When killed, his hams were found half eaten by wolves, and his whole body otherwise so badly mangled we left it unbutchered.
In the afternoon, having pursued our way eight or ten miles, we lay by for the night.
A high wind and rain during the three succeeding days prevented further progress, and in the interval our provisions became again exhausted.
While here, observing two Indians in the distance, running buffalo, I took three men and started to meet them. On coming up, we found an old Indian with his son engaged in butchering. Announcing the object of my visit to be the procurement of meat, they listened without a reply, but continued their operations, —laying the selections in two separate heaps.
When finished, the old man led up his horse, and, pointing to an assorted pile, told me it was mine, and the animal also should be at my service to convey it to camp.
His village, he remarked, was a long distance over the hills, on the watch for Pawnees, and though in a directly opposite course from us, he loved the white man and would give him meat and a horse to carry it.
Accepting the offer of the generous-hearted savage, I took the heavy-laden horse and returned to the boat, —the owner following to regain his beast. When arrived, he hinted at no remuneration for his kindness, and mounting his horse, would have left for his village.
Where will you find among civilized people men thus generous and obliging? Such cases are indeed rare. The savage here proved himself of more noble principles than nineteen-twentieths of his enlightened and Christianized brethren, whose religion teaches them to love their neighbor as themselves, and do to others as they would like to be done unto!
Unwilling that such disinterested kindness should go unrewarded, I made the old man some trifling presents, which he accepted with great pleasure, and, pressing his hand to his breast, exclaimed: "Chanta-ma warstaello!" (my heart is good!) and, shaking hands with the company, put whip to his horse and was soon out of sight.
It is useless to notice the particular progress of each day, or to state how many times we unloaded in the interim — how often we crossed the river, or how far we carried our boat by main strength; these things have been already laid before the reader sufficiently to give him some faint idea of the intolerable hardships and sufferings we were compelled to undergo. Each day was but a repetition of the toils and struggles of the preceding one.
Neither would it be interesting to state the especial half-day, day, or successive days we went without eating, meanwhile; suffice it to say, the morning of the 10th of June found us at the mouth of a small creek upon the right shore, about two hundred miles below the Fort, —having been thirty-five days en barquette, and without eating for full one third of that time! The expected spring rise had failed, and the river was very low and still falling, so that there was no possible chance of conveying our cargo to the States, as the most difficult part of the voyage lay yet before us. I accordingly abandoned all thoughts of the latter, and adopted such other arrangements as my judgment suggested upon the premises.
