ed the loss of their favorite beverage.

Kit Carson had made such efforts in the water, that in the morning he was
found quite sick. Another of the party also was disabled. Lieutenant
Fremont, on their account, and also to repair damages, decided to remain
in camp for the day. Quite a number of the Kansas tribe of Indians visited
them in the most friendly manner. One of them had received quite a
thorough education at St. Louis, and could speak French as fluently and
correctly as any Frenchman. They brought vegetables of various kinds, and
butter. They seemed very glad to find a market for their productions.

The camping-ground of the party was on the open, sunny prairie, some
twenty feet above the water, where the animals enjoyed luxuriant
pasturage. The party was now fairly in the Indian country, and the chances
of the wilderness were opening before them.

About three weeks in advance of this party, there was a company of
emigrants bound to Oregon. There were sixteen or seventeen families, men,
women and children. Sixty-four of these were men. They had suffered
severely from illness, and there had been many deaths among them. One of
these emigrants, who had buried his child, and whose wife was very ill,
left the company under the guidance of a hunter, and returned to the
States. The hunter visited the Fremont camp, and took letters from them to
their friends.

Day after day the party thus journeyed on, without encountering anything
worthy of special notice. They had reached the Pawnee country. These
savages were noted horse-thieves. The route of the surveyors led along the
banks of a placid stream, about fifty feet wide and four or five feet
deep. The view up the valley, which was bordered by gracefully undulating
hills, was remarkably beautiful. The stream, as usual with these western
rivers, was fringed with willows, cottonwood, and oak. Large flocks of
wild turkeys tenanted these trees. Game, also, of a larger kind made its
appearance. Elk, antelope and deer bounded over the hills.

A heavy bank of black clouds in the west admonished them, at an early hour
in the afternoon, to prepare for a stormy night. Scarcely had they pitched
their tents ere a violent wind came down upon them, the rain fell in
torrents and incessant peals of thunder seemed to shake the very hills. It
so happened that the three who were to stand guard on that tempestuous
night, were Carson and the two young gentlemen Brandt and Benton.

"Thi