"He had heard that his father wished to see him, and he had wished to see and to hear the words of his father, ever since he learned that he was ascending {156} the river. He was informed last fall of his being at the river Platte, and as he could not then go to see him, he had now come to visit him; and here I am, my father. All these young people you see around here are yours; although they are poor and trifling, yet they are your children. I have always loved the whites since I first remember to have seen them, and this affection increases with my age. All my nation loves the whites, and always have loved them. Amongst all the good things of this world I place the whites first. But it appears that there are many nations that live nearer to you than I, that do not love you, though you have done more for them, than you have done for me. When they meet with you, they flatter you, in order to get presents from you, notwithstanding which, they would not hesitate to kill some of your people on their way home. Some of them shake hands with you in a friendly manner, whilst their hands are yet stained with your blood; and if you examine your own hands, my father, I think you would find some of it adhering to them yet. For my part, my father, I am proud to boast, that my hands are clean. Never has one of my nation stained his hands with the blood of a white man. I do not understand, my father, your mode of treating those well who treat you ill. It is true, I know, that you have more sense than I have, but I cannot understand it. I have heard that the Pawnees have been to see you; a nation that has killed, robbed, and insulted your people. I was also informed that you feasted them, and at their departure you put weapons in their hands. I should not be surprised to hear, that those very weapons were stained with white man's blood before they reached the Pawnee village. This is what I cannot understand. This circumstance led me to believe, that if you treated those that have injured you so well, you surely would treat your poor children the Omawhaws, who have never done harm to your people, with much kindness {157} also. But I am afraid the transaction will have a bad effect on my young men. When they heard of American troops ascending this river, they feared and respected them. But I am fearful that this transaction will throw them off their guard, make them lose their respect for you, and cause them to do something that they would not otherwise have done, and thus create trouble and difference between us. You said, my father, that those troops do not come to harm us. I believe it is true. I consider them all my brothers and friends. So far from thinking they come to injure me, I regard them as my shield, to guard me against bad nations around me. You say, that if ever there is a difference between us, that it will be our fault; but