BOURGEOIS - Toronto Public Library

384
dHARJ,ER MAdKENZIR
for coming t.o the Missurie. I told them they came to buy
horses and were curious to know the country. I endeavoured
to force upon them that respect due to such personages by
launching out in their praise and eminence, but in vain; the
Indians saw nothing in their mien or dress that would com·
mand their respect, much less in their liberality.
They were accustomed to see white people who brought them
their necessaries, but they were accustomed to look upon every
while man as an inferior being, therefore, those traders whom
they had seen formerly, myself included, used to extort respect
from them by threats to 'which they submitted for fear of
offending the Chief of the Whites.
The Gros Ventl'es had heard from tradition of some lndians
who had been at the Spanish settlements in former times and
who had .been admitted in the presence of the Governor. Being
in a shining dress, surrounded by attendan ts and guards, he
had made such an impression on their minds, that those who
heard the tradition, formed the same idea of our chiefs or Proprietor"
in the North. They, indeed, cou ld scarcely believe
Messrs. Chaboillez and Henry to be those whom we called our
Chiefs, for, had they been Chiefs, they would at least have
brought a pipe of lobacco to give to an Indian.
They asked me who made them chiefs? were they warriors?
what made them superior to other white men? I told them
that they were chiefs by the multiplicity of their riches, and
superior to others by the many charities they made to Indians
of the North; but Lhe more I said in their praiJt-', the more
contempt I brought upon myself, and if ever I regretted any
thing in my life it was for having said too much ..........•.•.•...
Oll the other hand Messrs. Chaboillez and Henry were much
disappointed; they had promised themselves a pleasant voyage,
they had a long and disagreable one. They were accustomed
with Indians who paid them due respect: the name of a Pro-