procuring some, for poison was his only means of getting rid of those who opposed his ambition or contradicted him in his plans. He performed his diabolical deeds with such skill and secrecy, that the Indians were firmly persuaded that their chief had only to will it, and they would die. Hence their abject submission to his every and least caprice. This people, formerly free as air, was reduced, during a succession of years, to the condition of slaves to the most cowardly and pitiless tyrant.
In the course of the year 1836 Tchatka presented himself again at Fort Union, at the head of a band of hunters. They went there to sell their peltry- viz., buffalo-robes, beaver skins, and the fur of badgers, foxes, bears, deer, goats and bighorn; in a word, the fruits of their hunting excursions, in exchange for tobacco, ornaments, blankets, guns, am
munition, knives, daggers and lances. A large portion of the peltry belonged to Tchatka. He offered them to a merchant for a very small quantity of tobacco, telling him, secretly, " that he was in absolute want of poison, whatever it might cost," and begging him to procure a large amount; " without which, the charm which surrounded him among his people would abandon him hopelessly." His proposition was heard with great horror. He only received in reply severe representations on the baseness of his conduct and on his infamous and frightful proceedings. But these were ineffectual on his perverted heart, hardened by an astonishing succession of unheard-of crimes and atrocities. He left the fort with evident tokens of discontent at having been frustrated in his attempt.
During the two years which succeeded, Tchatka conducted several war-parties, sometimes with success and sometimes with reverses. It was perceptible that his years were advancing; that his manitous were less faithful than formerly; that his predictions were no longer realized; that those who criticised his arrangements lived notwithstanding. Several even dared to defy his power.