NARRATIVE OF 1855. 221 
Olympia to the waters of the Missouri. Like all youths of that age, he was always ready for 
the saddle and delighted in the hunt, and had spent some days with one of my hunting parties 
on the Judith, where he had become well acquainted with the Gros Ventres. When we 
determined to change the council from Fort Benton to the mouth of the Judith, I undertook, 
in the name of the commission, the duty of seeing the necessary messages sent to the various 
bands and tribes, and to bring them all to the mouth of the Judith at the proper moment. 
These Indians were scattered from Milk river, near Hammell’s Houses, along the Marias, along 
the Teton, to a considerable distance south of the Missouri, the Flatheads being on the Judith, 
and the Upper Pend d’ Oreilles on Smith's Fork of the Missouri, with two bands of the Black- 
feet lying somewhat intermediate, but in the vicinity of the Girdle mountains. I succeeded in 
securing the services of a fit and reliable man for each one of these bands and tribes, except 
the Gros Ventres, camped on Milk river. There were several men who had considerable 
experience among Indians and in voyaging who desired to go, but I had not confidence in 
them, and accordingly, at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning, I started my little son as a messenger 
to the Gros Ventres. Accompanied by the interpreter, Legare, he made that Gros Ventres 
camp before dark, a distance of 75 miles, and gave his message the same evening to the chiefs, 
and without changing horses they were in the saddle early in the morning and reached my 
camp at half-past three о” clock. 
Thus a youth of thirteen travelled 150 measured miles from ten o' clock of one day to half-past 
three o'clock in the afternoon of the next; and he came in so fresh that he could have travelled 
without fatigue at least thirty miles further that evening. The Gros Ventres made their marches 
exactly as I had desired, and reached the new council ground at the mouth of the Judith the 
very morning which had been appointed, being the first of all the bands and tribes. Our 
examination of the Yellowstone tended to verify the accuracy of Lewis and Clark’s survey of 
it, and showed that in our previous maps we had laid the course of the stream too far to the 
south. I will refer in this connexion to three of the remarkable mountain men of that 
country, who were with me through this season's trip, and who had hunted and trapped on the 
forks of the Missouri and on the waters of the Yellowstone and its tributaries—the interpreter, 
William Craig, a Delaware Indian, also one of the Nez Percés interpreters, by the name of Jim, 
and a half-breed Shawnee, known as Ben Kizer, one of our Flathead interpreters. Ben Kizer 
and Delaware Jim both speak English, the first quite well; and they were exceedingly reliable 
men as interpreters, and remarkable as hunters and as guides. То show how Delaware Jim 
could lead a party, towards the close of our stay at Fort Benton, and before we moved to tlie 
Judith, I despatched our packmaster, Higgins, with the guide Legare, to some bands of the 
Nez Percés on the Yellowstone, who I was fearful might be compelled to go very far, perhaps 
even to the forks of the Missouri, in order to get meat. They had already suffered much from 
the want of food; we knew their general line of movement, and time was very essential to be 
saved in reaching their camp. Although the Delaware had not passed over this portion of 
country before—that is, the country from the Missouri to near the Yellowstone—yet so 
thoroughly was he possessed of the general knowledge of the Yellowstone country, and of the 
extreme upper portions of the Missouri and certain general ridges and mountain heights which 
would flank the route, that he undertook and actually did take the party on an airline to Clark's 
tributary of the Yellowstone, and, as I was informed by the whole party, struck their pampa, 
hardly making a detour of a mile on the road. They also moved very rapidly, some fifty miles 
