on the Missouri river, and has remained here ever since—which is about ten or twelve years. He has acquired a correct knowledge of their manner of living, and speaks their language fluently. He has to be quite a considerable character, or chief, in their village; at least he assumes all the dignities of a chief, for he has four wives, with whom he lives alternately. This is the custom of many of the chiefs. Passage 2 (1834) On the return, Leonard met the same man again, in 1834: Passage 3 Proposed identities for the Black man Leonard met Edward Rose Edward Rose was a fur trapper who lived for three years among the Crow and spoke their language. He was employed by Europeans as guide and interpreter. However, in a letter that only appeared in the late 1930s, Rose was killed by Indians during the winter of 1832–33, which means he could have not have been the black man Leonard saw in 1834. In addition, Rose's father was white and his mother was half Black and half Cherokee, so he was not "a negro man". James Beckwourth James Beckwourth, who left us a lengthy autobiography, was a former slave who lived among the Crow much of the time between 1829 and 1836. However, Leonard refers to an "old negro", and Beckwourth was born in 1798 or 1800, so he would have been in his early 30s when Leonard came in contact with the old negro; according to Betts, this "all but rules him out". Also, he would have been a small child at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803–1806, and could not have been part of it. While Beckworth claims to have led the Crows' attack on the Blackfoot described by Leonard, he was "notorious" for "just plain lying" and claiming others' deeds as his own. He was called a humbug by one who knew him. "I knew Jim intimately and he was the biggest liar that ever lived." In addition, he was not negroid in appearance. His father was white, and the ethnicity of his mother is not known, but she may well have been no more than half or a quarter Black (quadroon). He never described himself as Black, and he "resembled an Indian so much as to pass for one." Three people who saw him did not realize he was of mixed blood;