188 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



sent of paying, but that after that harvest was over, he might 

 rely upon the word of a chief, he would order a general hunt, 

 and that the skins that should be taken, should be used to 

 pay him for his goods, and for the important secret his part- 

 ner had communicated to them." [Bossu, i., 146, et seq.] 



The Dahcotahs are the most numerous, powerful, and 

 warlike people east of the mountains, within the limits of the 

 United States, except a nation called Pagans, who exceed 

 them in numbers, but do not equal them in spirit and military 

 power. They seem to have been at all times ready to lend 

 their arm and di'aw a bow for other tribes, not as Swiss, nor 

 requiring aid in return, but from a love of war. We find 

 them going in aid of the Foxes to the attack on the Missiga- 

 mis, about 600 or 700 miles ; and again, a few years subse- 

 quent, taking part with the Sakis in that war with the Chip- 

 pewas, when Wahbojeeg compelled them to leave their 

 residence on the Fox and fix their wekeab on Rock River. 

 They are the dread of all their weaker neighbors. They 

 have, at several times within a few years, been embroiled 

 with the Chippewas, the Poles of the north, whose wont is 

 to stand, without regard to odds, and to fall every man on his 

 track, rather than to fly. Besides the Chippewas they have, 

 within a few years, had a difficulty with the Saukies, and 

 they are now in hostility with the Potawatamis, Ottoes, 

 Omahas and Pawnees. 



The Chippewas, small in person, and of a quiet and meek 

 aspect, have an indomitable spirit, and a prowess that shrinks 

 from no encounter. They are greatly inferior in numbers to 

 their neighbors, the Dahcotahs, and are moreover disunited 

 and scattered, a part of them being joined to the Ottawas, 

 and living east of Lake Michigan : that part within our 

 limits being less than 8000. 



The Winnebagoes, called by themselves Oshungulas, ac- 



