Here The Alluvial Bottom Was From One To Two Miles
Wide, And Thickly Covered With A Forest Of Cotton-Wood Trees;
While Herds Of Buffalo Were Scattered About The Neighboring
Prairie, Several Of Which Soon Fell Beneath Their Rifles.
They encamped on the margin of the river, in a grove where there
were trees large enough for canoes.
Here they put up a shed for
immediate shelter, and immediately proceeded to erect a hut. New
Year's day dawned when, as yet, but one wall of their cabin was
completed; the genial and jovial day, however, was not permitted
to pass uncelebrated, even by this weatherbeaten crew of
wanderers. All work was suspended, except that of roasting and
boiling. The choicest of the buffalo meat, with tongues, and
humps, and marrow-bones, were devoured in quantities that would
astonish any one that has not lived among hunters or Indians; and
as an extra regale, having no tobacco left, they cut up an old
tobacco pouch, still redolent with the potent herb, and smoked it
in honor of the day. Thus for a time, in present revelry, however
uncouth, they forgot all past troubles and all anxieties about
the future, and their forlorn wigwam echoed to the sound of
gayety.
The next day they resumed their labors, and by the 6th of the
month it was complete. They soon killed abundance of buffalo, and
again laid in a stock of winter provisions. The party were more
fortunate in this, their second cantonment. The winter passed
away without any Indian visitors, and the game continued to be
plenty in the neighborhood. They felled two large trees, and
shaped them into canoes; and, as the spring opened, and a thaw of
several days' continuance melted the ice in the river, they made
every preparation for embarking. On the 8th of March they
launched forth in their canoes, but soon found that the river had
not depth sufficient even for such slender barks. It expanded
into a wide but extremely shallow stream, with many sand-bars,
and occasionally various channels. They got one of their canoes a
few miles down it, with extreme difficulty, sometimes wading and
dragging it over the shoals; at length they had to abandon the
attempt, and to resume their journey on foot, aided by their
faithful old pack-horse, who had recruited strength during the
repose of the winter.
The weather delayed them for a few days, having suddenly become
more rigorous than it had been at any time during the winter; but
on the 20th of March they were again on their journey.
In two days they arrived at the vast naked prairie, the wintry
aspect of which had caused them, in December, to pause and turn
back. It was now clothed in the early verdure of spring, and
plentifully stocked with game. Still, when obliged to bivouac on
its bare surface, without any shelter, and by a scanty fire of
dry buffalo dung, they found the night blasts piercing cold. On
one occasion, a herd of buffalo straying near their evening camp,
they killed three of them merely for their hides, wherewith to
make a shelter for the night.
They continued on for upwards of a hundred miles; with vast
prairies extending before them as they advanced; sometimes
diversified by undulating hills, but destitute of trees. In one
place they saw a gang of sixty-five wild horses, but as to the
buffaloes, they seemed absolutely to cover the country. Wild
geese abounded, and they passed extensive swamps that were alive
with innumerable flocks of water-fowl, among which were a few
swans, but an endless variety of ducks.
The river continued a winding course to the east-north-east,
nearly a mile in width, but too shallow to float even an empty
canoe. The country spread out into a vast level plain, bounded by
the horizon alone, excepting to the north, where a line of hills
seemed like a long promontory stretching into the bosom of the
ocean. The dreary sameness of the prairie wastes began to grow
extremely irksome. The travellers longed for the sight of a
forest, or grove, or single tree, to break the level uniformity,
and began to notice every object that gave reason to hope they
were drawing towards the end of this weary wilderness. Thus the
occurrence of a particular kind of grass was hailed as a proof
that they could not be far from the bottoms of the Missouri; and
they were rejoiced at putting up several prairie hens, a kind of
grouse seldom found far in the interior. In picking up driftwood
for fuel, also, they found on some pieces the mark of an axe,
which caused much speculation as to the time when and the persons
by whom the trees had been felled. Thus they went on, like
sailors at sea, who perceive in every floating weed and wandering
bird, harbingers of the wished-for land.
By the close of the month the weather became very mild, and,
heavily burdened as they were, they found the noontide
temperature uncomfortably warm. On the 30th, they came to three
deserted hunting camps, either of Pawnees or Ottoes, about which
were buffalo skulls in all directions; and the frames on which
the hides had been stretched and cured. They had apparently been
occupied the preceding autumn.
For several days they kept patiently on, watching every sign that
might give them an idea as to where they were, and how near to
the banks of the Missouri.
Though there were numerous traces of hunting parties and
encampments, they were not of recent date. The country seemed
deserted. The only human beings they met with were three Pawnee
squaws, in a hut in the midst of a deserted camp. Their people
had all gone to the south, in pursuit of the buffalo, and had
left these poor women behind, being too sick and infirm to
travel.
It is a common practice with the Pawnees, and probably with other
roving tribes, when departing on a distant expedition, which will
not admit of incumbrance or delay, to leave their aged and infirm
with a supply of provisions sufficient for a temporary
subsistence.
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