A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

16 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1738, 1739.Indian companions hunting buffalo on the way.They approached the first Mandan village on theafternoon of the third of December, displaying aFrench flag and firing three volleys as a salute. Thewhole population poured out to see the marvellousvisitors, who were conducted through the staringcrowd to the lodge of the principal chief, — a capaciousstructure so thronged with the naked and greasysavages that the Frenchmen were half smothered.What was worse, they lost the bag that held all theirpresentsfor the Mandans, which was snatched awayin the confusion, and hidden in one of the caches,called cellars by La Verendrye, of which the placewas full. The chief seemed much discomposed atthis mishap, and explained it by saying that therewere many rascals in the village. The loss wasserious, since without the presents nothing could bedone. Nor was this all; for in the morning LaVdrendrye missed his interpreter, and was told thathe had fallen in love with an Assiniboin girl andgone off in pursuit of her. The French were nowwithout any means of communicating with theMandans, from whom, however, before the disappearanceof the interpreter,they had already receiveda variety of questionable information, chiefly touchingwhite men cased in iron who were said to live onthe river below at the distance of a whole summer'sjourney. As they were impervious to arrows, — sothe story ran, — it was necessary to shoot their horses,after which, being too heavy to run, they were easily