354 LIFE OF AUDUBON. 



poor, but they are sporting among themselves, beating and 

 tearing up the earth. They have roads to the river, along which 

 they go and come for water. 



" To-day some Indians hailed us from the shore, and when the 

 captain refused to stop for them, they began iiring at us with 

 rifles : several of the balls hit our vessel, and one passed through 

 the pantaloons of a Scotch passenger. These rascals belong to 

 a party of the Santeo tribe, which range across the country from 

 the Missouri to the Mississippi River. 



" May 29. This morning a party of Indians came on board the 

 boat at a landing-place, and it was some hours before we could 

 get rid of these beggars by trade. Both banks of the river were 

 covered with buffaloes, as far as the eye could see ; and although 

 many of them were near the water, they did not move until we 

 were close upon them, and those at the distance of half a mile 

 kept on quietly grazing. We saw several buffaloes, and one 

 large gray wolf swimming across the river only a short distance 

 ahead of us. 



" The prairies appear better now, and the grass looks green, 

 and the poor buffaloes, of which we have seen more than two 

 thousand this morning, vrill soon grow fat. 



" May 30. We reached Fort George this morning, which is 

 called 'The Station of the Opposition Line.' We saw some 

 Indians, and a few lodges on the edge of the prairie, and 

 sundry bales of buffalo-robes were taken aboard. Major 

 Hamilton is acting Indian Agent during the absence of Major 

 Crisp. We are a long way beyond the reach of civil law, and 

 they settle disputes here with sword and pistol. The major 



pointed to an island where Mr. , a New Yorker belonging to 



the opposite line, killed two white men recently, and shot two 

 others, who were miserable miscreants. 



"We are yet thirty miles below St. Pierre, and do not 

 expect to reach it until to-morrow. Indians were seen along 

 both sides of the river : many trade at this post and at St. 

 Pierre ; at the latter I am told there are five hundred lodges. 

 The Indian dogs resemble the wolves so much that I should 

 readily mistake the one for the other were I to meet them in 

 the woods. 



" Soon after leaving St. George, we sounded and found only 



