"There were already two thousand of them at La Pointe when I left the
place," said an intelligent gentleman who had just returned from the lake,
"and they were starving. If an Indian family has a stock of provisions on
hand sufficient for a month, it is sure to eat it up in a week, and the
Indians at La Pointe had already consumed all they had provided, and were
living on what they could shoot in the woods, or get by fishing in the
lake."
I inquired of him the probable number of Indians the occasion would bring
together.
"Seven thousand," he answered. "Among them are some of the wildest tribes
on the continent, whose habits have been least changed by the neighborhood
of the white man. A new tribe will come in who never before would have any
transactions with the government. They are called the Pillagers, a fierce
and warlike race, proud of their independence, and, next to the Blackfeet
and the Camanches, the most ferocious and formidable tribe within the
territory of the United States. They inhabit the country about Red River
and the head-waters of the Mississippi."
I was further told that some of the Indian traders had expressed their
determination to disregard the law, set up their tents at La Pointe, and
sell spirits to the savages.
