In the meanwhile divine justice is punishing rigorously a number of their robbers. This year the Nez Percés caught twelve of them in flagrant faults, and killed them. About the time that the Blackfoot above mentioned met his fate at the hands of a Flathead, thirty others were receiving the reward due to their crimes, from the Pend-d'Oreille tribe. A very remarkable fact in this last encounter is that of the four who commenced, and the others who finished it, not one fell; although, in order to break in on the delinquents, who were intrenched behind a kind of rampart, they
were obliged to expose themselves to a brisk fire. I saw the
field of combat some time afterward. Of the thirty robbers who had been slain, only five or six heads remained, and those so disfigured as to lead one to think that an age had already elapsed since their death.
Two years before, the same tribe (Pend-d'Oreilies), assisted by the Flatheads, making in all a band of seventy men, stood an attack of I,5oo Blackfeet, whom they defeated, killing in five days, during which time the battle lasted, fifty of their foes, without losing a single man on their side. They would not commence the attack until they had recited their prayers on their knees. A few days ago, the spot was pointed out to me where six Flatheads withstood I6o Blackfeet with so much resolution, that with a handful of their men who came to their aid, they gained the victory.
The most perfidious nation, after the Blackfeet, is the Bannock tribe; they also bear the Flatheads much ill will. It has happened more than once that at the very moment the Bannock tribe were receiving the greatest pcoofs of friendship from the Flatheads, the former were plotting their ruin. Of this you have already had one proof, but
here is another. One day a detachment of Zoo Bannocks visited the camp of the Flatheads, and after smoking with them returned to their encampment. The small number of the Flatheads had not, however, escaped their notice, and they determined to take advantage of their apparent