Having exchanged congratulations, and recited to each other the little personal incidents which had marked our respective tracks of entry into the country, we passed the night on the sources of this little stream; and the next morning, at five o'clock, began its descent. It is a mere brook, only deep enough, at this spot, to embark the canoes, and two men to manage them. At the distances of four, and of twelve miles, there are rapids, where half the loads are carried over portages. At the foot of the latter rapid, there is a tributary called Ox Creek, and from this point to the lake, a distance of six miles, the navigation is practicable with full loads. We entered the lake with pleasurable feelings, at the accomplishment of our transit over this summit, and after a passage of three miles over the calm and sylvan surface of the lake, the expedition reached and landed at the company's fort. It was now four o'clock in the afternoon of a most serene day, and the Indians, who were gathered on the shores, received us with a salute _a la mode de savage_, that is, with balls fired over our heads. Quarters were provided in the fort for such as did not prefer to lodge in tents. Understanding that there was to be a day's rest at this post, to reorganize the party, and hold intercourse with the Indians, each one prepared to make such use of his time as best subserved his purposes. Finding my baggage had been wetted and damaged on the portages in the ascent of the St. Louis, I separated the moulded and ruined from things still worth saving, and drying the latter in the sun, prepared them for further use. On the day after our arrival (16th) a council of the Indians--the Chippewas--was convened. The principal chiefs were Kadewabedas,[65] or Broken Teeth, and Babisekundeba,[66] or the Curly Head. This tribe, it appears, are conquerors in the country, having at an early, or ante-historical age, advanced from Lake Superior, driving back the Sioux. The war between these two tribes is known to have existed since the first entry of the French into the country--then a part of New France--early in the seventeenth century. Gov. Cass proposed to them to enter into a firm peace with the Sioux, and to send a delegation with him to St. Peter's, on his return from the sources of the Mississippi. To this they assented. Speeches were made by the Indians, which it is not my purpose to record, as they embraced nothing beyond the ordinary, every-day style of the native speakers. [65] From _ka_, an affirmative particle; _webeed_, teeth; and _eda_, a transitive objective inflection. [66] _Ba_, a repeating particle; _besaw_, fine, curly; and _kundib_, the human head.