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. At the great council of the
Arrapahoes, the ten girls will be offered to ten great chiefs, and ten
great chiefs will offer their own daughters to our ten young warriors;
they will offer peace for ever; they will exchange all the scalps, and
they will say that their fathers, the Shoshones, will once more open
their arms to their brave children. Our best hunting-ground shall be
theirs; they will fish the salmon of our rivers; they will be Arrapahoes
Shoshones; we will become Shoshones Arrapahoes. I have already sent to
the settlement of the Watchinangoes my ancient Pale-face friend of the
stout heart and keen eye; shortly we will see at the Post a vessel with
arms, ammunition, and presents for the nation. I will go myself with a
party of warriors to the prairies of the Apaches, and among the
Comanches.

"Yet I hear within me a stout voice, which I must obey. My grandfather,
the old chief, has said he should be no more a chief. It was wrong, very
wrong; the Manitou is angry. Is the buffalo less a buffalo when he grows
old, or the eagle less an eagle when a hundred winters have whitened his
wings? No! their nature cannot change, not more than that of a chief and