The Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon and California | Page 9

that the buffalo were abundant some two days' march in advance, and
made us a present of some choice pieces, which were a very acceptable
change from our salt pork. In the interchange of news, and the renewal
of old acquaintanceships, we found wherewithal to fill a busy hour;
then we mounted our horses and they shouldered their packs, and we
shook hands and parted. Among them, I had found an old companion
on the northern prairie, a hardened and hardly served veteran of the
mountains, who had been as much hacked and scarred as an old
moustache of Napoleon's "old guard." He flourished in the sobriquet of
La Tulipe, and his real name I never knew. Finding that he was going
to the States only because his company was bound in that direction, and
that he was rather more willing to return with me, I took him again into
my service. We traveled this day but seventeen miles.
At our evening camp, about sunset, three figures were discovered
approaching, which our glasses made out to be Indians. They proved to
be Cheyennes--two men, and a boy of thirteen. About a month since,
they had left their people on the south fork of the river, some three
hundred miles to the westward, and a party of only four in number had
been to the Pawnee villages on a horse-stealing excursion, from which
they were returning unsuccessful. They were miserably mounted on
wild horses from the Arkansas plains, and had no other weapons than
bows and long spears; and had they been discovered by the Pawnees,
could not, by any possibility, have escaped. They were mortified by
their ill-success, and said the Pawnees were cowards, who shut up their
horses in their lodges at night. I invited them to supper with me, and
Randolph and the young Cheyenne, who had been eyeing each other
suspiciously and curiously, soon became intimate friends. After supper
we sat down on the grass, and I placed a sheet of paper between us, on

which they traced, rudely, but with a certain degree of relative truth, the
water-courses of the country which lay between us and their villages,
and of which I desired to have some information. Their companions,
they told us, had taken a nearer route over the hills; but they had
mounted one of the summits to spy out the country, whence they had
caught a glimpse of our party, and, confident of good treatment at the
hands of the whites, hastened to join company. Latitude of the camp
40° 39' 51".
We made the next morning sixteen miles. I remarked that the ground
was covered in many places with an efflorescence of salt, and the plants
were not numerous. In the bottoms were frequently seen tradescantia,
and on the dry lenches were carduus, cactus, and amorpha. A high wind
during the morning had increased to a violent gale from the northwest,
which made our afternoon ride cold and unpleasant. We had the
welcome sight of two buffaloes on one of the large islands, and
encamped at a clump of timber about seven miles from our noon halt,
after a day's march of twenty-two miles.
The air was keen the next morning at sunrise, the thermometer standing
at 44°, and it was sufficiently cold to make overcoats very comfortable.
A few miles brought us into the midst of the buffalo, swarming in
immense numbers over the plains, where they had left scarcely a blade
of grass standing. Mr. Preuss, who was sketching at a little distance in
the rear, had at first noted them as large groves of timber. In the sight of
such a mass of life, the traveler feels a strange emotion of grandeur. We
had heard from a distance a dull and confused murmuring, and, when
we came in view of their dark masses, there was not one among us who
did not feel his heart beat quicker. It was the early part of the day, when
the herds are feeding; and everywhere they were in motion. Here and
there a huge old bull was rolling in the grass, and clouds of dust rose in
the air from various parts of the bands, each the scene of some
obstinate fight. Indians and buffalo make the poetry and life of the
prairie, and our camp was full of their exhilaration. In place of the quiet
monotony of the march, relieved only by the cracking of the whip, and
an "avance donc! enfant de garce!" shouts and songs resounded from
every part of the line, and our evening camp was always the
commencement of a feast, which terminated only with our departure on
the following morning. At any time of the night might be seen pieces of

the most delicate and choicest meat, roasting en