This village was admirably protected from attack on every side;
and in front, the Red River, there clear and transparent, rolls its deep
waters. At the back of the village, stony and perpendicular mountains
rise to the height of two thousand feet, and their ascent is impossible,
except by ladders and ropes, or where steps have been cut into the rock.
The wigwams, one thousand in number, extend, for the space of four
miles, upon a beautiful piece of rich alluvial soil in a very high state
of cultivation; the fields were well fenced and luxuriant with maize,
pumpkins, melons, beans, and squashes. The space between the mountains
and the river, on each side of the village, was thickly planted with
close ranks of prickly pear, impassable to man or beast, so that the
only way in which the Pawnees could be attacked was in front, by forcing
a passage across the river, which could not be effected without a great
loss of life, as the Pawnees are a brave people and well supplied with
rifles, although in their prairie hunts they prefer to use their lances
and their arrows.
When we entered the great council lodge, the great chief, Wetara Sharoj,
received us with great urbanity, assigned to us places next to him, and
gave the signal for the Pawnee elders to enter the lodge.
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