The gun was discharged, and
Le Borgne had it conveyed in great pomp to his village. The council then
adjourned."
After much diplomacy and underhand scheming, one of the Mandan chiefs,
Big White, agreed to go to Washington with the expedition. But none of
the Minnetarees could be prevailed upon to leave their tribe, even for
a journey to the Great Father, of whose power and might so much had been
told them. The journal, narrating this fact, says further:--
"The principal chiefs of the Minnetarees now came down to bid us
farewell, as none of them could be prevailed on to go with us. This
circumstance induced our interpreter, Chaboneau, to remain here with his
wife and child, as he could no longer be of use to us, and, although we
offered to take him with us to the United States, he declined, saying
that there he had no acquaintance, and no chance of making a livelihood,
and preferred remaining among the Indians. This man had been very
serviceable to us, and his wife was particularly useful among the
Shoshonees: indeed, she had borne with a patience truly admirable the
fatigues of so long a route, encumbered with the charge of an infant,
who was then only nineteen months old. We therefore paid him his wages,
amounting to five hundred dollars and thirty-three cents, including
the price of a horse and a lodge purchased of him, and soon afterward
dropped down to the village of Big White, attended on shore by all the
Indian chiefs, who had come to take leave of him.
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