withstanding they could not be reconciled to like Strangers as they called them[.] "Had these Whites come amongst us, 'said the Chief's' with charitable views they would have loaded their Great Boat with necessaries[.] It is true they have ammunition but they prefer throwing it away idly than sparing a Shot of it to a poor Mandane[.]" The Indians admired the air Gun as it could discharge forty shots out of one load – but they dreaded the magic of the Owners[.] "Had I these white Warriors in the upper Plains said the Gros Ventre chief, my young men on horseback would soon do for them, as they would do, for so many wolves – for continued he, there are only two sensible men among them – the Worker of Iron, and the Mender of Guns[."]

The American gentlemen gave flags, and medals to the Chiefs on condition that they should not go to war unless the enemy attacked them in their Villages[.] Yet the Chief of the Wolves, whose brother had been Killed in the fall, previous to our arrival, went soon after with a party of

fifty

[8]