312 EXPEDITION TO THE 



Provided with this new and more efficient escort, the 

 party left Fort St. Anthony late in the afternoon of the 

 9th of July. They had exchanged their interpreter for 

 another, Joseph Renville, a half-breed of the Dacota na- 

 tion, who undertook to act both as interpreter and guide. 

 The very able manner in which he performed these du- 

 ties; the valuable information which he communicated 

 concerning this nation of Indians, and the universal sa- 

 tisfaction which he gave to every member of the expe- 

 dition, requires that something should be stated of this 

 man, whose influence among the Sioux appears to be very 

 great. 



Joseph Renville was the son of a French trader on the 

 Mississippi, probably the same mentioned by Pike. His 

 mother being a Sioux resident at the village of the Petit 

 Corbeau, he was brought up among the Indians, and de- 

 prived of all education excepting such as his powerful 

 mind enabled him to acquire, during his intercourse with 

 white traders ; it was, therefore, rather an education of 

 observation than of study. We have met with few men 

 that appeared to us to be gifted with a more inquiring and 

 discerning mind, or with more force and penetration than 

 Renville. His mother being connected with an influential 

 family among the Indians, he was early brought into notice 

 by them ; his object appears to have been, from his first en- 

 trance upon the pursuits of life, to acquire an ascendancy 

 over his countrymen. This, he knew, could not be obtain- 

 ed except by the most daring and persevering course of 

 conduct ; and, accordingly, we have it from respectable 

 authority, that he never desisted from any of his preten- 

 sions, and that whatever he had undertaken, he never fail- 

 ed to achieve. As a trader, he was considered active, in- 

 telligent, and faithful to his employers ; his usefulness de- 

 pending, in a great measure, upon the influence which he 



