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Show [ 23] 122 river trithont troublr, wht>re thf'y got plf'nty of woocl; the sno\V s to r m w~ h.a <1 ) , t' st.....; rdHy ' and tht•. di:-Ocomfiturt·> ptodurt-d b]y the hard b I. h· 1· tt (:~ wr~gnn had p11t tltt'm 111 no V('ry p easaut lru- )a oro .tu tng 11 ' k II h I 1· mor. Tt rey wt's. h ...... d that 1 would let tb. f'm t t e ' nc tans as Is oon as t h ey came "..' c ro!'.: S the river·' the Ind. tansh C<.H ne; Ley entere< our 1 . ~ b 1 s emed instantly to pt'r~ etve t e ll"t> tng t11at was urn- ~amp, an: .. el .11:ts of my fliHty· thf'y f:tond off wtthout daring t() tng 111 tile lt'c ' . • h · h h • · f a roat·h our fires; thtre Wi1~ but .~'x or _t'lg t w1t t ~ Cnte . now, 1u.pup t l·1 e Hppr 0 .<1 clte· J a< t las• t and otfe• red hts han1d , and unmedtatdy the confidt>nee of tht> rest S'l~ t·med to be restore<. In my own mind, I d id Jlot d.o 11bt but that ~ht-se fE.'llows had robbed 11 s; still I could never ktll any of tht·m In cold blooJ, nor would I I'Onsent that my men should sh_oot t_bem down. We told them to bring over some of th.-lr mules; they brought two but r fused to lt>t us hnve tltem, unless we gave them muc.:h mor:\ thau th ,·y l:f' ually ~et in J<~ir trad e. \V c; h<ullef1. our harne!'S nuu Jaekf'on's grove; t~e mules coulll n 0 t t h t' n J e a tt a c h e d t o t h e w <~ ~ n ~ " ; an d , a s t. o b u y 1 n g a m u I e for my:o~elf, whil'h my tn<'n i11~istrcl . upon my clo1ng, I. f~lt perf~c:tly wtllintr to share the he~rdshtps of ruy party, fln<i unwtll1ng to countenante what I consid~.:red aa imposition on the part of the lnrl ians .. The Indians left us in birrh irritation, on account of the trouble they had had to get th~·ir n?u1t's across the rive:; they immed~att'ly recro sse d, tlnd we prt-pared to t<lke up our ltn.e ot march. ~e now found that <ln HXe whtc:h had been lent to the Pawnees, wtth which to roughen lht• ice, had not ueen r<~_turnrd;_ the' Indians stood gazing at t.f' fron1 the opposite bank, while thetr mules, scattered aloncr the ri ver sidt' were nuittly grnzing. I called the men to-gethre-. r· and ·leaviurr ' two of 'It ht'tn in charge of the wagon anc I . k SIC man, th' e rt'~' t of ush startt·d off in pursuit of the I n1 ,.t a~s, w1L1 o no soollPr sawtbismovement than they hastily gathered thetrmu_lesand set off for t.he !'and hills. To pu rsue these fdlows was evtclt'ntly vain, Hnd Wf' were forced to gtve up our axe, and again put our· sehes into the t aees. We marched twelve miles. During the first half of our journey, some of the Pawnees cnntinucd tn dog our trail. The lan guage of the Pawnee: hPars a gr,·at resemblance to tl~at of the R i <.: itr t' "f'. I h a d a rw r son i n m y p <n t y w h o o n e c t r a cl e d w t t ll the last mt'nli oned trihe. He rec·.oo· niZt'd tnHH'I' or tile words that the Pawuec:.; n~ed. 011r cornmuni~ations w ~ re, however, carrid on by t he me an s of t l1 e pan\ om i m i c 1 an g •Ja g e, a know I edge of whieh is of very 1!reat va]ut>, as 1 he various si<rns St't'Ln to be • ) 0 h univt• sally adopted .as ty pica! of tLe same things among all t e prnirit- lnd ian~. Ftbruwry 12 -Notwithstanding the snow storm of the IOth,,the ground was almost entirl:'ly free from ~now, except in the ravwes and l1eds of cret:'ks wbP.re it was not t:'XpOSt'd to the wind. }he ~un shone forth with grt•at vi.v.or, and we marched more rap1dly tban we had done on any prt>ceding day. At tt'n o'clock we c:to!ist'c.l the mouth of "Coon crc;t:k," anJ about five o'clock we formed our 123 [ ~3 J -eamp on the banks of the" Pawnee fork." This clay we marched more than twenty-one miles. On the road we found two more steers. With them we. rt-placed those which Wt' had started with in the morning, and wht<'h were almost t-'Xhausted. '¥hen we first came in sight of t he timbt>r on ".Pawnee fork," my chief anxiety was to kPep my mt•n from 1abonng- too severt>1y; the wacron rnn along at the rate of three miles an hour, and I was obliged ~o walk rapirlly in order to ket>p out of !he W(ly. • .My whole party had clone tht-tr duty bravely; m the most literal sense we had workeci like horses. I Ct)Uld not <l!'k my men to do more.' Should ' a heavy fall of snow come it would be impossible to procerd with t.h~ wagon. I, therefore, determined to give each one as much provt:o:ton as he would choose to carry on our corni g pedestri;ln t'Xeursion to ·the st>ttlemeuts. We had now betwef'rt 280 and 300 miles to march. We determined to accomplish this journey in twenty clays. Two of my men, Brown nncl Preston, agreed to stay wi1h the ·si.ck man. They were now o, th e high ro<ul, where th ey wo'uld sec ev<'ry one who passed, and wou ld have~ bt>f'ore a great whil<>, nn oppottunity of joining the return party, which was preparing to 1eave Santa Fe when my c0mmand SPt out. While here tht~y would have everything they could wish. There was an ahl-lnoant supply of tin ,ber, a uever failing strt-am of good water, and we would be obliged to lt'ave a large quantity of provision~, as no one woul d care to load his own ba ck for the gratiGcation of his stomach. February 13 -We now set earn':'stly to work, making our r <tcks of provisions and bedding as light and cornpn.ct as possi?lc. ~Ve bah'n all the b read we intend ed to carry. Eat.:h one provtdt·d lnmselfwith 20 biscuit or r olls, one for each d{ly. We ~lso took a few pounds of dri<:!d buffalo meat, which i light ::\nd comp~ct , but swells up in boiling water. We c~eh had a tin cup, whic11 would, on an ('ffiPrgen<"y, ~n·q:ver for a coffee pot. Vve, thert'for~·, ad de<l the 1uxuri f's of ceffee and SUIYar. As for bedd1ng, a buffalo robe and a blanket Were all that any one would. be willing to ca r r~ three hundrd miles, wlten he recollec1~ the additional weight of hts provision~. But 1 arlopterl a pl an which made my blanket worth two. I had it s~wed so as to form a bag. This, trifling as it may ccem , grt>atly augmented my comfort. . . We were all of us very cart>ful to dry our cloth1ng b~fot· e go1ng to. bPd; no one wbo obserYt'S this pre cnution , and who 1s pronde<l Wllh R. huffalo rob<:', neeu ever get frOZt'n.' . F~· bru.ary 14.-I still found means to carry my New l\Textcan ~pecirnt'ns furth Pr on. My books and some of my papers were put Into a box and" <"ached;,,. for greater safely t.h ~ spot wns fb .. ed so as to rt>st>mble a grave and a tombsto ne of boa rd was creded to m~,k the spot, and en~raved with the name of" Tom Pt>co," who With "Tom Bitn" ·were, according to some of my men, t.h~ most famous persons in New .JVIexico· perhaps these ptrsons ong1nated 0 ?I Y .tn thet.r metamorphosts of ' the words "tampoco " anu. I " tam-hlt> n." The most valuable box was lashed to the fore axle of the wagon; • |