fles and turned their
backs upon the expedition, and Mr. Hunt was fain to put off from shore
with the single hunter and a number of voyageurs whom he had engaged.
Even Pierre Dorion, at the last moment, refused to enter the boat until
Mr. Hunt consented to take his squaw and two children on board also. But
the tissue of perplexities, on account of this worthy individual, did
not end here.

Among the various persons who were about to proceed up the Missouri with
Mr. Hunt, were two scientific gentlemen; one Mr. John Bradbury, a man
of mature age, but great enterprise and personal activity, who had
been sent out by Linnaean Society of Liverpool to make a collection
of American plants; the other, a Mr. Nuttall, likewise an Englishman,
younger in years, who has since made himself known as the author of
Travels in Arkansas, and a work on the Genera of American Plants. Mr.
Hunt had offered them the protection and facilities of his party, in
their scientific research up the Missouri River. As they were not ready
to depart at the moment of embarkation, they put their trunks on board
of the boat, but remained at St. Louis until the next day, for the
arrival of the post, intending to join the expedition at St. Charles, a
short distance above the mouth of the Missouri.

The same evening, however, they learned that a writ had been issued
against Pierre Dorion for his whiskey debt, by Mr. Lisa, as agent of the
Missouri Company, and that it was the intention to entrap the mongrel
linguist on his arrival at St. Charles.

Upon hearing this, Mr. Bradbury and Mr. Nuttall set off a little
after midnight, by land, got ahead of the boat as it was ascending the
Missouri, before its arrival at St. Charles, and gave Pierre Dorion
warning of the legal toil prepared to ensnare him.

The knowing Pierre immediately landed and took to the woods, followed by
his squaw laden with their papooses, and a large bundle containing their
most precious effects, promising to rejoin the party some distance
above St. Charles. There seemed little dependence to be placed upon the
promises of a loose adventurer of the kind, who was at the very time
playing an evasive game with his former employers; who had already
received two-thirds of his year's pay, and his rifle on his shoulder,
his family and worldly fortunes at his heels, and the wild woods before
him. There was no alternative, however, and it was hoped his pique
against his old employers would render him