| OCR Text |
Show [ 174 J 10 1 .. 1.rt· . t tl ese lfcmy Brant sou of Col. .J. B. Brant, of St. Louis, u. 1o1 n,lnug u Lm 10a lln 0o f l nin'e teen years of> age, and Rando 1p 1 j · 1 b f 1, u. 1 ve y oy o tw~lve son of the Hon. Thomas II. Benton, accomp.anted me, fo~ the devela n~ent of mind and body which such an expcd1~10n wo?ld g1ve. \Ve wer~ all well armed and mounted, with the except10n of Cigi~t men, who conducted as many carts, in which were packed our stores, w1th the bagy and instruments and which were eac.l1 drawn by two mules. A few Foa!~ horses, and fou~ oxen, which had been added to o~n· stock of pro- vu. n·o ns, cotn pleted tl1e train · 'N e sat out on the· mornmg ofd 'tdh e I Oth, r 1 which happened to be Friday-a circumst.ancc wbtclt o~tr men 1 not 7a1 to remember and recall during the hardships 11:nd vexatwn~ of the eusumg J·O ur.n e y . 1\,r1. Cyprian Chouteau to whose kmdnes~, dmmg o. nr stay at .d • ' . 1 ·1 his house, we were much inLlebte<l, accompamed us severa 1111 cs on our way, until we met an Inuian, whom he had enga~cd to coudnct us ou tho iirst thirty or forty miles, where he was. to cot~s1gn us. to the ocean of prairie, which, we were t~ld, stretched without mterrnptwn almost to the base of the Rocky monntams. . . From the belt of wood which borders the Kansas, ll1 whtch we had passed several good-looking Indian farms,. we suddenly ~merg:e~ on ~b? prairies, which received us at the outset With some of thetr str.lkmg .chatacteristics ; for here and there ro.de an Indian, and but a few mdes d1st~ut heavy clouds of smoke :vere ro1lmg befo~e the fire.. In about ten. 11:ules we reached the Santa Fe road, aloug wh1ch w~ conlmued for a shoit tune, and encan1ped early on a small stream ; havmg trave.lled about eleven miles. During our journey, it was the customar}~ practice to encamp an hour or two before sunset, wh~n the carts :were d1spose~ so . as to form a sort of barricade around a cHcle some mghty yards m dmmeter. The tents were pitched, and the horse~ hobbled and turned loose to gra~e ; and but a few minutes etapsetl before the cooks of the messes, of whtch there were- four, were busily engaged in preparin$ the ~vening fi:1eal. At nightfall, the horses, mules, and _oxen, were dnve?- m and picketeuthat is, secured by a halter, of wh1ch one en<l was tw.cl to a smull st?elshod oicket and driven into the ground; the halter bemg twenty or tlnrty reet long, ,~hich enabled them to obtain a littlf food during the. night. When we had reached a part of the country where such a precautwn bccamc_ neccssary, the carts bei.ng re?ularly arr~nped for defending the camp, guard was mounted at e1ght o clocl~, cons1stmg ~f three men, who were relieved every two hours; the mormng watch bemg horse guard for . the day. At Jay break, the camp was roused ,.the animals tLH~1ed loose to graze, and breakfast generallY:' over between s1x and seven o clock, when we resumed our march, makmg regularly a halt at noon for one or two hours. Such was usually tlw order of the day, cxGept when accident of country forced a variation; which, however, happened but rarely. We travelletl the next day along the Santa Fe road, which we left in the af· ternoon, and encamped late in the evening on a small creek, calle<l by tltc Indians 1\iishmagwi. Just as we arriveu at camp, one of the horses set ofl' at full speed ou his return, and was followed by others. Several men were sent in pursuit, and returned with the fugitives about midniglJl, with the exception of one man, who did not make his appearance until morning. Ile hau lost his way in the darkness of the night, and slept ou the prairie. Shortly after mi<lnight it began to rain heavily, and, as om tent~ were of light and thin cloth, they oficred but little obstruction to 1 , 11 [ 174 J rain· we were all woll soaked, and glaJ when morning came. '" e hatl a rain; march on the 12th, but the wca~her g.rew .fine as the day advance~. We encamp ell in a remarkably beauttful sttuatwu on the Kansas blufls, which commanded a fine view of the river valley, here from three to four miles wide. The central portion was occupied by a broad belt of heavy timber, and nearer the hills the prairies were of the richest verdure. One of the oxen was killed here for food. We reached tbe ford of the Kansas late in the afternoon of the 14th, where the river was two hundred and thirty yards wide, and commenced immediately preparatious for crossing. I had e.xpectcd to find th~ river fordable · but it had been swollen by the late rams, and was sweepmg by with an ~ngry current, yellow and turbi<l as the .M issouri. Up to this point, the road we had travelled was a remarkably fine one, well beaten, and level-the usual road of a prairie country. By our route, the ford was one hnndred miles from the mouth of the Kansas river. Several mounted men led the way into the stream, to swim across. The animals were driven in after them, and i11 a few minutes all had reached the opposite bank in safety, with the exception of the oxen, which swam some distance down the river, and, returniug to the right bank, were not got over until the next moruing. In the mean time, the carts hall been unloaded and dismantled, and an India-rubber boat, which I had brought with me for the survey of the Platte ri vcr, placed in the water. The boat was twenty feet long and five broad, and on it were placed the body and wheels of a cart, with the load belonging to it, and three men with paddles. The velocity of the current, and the inconvenient freight, rendering it Jitftcnlt to be managed, Basil Lajeunesse, one of our best swimmers, took in his teeth a line attached to the boat, and swam abead in order to reach a footing as soon as possible, and assist in drawing her over. In this manner, six passages had been successfully made, and as many carts with their contents, and a greater portion of the party, uepositecl 011 the left bank; but night was drawing ncar, and, in our anxiety to have all over before the darkness closed in, I put upon .. the boat the remaining two carts, with their accompanying load. The man at the helm was timid on water, and, in his alarm, capsized the boat. Carts, barrels, boxes, and bales, were in a moment floating down the curreut; but all the men who were on the shore jumped into the water, withotlt stoppins to think if they ceuld swim, and almost every thing-even heavy articles, such as guns and leadwas recovered . Two of the tnen, who could not swim, came nigh being drowned, and all the sugar belonging to one of the messes wasted its sweets on the mnddy waters; but our heaviest loss was a bag of coflee, which contained nearly all our provision. lt was a loss which none but a traveller in a strange and iuhospitab lo country can appreciate; and often afterward~ when excessive toil and long marching had overcome us with fatigue and weariness, we remembered and mourned over our loss in the Kansas. Carson and l\faxwell had be ell much in the water yesterday, aud both, in consequence, were taken ill. Th ~ former continuing so, I remained in camp. A number of Kansas Iudians visited us to-day. Going up to one of the groups who were scattered among tho trees, I found one sitting on the ground, among some of the men, gravely and lluently speaking French, with as much facil ity and as little embarrassment as any of my ow11 party, who were nearly all of French origiu., |
