hances? why should they not get rich? They object to
planting grain and tobacco. They do well, as other people can do that
for them; but there are many other means of getting strength and wealth.
These I will teach to my tribe!

"The Shoshones fight the Crows, because the Crows are thieves; the
Flat-heads, because they are greedy of our buffaloes; the Umbiquas,
because they steal horses. Were it not for them, the children of the
Grand Serpent would never fight; their lodges would fill with wealth,
and that wealth would purchase all the good things of the white men from
distant lands. These white men-come to the Watchinangoes (Mexicans), to
take the hides of their oxen, the wool of their sheep. They would come
to us, if we had anything to offer them. Let us then call them, for we
have the hides of thousands of buffaloes; we have the furs of the beaver
and the otter; we have plenty of copper in our mountains, and of gold in
our streams.

"Now, hear me. When a Shoshone chief thinks that the Crows will attack
his lodge, he calls his children and his nephews around him. A nation
can do the same. The Shoshones have many brave children in the prairies
of the South; they have many more on the borders of the Yankees. All of
them think and speak like their ancestors, they are the same people.
Now would it not be good and wise to have all these brave grand-children
and grand-nephews as your neighbours and allies, instead of the Crows,
the Cayuses, and the Umbiquas? Yes, it would. Who would dare to come
from the north across a country inhabited by the warlike Comanches, or
from the south and the rising sun, through the wigwams of the Apaches?
The Shoshones would then have more than 30,000 warriors; they would
sweep the country, from the sea to the mountains, from the river of the
north (Columbia) to the towns of the Watchinangoes. When the white men
would come in their big canoes, as traders and friends, we would receive
them well; if they come as foes, we will laugh at them, and whip them
like dogs. These are the thoughts which I wanted to make known to the
Shoshones.

"During my absence, I have seen the Apaches and the Comanches. They are
both great nations. Let us send some wise men to invite them to return
to their fathers; let our chiefs offer them wood, land, and water. I
have said."

As long as I spoke, the deepest silence reigned over the whole assembly;
but as soon as I sat down, and began smoking, there was a general