er as a starved wolf does
upon a wounded buffalo. A strong cause must excite them to fight against
each other, and then, when it comes, it must be a war of extermination,
for when a man breaks with an old friend, he becomes more bitter in his
vengeance than against an utter stranger. Let me hear what the brave
Comanches have to complain of, and any reparation, consistent with the
dignity of a Pawnee chief, shall be made, sooner than risk a war between
brothers who have so long hunted together and fought together against a
common enemy. I have said."

Opishka Koaki ordered me to light the Comanche calumet of peace, and
advancing to the place left vacant by the ancient chief, he answered:--

"I have heard words of great wisdom; a Comanche always loves and
respects wisdom; I love and respect my father, Wetara Sharoj; I will
tell him what are the complaints of our warriors, but before, as we have
come as foes, it is but just that we should be the first to offer the
pipe of peace; take it, chief, for we must be friends; I will tell our
wrongs, and leave it to the justice of the great Pawnee to efface them,
and repair the loss his young men have caused to a nation of friends."

The pipe was accepted, and the "talk" went on. It appeared that a party
of one hundred Pawnee hunters had had their horses estampeded one
night, by some hostile Indians. For five days they forced their way on
foot, till entering the northern territory of the Comanches, they met
with a drove of horses and cattle. They would never have touched them,
had it not been that, a short time afterwards, they met with another
very numerous party of their inveterate enemies--the Kiowas, by whom
they were pressed so very hard, that they were obliged to return to the
place where the Comanche herds of horse were grazing, and to take them,
to escape their foes. So far, all was right; it was nothing more than
what the Comanches would have clone themselves in the land of the
Pawnees; but what had angered the Comanche warriors was, that the
hundred horses thus borrowed in necessity, had never been returned,
although the party had arrived at the village two moons ago.

When the Pawnees heard that we had no other causes for complaint, they
showed, by their expressions of friendship, that the ties of long
brotherhood were not to be so easily broken; and indeed the Pawnees had,
some time before, sent ten of their men with one hundred of their finest
horses, to compensate