The races to-night were the most exciting we have seen, as the Indians had bet some sixteen or eighteen blankets (a great stake for them!) on the result, and all the passions of their savage natures were called into play. There was visible none of that Mohawk stoicism of manner which Fenimore Cooper describes. After the races were finished, Lieutenant Gracie and I concluded to ride into the camp of our amiable friends, the Cayuses, to see how they felt this evening. There was no attempt to exclude us, though if savage and scowling looks could have killed, we should both have ended our mortal career this evening in this Valley of Walla-Walla. _Thursday, June 7th._—Mr. McKay took breakfast with us. He is the son of the old Indian hunter so often mentioned in Irving's "Astoria," and whose name is identified with pioneer life in this region. The Council met to-day at twelve, when I went into the arbor, and taking my seat at the reporters' table, wrote some of the speeches delivered. There is, of course, in those of the Indians, too much repetition to give them fully, but a few extracts may show the manner in which these wearisome debates were conducted day after day: GOVERNOR STEVENS. "My brothers! we expect to have your hearts to-day. Let us have your hearts straight out." LAWYER, the old Nez Percé Chief. The first part of his speech was historical, relating the discovery of this country by the Spaniards, which is a favorite topic with the Indian orators. In the course of it, he thus narrated the story of Columbus and the egg, which he had heard from some of the missionaries. "One of the head of the court said, 'I knew there was such a country.' Columbus, who had discovered it, said, 'Can you make an egg stand on its end?' He tried to make the egg stand, but could not do it. He did not understand how. It fell over. Columbus then showed them all that he could make it stand. He set it down and it stood. He knew how, and after they saw it done, they could all do it." He thus described the manner in which the tribes at the East receded at the approach of the whites: "The red men traveled away farther, and from that time they kept traveling away farther, as the white people came up with them. And this man's people," (pointing to a Delaware Indian, who was one of the interpreters,) "are from that people. They have come on from the Great Lake where the sun rises, until they are near to us now, at the setting sun. And from that country, somewhere from the centre, came Lewis and Clarke, and that is the way the white people traveled and came on here to my forefathers. They passed through our country, they became acquainted with our country and all our streams, and our forefathers used them well, as well as they could, and from the time of Columbus, from the time of Lewis and Clarke, we have known you, my friends; we poor people have known you as brothers."