It is said that during the youth of Washingguhsahba, he was taken prisoner by the Sioux. That the town of the Omawhaws, was then on the opposite bank of the Missouri, at the mouth of the stream called by Lewis and Clark, Floyd's river,[22] and that the nation had not, at that time, been long resident there. [22] Sergeant Floyd, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, died here in August, 1804, whence the name of the stream, which it still bears. Its mouth is on the Iowa side, just below Sioux City.—ED. Some time previous to the variolous mortality in the Omawhaw nation, several bands of Sioux, in conjunction with the Shienne nation,[23] attacked them on their return from a summer hunt, and overpowered them by numbers. [23] On the Cheyenne, see Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, note 88.—ED. {25} A few years since, the Pawnees made a general attack upon the Konza village. They were all mounted on horseback, and rode furiously about, whilst they fired into the Konza lodges. The principal chief of the nation, Burning Heart, ran through his village, calling out to his warriors to remain quietly in their houses for the present, and not show themselves to the enemy, or return their fire, in order to give them time to tire out their horses by continued action. After a while a few shots were returned, to prevent the Pawnees from rushing into the town itself, and when the horses appeared to be sufficiently fatigued, Burning Heart despatched two strong parties from the opposite end of the village from that upon which the attack was made, one of which, moving rapidly upon their hands and knees, gained a ravine, along which they ran until they gained the enemy's rear: they were here joined by the other party, which had gained the same situation by means of a lower prairie, along the bank of which they passed unperceived. Finding themselves thus out-generaled, the Pawnees were under the necessity of charging through the enemy, and flying with jaded horses before them. So rapid was the pursuit, that the Pawnees were obliged to precipitate themselves into the ravines, over which they must pass, to the destruction of many of their horses. Finally, they made their escape, with the loss of eighty men, and the greater part of their horses. When a hunting party is suddenly attacked by an enemy, the squaws, whilst their husbands are engaged in opposing the enemy, sedulously occupy themselves in digging basin-shaped pits with their hoes, for their personal security, and stooping down in them, escape the missiles of the contending parties; their husbands, if too hard pressed, also retreat to these cavities, from which they can continue the action with very little exposure of their own persons, whilst the enemy possesses no shelter. {26} Besides the national battles, in which great waste of life occurs, small war parties, or such as have been already described, are almost constantly in motion, and are also destructive.