vices
beyond. Knowing, therefore, his connection by marriage with that tribe,
and his predilection for a residence among them, they would put no
restraint upon his will, but, whenever they met with a party of that
people, would leave him at liberty to remain among his adopted brethren.
Furthermore, that, in thus parting with him, they would pay him a half a
year's wages in consideration of his past services, and would give him
a horse, three beaver traps, and sundry other articles calculated to set
him up in the world.

This unexpected liberality, which made it nearly as profitable and
infinitely less hazardous for Rose to remain honest than to play the
rogue, completely disarmed him. From that time his whole deportment
underwent a change. His brow cleared up and appeared more cheerful; he
left off his sullen, skulking habits, and made no further attempts to
tamper with the faith of his comrades.

On the 13th of August Mr. Hunt varied his course, and inclined westward,
in hopes of falling in with the three lost hunters; who, it was now
thought, might have kept to the right hand of Big River. This course
soon brought him to a fork of the Little Missouri, about a hundred yards
wide, and resembling the great river of the same name in the strength
of its current, its turbid water, and the frequency of drift-wood and
sunken trees.

Rugged mountains appeared ahead, crowding down to the water edge, and
offering a barrier to further progress on the side they were ascending.
Crossing the river, therefore, they encamped on its northwest bank,
where they found good pasturage and buffalo in abundance. The weather
was overcast and rainy, and a general gloom pervaded the camp; the
voyageurs sat smoking in groups, with their shoulders as high as their
heads, croaking their foreboding, when suddenly towards evening a
shout of joy gave notice that the lost men were found. They came slowly
lagging into camp, with weary looks, and horses jaded and wayworn. They
had, in fact, been for several days incessantly on the move. In their
hunting excursion on the prairies they had pushed so far in pursuit of
buffalo, as to find it impossible to retrace their steps over plains
trampled by innumerable herds; and were baffled by the monotony of the
landscape in their attempts to recall landmarks. They had ridden to and
fro until they had almost lost the points of the compass, and became
totally bewildered; nor did they ever perceive any of the sig