would ascend the river as far as I could to put myself in a position to make my journey according to our orders; that I wished to increase the number of our children to learn to hunt on the Assiniboine and to give them intellect, and that next year I would go elsewhere. Thou dost run a great risk, my father, that the canoes will leave empty. There are many Assiniboines, it is true, but they do not know how to hunt beavers; I wish that thou shouldest give them intelligence.
