ans, as they arrived at
their slaughtered companion, stopped to howl over him. Colter made the
most of this precious delay, gained the skirt of cotton-wood bordering
the river, dashed through it, and plunged into the stream. He swam to
a neighboring island, against the upper end of which the driftwood
had lodged in such quantities as to form a natural raft; under this he
dived, and swam below water until he succeeded in getting a breathing
place between the floating trunks of trees, whose branches and bushes
formed a covert several feet above the level of the water. He had
scarcely drawn breath after all his toils, when he heard his pursuers on
the river bank, whooping and yelling like so many fiends. They plunged
in the river, and swam to the raft. The heart of Colter almost died
within him as he saw them, through the chinks of his concealment,
passing and repassing, and seeking for him in all directions. They at
length gave up the search, and he began to rejoice in his escape, when
the idea presented itself that they might set the raft on fire. Here
was a new source of horrible apprehension, in which he remained until
nightfall. Fortunately the idea did not suggest itself to the Indians.
As soon as it was dark, finding by the silence around that his pursuers
had departed, Colter dived again and came up beyond the raft. He then
swam silently down the river for a considerable distance, when he
landed, and kept on all night, to get as far as possible from this
dangerous neighborhood.

By daybreak he had gained sufficient distance to relieve him from the
terrors of his savage foes; but now new sources of inquietude presented
themselves. He was naked and alone, in the midst of an unbounded
wilderness; his only chance was to reach a trading post of the Missouri
Company, situated on a branch of the Yellowstone River. Even should he
elude his pursuers, days must elapse before he could reach this post,
during which he must traverse immense prairies destitute of shade, his
naked body exposed to the burning heat of the sun by day, and the dews
and chills of the night season, and his feet lacerated by the thorns of
the prickly pear. Though he might see game in abundance around him, he
had no means of killing any for his sustenance, and must depend for food
upon the roots of the earth. In defiance of these difficulties he pushed
resolutely forward, guiding himself in his trackless course by those
signs and indications known only t