86 On the supposed Welch-Indians. 



satisfied with the discoveries they had made, without 

 any wish to disturb the repose of their new acquain- 

 tances. 



An instant astonishment glowed in the counte- 

 nances, not only of the council, but of his Shawnees 

 companions, who clearly saw that he was understood 

 by the people of the country- Full confidence was 

 at once given to his declarations ; the king advanced, 

 and gave him his hand. They abandoned the design 

 of putting him and his companions to death, and, from 

 that moment, treated them with the utmost friendship. 

 Griffith and the Shawnees continued eight months in 

 the nation ; but were deterred from prosecuting their 

 researches up the Missouri, by the advice of the peo- 

 ple of the country, who informed them, that they had 

 gone a twelve months journey up the river, but 

 found it as large there, as it was in their own country. 



As to the history of this people, he could learn no- 

 thing satisfactory. The only account they could 

 give was, that their forefathers had come up the river 

 from a very distant country. They had no books, 

 no records, no writings. They intermixed with no 

 other people by marriage : there was not a dark-skin- 

 ned man in the nation. Their numbers were very 

 considerable. There was a continued range of settle- 

 ments on the river, for fifty miles, and there were, 

 within this space, three large water-courses, which 

 fell into the Missouri, on the banks of each of which, 

 likewise, tiny were settled. He supposed that there 

 must be fifty thousand men in the nation, capable of 



