From The Accounts Of Their
Recent Visitors, They Were Led To Believe, Though Erroneously,
That They Were Upon The Quicourt, Or Rapid River.
They proposed
now to keep along it to its confluence with the Missouri; but,
should they be prevented by
The rigors of the season from
proceeding so far, at least to reach a part of the river where
they might be able to construct canoes of greater strength and
durability than those of buffalo skins.
Accordingly, on the 13th of December, they bade adieu, with many
a regret, to their comfortable quarters where for five weeks they
had been indulging the sweets of repose, of plenty, and of
fancied security. They were still accompanied by their veteran
pack-horse, which the Arapahays had omitted to steal, either
because they intended to steal him on their return, or because
they thought him not worth stealing.
CHAPTER L.
Rough Wintry Travelling - Hills and Plains.- Snow and Ice.-
Disappearance of Game.- A Vast Dreary Plain.- A. Second Halt for
the Winter.- Another Wigwam.- New Year's Feast.- Buffalo Humps,
Tongues, and Marrow-Bones.- Return of Spring.- Launch of Canoes.
- Bad Navigation. - Pedestrian March. - Vast Prairies. - Deserted
Camps.- Pawnee Squaws.- An Otto Indian.- News of War.- Voyage
Down the Platte and the Missouri.- Reception at Fort Osage. -
Arrival at St. Louis.
THE interval of comfort and repose which the party had enjoyed in
their wigwam, rendered the renewal of their fatigues intolerable
for the first two or three days. The snow lay deep, and was
slightly frozen on the surface, but not sufficiently to bear
their weight. Their feet became sore by breaking through the
crust, and their limbs weary by floundering on without firm
foothold. So exhausted and dispirited were they, that they began
to think it would be better to remain and run the risk of being
killed by the Indians, than to drag on thus painfully, with the
probability of perishing by the way. Their miserable horse fared
no better than themselves, having for the first day or two no
other fodder than the ends of willow twigs, and the bark of the
cotton-wood tree.
They all, however, appeared to gain patience and hardihood as
they proceeded, and for fourteen days kept steadily on, making a
distance of about three hundred and thirty miles. For some days,
the range of mountains which had been near to their wigwam kept
parallel to the river at no great distance, but at length
subsided into hills. Sometimes they found the river bordered with
alluvial bottoms, and groves with cotton-wood and willows;
sometimes the adjacent country was naked and barren. In one place
it ran for a considerable distance between rocky hills and
promontories covered with cedar and pitch pines, and peopled with
the bighorn and the mountain deer; at other places it wandered
through prairies well stocked with buffaloes and antelopes. As
they descended the course of the river, they began to perceive
the ash and white oak here and there among the cotton-wood and
willow; and at length caught a sight of some wild horses on the
distant prairies.
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