The
Indians found nothing in the canoe, but one rifle, with a horn and
pouch, a few light articles belonging to the bee-hunter's domestic
economy, and which he had not thought it necessary to remove, and
the paddles. All the honey, and the skins and stores, and spare
powder, and lead, and, in short, everything else that belonged to le
Bourdon, was still safe on the other side of the river. The greatest
advantage gained by the Pottawattamies was in the possession of the
canoe itself, by means of which they would now be enabled to cross
the Kalamazoo, or make any other similar expedition, by water.
But, as yet, not a sign of hostility was betrayed by either party.
The bee-hunter seemed to pay no attention to his rifle and
ammunition, or even to his canoe, while the savages, after having
warily examined the last, together with its contents, returned to
their visitor, to re-examine him, with a curiosity as lively as it
was full of distrust. At this stage in the proceeding, something
like a connected and intelligible conversation commenced between the
chief who spoke English, and who was known in most of the north-
western garrisons of the Americans by the name of Thundercloud, or
Cloud, by way of abbreviation, on account of his sinister looks,
though the man actually sustained a tolerably fair reputation for
one of those who, having been wronged, was so certain to be
calumniated.
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