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Show 32 TEAVELS AND ADVENfUEES IN THE FAK WEST. Boston crackers, ten pounds of which (the whole supply in the town) I bought. My ride into the town was for the purpose of having strong boxes made to carry my daguerreotype apparatus. The baskets in which they had been packed being broken and unfit for use. There was not a carpenter, nor any tools to be had in town. There was a blacksmith's about ten miles from town, where it was likely I could procure them. It being absolutely necessary that I should have the boxes, I induced one of our Delawares to accompany me, carrying on our horses a sufficient quantity of dry goods box covers and sides to manufacture them. When we arrived at the blacksmith's house, the proprietor was absent. His wife, an amiable woman, prepared dinner for us, and gave us the run of the workshop, where I found a saw and hatchet; with these instruments I made the boxes myself, and by the time they were finished, the blacksmith returned. He refused to receive pay for my dinner, but charged for the nails, raw hide, etc., I covered the boxes with, and the use of his tools. The lady told me I was the first white man she had seen, except her husband, in three years. I gave some silver to the children, and mounting our horses, with a huge box before us on our saddles, we slowly retraced our way to camp, where we arrived at dark. Nobody in camp knew my errand to town, and I never shall forget the deep mortification and astonishment of our muleteers when they saw my boxes. All their bright hopes that the apparatus would have to be left, were suddenly dissipated. The expenses attendant on the manufacture of the boxes, and the material, were nearly five dollars, which I requested our quarter-master to pay, as Col. Fremont left him money for disbursements |