166 BARGAINING FOR A CAPTIVE. 



much larger sum was asked than we felt disposed 

 to pay. Although the slave belonged solely to 

 one Indian, the power to sell resting with him 

 only, still every one had their say. Men 

 gurgled and spluttered strange unintelligible 

 noises, women chattered and screamed like furies, 

 whilst children engaged in small battles outside 

 the ring. 



Thirty blankets and two trade-guns equal to 

 about 50/. sterling were the terms at last 

 agreed on. We then adjourned to the shed where 

 the slave was a prisoner. I was in a great state 

 of expectation, picturing to myself an Indian 

 Hebe, limbs exquisitely moulded, native grace 

 and elegance in every movement, gorgeous in 

 ' wampum,' paint, and waving feathers, such as 

 I had read of as ' Laughing Water,' or l Prairie 

 Flower.' 



Being carried, so to speak, into the shed a 

 waif in the stream of savages rushing like a 

 human torrent to get in with all the breath 

 squeezed out of me, I was deposited somewhere ; 

 but as my head was enveloped in a dense cloud 

 of pungent smoke, it was some time ere I dis- 

 covered I was close to the captain. ' Sit down,' 

 he roared ; ' you will die of suffocation if you 

 keep your head in the smoke.' At once I seated 



