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The stranger, so much gazed at by his juvenile train, I instantly recognized; his costume and person answered perfectly the description I have given of him, with the exception of a Madrass handkerchief, that had been tied about the collar of his hunting shirt, as a cravat, in deference to the customs of civilized life. As by instinct, Mike addressed himself to me, and desired me to point out to him a hatter's shop. Having drawn him aside, I requested him to spend the evening with me. He appeared somewhat disconcerted by my proposition, but promised to do so, if I would shew him where I was encamped. I pointed out my residence, and, at sun-set, Mike, and his humble friend, entered my room. I offered him a chair, but he threw himself down on an old trunk, in a recumbent posture, while his pack-horse took possession of the chair. Mike smiled at this assurance, but, like the shooting of a star, it was its first and last appearance for the season. "That's a complete counterfeit," said Mike. "You will make a gentleman of him, stranger, and I shall never persuade him to return home with me." Where is your place of residence, Mr. Shuckwell? said I, in a very conciliatory tone of interrogation. Between Wock-daw and Nish, was the reply. These rivers, that form two boundaries of his home, are Wilconda, and the Nish-ua-botta-na, and empty themselves into the Missouri; the former in the upper settlements of the state, and the latter one hundred and eighty miles above ;--so that it will be seen Mike is not confined to very close quarters. A few other instances may serve also as specimens of his geographical knowledge. In the course of business he has pushed his discoveries as far as the Arkansas river, which he calls the Arks. To the Council Bluffs he gives the appellation of The Councils; the Nodowa river, The Nod; and the two forks of the Tarkeo, The Turks.

In the course of the evening's conversation, I inquired of him if he had never felt disposed to enter into matrimonial engagements with some one of the fair daughters of the frontier. He assured me the life of a bachelor was by far the most independent, and agreeable to him.

That Morg's wife had nearly ruined a very promising hunter, by confining her husband to the plantation.

Morg's Oman, (as he calls her) he says is a heap smarter than Morg himself. She has an eye like an eagle, a paw like a white bear, and a voice like a panther. Who this Morg, or his amiable partner is, Mike never explained; but they are, doubtless, some of his frontier acquaintances. Morg's Oman, added he, once made a complete counterfeit of me. She called me a villanous old wrinkle-faced backwoodsman. Had this been charged, said he, drawing his gun to his face, her hide would not have held sucks in two minutes; meaning, probably, that he would have peforated it with so many bullets, as to have made a riddle of it. The word counterfeit, so often made use of in this interesting dish of discourse, is a technical term, that belongs to the Vocation of a beaver hunter. Mike informs me, that to conduct his business with success, it is necessary to conceal his traps beneath a little artificial mound of earth, resembling those raised by his game, in the vicinity of their dams. This he calls a "complete counterfeit ;" and in conversation applies it, figuratively, to almost every subject." Boon's Lick," said Mike, in the course of our conversation, was once a desirable place. When I first came to this country, every man in it had elbowroom; but now, I may make three sabbath day's journies without finding land to encamp upon, without committing what they call a trespass. In the good old times, there was no such things as fines and trespasses, roads and turnpikes, to turn a traveller out of his course: I have lost this day, said Mike, "at least five miles, by the zig-zag of these river-dams, or fields, as the farmers call them.' 99

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Immediately after supper, I had directed that a pallet should be laid before the fire, as best suited to the taste of Mike Shuck; but when the time arrived for him to camp down," as he termed it, my guest seized a brand, bid me a good night with very complaisant "digs," and lit himself a fire in the high-way, at the trunk of a fallen tree; and although the weather was extremely cold,

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was snoring in social unison with his bear, in less time than would have been employed by a modern Corinthian to divest himself of his stays.

XI. INDIANS AT WASHINGTON.
[National Intelligencer.]

HAPPENING to make a morning visit to the president, two or three days ago, I had learnt that the Indians, now in Washington, would be there in a few minutes, for the purpose of having a talk with their great father, and I was tempted to wait and witness a spectacle to me so novel and interesting. They accordingly soon arrived, and were shewn into the anti-chamber, to the right of the drawing-room. When I entered, I found the whole thirteen, that is, twelve men and one woman. seated round the room, and Major O'Fallon, the officer who has charge of them, with four or five other gentlemen, standing at the fire-place. They were all dressed in blue cloth surtouts, with red cuffs and capes, blue pantaloons, and boots-in short, in complete American costume, except that they wore on their heads a sort of coronet bedizened with red and blue foil, and stuck all round with feathers of the gayest colours. Their faces, too, were painted, though in a less fantastic style than usual. The squaw sat on a sofa near her husband, dressed in scarlet pantaloons, and wrapped in a green camblet cloak, without any ornament on her black hair. They consisted, as I was told, of the Pawnees, Kansas, Ottoes, Mahas, and Missouries. The five chiefs were distinguished by two silver epaulettes, and the two half chiefs by one. They were evidently not easy in their new habiliments--their coats seemed to pinch them about the shoulders; now and then, they would take off their uneasy head-dresses, and one sought a temporary relief by pulling off his boots.

Upon major O'Fallon suggesting that they had left the presents they intended for the president, the young men were immediately despatched by their chiefs, and the squaw by her husband, for their intended tokens of friendship and good will. They returned in a few min

utes with buffalo skins, pipes, moccasins, and feather head-dresses. The president entered, with the secretary of war, and, taking his seat, delivered to them, through the interpreters, an extempore address, from notes held in his hand--and, as they used two distinct languages, it was necessary that every sentence should be twice interpreted. The president told them, he was glad to see them-that, when he had met them before, he was too much engaged in receiving his great council to shew them the attention he wished-and that now he had more leisure, and he was pleased to see them in the dress of their white brethren as he had been before in that of their own country. He adverted to the visit. they had made in our large towns-to our arsenals, navy-yards, and the like, and told them that as much as they had seen, it could give them but a faint idea of our numbers and strength-as the deer and the buffalo, they might chance to meet in passing through their forests bore a small proportion to those they did not see. That they had met with few of our warriors, because they were not wanted at the seat of government, and because we were at peace with all the world-but if we were in a state of war, all our citizens would take arms into their hands and become brave warriors. He enjoined them to preserve peace with one another, and to listen to no voice, which should persuade them to distrust the friendship of the United States. They were told that they would receive some presents, and be conducted safely back to their wives and children, by major O'Fallon, whose advice they were told to consider as the advice of their great father, the president, and were earnestly recommended to pursue.

This address was interpreted, sentence by sentence, and at the end of each, first those who spoke one language, and then those who spoke the other, gave, invariably, a sign of assent, which was a sort of inarticulate sound or grunt. Before the president had finished, the judges of the supreme court, and some others, happening to call on the president, increased the number of attentive auditors.

When the president had finished, major O'Fallon then

told them their great father was ready to hear what they had to say, and he encouraged them to speak with the same freedom that they would use in their own village. The principal Pawnee chief then stept forward, and having shaken hands with the president, secretary of war, and major O'Fallon, he delivered his oration, pausing however, after every two or three sentences until the interpreter could do his office. He appeared to be about 45 years of age, was 6 feet high; had a fine face and person, a dignified gravity and gestures which, though violent and excessive, were never ungraceful, and always appropriate. He was followed by the four other chiefs, each of whom exhibited a style of oratory of his own, though they all used the same vehement and significant gesticulation. Short speeches were then made by their followers-they brought their presents, and, laying them at the feet of the president, made some pertinent remarks on each, explaining its history

or use.

In these numerous speeches, I regret that I had not thought of taking notes, or even of impressing on my mind what was said by each. As it is, I can only recal some of their most striking remarks, without almost remembering by which speaker they were made.

The first speaker said, that he had heard the words of his great father, and they had gone in at one ear, but would not go out of the other; that they had seen our chiefs, our towns, our buildings, and were much pleased with all they had seen. They found the United States populous and powerful, while they were weak and few; that the great spirit bad made some men white and others red; the white men could make fine houses, and clothing, and guns, and furniture; the red men could make nothing; the white man lived upon the animals he raised at home; the red men hunted the buffalo, whose skin he wore, and whose flesh he ate. Yet the great spirit intended there should be red men and white men, and protected them both. He said that some white men had offered to send preachers among them, to teach them their way of worshipping the great spirit, and of cultivating the ground. He said there were a good

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