same order in which it was entered in my diary; I therefore present you with an extract from it
Sept. 8th, 1846. The elements of discord existing between the Nez Perces and Blackfeet give every appearance of an open rupture. The Nez Perces being evidently in the wrong, the Flatheads, following our example, endeavor to convince them of the impropriety of their conduct; but to no purpose, the principal men among them refusing, for the second time, to smoke the calumet of peace.
9th. Toward night a touching incident occurred in our lodge. A Nez Perce chief, who declares himself our friend, entered, accompanied by three Blackfeet, a warrior, an interpreter, and a young man about twenty years of age. This youth, when about one year old, lost both his parents; his mother, a captive among the Blackfeet, died the first days of her captivity; his father, whose country is far distant from the Blackfeet, is altogether lost to him. The poor orphan became the adopted child of a Blackfoot woman, who brought him up as she would her own offspring. The adopted son grew up, imbibing all the notions and customs of his new friends, knowing no other relations than those around him. To-day, the woman whom he believed to be his real mother, declared to him that she was not; and that his father, whom he had not seen since he was one year old, was now sitting beside him. "Who is my father?" he
anxiously inquired. " There," said the woman, pointing to the Nez Perce chief, who entered the lodge with him. The doubts of the father were soon removed, as he hastily stripped the youth's garments from his back, and there discovered the mark of a burn received in the parental lodge while yet an infant. The sudden burst of feeling elicited from these children of nature at this unexpected meeting, can be better imagined than described. The chief has no grown children, he is therefore the more eloquent in endeavoring to persuade his son to return to his native country, presenting him, at the same time, with one of the best and most beautiful of his steeds. I joined to the entreaties