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Show 24 THE JOURNEY OU'f, our party, (a Tmder, belonging to the Company then tr.uvelinfi with us,) who understood his language, spuke to him. He waS' very much ft·ighteced when he saw that we knew he was a Sioux; expecting to be killed, on the spot, We asked him where his co m ~ pany were. Ue told us they were tit a Lake, which was about three miles di stant, making meat, and that they were three hun· dt·ed in number. vVc turneu to go away, when the Trader obser.' vecl that we Ottght to kill him; but the rest of us objected, and he was overruled. Turning again to speak to' him, he said he' thought we had two hearts: one to kill him, and an·othet· to let him' go; ancl that he did not know how to talk to us ~ that he did not know whether he should go under or not--(meani ng that he· uid not know whether we did or did ' not intend to' kill him.) But we turned away and left him, taking a straight course for the Company, thinking it not vet·y s·afe to he in: the neigh bo re: hood of three hundred Sioux. We put spurs to our hors;s, and· kept a good gnit, until we considered that we were o'u't of their reach. We arrived at out· Company's en'campmerrt that night, havi nO'· killed nothing. \Vhen we told them of out• aaventui'e with t h~· Sioux, all the Traders jDined in· exclaiming against us, fo r not killing him. vVe plead that it was unmanly, and unfui 1·, to tak~ the life even of the meanest enemy, under such circum.' ~tances; but they adopted the Indian argument, and said that as we we re amo~g Indians, we must treat them as they treated' us; and so the wlnte people* who live in the Mountains act toward.· h . . ' :) t eu· enemt~s. 0? the evening of the 7th, we left the head of Sweet Water, and m a few hours passed over the dividing ridge, through the· Grand Pass, and encamped by a marsh, which is one of the sou·rc-e~ of ~reen River, a tt·ibutary of the Colet·ado, of the Gulf of Ca:lrforma. We slef>t here~ on the great Backbone of No1·th America wh~re the so~rce:3 of the Rivers which empty into the Ocean; whtch bound lt, on the East and on the West, are only a few miles apart • . Th~ lofty summits of the \,Yind River Mountains, with theil· wtde fields of eternal .snow, appeared to be almost beside us. \Ve had a heuvv frost dunnc.r the night and · , tt.. . . • o , m •Je mormn('J' the wa•er 1~ our. c~np .kettles was cover~d ·Ni:th ice nearly o~ne foul~tt) o an· m'C thiCk ; and· every thing· that hud been exposed to' WITR ITS INCIDENTS • • . \ i~e dew, which fell in the evening, was pe rfectly glazed with ice. _1 Both ~he msccnt and descent, were so gradual, that, had we no t bp.en told, we should have passed ~ver the divtding ridge, in the ¥ ocky Mountni ns, without knowing it. The distance from our crossing of the North Fork o( the Platte, to the summit of the I J t I \1 {t • • Grand Paes, is one ,hundred. a?d fifty fim r miles; and' th'e counir'y betwaen, is a perfect desert. "' 4 |