out the camp. The Pawnees, indifferently armed and almost naked, rushed to the pursuit of the Arapahos, caught up with them, and a combat more noisy than bloody took place. A young Pawnee chief, the most impetuous of his band, was killed and three of his companions wounded. The Arapahos lost one killed and many wounded. Desirous to stop the combat, I hurried to the scene of battle with an aide-de-camp of the general, but all was over when we arrived; the Pawnees were returning with their dead and wounded and all the stolen horses. On their return to camp, nothing was heard but cries of sorrow, rage and despair,
with threats and vociferations against their enemies. It was a harrowing scene. The deceased warrior was decorated and painted with all the marks of distinction of a great brave, and loaded with his finest ornaments. They placed him in the grave amid the acclamations and lamentations of the whole tribe.
The next day the Pawnee Loups invited me to their camp. I found there two French Creoles, old acquaintances of mine, of the Rocky Mountains. They received me with the great
est kindness, and desired to act as my interpreters. I had a long conference on religion with these poor, unhappy sav
ages. They listened with the most earnest attention. After the instruction they presented to me 2o8 little children, and very earnestly begged me to regenerate them in the holy
waters of baptism. These savages have been the terror of travelers obliged to pass through their territory; for many years their character has been that of thieves, drunkards and ruffians, and they are brutalized by drink, which they readily obtain, owing to their proximity to the frontiers
of civilization. This accursed traffic has always and everywhere been the ruin of the Indian tribes, and it leads to their rapid extinction.
Two days' march above Fort Kearney, at a place called Cottonwood Springs, I found thirty lodges of Ogallalas, a Sioux or Dakota tribe. At their request I baptized all their children. In 1851, at the Great Council on the Platte, I