ar be it from Okematan to say otherwise, for
he does not know. Okematan is a child! His eyes are only beginning to
open!"

He paused at this point, and looked round with solemn dignity; and the
braves, unaccustomed to such self-depreciative modes of address, gazed
at him with equal solemnity, not unmingled with surprise, though the
latter feeling was carefully concealed.

"When the last great palaver of the Cree braves was held on the
Blue-Pine Ridge," continued Okematan, "the chiefs chose me to go to Red
River, and learn all that I could find out about the Palefaces and their
intentions. I went, as you know. I attached myself to a family named
Daa-veed-sin, and I have found out--found out much about the Palefaces--
much more that I did not know before, though I _am_ a chief of the Cree
nation."

Okematan looked pointedly at Rednose as he said this. After a brief
pause he continued--

"The great white chief," (meaning Lord Selkirk), "is _not_ a fool. It
is true that he is not a god; he is a man and a Paleface, subject to the
follies and weaknesses of the Palefaces, and not quite so wise as it is
possible to be, but he is a good man, and wishes well to the Indian. I
have found weaknesses among the Palefaces. One of them is that their
chiefs plan--sometimes wisely, sometimes foolishly--but they leave the
carrying out of their plans to other men, and sometimes these other men
care for nobody but themselves. They tell lies, they mislead the great
white chief, and tell him to do what is wrong.

"So it was when our agreement came to be made. The great white chief
found, when he came to Red River, a few families of Saulteaux whom we
had permitted to hunt on our lands. He thought the land belonged to the
Saulteaux as well as to the Crees. He was mistaken, ignorant; he knew
no better, and the Palefaces who did know, did not put light into him;
so the names of Saulteaux chiefs were put in the writing. Then the
great white chief went away across the great salt lake to the lands of
the rising sun, leaving his small chiefs to carry out his plans. Some
of these are _very_ small chiefs, unfit to carry out any plans. Others
are bad small chiefs, that will carry out only such plans as are sure to
benefit themselves. It is these men with whom we have to deal. It is
these who deserve to be swept off the face of the earth."

A number of emphatic nods and "waughs" at this point showed that
Okematan had at last touche