betook myself to my lodge, and the principal Indians followed me thither. Then a large number of little Indians appeared, led by their mothers, who had also their pa
pooses or young babies in their arms. I at once came forth to them, and they crowded around, with a rare trustfulness, very unusual among Indian children, to offer me their little
hands. The mothers were not satisfied until I had laid my hands upon the heads of all the babies and little ones around me, when they withdrew contented and happy.
A standard-bearer was chosen from among the most distinguished warrior, named Gall [le Fiel]. He is a very remarkable man, by reason of his sufferings and a wonderful escape from the bayonets of the American soldiers. He told me the story of his troubles, and I touched with my fingers the scars he bears. He had been arrested on a charge of stealing horses. It was in the dead of winter, and the ground was covered with snow. On the road to the prison at the fort, the soldiers thought or feared that he intended to escape, and they ran him through the body twice with bayonets. He fell, bathed in blood, but being
still conscious, he counterfeited death. They trampled him
and kicked him, covering him with bruises. To finish their cowardly and cruel work upon their prisoner, they thrust a third bayonet through his neck, and at last threw him into a deep ravine. Here he lay unconscious for quite a
while, entirely naked, on the drifted snow. When he came
to himself, it was already far into the night. He got up, and walked about twenty miles. When he reached the timber, on the bank of the Missouri, he found a fire, at which he warmed his limbs, stiffened by the cold. The hope of life returned to him then, and he implored the Great Spirit to " take pity on him and preserve him." He then quenched his burning and feverish thirst and washed off from his
body the clotted blood that covered it. In the hope of meeting some one, he continued to drag himself on, and after traveling some miles farther he discovered an Indian lodge. It was that of old Peter, Padanegricka, who treated him like