human
Brothers, said he,
gpt
We open our ears to what Big White has said, replied Lewis--speaking through Jussaume, the Frenchman, who soon was added as interpreter to the party.
human
We are the children of a Great Father in the East, who gives you this medal with his picture on it. He sends you this coat, this hat of a chief. He gives you this hatchet, this case of tobacco. There are other hatchets and more tobacco for your people.
gpt
What Great Father is that? demanded Big White.
human
It seems there are many Great Fathers in these days! Who are you strangers, who come from so far?
gpt
You yourself shall judge, Big White. When the geese fly up the river and the grass is green, our great boat here is going back down the river. The Great Father is curious to know his children, the Mandans. If you, Big White, wish to go to see him when the grass is green, you shall sit yonder in that boat and go all the way with some of my men. You shall shake his hand. When you come back, you can tell the story to your own people. Then all the tribes will cease to wage war. Your women once more may take off their moccasins at night when they sleep.
human
It is good, said the Mandan.
gpt
When the grass is green, said Lewis,
human
I shall lead my young men toward the setting sun. We shall make new trails.
gpt
What are you doing here? they demanded.
human
The Missouri has always belonged to the British traders.
gpt
We are about the business of our government, he said.
human
It is our purpose to discover the West beyond here, all of it. It is our own country that we are discovering. We have bought it and paid for it, and will hold it. We carry the news of the great purchase to the natives.
gpt
Purchase? What purchase?
human
The Louisiana Purchase--the purchase of all this Western country from the Mississippi to the Pacific, across the Stony Mountains. We bought it from Napoleon, who had it from Spain. We are the wedge to split the British from the South--the Missouri is our own pathway into our own country. That is our business here!
gpt
You must go back! said the hot-headed Irishman.
human
I shall tell my factor, Chaboillez, at Fort Assiniboine. We want no more traders here. This is our country!
gpt
We do not come to trade, said Meriwether Lewis.
human
We play a larger game. I know that the men of the Northwest Company have found the Arctic Ocean--you are welcome to it until we want it--we do not want it now. I know you have found the Pacific somewhere above the Columbia--we do not want what we have not bought or found for ourselves, and you are welcome to that. But when you ask us to turn back on our own trail, it is a different matter. We are on our own soil now, and we will not turn for any order in the world but that of the President of the United States!
gpt
It is a fine fairy tale they tell us!
human
Those men she'll take her dog-team for Assiniboine now--maybe so one hundred and fifty miles that way. He'll told his factor now, on the Assiniboine post.
gpt
Tell him to take this letter to his factor, Drouillard, said he.
human
It is a passport given me by Mr. Thompson, representing Mr. Merry, of the British Legation at Washington. I have fifty other passports, better ones, each good at a hundred yards. If Mr. Chaboillez wishes to find us, he can do so. If we have gone, let him come after us in the spring.
gpt
My faith, said Jussaume, the Frenchman,
human
said Meriwether Lewis.
gpt
It will be a long way back from there in the spring. While they are planning to start, already we shall be on our way.
human
I know the man they'll send, went on Jussaume.
gpt
Simon Fraser--I know him. Long time he'll want to go up the Saskatchewan and over the mountain on the ocean.
human
We'll race Mr. Fraser to the ocean, said Meriwether Lewis;