216 A-SA-HA-BE PROPOSES TERMS. 



that we should do the same quite with the air of a superior 

 addressing his inferiors. We, however, sat down, A-sa-ha-be 

 beginning the talk by saying that he had not betrayed us, but 

 that finding signs of a party of his tribe being near us, he had 

 ridden away in the night to find out their intentions and to do 

 the best he could for us, and this he was still willing to do, in 

 spite of our having fired at him. He said that he had found 

 about forty of his tribe camped a few miles away, and that he 

 had made the best possible terms for us, which were as fol- 

 lows : That we should give up our waggon and outfit, all 

 horses but one apiece, and that then we should be given a rifle 

 to kill game with, and be allowed to return to Fort Arbuckle, 

 or go in any direction we wished. Now there was not the 

 smallest doubt that if we did as he wished we should all be 

 dead men within the hour, as Indians never spare anyone who 

 is in their power, as they thought we were ; so we replied at 

 once that we should give up nothing, but that as the country 

 we were in belonged to his tribe, we were willing to purchase 

 permission to pass through it at a moderate price. A-sa-ha-be 

 answered that the terms he had mentioned were the only ones 

 which would be accepted, and put on a very insolent air as he 

 said it ; so we told him we would give him two minutes to leave 

 our camp, and that if he was not gone by that time we would 

 shoot him, and would not miss him a second time, and that if 

 his tribe wanted our outfit, they must come and take it, but 

 that so long as we had a cartridge left they should have 

 nothing. He jumped up in a furious rage, waited till we had 

 finished speaking, and then mounted and rode off, shaking his 

 fist at us ; and we could see that on rejoining his companions 

 he was making the most of what we had said, to rouse them, 



