This is all what I have heard, all what I have seen; and the whisper
said to me, as the vision faded away, 'Lose no time, old chief, the day
has come! Say to thy warriors, Listen to the young Pale-face. The Great
Spirit of the Red-skin will pass into his breast, and lend him some
words that the Shoshone will understand.'
"I am old and feeble; I am tired; arise, my grandson Owato Wanisha;
speak to my warriors; tell them the wishes of the Great Spirit. I
have spoken."
Thus called upon, I advanced to the place which the chief had left
vacant, and spoke in my turn:--
"Shoshones, fathers, brothers, warriors,--I am a Pale-face, but you know
all my heart is a Shoshone's. I am young, but no more a child. It is but
a short time since that I was a hunter; since that time the Manitou has
made me a warrior, and led me among strange and distant tribes, where he
taught me what I should do to render the Shoshones a great people. Hear
my words, for I have but one tongue; it is the tongue of my heart, and
in my heart now dwells the Good Spirit. Wonder not, if I assume the tone
of command to give orders; the orders I will give are the Manitou's.
"The twelve wisest heads of the Shoshones will go to the Arrapahoes.
With them they will take presents; they will take ten sons of chiefs,
who have themselves led men on the war-path; they will take ten young
girls, fair to look at, daughters of chiefs, whose voices are soft as
the warbling of the birds in the fall.
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