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Show 110 d 1. ·· tha't 'vay "'vVe continued on till the streams ec tmng ~ · · · d h l . 1 ·111to a river of considerable stze, an t e tn at gee . 1 l . ·1 · h became level well umberec , t 1e so1 a nc country ' . . . d 11 bl k l m . the waters were all cleat an we tasted. ac oa , . cr: 'l f' h f.l c 0 L1nd a o-reat many d1nerent tn )es o t e ere we 1~ ;-, · l'k · H . t Appaches and Concee lndmns; we 1 ewtse te an, · h d tell in with them frequently from th~ time we a been a few days out from the Pams towt~s, and were always treated kindly by them. I beheve the d . from t·l1e Panis old towns to where we saw tstance . h d d the last of Red river water, lS at least. one un re 1e ague s ., ac nd in crossing over the • ndgel , 1w e saw ·no an~mals that were not common m al t \e coun. tr r of Louisiana, except the spotted tyger, and a few wJ nl. te b eat·s . Af'ter spending some da)'S on the west· a S F . waters we sat off for the settlements of t. a ~e; etn , d · c d . -steering nearly a south-east course, ?n m a .t~W a)S were out of the tin1bered co~ntry m to pratne; the country became broken and htlly .; the w~ters all ru~nin west..,vardly; the country cloath~d With ~ luxurtant1erbage, and frequently passing mtnes of silyer ore. We arrived, at length, at a smal~, . meanly bmlt town in the St. a Fe' settlement, contammg about on~ hun· dred houses, round which were some small, culttvated fields fenced round with stnall cedar and mnsketo . brush wattled in stakes. 1'his little town was o? a small ~tream of \Vater that ran westwardl~, an~ ~n t~ drv season -scarcely run at all; and that the tnhabttan I . were obliged to ,~.;ater their cattle from well~- And. unde'rstood that the bayau upon which tlus ~own h15 situated was no part o f R1. 0 G ran d'1 , b u t fell .m to t e western' ocean; but of that I might have been mi.st~ken. I understood that similar small towns, or rolSSIOOS~ were within certain distances of each other for 1 a ;sr~a extent southwardly, towards Mexico; and that tM1e n: ;· bitants ,vere mostly c h n.s tl.a m. sed I n di ans and atm. sh. That the mines in that settl.ement afford:~ veryaZ{~d Ore which was taken away In large quanuues, P on-m' ales, and had the sa1ne appearance o f wh ·a t we met 111 with about the head bnmches of Red river. After furnishi.ng .our~elves ~vith horses at this plnce, we sat off agam tor the Pams towns, from whence we started, skering at first southwardly in order to avoid a hig-h, mountainous country that' is diH~cult to cross that lies between St. a Fe' and Red river. After tra: velling some distance south, we turned our course northeastwardly, and arrived at the Panis towns in eighteen days from the day '"e left St. a Fe' settle ... ments; and three tnonths and twentv days from the time we started." .. He is of the opinion that from the Panis tov~'ns t0 St. a Ft', in a right line, is nearly three hundred miles, and all the country prairie, a few scattering cedar knobs excepted. After he had finished his narrative I asked him how far Red river was boatable. He s'aid not much above the Panis old towns; not that he kn~w of any particular falls or obstructions, but that the head bra~ches of the river came from steep tnountains, on whtch the rain often poured down in torrents, and runs ~nto the river.''. ith such velocity, sweeping along with 1t large quantities of loose earth, of which these hills ?nd mountains are composed: that it rolls like a swell m the sea, and \\'Ould either sink or carry alono- with it any boat that it might meet in the river. B~Jt, he observed at the same time, that his opinion was founded on no experiment that he had ever known made. I ask.td him if the Indians had no perogues high up in the n ver. He told me, that the Indians there knew nothing of the use of them, for instead of their being for hundreds of miles a tree large enough for a canoe, one could scarcely be found large enough to make a !owl trough. I asked him what animals were found 1? the Great prairies. He told me, that from Blue ~Iver, upwards, on both sides of Red river, there were mnumerable quantities of wild horses, buffaloe, bears, wolves, elk, deer, foxes, sangliers or wild hogs, antelope, white hares, rabbits, &c. and on the moun.ains the spotted tyger, panther, and wild cat. He farther |