CHAPTER IV."
THE GREAT COUNCIL AND RETURN TO ST. LOUIS.
The eighteen-days' Peace Council -Adoptions of brothers-Treaty with the Government-Mass and baptism-Notes on Indian customs - Grand dog-feast- Distribution of presents - The assembly breaks up - Down the Platte - Prince Paul of Wurtemberg - Pawnees at Fort Kearney - Potawatomi mission in Kansas - Indian deputies introduced to fruit and vegetables-Their behavior on board shipMedicine matters-Arrival in St. Louis.
`CURING the eighteen days that the Great Council lasted, l.V the union, harmony and amity that reigned among the
Indians were truly admirable. Implacable hatreds, hereditary enmities, cruel and bloody encounters, with the whole past, in fine, were forgotten. They paid mutual visits, smoked the calumet of peace together, exchanged presents, partook of numerous banquets, and all the lodges were open
to strangers. A practice occurring but on the most amicable and fraternal occasions was seen - this is, the adopting of
children and of brothers on each side. There was a perfect unanimity of views between Colonel Mitchell, superintendent of the Indian Territory, and Major [Thomas] Fitzpatrick, and nothing was omitted to foster these germs of peace. The object of the assembly was a distinguished proof of the highest benevolence on the part of the United States Government, as well as of the sincere desire of establishing a lasting peace among tribes hostile to each other, and of obtaining a right of passage through their possessions for the whites, and making the Indians compensation for injuries and losses the latter may have sustained from the whites.
At the opening of the council, the superintendent made
l Comprises Letters VI and VII, Second Series, Western Missions and Missionaries.
[6751