ks
before, as he came up the river with his army, and renewing his threats
of the previous year, he told them that if they ever again touched
the hair of a white man's head he would exterminate their nation. This
placed them for the time in an admirable frame of mind, and the effect
of his menaces had not yet disappeared. I was anxious to see the village
and its inhabitants. We thought it also our best policy to visit them
openly, as if unsuspicious of any hostile design; and Shaw and I, with
Henry Chatillon, prepared to cross the river. The rest of the party
meanwhile moved forward as fast as they could, in order to get as far as
possible from our suspicious neighbors before night came on.

The Arkansas at this point, and for several hundred miles below, is
nothing but a broad sand-bed, over which a few scanty threads of water
are swiftly gliding, now and then expanding into wide shallows. At
several places, during the autumn, the water sinks into the sand and
disappears altogether. At this season, were it not for the numerous
quicksands, the river might be forded almost anywhere without
difficulty, though its channel is often a quarter of a mile wide. Our
horses jumped down the bank, and wading through the water, or galloping
freely over the hard sand-beds, soon reached the other side. Here, as we
were pushing through the tall grass, we saw several Indians not far
off; one of them waited until we came up, and stood for some moments
in perfect silence before us, looking at us askance with his little
snakelike eyes. Henry explained by signs what we wanted, and the Indian,
gathering his buffalo robe about his shoulders, led the way toward the
village without speaking a word.

The language of the Arapahoes is so difficult, and its pronunciations so
harsh and guttural, that no white man, it is said, has ever been able
to master it. Even Maxwell the trader, who has been most among them, is
compelled to resort to the curious sign language common to most of the
prairie tribes. With this Henry Chatillon was perfectly acquainted.

Approaching the village, we found the ground all around it strewn with
great piles of waste buffalo meat in incredible quantities. The lodges
were pitched in a very wide circle. They resembled those of the Dakota
in everything but cleanliness and neatness. Passing between two of them,
we entered the great circular area of the camp, and instantly hundreds
of Indians, men, women and children, came flo