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Show 260 JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE Th~s day we passed the last mountains, and again entered the great Mississippi valley, it being six months and thirteen days since we first came in sight of them. Distance 20 n1iles. 29tb May, Friday.-Marched at seven o'clock and came to the river Millada and Rancho. sotb May, Satw·day.-Marchecl at five o'clock and arrived at the river Sabine at eight-forded it. Marched in the evening at four o'clock, at ten encamped at the Second Ridge without water. Distance 27 tnilcs. . 31st May, Sunday.-Marched early and at rune o'clock arrived at a Rancho, a fine running water-course east and west. Marched eight miles further to a point of woods and encan1ped. No water. Distance 23 miles. 1st June, Monday.-Arrived at the Presidio Rio Grande at eight o'clock. This place was the position to which our friend Barelo was ordered, anu which had been very highly spoken of to him, but he found himself miserably mistaken, for it was with the greatest difficulty we obtained any thing to cat, which mortified him extremely. When at Chihuahua, general Salcedo had asked me if 1 had not lost a man by desertion, to which I replied in the negative. l-Ie then infonned tne that an 1\.merican hadarrived at the Presidio Rio Grande in the last year : that he had at first confined him, but that he was now released and practicing physic, and that he wished me to cxamme hitn on my arrival : I therefore had him sent for ; the tnoment he entered the romn I discovered he never had received a liberal education, or been accustomed to poli hed society. I told him the reason that I had requested to sec him, and that I had it in my power to serve him if I found hiu1 a character worthy of interference. I Ie then related the following story ; " That his name "was l\1artin Henderson, that he was born in Rock Bridge THROUGH TilE INTERIOR PROVINCES, 3.- c. ~G 1 " county, state of Virginia ; that he had been brought up " a farmer, but, that coming early to the state of Ken" tucky and Tennessee, he had acquired a taste for a " frontier life, and that in the spring of 1806, himself and " four companions, had left the Saline in the Ditltri ·t of " Saint Genevieve, Upper Louisiana, in order to pcne" trate through the woods to the province of Texas ; " that his companions had left hixn on the White River , " and that he had continued on : that in swin1minrr somt• " western branch his horse sunk under him, and it w~s with " difficulty he had made the shore with his gun. T I ere " he waited two or three days until his horse rose, and he " then got his saddle bags, but that all his notes on the " country, courses, &c. were destroyed. lie then pro" ceeded on foot for a few days, when he was met by 30 " or 40 Osage warriors, who on his telling thetn he wa'i " going to the Spaniards were about to kill him, but on "h" . h IS saymg c would go to the Americans, they helJ a " consultation over him, and finally seized on his cloLhes "" an dd'I V·I.~t c d them between t~cm; then his pi tol ,, com-' pass, d1rk and watch, whxch they took to pieces and " h ung m. t h e1. r noses and cars; then stripped him '' naked, and round his body they founJ a belt with gold " pieces sewed in it; this they also took, and finally seized " on his gun and amznunition, and v:ere marching off to " leave hin1 in that situation, but he followed them think- " . . ' mg It better to be killed than left in that state to die by " hunger and cold. The savages after son1e time halted " an d one pulled o:ff an old pair of leggins and gave him ' ,, h . ' anot er mockmsons, and a third a buffalo robe, and the " one who had carried his heavy rifle had by this time be:: came tired of his prize, (they never u~ing riLles) and they counted hi1n out ~5 charges of powder and ball u then sent two lndjanc with him who put him on a \' ~11: |