La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

444 THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY. [1687.for he was resolved to escape, at the first opportunity,from the company of Duhaut and his accomplices.He therefore made the present of a knife to a youngIndian, whom he sent to find the two Frenchmen andinvite them to come to the village. Meanwhile hecontinued his barter, but under many difficulties ;forhe could only explain himself by signs, and his customers,though friendly by day, pilfered his goodsby night. This, joined to the fears and troubleswhich burdened his mind, almost deprived him ofsleep, and, as he confesses, greatly depressed hisspirits. Indeed, he had little cause for cheerfulnessas to the past, present, or future. An old Indian,one of the patriarchs of the tribe, observing his dejectionand anxious to relieve it, one evening broughthim a young wife, saying that he made him a presentof her. She seated herself at his side; "but," saysJoutel, "as my head was full of other cares andanxieties, I said nothing to the poor girl. Shewaited for a little time ; and then, finding that I didnot speak a word, she went away." 1Late one night, he lay between sleeping and wakingon the buffalo-robe that covered his bed of canes.All around the great lodge, itsinmates were buriedin sleep ; and the fire that still burned in the midstcast ghostly gleams on the trophies of savage chivalry— the treasured scalp-locks, the spear and war-club,and shield of whitened bull-hide — that hung byeach warrior's resting-place. Such was the weird1 Journal Historiaue> 237.