of the intentions of the American government to occupy and settle the countries explored, and they thus virtually incurred the obligation to prosecute and fulfill the great ends for which the labors of Lewis and Clarke were preparatory.

A few years since there was residing at Brown's Hole, in Oregon, an old Shoshonee Indian, who was the first of his tribe who saw the cavalcade of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, on the headwaters of the Missouri, in 1805. He appears to have been galloping from place to place in the office of sentinel to the Shoshonee camp, when he suddenly found himself in the very presence of the whites. Astonishment fixed him to the spot. Men with faces as pale as ashes had never been seen by him or his nation. "The head rose high and round, the top flat; it jutted over the eyes in a thin rim; their skin was loose and flowing, and of many colors." His fears at length overcoming his curiosity, he fled in the direction of the Indian encampment. But being seen by the whites, they pursued and brought him to their camp, exhibited to him the effect of their fire-arms, loaded him with presents, and let him go. Having arrived among his own people, he told them he had seen men with faces pale as ashes, who were makers of thunder and lightning, etc. This information astounded the whole tribe. They had lived many years, their ancestors had lived many more, and there were many legends which spoke of many wonderful things, but a tale like this they had never before heard. A council was, therefore, held to consider the matter. The man of strange words was summoned before it, and he rehearsed in substance what he had before told others, but was not believed. "All men were red, and therefore, he could not have seen men as pale as ashes. The Great Spirit made the thunder and lightning; he, therefore, could not have seen any men of any color that could produce it. He had seen nothing-he had lied to his chief, and should die." Upon this, the culprit produced some presents which he had received from the pale men. These being quite as new to them as pale faces were, it was determined "that he should have the privilege of leading his judges to the place where he had declared he had seen these strange people; and if such were found there, he should be exculpated; if not, these presents were to be considered as conclusive evidence that he dealt with evil spirits, and that he was worthy of death by the arrows of his kinsfolks." The pale men—the thunder makers were found, and were witnesses of the poor fellow's story. He was released, and was ever after much honored and loved by his tribe and every white man in the mountains. He was then about eighty years old, and poor, but was never permitted

to want.

Pike's Expedition.-During the absence of Lewis and Clarke, the United States prosecuted other explorations in different parts of Louisiana. Lieutenant Z. M. Pike-afterward the celebrated General Pike, who fell at York, Upper Canada, in 1813-was sent, in 1805, to explore the sources of the Mississippi. Having set out

late in the season, he proceeded to the mouth of the Crow Wing, where, winter having overtaken him, he erected a blockhouse for the protection of his men and stores, and proceeded in snow-shoes with a small party to Leech Lake and other places in that vicinity, and returned on the opening of navigation in the spring, without having fully accomplished the objects of his journey. During his absence he purchased of the Indians the site where Fort Snelling, the first American establishment in Minnesota, was founded in 1819.

In the year 1806, he was sent on another exploring expedition by the United States Government with a party of men, in the course of which he traveled southwestward from the mouth of the Missouri up the Arkansas, with directions to pass to the sources of that stream, for which those of the Canadian were then mistaken. He, however, even passed around the head of the latter, and crossing the mountain with an almost incredible degree of peril and suffering, descended upon the Rio del Norte with his little party, then but fifteen in number. Believing himself now upon Red River within the then assumed bounds of the United States, he erected a small fortification for his company until the opening of the spring of 1807 should enable him to continue his descent to Natchitoches.

As he was within the Mexican Territory, however, and but about seventy miles from the northern settlements, his position was soon discovered, and a force sent out to take him into Santa Fe, which, by a treacherous manuever, was effected without opposition. The Spanish officer assured him that the governor, learning that he had missed his way, had sent animals and an escort to convey his men and baggage to a navigable port on Red River (Rio Colorado), and that his excellency desired very much to see him at Santa Fe, which might be taken on their way. As soon, however, as the governor had him in his power, he sent him with his men to the Commandant-General at Chihuahua, when most of his papers were seized and he and his party were sent under an escort, via San Antonio de Bexar, to the United States.

The Red and Washita Rivers were at the same time explored to a considerable distance from the Mississippi, by Messrs. Dunbar, Hunter, and Sibley, whose journals, as well as those of Pike, Lewis, and Clarke, were subsequently published, and contain many interesting descriptions of those parts of America.

Thus within three or four years after Louisiana came into the possession of the United States, it ceased to be an unknown region, and the principal features of the country drained by the Columbia were displayed.

ADVENTURE OF COLTER.

On the arrival of the exploratory party of Lewis and Clarke at the headwaters of the Missouri, Colter, one of the guides, obtained permission for himself and another hunter, by the name of Potts, to remain awhile and hunt for beaver. Aware of the hostility of the Blackfoot Indians, one of whom had been killed by Lewis, they set their traps at night and took them up early in the morning, remaining concealed during the day.

They were examining their traps early one morning, in a creek which they were ascending in a canoe, when they suddenly heard a great noise, resembling the trampling of animals; but they could not ascertain the fact, as the high perpendicular banks on each side of the river impeded their view. Colter immediately pronounced it to be occasioned by Indians, and advised an instant retreat, but was accused of cowardice by Potts, who insisted the noise was occasioned by buffaloes, and they proceeded on. In a few minutes afterward, their doubts were removed by the appearance of about five or six hundred Indians on both sides of the creek, who beckoned them to come ashore. As retreat was now impossible, Colter turned the head of the canoe to the shore, and at the moment of its touching, an Indian seized the rifle belonging to Potts; but Colter, who was a remarkably strong man, immediately retook it and handed it to Potts, who remained in the canoe, and on receiving it pushed off into the river. He had scarcely quitted the shore when an arrow was shot at him, and he cried out, "Colter, I am wounded." Colter remonstrated with him on the folly of attempting to escape, and urged him to come ashore. Instead of complying, he instantly leveled his rifle at an Indian and shot him dead on the spot. This conduct situated as he was, may appear to have been an act of madness, but it was doubtless the effect of sudden, but sound reasoning; for if taken alive, he must have expected to have been tortured to death, according to the Indian custom, and in this respect, the Indians in this region, excelled all others in the ingenuity they displayed in torturing their prisoners. He was instantly pierced with arrows so numerous, that, to use the language of Colter, "he was made a riddle of."

They now seized Colter, stripped him entirely naked, and began to consult on the manner in which he should be put to death. They were first inclined to set him up as a mark to shoot at, but the chief interfered, and seizing him by the shoulder, asked him if he could run fast? Colter, who had been some time among the Kee Katsa, or Crow Indians, had in a considerable degree acquired the Blackfoot language, and was also well acquainted with Indian customs. He knew that he had now to run for his life, with the dreadful odds of five or six hundred against him, and these armed Indians; he therefore cunningly replied that he was a very bad

runner, although in truth he was considered by the hunters as remarkably swift.

The chief now commanded the party to remain stationary, and led Colter out on the prairie three or four hundred yards and released him, bidding him to save himself if he could. At that instant the warhoop sounded in the ears of poor Colter, who, urged with the hope of preserving life, ran with a speed at which he himself was surprised. He proceed toward Jefferson's Fork, having to traverse a plain six miles in breadth, abounding with the prickly pear, on which he every instant was treading with his naked feet. He ran nearly half way across the plain before he ventured to look over his shoulder, when he perceived that the Indians were very much scattered, and that he had gained ground to a considerable distance from the main body; but one Indian, who carried a spear, was much before all the rest, and not more than a hundred yards from him.

A faint gleam of hope now cheered the heart of Colter; he derived confidence from the belief that escape was within the bounds of possibility, but that confidence was nearly fatal to him; for he exerted himself to such a degree that the blood gushed from his nostrils, and soon almost covered the forepart of his body. He had now arrived within a mile of the river, when he distinctly heard the appalling sounds of footsteps behind him, and every instant expected to feel the spear of his pursuer. Again he turned his head and saw the savage not twenty yards from him. Determined, if possible, to avoid the expected blow, he suddenly stopped, turned round and spread out his arms. The Indian, surprised at the suddenness of the action, and perhaps at the bloody appearance of Colter, also attempted to stop; but exhausted with running, he fell while attempting to throw his spear, which stuck in the ground and broke in his hand. Colter instantly snatched up the pointed part, with which he pinned him to the earth, and then continued his flight.

The foremost of the Indians, on arriving at the place, stopped until others came up to join them and then gave a hideous yell. Every moment of this time was improved by Colter, who although fainting and exhausted, succeeded in gaining the skirting of the cotton-wood trees on the borders of the Fork, to which he ran and plunged into the river. Fortunately for him a little below this place was an island, against the upper point of which a raft of drift timber had lodged; he dived under the raft, and after several efforts got his head above the water, among the trunks of trees covered over with smaller wood to the depth of several feet. Scarcely had he secured himself when the Indians arrived on the river, screeching and yelling, as Colter expressed it, "like so many devils."

They were frequently on the raft during the day, and were seen through the chinks by Colter, who was congratulating himself on his escape, until the idea arose that they might set the raft on fire.

In horrible suspense he remained until night, when hearing no more from the Indians, he dived from under the raft and swam instantly down the river to a considerable distance, when he landed and traveled all night. Although happy in having escaped from the Indians, his situation was still dreadful; he was completely naked under a burning sun; the soles of his feet were filled with the thorns of the prickly pear; he was hungry and had no means of killing game, although he saw abundance around him and was at a great distance from the nearest settlement. Almost any man but an American hunter would have despaired under such circumstances. The fortitude of Colter remained unshaken. After seven days' sore travel, during which he had no other sustenance than the root, known by naturalists under the name of psoralea esculenta, he at length arrived in safety at Lisa's Fort, on the Big Horn branch of the Roche Jaune or Yellow Stone River.

The Flathead Indians who reside in Oregon, and the Blackfoot tribe who hunt at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, are almost continually at war with each other. An English traveler who remained a considerable time among the former, has given a description of the method of torturing their prisoners. A chief of the Blackfoot tribe having been taken captive in one of their wars, was condemned to death; and the Englishman repaired to camp to witness the frightful spectacle. The prisoner was fastened to a tree. The Flatheads, after heating an old gun-barrel red hot, burnt with it successively his legs, thighs, stomach, cheeks, and belly; and then cut the flesh around his nails, which they tore out; and afterward cut off his fingers joint by joint.

During this horrible torment the prisoner did not shrink in the least, nor testify the slightest emotion. Instead of crying for mercy and uttering groans, he endeavored to excite the barbarous ingenuity of his executioners by taunts and the most insulting reproaches. One of the Flatheads rushed upon him, and in an instant with his knife scooped out one of his eyes and clove his nose in two. But the poor fellow did not desist from his provocations:-"I killed your brother," he cried. "I tore off the gray scalp of your father." The warrior to whom he spoke again rushed upon him and tore off his scalp, and was about to plunge a knife into his heart when the voice of his chief forbade him.

With his naked skull, his cloven nose, and the blood streaming from the socket of his eye, the intrepid Blackfoot offered a hideous spectacle; notwithstanding which, in this terrible condition, he continued to heap reproaches and outrageous insults upon his foes. "It was I," said he to the chief, "who took your wife prisoner! We tore out her eyes and tongue! We treated her like a dog! Forty of our young warriors,' -He had not time to finish what

he was going to say; for at the mention of his wife the fury of the chief broke through all bounds, and seizing his rifle he put an end at once to the insults which he, the prisoner, uttered, and the sufferings he endured.