he load. The men burdened
themselves with nothing but their arms.

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CHAPTER IV

THE MANDAN INDIANS

It was towards the end of November when La Verendrye and his party
reached the point where the Mandans had promised to meet them. When he
arrived no one was on the spot; but presently, after he had encamped, a
Mandan chief appeared with thirty followers. This chief advanced to La
Verendrye and presented him with Indian corn in the ear and with a roll
of Indian tobacco. These were tokens of friendship. He told La
Verendrye how glad he and his countrymen were to welcome him to their
villages, and begged him to consider the Mandans as his children.

La Verendrye was surprised to find the appearance of the Mandans very
much like that of the other tribes he had met. Stories told by the
Crees and the Assiniboines had prepared him to find them of a different
type, a type like that of the white men. In reality they looked like
the Assiniboines and dressed {56} in the same fashion. Their clothing
was scanty enough, for it consisted of only a buffalo robe worn from
the shoulders. It was clear now that the Indians had been telling him
not what was true but what they thought he would like to hear. 'I knew
then,' he says shrewdly, 'that a heavy discount must be taken off
everything that an Indian tells you.'

The Mandan chief invited La Verendrye to be his guest in the nearest
village, and the whole party made ready to continue their journey to
that point. Then the chief made a speech to the Assiniboines, very
friendly in tone, but artfully intended to make them uneasy and send
them back home. He was really anxious to have the white men as his
guests, but he was not at all anxious to have as guests and to be
obliged to feed an entire village of Assiniboines; and so, thinking to
get rid of them, he played on their well-known fear of the fiery Sioux.
'We thank you,' he said to them, 'for having brought the French to see
us. They could not have arrived at a better time. The Sioux are on
the war-path, and may be here at any moment. We know the valour and
courage of the French, and also of the Assiniboines, and we hope that
you will both help us to defend ourselves from the Sioux.'

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La Verendrye was at first as much imposed upon by this story as were
the Assiniboines, but with a very different effect. They were
dismayed, while he rejoiced at the opportunity of having at last a fair
chance to aven