A few presents, such as knives, combs, vermilion, &c., were then laid before the chiefs, who, in return, presented us with three or four horses, which terminated the proceedings of the council. We afterwards understood that our guests thought we gave but little; and it is perhaps true, that the value of their presents was far greater than ours, yet our liberality was fully equal to our means. [Illustration: Kaskaia; Shienne, Chief; Awappaho] The whole population had now deserted their edifices and crowded about us, and, agreeably to our wishes, which were announced in the council, the women brought jerked meat, and the men skin and hair ropes for halters, to trade with us for trinkets; and we were enabled to obtain a sufficient quantity of each, at a very moderate price. The trading being completed, we expected the crowd to diminish, but it seemed rather to augment in magnitude and density, until, becoming a very serious inconvenience, we requested the chiefs to direct their people to retire, which they immediately complied with, but, with the exception of the Shienne chief, were not obeyed. All the Shiennes forthwith left us, in compliance with {44} the peremptory orders of their chief, who seemed to be a man born to command, and to be endowed with a spirit of unconquerable ferocity, and capable of inflicting exemplary punishment upon any one who should dare to disobey his orders. He was tall and graceful, with a highly-ridged aquiline nose, corrugated forehead, mouth with the corners drawn downward, and rather small, but remarkably piercing eye, which, when fixed upon your countenance, appeared strained in the intenseness of its gaze, and to seek rather for the movements of the soul within, than to ascertain the mere lineaments it contemplated. The other chiefs seemed to possess only the dignity of office, without the power of command; the result, probably, of a deficiency of that native energy with which their companion was so pre-eminently endowed. They scarcely dared to reiterate their admonitions to their followers, not to press so closely upon the white people, but to limit their approaches to the line of our baggage. Still our tents were filled, and our persons hemmed in by the ardent and insatiable curiosity of the multitude, of both sexes and of all ages, mounted and on foot. To an observer of mankind, the present scene was abundantly fruitful and interesting. We could not but remark the ease and air of security with which their equestrians preserved their equipoise on the naked backs of their horses, in their evolutions beyond the crowd; nor could we restrain a smile, in the midst of vexatious circumstances, at the appearance of the naked children, mounted on horses, sometimes to the number of three or four on each, carelessly standing erect, or kneeling upon their backs, to catch a glance, over the heads of the intervening multitude, at the singular deportment, costume, and appearance of the white strangers.