drawing the causes of the quarrel between the British and Americans in
phrases that could be understood by the Indian mind; but their inflated
hyperbole is not now interesting. They describe the Americans as
lighting a great council-fire, sharpening tomahawks, striking the
war-post, declining to give "two bucks for a blanket," as the British
wanted them to, etc.; with incessant allusions to the Great Spirit being
angry, the roads being made smooth, refusing to listen to the bad birds
who flew through the woods, and the like. Occasional passages are fine;
but it all belongs to the study of Indians and Indian oratory, rather
than to the history of the Americans.] and that now he had ended his
talk to them, and he wished them to speedily depart.

Not only the prisoners, but all the other chiefs in turn forthwith rose,
and in language of dignified submission protested their regret at having
been led astray by the British, and their determination thenceforth to
be friendly with the Americans.

In response Clark again told them that he came not as a counsellor but
as a warrior, not begging for a truce but carrying in his right hand
peace and in his left hand war; save only that to a few of their worst
men he intended to grant no terms whatever. To those who were friendly
he, too, would be a friend, but if they chose war, he would call from
the Thirteen Council Fires [Footnote: In his speeches, as in those of
his successors in treaty-making, the United States were sometimes spoken
of as the Thirteen Fires, and sometimes as the Great Fire.] warriors so
numerous that they would darken the land, and from that time on the red
people would hear no sound but that of the birds that lived on blood. He
went on to tell them, that there had been a mist before their eyes, but
that he would clear away the cloud and would show them the right of the
quarrel between the Long Knives and the King who dwelt across the great