The other warriors sprang up; they
saw their chief dead, and the two warriors coming towards them; their
revenge was quick--quick as that of the panther: the two base warriors
were killed.
"Then there was a great fight among the Pale-face band, in which many
were slain; but the young man and some other braves escaped from their
enemies, and, after two moons, reached the Arkansas, where they found
their friends and some Makota Conayas (priests--black-gowns). The
remainder of the band who left us, and who murdered their chief, our
ancestors destroyed like reptiles, for they were venomous and bad. The
other half of the Pale-faces, who had remained behind in their wood
wigwams, followed our tribe to our great villages, became Comanches, and
took squaws. Their children and grandchildren have formed a good and
brave nation; they are paler than the Comanches, but their heart is all
the same; and often in the hunting-grounds they join our hunters,
partake of the same meals, and agree like brothers. These are the nation
of the Wakoes, not far in the south, upon the trail of the Cross
Timbers. But who knows not the Wakoes?--even children can go to their
hospitable lodges."
This episode is historical. In the early months of 1684, four vessels
left La Rochelle, in France, for the colonization of the Mississippi,
bearing two hundred and eighty persons.
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