In the evening, accompanied by several gentlemen of the party, we visited the camp of the Pawnees, whom we found sitting round their fires, smoking their pipes in silence. Some were employed in making bows, having found plenty of hickory, and hop horn beam wood here, which are not to be procured in the vicinity of their villages. Their mules were tied to trees, feeding on the bark of the cotton wood. The three tribes were seated around different fires. We sat down in the group of Grand Pawnees, and smoked with their chief Tar-ra-re-ca-wa-o, or Long Hair. This [is] an hereditary chief, of a lofty and rather haughty mien; his mouth is, perhaps through habit, drawn down a little at the corners. He has the appearance and character of an intrepid man, although not distinguished as a warrior, having, during his life, killed but a single man, who was a Spaniard. He is, however, artful and politic, and has performed some laudable actions. The following anecdote may serve in part to illustrate the more amiable traits of his character. Dorion, a Mestizo,[183] on a trading expedition, had accumulated a considerable quantity of peltry, at the Pawnee republican village, when it was situated on the Republican fork of the Konza river. As he had no horses to transport his merchandize, he requested the chief of that village to assist him in conveying it to the Grand Pawnees on the Platte, as he intended to descend that river to trade with the Otoes, on his way to St. Louis; the chief directly ordered horses to be brought, the furs were packed upon them, and they departed on the journey; but owing to some alleged misconduct on the part of Dorion, the chief, when half way, ordered the goods to be taken from the horses, and to be left on the plain. {148} He then, with his followers, returned to his village. The trader, after bewailing his unfortunate condition, at length resolved to go to the Grand Pawnee village and solicit the aid of Long Hair. Having arrived at the residence of the chief, he related to him in what manner he had been used by the Republican chief, and concluded by requesting assistance to bring in his goods. Long Hair, without reply, ascended to the top of his lodge and called out to his people to bring him one hundred horses. Taking the best of these, and a sufficient number of attendants, he accompanied Dorion, and assisted him to transport all his peltries, and did not cease with his good offices, until he had aided him in building a skin canoe, and had packed all the merchandize aboard, although previously told by Dorion that he had nothing to reward him with, having, as he said, traded every thing away, though at the same moment he had a number of Indian goods concealed in his packs of buffalo robes. After all was completed, "Now," said the chief, "Dorion, I know that you are a bad man; I have no doubt but you have a quantity of such goods as we want, concealed in those packs, and could reward