as thick as a man's thumb. All the passengers of the steamboat regaled themselves with it during four days. I will tell you nothing of our little encounters with the wolves and the serpents; that would dispel the charm.
On the route, I instructed and baptized, on the vessel, a woman with her three children, and heard the confessions of a great number of Canadian voyageurs, who were going to the Rocky Mountains.
A tomb attracts attention in these regions; it is the tomb of Blackbird, the great chief of the Omahas. This chief became celebrated by the ascendancy which he possessed over his nation; he was an object of terror and respect to his people, for they believed that he could control life and death. The origin of their belief is as follows: he had procured a large quantity of arsenic, by the aid of a trader; the latter at the same time instructed him in the method of using it; but the wretch soon received his recompense. Blackbird invited him to dine with him on a day appointed, and adroitly administered to him a good dose of his terrible medicine. The trader, to the great pleasure of his host, died some hours after, in frightful torments.
Proud of his attempt, Blackbird soon meditated a perfidious blow, and made great preparation for its execution. He dispatched a party of his people to the chase, so as to kill some deer and buffalo for his banquet. The principal warriors and the minor chiefs had become jealous of the ascendancy that the great chief exercised for some time over the nation. Blackbird, informed of their discontent and murmurs, invited to his feast every one of his warriors who had murmured. He lavished his attentions upon them, and showed the most distinguished marks of cordiality to his guests, wishing apparently to be reconciled with them, and to efface the bad impression that his hard-heartedness and haughty bearing had caused. As soon as each one had emptied his plate, and the poison had begun to act on some, he threw off the mask, and