t7B Expedition to the 



a spirit of unconquerable ferocity, and capable of inflict- 

 ing ext-mplary punishment upon any one who should dare 

 disobey his orders. He was tall and graceful, with a 

 highly ridged aquiline nose, corrugated forehead, mouth 

 with the corners drawn downward, and rather small, but 

 remarkably piercing eye, which when fixed upon your coun- 

 tenance, appeared strained in the intenseness of its gaze, and 

 to seek rather for the movements of the soul within, than to 

 ascertain the mere lineaments it contemplated. The other 

 chiefs seemed to possess only the dignity of office, without 

 the power of command; the result, probably, of a deficiency 

 of that native energy with which their companion was so 

 preeminently endowed; they scarcely dared to reiterate their 

 admonitions to their followers not to press so closely upon 

 the white people, but to limit their approaches to the line of 

 our baggage; still our tents were filled, and our persons 

 hemmed in by the ardent and insatiable curiosity of the 

 multitude of both sexes, and of all ages, mounted and on foot. 

 To an observer of mankind the present scene w^as abundantly 

 fruitful and interesting. We could not but remark the ease 

 and air of security, with which the equestrians preserved 

 their equipoise on the naked backs of their horses in their 

 evolutions beyond the crowd, nor could we restrain a smile, 

 in the midst of vexatious circumstances, at the appearance 

 of the naked children mounted on horses, sometimes to the 

 number of three or four on each, fearlessly standing erect, 

 or kneeling upon their backs to catch a glance over the heads 

 of the intervening multitude, at the singular deportment, 

 costume, and appearance of the white strangers. 



In the rear of our tent a squaw, who had become possess- 

 ed of a wooden small-toothed comb, was occupied in remov- 

 ing from her head a population as numerous as the indi- 

 viduals composing it were robust and well fed; she had 

 placed a skin upon her lap to receive the victims as they 

 fell; and a female companion, who sat at her feet, alternately 



