goods and provisions should I best provide myself with? I mean goods to make little presents to the Indians I may meet, and provisions for my traveling companions and self during the trip.
Please attend to the following and give me a speedy answer: At the house of a Mr. Rudolph Mackwith in St. Louis, a half-breed Sioux girl has been brought up. Her father, a German, whose name I do not remember at present, was a trader at Fort Pierre, at Vermillion, and probably in other posts. He belonged to a noble family in Germany. His mother is wealthy and willing to adopt her Indian granddaughter. The German trader had for wife the daughter of the chief called " The One that Makes Stripes." Please give me his Indian name, and name of his daughter in Indian, with its meaning in English, and add whatever good qualities you may remember in regard to the chief and his daughter. To make the remembrance of the German trader clearer to you, he had also for wife (probably after the death of the daughter of the " The One that Makes Stripes "), the daughter of old Zephyr Rencontre,l who died at Yankton Agency, over two years ago
and had been blind for a long time. If you will understand what all my inquiries mean, by stating confidentially that the relations of the German trader have been informed in due time of his marriage with an Indian princess, and they are anxious to admit the young princess into their noble family circle. She is young and beautiful and may in time become a European queen -who knows?
In your next letter enter into particulars, as much as you can, in regard to the hostile bands and their dispositions. The Commissioners, who have been lately on the Platte,
1 Zephyr Rencontre was one of the most distinguished and capable of the Indian interpreters on the Missouri. His career was a long and useful one, running through some forty years of active service. He served on many important expeditions and was always trusted by his employers. His services to the Government were of great value.