Mr. Hunt, Therefore, Considered Himself Fortunate In
Having Met With A Man Who Might Be Of Great Use To Him In Any
Intercourse He Might Have With The Tribe.
This was a wandering
individual named Edward Rose, whom he had picked up somewhere on
the Missouri - one of those anomalous beings found on the
frontier, who seem to have neither kin nor country.
He had lived
some time among the Crows, so as to become acquainted with their
language and customs; and was, withal, a dogged, sullen, silent
fellow, with a sinister aspect, and more of the savage than the
civilized man in his appearance. He was engaged to serve in
general as a hunter, but as guide and interpreter when they
should reach the country of the Crows.
On the 18th of July, Mr. Hunt took up his line of march by land
from the Arickara village, leaving Mr. Lisa and Mr. Nuttall
there, where they intended to await the expected arrival of Mr.
Henry from the Rocky Mountains. As to Messrs. Bradbury and
Breckenridge, they had departed some days previously, on a voyage
down the river to St. Louis, with a detachment from Mr. Lisa's
party. With all his exertions, Mr. Hunt had been unable to obtain
a sufficient number of horses for the accommodation of all his
people. His cavalcade consisted of eighty-two horses, most of
them heavily laden with Indian goods, beaver traps, ammunition,
Indian corn, corn meal and other necessaries. Each of the
partners was mounted, and a horse was allotted to the
interpreter, Pierre Dorion, for the transportation of his luggage
and his two children. His squaw, for the most part of the time,
trudged on foot, like the residue of the party; nor did any of
the men show more patience and fortitude than this resolute woman
in enduring fatigue and hardship.
The veteran trappers and voyageurs of Lisa's party shook their
heads as their comrades set out, and took leave of them as of
doomed men; and even Lisa himself gave it as his opinion, after
the travellers had departed, they would never reach the shores of
the Pacific, but would either perish with hunger in the
wilderness, or be cut off by the savages.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Summer Weather of the Prairies.- Purity of the Atmosphere-
Canadians on the March.- Sickness in the Camp.- Big River.-
Vulgar Nomenclature.- Suggestions About the Original Indian
Names.- Camp of Cheyennes.- Trade for Horses.- Character of the
Cheyennes.- Their Horsemanship.- Historical Anecdotes of the
Tribe.
THE course taken by Mr. Hunt was at first to the northwest, but
soon turned and kept generally to the southwest, to avoid the
country infested by the Blackfeet. His route took him across some
of the tributary streams of the Missouri, and over immense
prairies, bounded only by the horizon, and destitute of trees. It
was now the height of summer, and these naked plains would be
intolerable to the traveller were it not for the breezes which
swept over them during the fervor of the day, bringing with them
tempering airs from the distant mountains.
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