Cadotte, who possessed a perfect knowledge of Indian character, perceived at once the necessity of complying with their request, for the purpose of proving to them that he confided in their words, and to show to them that he feared them not. He therefore opened his gate, and allowed the chiefs and principal men to fill his cabin, where he held a short council with them, while his men vigilantly guarded the defenses, and keenly watched the movements of the numerous Dakota warriors, who stood outside. He gave the Dakotas presents of tobacco and ammunition, and he distributed amongst them meat sufficient for a meal. In return, they welcomed him with apparent cordiality to their country, and invited him to go back with them to their winter camp, where they told of possessing many beaver skins.

Cadotte, placing confidence in their expressions of goodwill, determined to accept their invitation. Most of his men, who were hunting in the vicinity of his trading house, had now arrived, having heard the report of the Dakota guns, as they made their attack in the morning. The Indians, only, kept aloof for fear of the enemy.

He selected thirty of his best men, well armed, and giving them packs of goods to carry, at their head, he accompanied the Dakotas back to their camp, which they reached at the distance of one day's march. They found the camp to number over one hundred lodges, formed of leather. They were well received, and entertained with the choicest portions of the buffalo, elk, and bear meat, which abounded in every lodge. Cadotte was himself installed in the chief's more extensive lodge, where the whole night long he carried on an active trade, as one after the other, warriors, hunters, and women, entered to exchange their furs for such articles as they needed, or such trinkets as struck their fancy. He soon collected as many packs of beaver and other fur as his men could well carry away. Notwithstanding his brisk trade, many of the goods still remained on his hands, and Cadotte could not help but notice the covetous looks which the chief and his warriorscast on these as he ordered his men to bale them into packs in order to carry away.

In the morning, after the Dakotas had again feasted and smoked with them, the trader prepared to depart. The Dakota chief insisted on accompanying him a part of the way with a guard of his warriors, as a mark of honor and respect, and Cadotte, unable to resist his importunities, at last accepted the offer of his company, and together they left the camp. The Dakotas, nearly equal in number to themselves, led the van, and in this order they travelled, occasionally making short halts to smoke and rest, till they reached about half the distance to their trading house, when, just as they were about to enter a heavy clump of trees and thickets, through which winded their path, the Dakota chief and his men suddenly stopped, sat down on the roadside, and prepared to fill their pipes, requesting their white brothers to take their turn and go ahead, while they, being light, would take a smoke, and soon catch up with them.

Mons. Cadotte, perfectly unsuspicious, followed the wishes of the chief, and at the head of his men, he was leading off, when his interpreter, Rasle, approached and remarked to him, that he suspected treachery. He had noticed in the morning when they started to leave the camp, that all the men but those who accompanied them, had disappeared, and also that they had been holding secret councils in different lodges during the whole night. Rasle further intimated that the heavy clump of trees through which they were about to pass, being the only spot on the route adapted to an ambuscade, he suspected that men, who had so early made their disappearance from the camp, had been sent ahead to here lay in wait and surprise them, While the chief, with his pretended guard, would attack in the rear, as his present, movement and request for them to go ahead plainly indicated. The truth of these suspicions flashed through Cadotte's mind, and being of an impulsive nature, he instantly ordered his men to throw down their packs, and prepare for instant action. Then suddenly approaching the chief, who was now quietly smoking his pipe, he cocked his gun, and presented it to his breast, telling Rasle to say to him, that "he saw through his treachery, and that he would be the first to suffer death, unless he ordered his warriors to give up their arms, and also cleared the path he was traveling, of the men whom he had sent ahead to waylay him."

The chief at first stoutly denied the charge, but when he saw Cadotte's men forcibly take the arms out of the hands of his chosen warriors, whom they outnumbered, he burst into tears, and begged for his life, and the lives of his men. This being assured in case the ambuscade amongst the trees ahead would disperse, the chief sent one of his disarmed warriors thither, and a few moments after, large body of painted warriors emerged from the wood, and quietly marched off in single file across the wide prairie towards their camp. The treacherous chief, with his guard, were taken by Cadotte to his post, and kept as hostages, till he could collect and warn his scattered trappers and Pillager hunters, against feeling too secure, in the idea that a firm peace had been effected with the Dakotas. When this had been effected, the post more fully manned, and every man been put on his guard, the chieftain with his men were allowed to go home, once more loaded with tobacco and presents, in hopes that his people would appreciate the kindness and forbearance of their white neighbors.

Mons. Cadotte's party remained at this post all winter, and they received no more molestation from the Dakotas, who did not thereafter even make their appearance in the vicinity of their hunting range. In the spring, after the snow had disappeared, and the ice melted on the lakes anti rivers, these adventurers evacuated their winter quarters, and proceeding up Leaf River in their canoes, they made a portage into Otter Tail Lake, and descended from thence down the Red River.

The variance in the different accounts, which have been given to me of this expedition, lies mostly in different spots being mentioned where the party are said to have wintered, and different routes having been taken to reach these spots. I am disposed to account for these disagreements, in the accounts of persons whose memory and veracity cannot well be questioned, by assuming the ground that the party, consisting of several different traders, each with his own equipment of supplies and men, must have separated at Sandy Lake, and while one party proceeded (as has been mentioned) up the Mississippi to Red Lake, and wintering at Prairie Portage, and at Pembina, the other party under Cadotte in person, took their course down the Mississippi, and underwent the adventures which we have related.

It is stated, that at Prairie Portage, after the traders had all again collected in the spring, the Dakotas in large numbers made demonstrations to fall upon and pillage them, and the only manner in which the whites succeeded in intimidating them to forego their designs, was to heap their remaining powder kegs into a pile in the center of their camp, and threatening to set fire to them the moment the Dakotas attempted to pillage. At Pembina the party were obliged to make new canoes of elk and buffalo hides, the seams of which, thickly covered with tallow, made them nearly as watertight as birch canoes. In these they descended the current of the Red River, and returned to Lake Superior by the Great Lake Winnipeg, a northern route. At Rainy Lake they made birch-bark canoes, in which, late in the summer, they reached Grand Portage, the principal northwestern depot of the Northwest Company. The accounts, which they gave of the country, which they had explored, induced this rich company immediately to extend their operations throughout its whole extent, and this portion of their trade became known as the Fond du Lac department. The depot, or collecting point, was built at Fond du Lac, near the entry of the St. Louis River, and this post, or "Fort," was surrounded with strong cedar pickets. The remains of this old establishment are still plainly visible. In 1796, the Northwest Company built a stockaded post at Sandy Lake, and soon after, they located another at Leech Lake. These were the immediate results of Cadotte's expedition, and from that period, now sixty years ago, the Ojibways of the Upper Mississippi River have been constantly supplied with resident traders, and their former periodical visits to Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinaw ceased almost entirely.

Wa-won-je-gnon, the aged and intelligent chief of the Red Lake band of the Ojibways, states, that from this expedition can be dated the settlement of Red Lake by the Ojibways. He also states that the traders on this occasion made a minute exploration of the lake and sounded the depth of its waters. In the deepest portions they discovered it to be but eight fathoms.

There is living at Red Lake an aged Indian, whose name is Bow-it-ig-o-win-in, signifying "Sault Ste. Marie man," who first came into the country as an engagé to Mons. Cadotte during this voyage, and has remained in it ever since, having married and raised a family of children. So far as I can learn, this old Indian is now the only survivor of the sixty men who are said to have formed the party. An incident is currently related among the northern Ojibways, which is said to have happened while Cadotte's party were wintering on Leaf River. Mr. Bell, one of the traders or clerks associated with him, kept in his employ a gigantic Negro, whose name was "Tom." Mr. Bell himself was a small and feebly constituted man, but of very irritable disposition, especially when under the influence of liquor. One evening he quarreled with his Negro Tom, and both being somewhat intoxicated, they grappled in mortal strife. The huge negro easily threw his master on the floor, and pressing him forcibly down, he unmercifully and dreadfully beat him with his fists. Mr. Bell's Indian wife was sitting by a table making moccasins, and held in her hand a penknife, which she was occasionally using. Seeing the hopeless situation of her husband, she ran to his rescue, and stabbed the negro with her penknife till she killed him.