With this he seemed very much pleased,
and declared he would use every exertion to restore the horses. We now
sent for Neesbnepahkeeook, or Cut Nose, and, after smoking for some
time, began by expressing to the two chiefs our regret at seeing a
misunderstanding between them. Neeshnepahkeeook replied that Twisted
Hair was a bad old man, and wore two faces; for, instead of taking care
of our horses, he had suffered his young men to hunt with them, so that
they had been very much injured, and it was for this reason that Broken
Arm and himself had forbidden him to use them. Twisted Hair made
no reply to this speech, and we then told Neeshnepahkeeook of our
arrangement for the next day. He appeared to be very well satisfied, and
said he would himself go with us to Broken Arm, who expected to see us,
and had TWO BAD HORSES FOR US; by which expression we understood that
Broken Arm intended to make us a present of two horses."
Next day, the party reached the house of Twisted-hair, and began to
look for their horses and saddles. The journal gives this account of the
search:--
"Late in the afternoon, Twisted-hair returned with about half the
saddles we had left in the autumn, and some powder and lead which were
buried at the same place. Soon after, the Indians brought us twenty-one
of our horses, the greater part of which were in excellent order, though
some had not yet recovered from hard usage, and three had sore backs.
We were, however, very glad to procure them in any condition.
Pages:
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316