King. Then, with unspeakable delight, he and his
tribesmen took and divided the gifts.

The next two days were spent in feasts and rejoicings. "Is it true that
you are men?" asked the Great Chief. "I have heard wonders of the
French, but I never could have believed what I see this day." Then,
taking up a handful of earth, "The Spaniards are like this; but you are
like the sun." And he offered Bourgmont, in case of need, the aid of his
two thousand Comanche warriors. The pleasing manners of his visitors,
and their unparalleled generosity, had completely won his heart.

As the object of the expedition was accomplished, or seemed to be so,
the party set out on their return. A ride of ten days brought them again
to the Missouri; they descended in canoes to Fort Orleans, and sang Te
Deum in honor of the peace.[380]

No farther discovery in this direction was made for the next fifteen
years. Though the French had explored the Missouri as far as the site of
Fort Clark and the Mandan villages, they were possessed by the
idea--due, perhaps, to Indian reports concerning the great tributary
river, the Yellowstone--that in its upper course the main stream bent so
far southward as to form a waterway to New Mexico, with which it was the
constant desire of the authorities of Louisiana to open trade. A way
thither was at last made known by two brothers named Mallet, who with
six companions went up the Platte to its South Fork, which they called
River of the Padoucas,--a name given it on some maps down to the middle
of this century. They followed the South Fork for some distance, and
then, turning southward and southwestward, crossed the plains of
Colorado. Here the dried dung of the buffalo was their only fuel; and it
has continued to feed the camp-fire of the traveller in this treeless
region within the memory of many now living. They crossed the upper
Arkansas, and apparently the Cimarron, passed Taos, and on the
twenty-second of July reached Santa Fe, where they spent the winter. On
the first of May, 1740, they began their return journey, three of them
crossing the plains to the Pawnee villages, and the rest descending the
Arkansas to the Mississippi.[381]

The bold exploit of the brothers Mallet attracted great attention at New
Orleans, and Bienville resolved to renew it, find if possible a nearer
and better way to Santa Fe, determine the nature and extent of these
mysterious western regions, and satisfy a lingering doubt wheth