"On July 8th another formidable party of Sioux warriors, to the number Of 200 or 300, presented themselves before Berthold on the opposite bank of the river Missouri. It was clearly a risk to cross over to their side. Contrary to the advice of all the whites in the fort I went to meet them. They received me with unmistakable tokens of friendship and respect. They had repaired to the spot for the ex press purpose of having a conference with me. The council lasted nearly three hours. The great chiefs spoke favorably with regard to peace, and heard with pleasure and satisfaction the words I addressed to them on the part of the
Government. Our interview concluded in the most favorable manner.
During my stay at Berthold I received tidings of the great tribe of the Santee Sioux who had the chief hand in massacring the inhabitants of the State of Minnesota in 1862. They reckoned, on that occasion, above loo hapless victims, most of them children, women and old men. Their present abode is on the English frontier, on the north. I was assured that they too would be glad to see me and hear the announcements I was authorized to make on the part of the Government. Before setting out to them I wished to consult the general of the army, which was 5,000 men strong, and inform myself of his dispositions toward the savages. So I descended the Missouri and at a distance of about 200 miles I found the great camp of the whites. I gave the general an account of my mission
and of mv different interviews with the Sioux. He told me plainly that circumstances obliged him to punish by force of arms all the Sioux tribes that harbored in their camps any
murderers of white men. " Unfortunately," he added, " all the Indian camps harbor some of these desperate ruffians, over whom the chiefs have little or no power."
6 Fragment found loose in one of the letter-books without date or other means of identification. but evidently relating to the subject of Father De Smet's expedition in 186;, referred to in the preceding letter.