They had made
themselves also, in a manner, factors for the upper tribes, supplying
them at second hand, and at greatly advanced prices, with goods derived
from the white men. The Sioux, therefore, saw with jealousy the American
traders pushing their way up the Missouri; foreseeing that the upper
tribes would thus be relieved from all dependence on them for supplies;
nay, what was worse, would be furnished with fire-arms, and elevated
into formidable rivals.
We have already alluded to a case in which Mr. Crooks and Mr. M'Lellan
had been interrupted in a trading voyage by these ruffians of the river,
and, as it is in some degree connected with circumstances hereafter to
be related, we shall specify it more particularly.
About two years before the time of which we are treating, Crooks and
M'Lellan were ascending the river in boats with a party of about forty
men, bound on one of their trading expeditions to the upper tribes. In
one of the bends of the river, where the channel made a deep curve under
impending banks, they suddenly heard yells and shouts above them, and
beheld the cliffs overhead covered with armed savages. It was a band
of Sioux warriors, upwards of six hundred strong. They brandished their
weapons in a menacing manner, and ordered the boats to turn back and
land lower down the river.
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